Part+3+Continuing+Legacy

 **CONTINUING THE LEGACY** There are many ways to describe what should take place in a classroom. We are sometimes conditioned by curricula guides, test preparation booklets and state legislation to think of the elementary educational experience as something rigid, uncreative or at best, teacher or student-proof. When speculating on where education will be or should be in the near future, I like to think of the term quality education. As I was working on this paper, my first instinct, when defining this term was to go to the most current research and adopt a ready-made definition. After interviewing the teacher and talking with some of her students, I decided to take a different approach. Even though the teacher herself did not use the term quality education I would like to use her words and the words of her students to define it. As I began talking with her, I had certain bias stemming from my background as a musician. Having worked as a performing artist before becoming a teacher, I find that my experience as a performer often inspires my classroom approach. I tend to see my students as an orchestra in the process of rehearsing a complex piece of music. I also value the individuality of my students and how their personalities add up to form a classroom community. In a similar way, as I tend to visualize it, each distinctly different instrument contributes to the overall sound of an ensemble. I think that the Gestalt principle, the whole picture is larger than the sum of all the parts, applies to both teaching and conducting situations. As I searched for the sources of the teachers’ inspiration I expected to hear about her experience as a musician and how she translates it into her work as a classroom teacher. Since she has not been teaching for many years, I expected to hear significantly less about her experiences with education. I did find out that she learned to play recorder in third grade; played viola in high school; and starting with her first days in school has “ always been a member of school choirs”. As for the role music plays in her life, she says: "music was the one thing, no matter how busy my schedule got or gets, I will not relinquish it." My intuition led me to ask her about her own teachers. As our conversation shifted towards the subject of her early school experiences, she told me about her third grade teacher who "always been a friend, I never forgot her". As she was describing Ms. Williams I began to realize that the teacher’s concept of what is a combination of all, everything which makes for rounded education so it wasn't just academia. Academics meant learning theater, learning music. It meant learning instruments and so that's how she took flight on what her vision was." The subject of my study is a very creative teacher. She uquality education began with her teacher: "One thing she wanted her students to be able to have was ses approaches and activities, which are interesting and unorthodox. The learning atmosphere in her room is full of music and reflections on both the music and life in general. When I talked with her and her students I had a feeling that there is a legacy of all inclusive quality education that began with Ms. Williams and is being transferred through the teacher into the minds of students. It appears that Ms. Williams' vision resonates in the classroom, especially in the area of using music to enrich the learning experience. To paraphrase the subject of my study, a claim can be made that she is taking flight on what Ms. Williams' vision used to be. The teacher recalls owning an album entitled 13 Great Composers by Walt Disney. She admits that even though she had this recording at home she did not listen to it until Ms. Williams played that album in the classroom. Young girl and her classmates were: "Listening to her play it all the time. We just got so hooked on that. " When talking about her own students the teacher shares her own opinion on how music in the classroom "makes everything else work." According to her, just like she was "hooked" on music her students now are "so fixed now that they are looking for it." In her classroom, listening to music is frequently followed be writing assignment where narrative story writing is encouraged. She recalls liking the music played by Ms. Williams because "it told a narrative story. " The teacher is continuing the legacy of a quality education she experienced in the past. As she recalls: "We learned full academic background, I never forgot that." She not only remembers her own experience but also instills it in the minds of her students a strong belief that music is an intricate part of school experience. I asked the students who were part of my study about their own vision of what they think the third grade classroom should include. I used a technique I've learned from their teacher to get the most insightful responses. I asked the students to visualize being a third grade teacher. I told them to write down any items, programs and activities the best teachers in the world, them, would like to have at their disposal. I did not play any music during this focusing exercise, even though their teacher certainly would. I did not want to suggest that they should write about music. I wanted to see to what degree they see music as an intricate part of a quality educational experience. The following are the music references I have collected as a result of this activity. 3 students would take their classes on trips to the Apollo Theater "to take them to see jazz musicians" I Would have a radio "I want to play music when they walk into the classroom" I Would have a "Big Radio" "to listen to jazz and classical music" I Would play "Games about jazz” I Would like her students to "learn classical musicians" 3 Would have CDs I Would take students "to J. Lo's concert" I "I will let a singer teach my class for fun" 1 "Would take students to see singers" [perform] 2 Would have a boombox I Would have a boombox and CDs 2 Would have a stage in her classroom I Would have "a music box"

As we can see, out of the 28 students in the class, 19 made references to various objects and activities that relate in some way to including music in their imaginary classrooms. Their teacher had been working diligently, since the beginning of the year to get her students to the point of being "fixed" on music. She admits that it took time but as we look at how she uses music, on a daily basis, to teach othersubjects we can only conclude that her efforts were effective.