Amy Watson recently completed her Level 3 SongWorks Certification Teaching Practicum to become a SongWorks Certified Educator. The final level of certification is unique because students have the opportunity to dig into the details of their teaching with two mentor teachers. In Amy’s final reflection she shares how she has grown as a teacher.
When I began this practicum, my only goal was to learn more and be a better teacher, and maybe find that spark—the joy—again. Through systematic practice and reflective thought, I have learned much more than intended. I will never go back. Music class is much more interactive, engaging, and filled with deeper learning than ever before. My students are excited to come to music, and I am excited to teach them. After fifteen years in the classroom, that is a true feat for me.
I have come to start each lesson plan with: “How will I create a connection for my students?” After all, why learn a song you have no connection with? Music is the heartbeat of our society: where we have been, where we are, and where we can go together. That’s what we do in SongWorks: we build a relationship, a connection, with the music—and each other—to internalize the learning and make it more worthwhile. Sturdy songs from our folk culture still teach us valuable lessons. The games we play are like reaching into history and bringing it forward. Our students still enjoy being children, but they have fewer chances to do so in today’s society; I aim to create a space where we can all be children and play. So, how do we create a connection from the music we love to our students so they can also love it?
“How will I create a connection for my students?”
One way to create a connection is through playful repetition. We don’t just stop at learning to sing a song, we continue and play it. We all take turns, and whether we are “it” or singing our friends along, we engage in deep learning that our whole body feels. The greatest tools I have found through this practicum are song study and analysis. Previously, I learned to teach what I want to kids to know in chunks, in pieces, jamming them into a hole they may or may not fit within a song. SongWorks practice is holistic. Taking any song, we learn to love it, and then we take that same song and look at its components—our standards and learning goals. What is the rhythm of this phrase? How does that melody sound? What might this look like? How does this look for instrumentalists? How can it look so you remember it? Let’s map it! Let’s dot it out! Let’s show the contour! What notes match this phrase? How many parts do you hear? Can you show me what that might look like? The choices are endless, and suddenly, my students are the ones in charge of their own learning.
After fifteen years in a music classroom, I was becoming burnt out. I was looking at other focuses for my life, and I was resenting every day I woke up to go to work. My mental health took a dive, and I was just done. But Songworks saved me. My view has changed by being able to truly play every day. I used to say I became a music teacher because where else would I get to play games all day and get paid for it? That became a line that I no longer believed; I no longer played for learning, I played to break up the monotony and I did not enjoy it anymore. School has changed, students have changed, expectations for teachers have changed. What has not changed? The kids. They may be different as students, but they are still kids. They want to play and learn. I want to play, too, and learn what they can teach me. How lucky am I that, thanks to SongWorks, I get to wake up every day and play?
