“I got this!” says a fifth grade student as he was on the verge of playing his recorder in front of his entire class, by himself. A hush falls on the class and he begins, playing a tune that spans an octave, reading the music from the page confidently. Five of the eight notes are new to the class this year as is reading from the written notation while performing. A squeak breaks from one of the lower notes, but he does not stop and the class remains transfixed. When he is through, raucous applause!
This scenario happened time and again in fourth, fifth and sixth grade classrooms at Eastwood Elementary School this Spring at the end of the recorder unit in music classes. Many, many students surprised themselves, some spending their recesses voluntarily in the music room to practice, until they were more confident that they could indeed play their instrument in front of their peers. Nerves were a jitter but so were glorious sounds. They worked hard on this, and it showed.
The work in the music room is just one other example of the rest of the tremendous work going on in this building to ensure that every student hears the sounds of success. Donald Trump said, “As long as you’re going to be thinking anyway, think big.” And here at Eastwood, we are thinking and working toward Carnegie Hall in every classroom.
Jenny Erickson
Music specialist