Elkhart Community Schools’ Post

Transcript

Sunny 101.5 with Tell me something good. Getting good. Tell me something, Tell me something good brought to us by Elkhart Community Schools. Whether you were singing in the choir or playing hot cross buns on the recorder, a lot of us have fond memories of elementary school music class. Well, one music teacher at Elkhart Community Schools is using a weekly drumming class as a way to teach the students about more than just music. And it also involves the community. It's a so cool. This morning we're joined by Harold Walt from Roosevelt Steam Academy, who runs a series called Jamming with a Professional Good Morning Wall. Tell me about that. Good morning. I'd love to. So we have a program that we started last year, it's called jamming with a professional and we just decided at the pilot it with a group of 3rd, 4th grade combined students. And we thought it'd be really cool to mix music in some capacity and then also bring in professionals from multiple different industries to come in, give a talk, take some questions and then do some community drumming. With our kids, and you know, I think what's so cool about this is they might not necessarily expect it in music class, right? I mean, the professionals that are coming in aren't necessarily career musicians. Oh, they are definitely not. And that's that's the beautiful thing about it and the surprise. We've had music professionals come in, but we have a diversity of careers that were important to come in and talk to the kids as well. We've had local media figures, we've had leaders like Rudy Yakum, Mayor Robertson and actually three former superintendents in the area come in and share their life experience and do a little bit of drumming on the side. So cool. What are the lessons you hope the students are taking away from these classes? So the main goal of the class is to get kids really thinking about their career. The importance of SEL, social, social, emotional learning, servant leadership. We tie it into our pride, persistence, responsibility, respect and having initiative, dependability and efficiency. So we try to blend all those important skills that may not be addressed in math and reading and writing. We try to address that through the vehicle of music. And bringing these adults in and sharing their life experiences. And talk a little bit about the drumming part of the class. You know, what does it mean for these kids when when they're actually able to perform alongside these professionals? So it is. It is a blast. We spend, I'm probably about 20-30 minutes at the front of the session where the adults talk about their life experiences, share kids, get to ask questions, and then the last five to 10 minutes, our kids get to teach the professionals a little bit what they do in their drumming. And it is so cute to watch these adults. You have no, you know, no necessarily having drumming experience coming in and their humility and their their adeptness to really learn. And it's great for the kids to see that because they can pick up on it and they love teaching. And yeah, I would. I would be, you know, lost. So how fun is that? No, you wouldn't. No. And I'm inviting you and Jack sometime to come over and drum with us if you have some free time. Well, we look forward to that. Do you have any? Ohh, I don't know. Tell me something good stories about a particularly great guest. There are so many, Tracy, but I will share one specific one that really stood out. It was. Interim Superintendent Mark Mao. He came in and talked to the kids about his career. And if you know Mark, he's he's not afraid to, you know, share his musical abilities. You know, they're not quite as up to, you know, the kids. And they were just so kind. And he he, he did a fantastic job. He really did. I would, if you were asking me, I would grade him an A plus. Fantastic. How cool. How cool for them to see their interim Superintendent in a whole different way, right? I love definitely. Mr. Walt, is there anything I didn't ask you that you wanted to add? Yes, thank you. I do want to mention that our school district has an Elkhart Promise that we as educators in the school community and stakeholders are working to achieve and that's to make sure all our students are career ready. While engaging the community through different programs at our school whenever possible. And that was the whole brainchild of this program. And that's what we've been focusing on. And it's just been a wonderful journey so far. Yeah. Jam and with a professional certainly sounds like just an amazing way to do that. So, hey, keep up the great work. Thank you so much for talking to us about it this morning. Thank you. Getting good. Tell me something good.