And Cheryl blogs about...
Crocodilus Niloticus and the Ration Book. Boo!
This last half term has seen the start of a foray back into the classroom for me delivering the music curriculum to some classes in a primary school on behalf of Yew Tree Arts. As I have been determined to remain the composer and not revert to being the teacher, my tactic has been to follow the request of the teachers to link what I do to their topics, but to create new music for the classes and also encourage the classes themselves to compose some music.
My admiration for teachers has risen from its already high starting point, but the term thus far has reinforced my determination not be a “proper” teacher again. Nonetheless my previously gathered skills as a proper teacher have been useful, particularly in the matters of crowd control, assessment and thinking on the spot. Oh and for those who have known me in previous teaching incarnations, you’ll be pleased to hear that I have revived the weekly Awards for Musical Excellence!
The “World War 2” classes have been a blessed joy. Their enthusiasm, friendliness and skill levels have enabled us to sing and create rhythms in a variety of time signatures for a selection of original WW2 songs including I Wanna Banana and Hey Little Hen. Solos were eagerly adopted and there was a general feeling of musical enjoyment and improvement. I composed a song in the cheerful-against-the-odds-WW2-style, “Boo to My Ration Book,” which worked perfectly as a partner song with Hey Little Hen and clever them, they did indeed manage to fit the two together with skill and aplomb.
The “Egyptians” classes have been a challenge for me, I have to admit. My expectations of attention spans and cooperative skills were wildly misjudged at the start, and I have been constantly adapting the way I deal with them and what I expect from them. However, musically speaking, we created a musical drama (without the drama) about Webaoner the priest and his Wax Crocodile, with body percussion incidental music, tuneful chants in 7/4 time (Crocodilus Niloticus), solos, multiple narrators and instrumental accompaniments.
This last week of the term saw performances of our efforts to each other and their teachers, and I have to say that they pulled it off with exceptional concentration and musical enthusiasm. They were, to a participant, proud of their efforts, and so was I. It never ceases to delight and amaze me how the presence of an audience, no matter how small and familiar, garners the collective effort to achieve splendid musical things. They were all a complete delight, and reinforces in me the fastly-held beliefs that showing others what we have achieved is an essential part of the musical learning process, and that music is a vital element in the overall learning of youngsters, fostering as it always does, self-confidence, teamwork, lateral thinking, making connections to nurture understanding, self-evaluation, enjoyment in learning, listening skills and plenty more!
I have no photos of our efforts to share. I have no time during these full-on sessions to wield the camera with my arms full of all the usual stuff plus playing the keyboard, so you’ll have to make do with a quote from one of the teachers hearing his class for the first time: “This was too good to just be heard by us in this classroom. We need to go out and show others what you have achieved.” Hurrah! I guess I’ll be back after the half term break then – this time with four different classes and being musical about Fire and Toys – perhaps not at the same time though.
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