Day 1 - Introductions

5/1/14

Okay so today was my first day working with Joe Schoen, the music teacher at Tillman Elementary School. It was fun - the kids obviously ranged in behavior even among the same grade level. I introduced myself to each class, saying something along the lines of "I've been singing my whole life, which is why I'm working with Mr. Schoen. And I'm in a few choirs right now, like the St. Louis Children's Choir and the Ambassadors of Harmony." The third and fourth grade classes asked if I could sing for them, which I wasn't expecting. I told them I might sing for them on my last day. They use iPads to do a lot of things at Tillman, which was surprising to me, but it seems like it works really well, especially for music. The third and fourth graders are doing something called recorder karate right now, which is where they practice songs of a certain difficulty on their recorders and play for Joe at each level to wing a higher level belt for their recorders (different colored yarn).

Joe's a great guy. He's so energetic all the time, and he doesn't take any crap from students. He introduced me to a few of the other teachers there before we started the day. I think this is going to be a great few weeks.