From: Julie Jones
Date: Sun, 16 Jun 2013 21:46:30 -0400
I would strongly recommend that music teacher take a Kodaly levels class this summer.
When I was getting ready to come back to teaching, after being home for 13 years with our sons, I was trying to decide between taking Orff or Kodaly levels.
I finally settled on the Kodaly, because I figured I wouldn't know whether or not an eventual job would have the Orff instruments, and have never been sorry.
Jill Trinka's quote during those levels classes comes back to me, reading this music teacher's situation: all you need is a piece of chalk.
Granted, other things are wonderful to have, but I did a long term sub job, in a tough city school, without a classroom or any materials, after doing two Kodaly levels, and loved it!
Sometimes I think we can be our worst enemy if we make a bad situation look good, but maybe in this case, if this teacher can begin to improve this program, she will gain credibility which may translate into materials.
DonorsChoose grants are awesome but not sure you could fund a curriculum that way.
Shame on a school that would put the burden of providing for these students' music education on the back of the teacher! But unfortunately, it happens way too often.
Julie
Julie Jones, music teacher
Matthew Whaley Elementary School
301 Scotland Street
Williamsburg, VA 23185
"The life of the arts, far from being an interruption, a distraction, in the life of a nation, is very close to the center of a nation's purpose, and is a test of the quality of a nation's civilization."
--John F. Kennedy
Check out my current DonorsChoose projects here:
http://www.donorschoose.org/juliejonesmusic