What a Wonderful World

Every child you encounter is a divine appointment. -Wess Stafford, President Emeritus of Compassion International

Writing last week’s blog entry really made me step back and think about what goes on, both externally and internally, each day in my life as a teacher. But that post didn’t express all the exciting, wonderful things that happen each day as I work with kids, and I wondered why. As I thought about all the factors (a lot of it is due to exhaustion and still adjusting to working with large groups of kids), I felt motivated to approach this week with more positivity and openess to dwell more on the miraculous moments of a teacher. And it totally changed my mindset! So let me walk you through my awesome week.

Hiking with James, Denali, Sophia, Ezra, and Lindsay!

School started back up on Tuesday, and I didn’t exactly feel ready to begin the week, schoolwork-wise, because I had spent a little too much time having fun last weekend! I spent the weekend with friends, new and old, eating good food and watching good movies (including The Revenant- a little scarring, but AMAZING!). I also went on a gorgeous hike to Boy Scout Beach, overlooking Herbert Glacier, with Lindsay, Sophia, and three friends from teaching. I spent a lot of my work time preparing for my lessons for the week because I started a new unit in Spanish and our JAMM “informance” to mark the end of our 7-week quarter is this Wednesday.

I began my Tuesday morning with my TMHS orchestra students, for whom I am developing a deeper sense of pride and care. It feels so incredible to have my own group of students to work and grow with, and I can definitely see growth in their playing since we began working together a few weeks ago. I opened up rehearsal that day by asking them to share their answer with their standpartner about a question, which I often do: What do you like about your playing? It always takes a while for them to liven up and start sharing with one another, but this question left them especially quiet. Many of them were not sure what to say. After a few minutes, they were finally talking with their standpartners, and I asked them to share out with the rest of the 20-person orchestra what they said. Silence again. I kindly called on each person, and I noticed a pattern: a large number of them were hesitant to name something they liked about their playing. One violinist honestly and quietly said that they weren’t sure if they liked anything about their playing. I felt so surprised and sad to hear that. I had no idea! I shared with that student that something I have always noticed about their playing is they frequently look at me as they play and even give me a smile. I told the student how much that means to me as a teacher and person, which brought a smile to the student’s face. We even shared a moment later when we were playing through a piece, and we caught one another’s eyes and smiled. After hearing most people struggle to name something they liked, I gave my orchestra a little pep talk, saying how incredibly proud I was of them and how much Tyree and I have noticed they have grown as musicians. In our debfriefing last week, Tyree told me that he was honestly a little hesitant about the slow pace at which I was moving my orchestra during rehearsals at first- I really take my time with them, encouraging discussions and really digging into the musical concepts these freshmen and sophomores haven’t learned yet. But now that three weeks have passed, Tyree completely applauded me on my approach. “It’s working!” he told me. “I am blown away when I walk into the room and hear the sound they are now making”. These students are rising to their potential quickly. And I know it’s not just all me- they are working harder and feeling more confident in their playing, now that they are separated from the students who are more advanced. These musicians can feel good about their playing and leave the comparisons out of it. I cannot wait to see how much we accomplish together by our Spring concert! I am so proud of them and greatly look forward to working with them four days each week- even when they are super tired and quiet or their bows sometimes impulsively move at -5mph. ;)

Spanish has been another big success this week! I am becoming more comfortable in front of my large classes and am getting better at speaking fluently in front of them. Tyree’s goal for this semester is for the students to receive almost 100% of instruction in Spanish. This is a real struggle for me! I so badly wish I could go back to Peru and take more advantage of practicing speaking Spanish there. Or that I could take more college-level classes in it. But we are all learning together! And with this new unit, I have gotten really creative. I have noticed that these classes are very cliquey and segregated in said cliques. This not only creates a lack of community in the classroom, but it also leads to a lot of misbehavior and disruption. So, for the next three weeks, my students are divided into “equipos” (teams) of 6 people with whom they sit every class. And of course, I intentionally put them with people they don’t talk to or know. They didn’t fight back at all (which was something I feared going into it!), even when I started my introduction of the unit by asking the class, “Why do you think I split you all up into teams with people you don’t talk to?”. No one said, “Because you’re mean”, which was a relief! They all knew exactly why I did it and had no complaint about it; I also explained that this is a real world learning opportunity, because oftentimes, in college or in the work place, you are required to work with people with whom you don’t associate or maybe don’t like. It is an important skill to know how to work together with all kinds of people and still strive for success together. So that is what they will be doing. I have a lot of fun activities planned for them, which include team-building moments, performances, drawing, writing and speaking in Spanish, and a lot of healthy competition. I am also using a new app called TeacherKit to keep track of the teams’ points as a way to push myself to use technology more in the classroom (in addition to the fun PowerPoints I create for those classes). Each team made a name and a poster, which they shared with the class and I took a picture of for my app. I am excited to see where this unit takes us. My main goal is to be more confident and energetic in those classes to really keep students engaged.

