We have all spoken about them in the staff room, we have all spent hours upon hours metaphorically banging our heads against the proverbial brick wall – that child. That child who just doesn’t get it, no matter how easy you think the question is, how much gesticulating towards the answer on the board you do, or how many sounds of the letters which make up the answers you whisper aloud to them, they just don’t get it.
Today, I had a very vivid insight as to what this feels like.
Today my school held its ‘Inter-School Music Day’ for those who aren’t familiar – this is a chance for the children to immerse in all areas of a foundation subjects curriculum across the course of a day (otherwise known as a good way to meet all those curriculum statements not met during the normal day…) Classes spend 30 minutes with each teacher throughout the school covering various aspects of the subject’s core standards, today was music day and I was teaching contemporary rock and pop (1970 – 1999) to 5 different classes, one after the other. Now I will openly admit to being one of the least musically talented teachers you will come across, not a string in my body is tuned, rhythm, tempo, pitch and any other piece of musical vocabulary you can think of just do not resonate in my brain. I am lucky that my year partner is very gifted musically and for 2 of the 3 terms, music is picked up as a PPA activity – I know some would say this is not right as the teacher should be delivering it, but in my book – if there is someone within school who is capable and enthusiastic about teaching music, the children will learn a lot more than if their class teacher – with limited knowledge – is preaching to them.
Back to music day, having looked over the power point slides I would be teaching from (thank you google) I was feeling a tad uneasy about teaching children about rhythm and tempo, I had a basic understanding what they were but no real depth of understanding about what the children needed to be able to do by the time they leave my room.
That is when I was realised that I was ‘that child.’ No matter how many times I listened to Hey Jude by the Beatles and looked at the words “identify the tempo against the given scale”, or Eye of the Tiger rang out from the SMART board I just could not get the hang of it. Yes, I knew the first song was a slow tempo and the latter was a fast tempo, but when it came to answering questions about the notes being used to build rhythm – I was sweating. I pride myself on professionalism and felt uncomfortable that I could not masterfully answer the questions posed to me by 10-year-old children.
We often ask children – so what have you learned today? My response – I have learned that the child who we begrudge because they can’t answer that easy question we are asking them, despite the answer being in front of them – they are human. They are trying and more than anything they want to answer it, they want to be right and they want to feel successful, but they can’t. It is not a nice feeling and I know for certain that next time a child in my class can not produce an answer for a seemingly simple question , I will think back to my time teaching contemporary rock and pop and remember what it is like. I think it does us all good to feel this way at times, a way of grounding us and reminding us what it is like to sit on the other side of the classroom.
We often ask children – so what have you learned today? My response – I have learned that the child who we begrudge because they can’t answer that easy question we are asking them, despite the answer being in front of them – they are human. They are trying and more than anything they want to answer it, they want to be right and they want to feel successful, but they can’t. It is not a nice feeling and I know for certain that next time a child in my class can not produce an answer for a seemingly simple question , I will think back to my time teaching contemporary rock and pop and remember what it is like. I think it does us all good to feel this way at times, a way of grounding us and reminding us what it is like to sit on the other side of the classroom.
Primary Education: The New Era 