Even before graduating Columbia College with a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Pedagogy and a Master of Music in Piano Performance, Cherie’s focus was on developing music enrichment classes that were both rigorous and engaging: first for her private students, then for the entire Pre-College program. With unlimited access to the music lab and with the encouragement of her professors, Cherie was able to develop interactive theory games and creative assignments that offered new ways for her students to apply musical concepts. Enrichment classes grew to include digital composition contests, video critiques of performances in master classes, and multi-track arrangements as Christmas gifts. While serving in leadership positions, Cherie frequently shared her successes using technology in music instruction with fellow teachers throughout SC.

In the second decade of her career, Cherie continued to teach privately, and became the pianist and Music Associate for a large church.  With the responsibility of coordinating music instruction to Pre-Kindergarten through Grade Six, she recruited, trained, and managed over sixty volunteer teachers and twelve different choirs. Additionally, each summer, Cherie designed and orchestrated an innovative week-long Musical Arts Camp for 450 students. Thirty-five different interest classes were offered including a STAGE Band for budding performers and a SOUND Tech Team for students interested in audio engineering. Cherie recruited area music teachers to loan their studio computers and to teach ear training, piano and composition.  Through the use of technology in music instruction, even in a church setting, Cherie was able to turn an ordinary camp into extraordinary learning opportunities. Today, the chief sound engineer of this same church is a former student of the Music Arts Camp.

Presently, Cherie is in her sixteenth year teaching general music to Pre-Kindergarten through Grade Four. The first faculty member at Hammond School to receive a SMARTBoard, Cherie has embraced interactive technology instruction and is now qualified as a SMART Certified Lesson Developer, SMART Certified Trainer, and SMART Notebook Education Instructor. In 2014, Cherie was one of seventy-five SMART Exemplary Educators chosen from around the world to attend the Global SEE Summit in Alberta, Canada. With her expertise in SMARTNotebook software, Cherie designs interactive lessons activities that turn a digital projector (IWB) into a tool to redefine teaching for 21st-century skills. In addition to SMART Technologies, Hammond is in it’s sixth year as a 1:1 Apple Distinguished School. An early adopter, Cherie now uses the combination of 1:1 iPads and SMART interactive technology to do what was previously inconceivable: augmented reality, green screen video techniques, a flipped classroom, and student-driven learning through STEAM.  In addition to sharing her passion to seamlessly integrate technology in her music classroom, Cherie works to inspire, create and support technology integration in the regular classrooms throughout Hammond School.

Cherie has presented many workshops on integrating music technology into the elementary music classroom for district and state conferences in Florida, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Texas. Ms. Herring has also presented sessions at the regional conferences for Technology for Music Education (TI:ME) and the National Association for Music Education (NAfME). In 2015, she was the keynote speaker at the Music and Technology Conference in Houston, TX.

Cherie is also a Seesaw and Book Creator Ambassador and 2016 Apple Teacher for iPads and Mac computers, and an Apple Learner Coach. She has created over seventy -five interactive lessons for SMARTBoards and / or iPads and shares them on the SMART Exchange and her Blog: https://www.cphmusic.net. Cherie also shares her interactive activities and helpful tutorials on these sites:

• Resource Site for Recorder Students: recorderkids15.com
• Teachers Pay Teachers Store: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Cherie-Herring

Outside of school, Cherie enjoys the ordinary things like throwing the ball to her two dogs, gathering eggs from her chickens, pulling weeds from her garden and being a wife to prince charming and mom to three amazing daughters.