Teaching Artists

“Students were especially engaged today  in all classrooms which was lovely! They remembered their first song that we wrote together and were singing it. hurrah!

As I approached the second-grade classroom, I realized that it was across the hall from the music classroom. The music teacher was at the door and saw my guitar and we introduced ourselves. He told me that was introducing music vocabulary to students, and they said they already knew it because ‘the blues lady’ taught it to  them. I nearly fell over. You can only imagine my delight. You just don’t know what’s getting in.

In the second-grade classroom as I shared “the Thrill is Gone” with students we talked about the singer’s perspective from being hurt and lonely to going to open-hearted and wishing the other person well. A boy in the back row shouted out, “I’ll never be open-hearted again because my dad died!”

I felt instant shock and heartache for this student. I’m sure you’ve all experienced this kind of thing. Last residency a first-grade student talked about his dad being shot. Each time it happens, though it is still a shock, I often invite students to take a deep breath because it helps regulate the nervous system. I invited him to take a deep breath with me, and we put our hands to our hearts as we did so. I promised him that he could get to open-hearted in time AND that the journey will not be straight or easy, but it is possible. I shared some of my own grief/loss/healing that is very fresh, and the teacher spoke to him. A few minutes later he said, “yeah, I can get to open-hearted, but it will take time.”