One of our opening songs a lifetime (8 days) ago at our annual Orff Schulwerk course is by my colleague James. The text:
“I am happy to be here.
Very glad that you are near.
A little nervous.
Glad to be here!”
Brilliant! It captures the very real sense we have facing the unknown. “What will happen here? How will I measure up? Will people like me? Can I meet my teacher’s expectations? My own?” So we wholly acknowledge and accept the “a little nervous” part of ourselves and then just plunge in.
Too much stress and anxiety is toxic to our emotional, mental and physical systems, but a little bit helps keeps us alert and determined to meet whatever comes our way head-on, with resilience and hard-earned confidence.
So it was with my Level III students there past few days, on the edge of their Practicum Teaching which is the closest thing an Orff Certification Course has to a final exam. As they were preparing for their 20 minutes of teaching with a partner, I advised them to be just nervous enough to prepare and practice their lesson, but not so much that they need to call their therapist. When I reminded them to just show up with the full measure of their character as a teacher and a person, to “just be themselves,” I also acknowledged that telling someone to “just be themselves” is one of the tallest orders we can give. But really, what choice do we have? I told them I have absolute confidence in their ability to not only be the teacher they are in the core of their being, but also to relax and have fun with it. The nerves may tingle leading up to the lesson, but the moment it begins, let it all go and step fully and firmly on the stage as if you owned it. Because you will.
And they did. Magnificently so. 15 different lessons and not a single one that wasn’t brilliant in its planning, execution and result. The lessons took the full day and by lunchtime, it was clear to any outsider who had already taught. You could feel the exhale in their whole body and face, the hard-earned moment of release and relax that said, “There! I did it! And it was marvelous!” The other half, by contrast, had just a touch of hunch in their shoulders and inward gaze, still preparing for their moment.
When the last note of the last lesson rang out, there was the collective roar of the group exhale, with hugs and high fives all around. Then a brief de-brief as I named the general qualities of all the lessons that I noticed (I had also written specifics to each team on file cards, taking notes as they taught). I asked them to snap their fingers if they felt any of the strategies listed below and the air was alive with popping of the snaps. As follows:
• Enticing beginnings, connected middles satisfying ends
• Non-verbal teaching, flow, shape and design
• Play, sing and dance
• Personal stories woven into the lesson’s focus
• Imaginative ways to teach key concepts
• Artistic graphic aids
• Use of story to engage attention and keep a thread through the lesson
• Smiles, relaxed manner, playful interaction
• Commenting on students’ responses (as in thumbs up)
• Fixing musical problems as they arose
• Opportunities for student teaching, solos and small group creations
• Clear and meticulous preparation
• Meeting the challenge of teaching in a second language
• Meeting all the challenges and enjoying the pleasures of team teaching
• Great final results achieved through hard work and fun
• Etc.
In the hands of the unimaginative pedagogues rampaging through the educational world, all of the above would be turned into a rubric, a checklist that would require a mathematical percentage of checks to be “successful.”
I object strongly! Nothing could be further from my intention in naming these qualities above. They are not there to be the next “one size fits all” standard but exist simply as reminders of what made each of these lessons so engaging, so musical, so conceptually clear, so fun.
Congratulations to all of my 33 Level III students!! The world of music education has just been raised to a higher level. May all your students be happy!
