End of the School Year Recap

I finished my final concert this week, a sure sign that the end (of the school year, that is) is near. I thought I would share a few of my moments of amusement from the past nine months. Never a dull moment in the life of an elementary music teacher . . .

1. The Music-Literature Connection
My upper grades performed the musical Oliver! this spring. Oliver Twist was checked out of the school library for most of the year. Go me!

2. The King of Pop Visits
One day, a second grade boy showed up for music class wearing one white glove.

"What's with the Michael Jackson look?" I asked his teacher.

"I don't know," she said with a sigh. "I choose my battles carefully with that kid."

3. Translating Kinder Speak
When I demonstrated how to play a cabasa one day, a kindergartner exclaimed, "That's like a ramaca!" (Translation: maraca)

4. Selective Singing
During the Winter Program, the first graders sang, "Oh Christmas Tree."

One little girl belted out louder than everyone else, "Oh, Christmas tree! Oh, Christmas tree!"

But those were the only words she knew, so she would just stopping singing and click her pointer fingers at me until it came back around to, "Oh, Christmas tree! Oh, Christmas tree!"

5. Rock Star Music Teacher
The kids were singing "This Land is Your Land," and I was accompanying them on guitar.

"Mrs. Duggan, you should be in a band!" the kids told me.

"You have to know more than three chords to be in a band," I said.

6. What Does the Fox Say?
My sixth graders make music videos at the end of every year. One boy insisted that he was making himself a fox suit. I wasn't quite sure I believed him until he showed up last week, carrying in a pair of red, long-john pajamas with fur sewn on the front and a tail pinned to the back. He also had a fox-ear headband.

What song do you think he recorded?

(Hint: see below)

 

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Folk Dance Week! (RE-POST from 5/24/14)

We just finished Folk Dance Week at my school once again. This is a post I wrote last year about this fun annual tradition. Enjoy the re-post!

Teachers often need a pick-me-up around this time of the year. I find that focusing on the most entertaining aspect of my career—the kids—is a good way to maintain my sanity (or insanity?) during the last few days of school.

This is for my teacher friends, especially you music teacher friends. We all need to remember the positives in our profession from time to time.

Around the last two weeks of school, the P.E. teacher and I combine our classes and teach the kids old-fashioned longways set dances and square dances. Once we get past the initial "Eww! I'm not holding his/her hand" (which doesn't last long for us veteran teachers), it's actually a delightful way to close out the year.

1. One of the older boys had to be my partner the first day. He moaned and carried on in the beginning.

"Admit it. You dig being my square dance partner."

"Nooooo . . . "

Yesterday, after square dancing all week, he ran over to me and said, "Mrs. Duggan, come on. You were my partner the last time!"

2. We combined my kindergarten class with the fifth grade P.E. class. One of the most difficult students exclaimed, "Yes!" when he saw the little kids walk in. A couple of minutes later, he was enthusiastically do-si-doing with a girl who came up to his hip.

3. Throughout the week, girls started wearing "flippy dresses" to folk dance classes.

4. When one of my third grade classes realized they couldn't dance in the gym due to scheduling differences, they were very disappointed.

"But we only got to dance once, Mrs. Duggan!"

So we shoved the risers back and spent the class folk dancing in my oddly shaped music room.

5. One of my students was having a bad morning the other day.

"Oh well," she said. "At least I have folk dancing to look forward to this afternoon."

BONUS:
This isn't specifically about folk dancing, but it was a hilarious end to our week. At the end of our final session, we mentioned that we would be out of school this Monday for Memorial Day. Our assistant principal was dancing with us that afternoon (because our administrators love folk dance week too).

The kids turned to the assistant principal and said in unison, "Thanks, Mrs. Anderson!"

"Wow!" she said, as we cracked up. "They think I have a lot of power!"

"Yeah," I said. "They think you're like God or something!"

For the latest blog updates, visit and "like" Rebecca Turner-Duggan.

