Justin......or is it Nicholas?

Now that I've begun teaching at my 6th school in seventeen years, the phenomenon I have jokingly referred to as Doppelganger Students has once again come to the surface.  Doppelgangers, according to Wikipedia (and The Vampire Diaries) are someone's living double.  Of course, I take this notion with a grain of salt, but having taught at half a dozen schools during my career, it has become an interesting pastime of mine to notice how many of my newfound students look, and even act, amazingly like students I had previously taught.

Over the past two days, as I handed out name tags at my new school, I spent the better part of the day initially thinking, "There's Eric.  That's Karla.  Oh, look, it's Isaiah!" only to find that, instead, they were Joseph, Estefani and Kiani.  Whoops.  My bad.  But can you really blame me?  Until you really get to know a student, all you have to go by is physical appearance and maybe a smidgeon of their personality.  And first impressions, however accurate or inaccurate they may be, naturally lead me to Eric, Karle and Isaiah.  A few years back, while teaching a class of 2nd graders at a new school, I decided not to back away from this confusing phenomenon but instead to honor and, indeed, celebrate it with them.  As I attempted to learn the students' names via some tried and true Orff name games, I was doing pretty well until I got to Justin.  Unfortunately, I kept calling him Nicholas.  Every time I did so, the class laughed a little and corrected me.  Finally, I broke down and, with good humor and patience, explained that it was just because he reminded me of one of the students I taught at my previous school.  Rather than taking offense at such a notion, Justin was intrigued.  For their part, his classmates were extremely eager to find out what their "other" names were.  And, not wanting to disappoint them, I went around the circle and named names.  And, for those who did not have a virtual double at a previous school, I simply told them they were themselves.  Eventually, I learned all of their correct names and the Doppelgangers ceased to exist.

As music teacher, I have observed an interesting, related phenomenon among my students over the years that might be called Musical Doppelgangers.  It's the phenomenon that students express when they insist that a song they have just sung is called by another name.  Well, that may ring true for a few folk songs or nursery rhymes for the younger set:  Twinkle Twinkle and The ABCs, Yankee Doodle and The Barney Song (egads!).  At least a dozen echo songs I use on a routine basis have the same melody.  So many classroom teachers use piggy back songs to teach all manner of subjects from counting to spelling to days of the week that Musical Doppelgangers do seem to exist.  And one of my favorite Doppelganger moments happens just after I finish teaching a song I know I've never taught my students before and Karla/Estefani asks, "Didn't you teach us that in _____ grade?"  But when students insist that Old MacDonald is really called BINGO, I have to take a stand and be the Music Teacher.  Sorry Justin, er, Nicholas.  They may sound similar, but the melodies and words are indeed different.  Let's sing each one again so you can hear.  After that, at least for a moment, the Doppelganger spell is broken.

Change is inevitable

Well, it's been a while, hasn't it?  To be honest, I have been avoiding this because of my own pride.  If you've been following me (and if not, go ahead and read previous blogs to get the gist of it), you already know that I lost my job last spring.  To make things even more bittersweet, I had to move far away from a place I had grown to love because we simply couldn't afford to live there any more.  Now, I face the challenge of new surroundings, new people, a new way of "doing things" but, sadly, no new music teaching job.  And with the school year now into its 2nd month, the chances of that happening are getting slimmer.  Oh, I'll keep putting myself out there just in case that elusive mid-year position pops up (in fact, I'm waiting on a couple of prospects right now).  I've signed up to be a substitute teacher with a few school districts and hope that starts rolling along pretty soon.  I have joined my local Orff chapter and have already made plans to present a couple of mini workshops in February.  After learning a lot about how the job search goes around here, I'll be much better prepared to jump on the jobs that do open up.  Consider that the Lessons Learned portion of today's post.

So, what now?  In my current situation, I will probably focus more on the Musical Memories aspect of things.  And, with that in mind, here's something I have used with my younger students that has always been met with rave reviews!

I bought 16 of these little guys and drew differently shaped eyes on them with a Sharpie:  rectangles, triangles, Ts and circles.  They were then scattered around the perimeter of the classroom to make a "pumpkin patch."  Students sat in a circle and we sang Paw Paw Patch, changing those words to Pumpkin Patch.  Students were given instruments that corresponded to the shapes drawn on the pumpkins:  sand blocks, triangles, tick tock blocks and hand drums.  Then we played a little game.  One student was selected to be Johnny, who walked around the room collecting pumpkins as we sang the song twice  (I made a rule that he could only take one at a time and bring it to me before getting another, otherwise we might have run out!).  When Johnny was finished, the pumpkins were arranged into patterns like in the picture and used as a score for playing instruments.  They had a great time and loved the game!

Here's a variation that ties in a bit of rhythm reading skills:  Circle game without instruments (or with if you want....):  each student receives a pumpkin (die cut, toy or real) with a quarter note, paired eighth notes or quarter rest (or whatever you're working on) drawn on.  Select a student to be Johnny and sing the song.  Whomever Johnny stops next to at the end of the song brings over his pumpkin, then becomes the new Johnny.  Repeat until four pumpkins have been collected to create a pattern.  (Of course, you could also draw four beat patterns on each pumpkin and cut down on the repetitions, but I find that students don't mind singing songs over and over as long as there is a chance they might "get a turn.")  Then select a student (or whole group, whatever) to say/clap/play the pattern.  Repeat the process as many times as you want.

Enjoy!