Monday 6/13/2016

A journal entry:

"Today was our first day at the schools!  We woke up at 7am, dressed, ate breakfast, and left by 8 after packing all the drums and supplies.  The school where I am (Boston Primary School) is a two-minute car drive from the huts.  It is a little, bright blue and white school with one class for each grade and all the classrooms facing in towards a small grassy courtyard where the kids play at lunch.  All the rooms are wide-open to the outdoors.

We were definitely a spectacle as we walked in.  The kids came up to us, were hugging us, touching us, playing with our hair, and were so excited to see us.  After meeting the kids, we watched their morning devotion, which happens on Monday's and Friday's.  There is no separation of church and state in Jamaica.  They sing praises to God and Jesus, say prayers, and sing the National Anthem (we were able to participate in this part).  The principal (a very stern, professional-looking woman) introduced us.  One by one, we walked through the lines of kids as they stared at us and reached out to touch us.  The principal told the kids, 'They are our guests, so be attentive and don't stress them out like you stress us out every day.'

Soon, we set up outside under trees for our first lessons.  Katie and I started at the singing station and Kate and Dustin started at drumming.  The boys came to us first (all the boys like drumming better and all the girls like singing better, so we put them on the opposite one first, so we can use the other one as an incentive.  In our singing lesson, we sang 1) The Jamaican National Anthem, 2) The Rivers of Babylon, 3) The Lion Sleeps Tonight (everyone's favorite--they loved the movements!) 4) Mango Time, and 5) Oh What a Day (my favorite!).  I want to use 'Oh What a Day' in my classroom each morning to get the class off to a positive start:

Oh what a day, oh what a day

Oh what a very wonderful day.

Everything is happening

In a most miraculous way!

Big bells chime,

A bright sun shines on the city,

Shining on a miraculous day.

Cha Cha Cha!

I played guitar for the songs and I am improving every day.  I wouldn't have believed it if someone told me I'd be playing guitar for a class this summer, but I love it now!  This is great practicing in adapting to different and unexpected situations and rising to challenges, like I will need to do in any classroom situation.  I want to use the guitar and drumming and all the techniques we're using in my private lessons back home and definitely in future classrooms.  This trip has taught me so much about classroom control and management, effective and succinct teaching techniques, and other great music education tools.  I feel confident in front of a group of students now more than ever and I now that I'll only get better!

For our drumming lessons, we taught the differences between Boom (a flat palm hitting the center of the drum) and Da (curved fingers hitting the rim of the drum).  We learned Boom Boom Da, and Da Da Da Da Boom Boom and had a fun rhythmic competition, which we molded into a rhythmic collaboration: One group likes peanut butter and the other likes toast.  'I like peanut butter' 'I like toast!!'  We also taught Dinki Mini, which a lot of the kids already knew--this beat is a big part of their culture, and either their grandparents or parents taught them the drum part or the dance.  The dance involves twisting one leg in a circle and moving around in a circle.  

The kids were a bit wound up in drumming, because they were so excited.  Sometimes, there weren't enough drums so we had to give some of the kids shakers.  This caused a few problems, but nothing that got in the way of the lesson.

At lunch, the kids crowded into our room to play with our hair and hangout.  They brought us flowers, notes, candy, and lots of hugs.  These kids are so full of energy and so full of love.  They kept asking me what I do to my hair and if I dye it because they think it's soft and shiny and they have never seen blonde hair before.  When it was time to move the drums back out to the trees where we taught, every single student wanted to help.  I've never seen a group of so many kids so eager to help: 'Miss, I can carry that!  May I take a drum, miss?'

The second half of the day was just as good as the first and we left feeling exhausted, but satisfied.  At night, we went to Formulo's (one of the surf teachers we met) Bar on the street for a sound system party where they played Jamaican Dancehall music.  Our director hired some dancers to teach us how to dance the 'Jamaican way.'  We enjoyed ourselves and learned some pretty cool moves, but realized that the dancing is much, much different and much harder for us to do than for them.  Many people there will practice dancing every day in order to keep up their skills, and it shows.  The dancers were very, very talented!"