The Day Dan Picked the Music, Part 2

A couple of weeks ago, I told you about "The Day Dan Picked the Music."

Sadly, a couple of days after I wrote that blog post, my husband, Dan dropped his iPod. It crashed, and all of his files were gone.

Because we learned our lesson during the iPod crash of 2014, he had mostly everything backed up.

But Dan was sad without his device.

So I created a "Happy Dan Playlist."

The Happy Dan Playlist was made up of songs he liked from my iPod that weren't always my top choices. I don't have some of his craziest favorites, but when he started headbanging in the middle of his listening experience, I figured I did a pretty good job.

"Did you do this just so you could write a blog about it?" he asked when he saw me take out my phone.

(I have graduated from carrying a notepad everywhere to taking notes on my phone. I'm totally high-tech.)

The good news is that the iPod was under warranty, and the Apple Store gave him a new one, no questions asked.

But while he waited for the protective case he ordered this time around, we continued to listen to his happy list.

In fact, he added two hours of Lynyrd Skynyrd to the list, which is kind of embarrassing to admit since we are two of, maybe, twenty liberals in the whole state of Idaho.

"People are going to think we're hicks," I said.

"We live in Idaho. We'll fit right in."

So now there is a fourteen-minute live version of "Freebird" on the Happy Dan list.

"I'm done adding stuff, unless you want me to add any more of my music . . . like Slipknot," Dan said.

I glared at him.

"This playlist is supposed to make me happy."

"Not that happy," I muttered. "You have a new iPod, after all."

For the latest blog updates, visit and "like" Rebecca Turner-Duggan.

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week

This morning, I ran into a parent of one of my former elementary music students. She told me that her son had just received a "Most Inspirational" award in his junior high choir.

"And it's because of you," his mother said.

This past week was Teacher Appreciation Week, and let me tell you, it comes at exactly the right time of the year for us teachers.

It started me thinking about the teachers who had influenced me and my career path. (Funny, most of the names that popped into my head were music and English teachers. Go figure.)

I am a product of several wonderful educators both in the public school system and at the collegiate level. But I thought, in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, I would share one story in particular.

I was in the ninth grade, which was still in the junior high school. It was my second year of choir, and I was a little more confident than the previous year.

But I still didn't want to try out for a solo, and I wasn't sure the choir director knew who I was at the time.

My choir was singing a choral arrangement of Carole King's song, "Tapestry."

Funny thing about the Tapestry album. It was a source of family tension.

Somebody (this is how my dad said the word every time he told the story, while looking pointedly at my mother) had gotten rid of the record album in a garage sale or in a move or something, and we never heard the end of it.

My mother, brother, and I even bought a new copy of Tapestry on cassette (no such thing as CDs or MP3s back then, Millennials) for my dad, but he said it wasn't the same without the album art and jacket.

Weird how we all (including my father) still sang along to every song in the car, even though it was inferior to vinyl.

When it was time to audition for the solo in choir, my friend convinced me to try out with her, and our director allowed us to sing it at the same time. The next day, he announced that I would be singing the solo.

I consider that day to be the beginning of my calling as a music educator.

I decided to surprise my parents. I didn't tell them that I would be singing a solo at the fall choir concert, but I was so excited that I had to tell someone.

I told my six-year-old brother, swore him to secrecy. Some of you are probably saying, "Yeah, right. There is no way a first grader kept a secret from his mom and dad for that many weeks."

But he did. In fact, at the concert, he tried to steal the program from them so that they wouldn't see my name.

I still remember coming to the microphone and seeing my family's happy faces and my mother wagging her finger at me from the audience.

That same choir director continued to inspire me and believe in me throughout the rest of junior high and high school.

He also provided me with a snapshot memory of my mother that I would truly value two decades later.

Thank you, Mr. Smack.

My life has been a tapestry of rich and royal hue,

An everlasting vision of the ever-changing view

A wondrous woven magic in bits of blue and gold

A tapestry to feel and see, impossible to hold

From "Tapestry" by Carole King

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