Sometimes I forget how ordinary a song or game has become to me until I watch a child experience it for the very first time.
What feels like repetition to us can be something completely different to a child. At this point in my career, I often wonder if I’m missing out on something better by repeating some of the same songs and activities year after year. I have to remind myself that even though I’ve done the Chicken Dance and played Apple Tree and The King’s Land 525,600 times, most, if not all, of my students in those respective grade levels are just now experiencing these gems for the first time.
Just this September, Bounce High, Bounce Low gripped my 3rd graders’ attention like I would’ve never predicted. One student stands in the center of the circle and bounces a ball to someone else. That’s it. That’s the whole “game”. Such a simple activity but almost every class asked to play again. Lucky for me, it’s a fantastic song to review and decode quarter notes, 8th notes, quarter rests, and so, la, and mi at the beginning of the school year.
Kindergarteners and the Chicken Dance. It can’t get any cuter. And they think it’s the most hilarious thing to get to shake their tailfeathers. Are they all walking on the beat? No. Are they able to do all the motions independently? No. Can they remember and anticipate the form? No. They’re five. Do they ask to do it again and again and again? YES.
There’s a certain humility in remembering that we experience our curriculum very differently from our students. We might teach the same concept dozens of times throughout the day, but for each child, that experience is happening only once. They don’t know that we taught the same song to the class before theirs. They don’t know that we have been hearing that rhythm pattern on a constant repeat while we’ve tried to fall asleep every night for the past two weeks. They just know that right now they are discovering it for the first time.
So maybe we don’t always need a new song, a new game, or a new idea. Maybe we just need to hear the old one again through our students’ ears.
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We are looking forward to our upcoming Elementary Music Festival on October 23rd at Samford University with Michael Chandler and Andrea Coleman leading our students. We have nearly 300 students registered from over 30 schools across Alabama. The concert will be at 6:30pm and is free and open to the public, so even if you don’t have students participating, please join us!
On Saturday, October 24th, Michael Chandler will lead our Fall Workshop at Samford. Dr. Chandler is a sought-after Orff clinician and Associate Professor of Music and Coordinator of Music Education at Austin Peay State University in Tennessee. It is not too late to register (click here). We would love a good crowd at this, so please bring another music friend, a student teacher, a gen-ed teacher, an administrator, … the more the merrier!
We will hold a brief Elem/Gen Division meeting at the beginning of the workshop to discuss updates and changes to our bylaws and upcoming announcements and reminders.
I am very excited about our lineup of presenters for our AMEA conference in January. We have two main headliners this year, both sponsored by GIA. We are excited to have them in the exhibit hall with some elementary-focused items, so be sure to study the GIA catalog online and bring those school credit cards and POs!
Anthony Molinaro is a nationally recognized leader and educator in the Dalcroze approach to music education. He will present three sessions for us on Thursday and Friday. Come ready to get up and experience how to incorporate movement-centered lessons and ideas into your classroom.
In addition to her work at the University of St. Thomas, Dr. Karen Howard is a national and international clinician specializing in children’s music culture and diversification of educational strategies and repertoire to create a more equitable learning environment. She is the editor of GIA’s World Music Initiative and will present two sessions for us on Friday and Saturday.
The Sweet Home Alabama Kodaly Educators has another fun Thursday night event planned for us as well!
If I don’t see you at Samford in October, I hope to see you in Birmingham this January 21st – 23rd. Always feel free to reach out to me and any of your Elementary/General board members if you need anything.
Fun fact: The quote from Casablanca that was used as the title of this article was never actually spoken in the movie!