The Music Lady

Thursday, February 16, 2023

I was off to my favorite elementary school today to be the music teacher. I walked into the room and was met with the fabulous sight of pianos! Pianos with little color coding stickers on the keys. I was excited! I immediately envisioned myself using the pointer to point to colored notes while they plucked out Mary Had a Little Lamb.

I read the sub plan.

Show them a video.

Darn.

It was a Disney World sing-along video. I wondered what was going to happen, because they made a big deal about singing along – and the words appeared on the screen – but I was starting with kindergartners, followed by first graders. They can’t read well enough to read that fast – or with vocabulary like Hukilau! Mmm. Turns out I hadn’t needed to be concerned. They were mesmerized just by watching. When we got to the Polynesian and some hula we all did a brilliant job of following along. They were sure the Tigger was the “cereal Tiger”. That completely surprised me.

Then came the second graders. They were not mesmerized. They were hilarious. They were listening and not being out of control or anything, but they had some concerns.

“Why are they just jumping up and down?” “Do they know that they look a little silly?” “That is not the real Ariel. The real Ariel has red hair.” (This life person in an Ariel outfit had real people red hair, unlike cartoon Ariel who has bright orange hair. The girls were 100% in agreement she was not the real Ariel.)

Then it got good. “I’m afraid this is from the 80s.” “I think I might be traumatized.” “You know it’s from the 80s, because they look like my mom when she was little.” (This 7-year-old has a mom from the 80s? The math doesn’t quite work for me.) I looked at the people in the video. They definitely did look like they were from the 80s, and I hadn’t noticed.

The third graders had to watch the beginning of a movie about Handel visiting Ireland and helping out a poor kid who was a good singer. It was terrible, and they toughed it out like champions. I had to be reeeeeallly careful not to let them know that I didn’t think it was great. The problem fourth graders came and we had to give up trying to watch Handel, because there was no way anyone was going to be successful. I don’t remember ever just stopping what we were supposed to be doing….but maybe I just did…because I felt like I wrote this about a week ago. Wow. My memory is gone. Anyway, I just stopped the video and we played games, because I wanted them to be successful. The principal checked in (what a great guy) because they are a troubled class, and I confessed my switcheroo. He was glad to hear they were successful. Phew.

I went to help at lunch. I zipped kindergartner coats. I really like kindergartners and the way they are just sure you know what you are doing. They just start handing you stuff, assuming you know what to do with it. Maverick was wearing a pink shirt. He has absolutely no idea who I am and thinks nothing of the fact I say, “Hi Maverick,” whenever I see him. When you are a kindergartener, everyone knows your name.

I switched schools for the end of the day. I had a different Disney video for these first graders. This one was from Disneyland, and I noticed right away that it was from the 80s. I was enjoying seeing the park from back then (hello skyride!) when I suddenly thought I saw myself! I literally jumped. I was on Tom Sawyer’s Island, and when I turned around, I wasn’t me, but it was certainly exciting for a moment. I kept an eye out for the rest of the video, but I didn’t see myself. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t at Disneyland in the late 80s, but, you know, I could have forgotten.