Working with my JAMM chamber kids!

And then comes Glacier Valley! The general music classes from 3rd-5th grade are now doing a unit on ballroom dancing, which is taught every year by a wonderful UAS ballroom dance instructor and concludes with a large performance that includes the high school dance teams this year. Only a select amount of GV kids are chosen to join the “Heart and Soul” team for this final performance, and it is a big deal at Glacier Valley- as it should be! Lorrie shared a video of the Heart and Soul team from four years ago (it was actually when my freshman Spanish students were in 5th grade, and I totally saw one of my students in it! It was so precious!) to the general music classes a couple weeks ago to prepare them for this unit that began last week, and it was incredible. I was literally tearing up, watching this group of elementary schoolers dance so excellently and treat one another with such respect. What I especially love is that ballroom dancing highlights so many of the skills and lessons we focus on when we teach our kids music. It’s amazing to see these little ones work together and create something truly inspiring to watch in both settings.

Our kindergarteners are hard at work, practicing
their bow holds before they play!

In addition to ballroom, we continue to have our kindergarten and first grade violin classes during school. I had a couple exciting breakthroughs with students this past week in violin class! During those classes, there are usually one or two lead teachers and a couple other teacher helpers who walk around the room and help individual students as they play. A significant character strength we work on with these young ones is self-control. Standing and sitting still in rows for 30-45 minutes with an instrument is difficult for 5- and 6-year olds! And yet they are totally capable of it and develop such self-control and grit through it. Some kids need extra help with standing still and keeping their “hand on violin” and in rest position. I have noticed more and more that I gravitate toward these students, who often have a disability of some kind. One of these children is constantly disengaged and struggles with holding onto their violin, watching the teacher, and keeping a “strong body”. I have been experimenting with a lot of different ways to keep the student engaged and finally had a big success this past week: I developed a checklist of four things (something I had seen Lorrie do with other students before): “Hand on violin”, “Eyes on teacher”, “Strong body”, and “Violin on shoulder” and drew pictures next to each one. I even let the student draw hair on the stick figure that was supposed to represent them. Each time the student did something, I added a tally mark. I would have to take one away if they didn’t do those things, though. And it worked. I would give a huge smile and thumbs up when they got something correct and would expain why I had to take a tally away when I had to. But I barely had to take any tallies away, which was a HUGE success! I had success with a student in another violin class who is absolutely ADORABLE but also struggles with being focused and staying with the rest of the class. After the student wasn’t holding onto the violin and almost dropped it, I had to take it away (because we need to show them a consequence for not taking care of their instrument; we have had broken violins before!). Instead of leaving it as a negative punishment, I proceeded to put the violin on my shoulder and had the student put their right hand over mine and help me do the bowing. Not only did the student get the bowing correct, but they even ended up saying it out loud for me: “Mississippi STOP STOP!”. It was one of the few times I saw this students so engaged. I asked for their input on my posture as well, as I demonstrated what bad posture looked like and the student fixed it for me. I’ve discovered that this student loves to help. Those two students are near and dear to my heart, and even though it’s a difficult journey and those ideas may not work at all next week, I am eager to keep trying new things! Nothing beats seeing a student thrive.

Besides that, my chamber kids are learning to play “Simple Gifts” and “Going Home” (the theme from New World Symphony by Dvorak), which they absolutely love. It’s so cute to see them get really excited about certain pieces- Dragonhunter is another big one for our GV kids! We have our informance this week, at which they will be performing Simple Gifts and Going Home! I am continuously impressed by this group’s strong musicianship. I am starting to teach them how to tune themselves, which I’ve begun by asking them to show me with their thumb if someone’s string is too flat, sharp, or good (something I got from their future middle school string teacher). They are getting good at it! We have become our own chamber orchestra. :)

So all in all, it was a fantastic week. I didn’t get quite as much homework done as I had wanted to, and I am vigorously trying to get a lot of it done today because this week is “Symphony week”, and I have five rehearsals and two performances (Juneau friends, you should come on either Saturday or Sunday!). So it will be a busy, music-filled week, and I cannot wait to get in there and make the most of it!