If Gina Minder wondered whether the Guitars in the Classroom program would be a success with her students, she didn’t have long to wait.

“After the first session, the kids were sold,” said Minder, a second- and third-grade teacher at Oakley Elementary School. “They just love it; we all do.”

Minder is one of dozens of teachers in the Oakley Union Elementary School District who are singing a new tune when it comes to traditional teaching, thanks to a nonprofit organization called Guitars in the Classroom (GITC).

For a nominal fee ($800-$1,000 per district for an eight-week course), the nationwide organization supplies guitars and trains teachers to integrate music into their daily curriculum. The belief is that the power of music makes students in grades K-8 better able to engage in subjects such as language arts and math. English language learners and special-education students have also benefited from GITC’s musical approach.

“They (GITC) have a whole program for English language learners, which we have a lot of here,” said Minder. “And they have lots of songs in Spanish and English that improve student vocabulary. We’ll take songs like “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” or “Bingo” and change them up to work on grammar or vocabulary or even pronunciation.”

Minder contacted GITC last year and was able to bring the program to the school through a grant pilot program for the district. The program has helped boost student scores throughout the school district and is popular with teachers, students and parents alike.

Minder says that while the GITC grant paid for the program at Oakley this year, next season the district is on its own, and she’s hoping donations will continue to keep the program afloat.

“With the budget cuts and everything else that has been going on, we were blessed this year to have the grant,” said Minder. “We would love for the program to keep going; it’s a benefit for everyone.”

On April 30, GITC will host the first in a series of interactive concerts featuring the popular bilingual musical group Colibri. The free concert takes place at O’Hara Park Middle School at 6 p.m. and features vocal performances by Oakley students.

“It’s a really great thing. The kids are so excited to be a part of the concert,” said Minder. “The students just love it (GITC). They are always asking me when I’m going to take down the guitar. We’ve actually had quite a few kids who have gotten their own guitars. It’s great when they come back to school and say, ‘I got a guitar for Christmas.’ It’s hard to beat that.”

For more information or to make a donation to the Oakley program, call 925-625-7050 or visit www.guitarsintheclassroom.org.