7 Super Powers All Music Teachers Have

1. Music teachers can make a song out of anything.

Really.  A song for lining up, a song for sitting down, a song for a rainy day, a song for remembering the order of mathematical operations, a song for good oral hygiene and a song for feeling happy when you are sad.  As a music teacher, you are used to making up little songs for everything.  As a music teaching mama I make up songs for everything at home too.  Potty training, picking up blocks, saying our prayers and peeling potatoes are just a few of the topics of recent household songs.

Why?  It helps kids remember what they need to know.  Also, I am a firm believer that cheerful teachers create better learners and if my little song about how to tie their shoes makes them smile too, then they are doubly blessed.  Singing songs to make routine chores easier is an old trick in the classroom or at home.  Using songs to help students transition from one activity to another is a fun and easy way to speed up this time.  Sing a little song.  Move the day along.

2. You can get an entire auditorium of kids to quiet with just the clap of your hands.

Actually, to some of us, clapping “ta ta titi ta” is such an old trick that we don’t even realize the power it holds.  I remember the first time I got to show off this super power.  The principal was late for an assembly and all 9 classes were there crammed into the bleachers getting restless.  When he arrived, the sound system gave out and the students got a little bit louder with each passing second.  He looked at me in panic (probably wanting me to go and smack the sound system around).  I stepped to the front of the group and clapped the magic rhythm.  Every student stopped, clapped it back and sat in silence.  The principal picked his jaw up off the floor and began to address the crowd.  Music teacher win.

3.  As a music teacher you can turn pool noodles, ping pong balls and discarded board games into incredible instructional manipulatives that vault your students’ comprehension of any topic through the roof!  Okay…that may have been a little dramatic, but music teachers are incredibly resourceful.  And some of us may be unintentional packrats as we save almost everything for that one workstation or costume that may need it.

4.  I can help you or your child memorize almost anything.
Seriously.  A song for learning to spell your name, recite your phone number, name the states in alphabetical order, learn the order of the planets and say multiplication facts are just a few of the things that you can remember with a catchy little tune. 

5.  Music teachers can move an entire room of 6 year olds to tears with a well-chosen listening activity.

It was party day and I had planned a listening and writing activity for a favorite group of 1^st graders.  I chose Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”.  We moved to the music with beautiful scarves and then sat down to consider what Beethoven may have been thinking about when he wrote this piece.  Wow.  The tears flowed.  Dead pets.  Sick grandmas.  A dad that never called back.  The music moved them!  I used this cry fest as an opportunity to talk about the power of music.  I’m not sure their classroom teacher knew what hit her when she picked them up.

6.  I can plan, organize, rehearse and lead a performance of 600 kids on two Mountain Dews and a leftover cupcake.

I don’t think this needs much more of an explanation, but…heck…most days…even with a STALE cupcake I found in the back of the teacher’s lounge fridge, I can still make it happen.

7.  Music teachers change the world one song, one child, and one day at a time.

We have the greatest jobs on the planet!  Each day we have the opportunity to be ambassadors of joy to our students spreading the power of music and the joy of music making.