After teacher training, I got a half-year job as a permanent sub in music...not certified in music, but the system needed to replace the regular teacher quickly and they knew me from doing school programs locally. Certification was waived. The first day I stood up in front of the classes and sang "Rattling Bog" telling the kids when it was their time to sing the refrain. They were shocked! No piano; no music books; no word sheets, even. AND they were expected to sing out loud. These kids customarily got music by either burying their noses in the book or glueing their ear to the boom box. They didn't know from singing out loud for fun. Anyhow, they got distracted from rigor mortis when it finally dawned how a cumulative song works and it was funny. They sang. I pulled out every crazy kid pleaser I could think of the first few weeks.

For that half year, my goal for them was to teach lots of songs with good singing choruses so that they could sing non-stop in the bus on field trips going and coming home. (We won't go into the anguish of teaching them recorder by keeping one lesson ahead of them). They may have gone back to rock and rap, but somewhere in their little heads there will be a nice memory of good songs and singing them with friends. At least a little seed got planted.

Joan