There is nothing more frustrating for a teacher than losing their voice and when that teacher happens to teach music, it’s even more frustrating.  Losing the ability to sing with and for your students often leaves a teacher feeling apprehensive as to how they’re going to keep their students engaged and participating in the music making process.  Sometimes however, we forget about the power of silence.

Teachers are notorious for going to school even when they’re sick because quite frankly it’s just too much trouble to write lesson plans for someone else if you can just suck it up and make it work.  The only problem is when you can’t speak loudly enough to be heard. So today, when my student teacher showed up at school with no voice, this seemed like the perfect time to work on this with her.  Now, I want you to know that several of us urged her to go home or at least go home early but like many good teachers, she said she wasn’t feeling that bad, she just couldn’t talk – so she stayed.  (She did go to the doctor this afternoon and it’s just some nasty post nasal drip – nothing serious).

After explaining to the kids what was going on, and after we had worked on a plan for the class, she began teaching.  Her lesson plan was projected on the board in a simple form for the kids to read and a couple of students were chosen as “teachers”.  Through the written instructions and “sign language” from my student teacher, the class kicked into gear and what happened was a joy to behold.  Instead of the teacher being the sage on the stage, she became the facilitator and the students became teachers for each other.

Watching the learning happening before our eyes was amazing.  The lesson was about identifying triplets, through both listening and reading and they began creating their own compositions incorporating triplets.  We watched them kindly correct each other when needed and congratulate each other when they succeeded.  My student teacher ended up  just walking around, observing, encouraging, answering questions (quietly)  and facilitating.

The amazing thing was that she barely spoke a word and yet there was more learning going on than I had seen in a while, which spoke volumes to me.  How often do I spend too much time talking and less time with them actually learning?  The problem is that most teachers LOVE to talk and pass on information about those subjects they’re passionate about, which means kids are doing a lot of listening and not enough DOING.  I know this but have to admit that I too love to talk about music and maybe I should stop talking so much.

I also have to admit I took a little bit of pleasure listening to my kids ask questions of each other like I do, asking if they agree or disagree with things and why or why not.  They were able to figure things out for themselves, keep steady beats for each other and work  collaboratively.  I was so proud.

Amazingly, students who are asked to step it up when a teacher is struggling usually do and they feel good about themselves when they do it.  Sure, I could have popped in and taught for her today, but then neither of us would have seen what these kids were capable of both academically and emotionally.  It was certainly one of those times where I was thrilled to be an educator, both for these young students and this young teacher.  It reminded me that if I’m going to talk the talk, I might think about walking the walk in silence.