One Hat

I'm taking pictures of my classroom and instruments at Battle Monument School as communication aids for my students, and figured I'd put a couple here. Battle Monument Music Teacher is a hat I've been wearing for (gulp) over 20 years. Teaching there is so outside-the-box, and all my students are outside-the-box, too. They continually humble me, astound me, make me laugh, and keep me on my toes.

Yesterday in one of my classes we were practicing playing a pattern of 1-2-3-rest on various instruments to Queen's "We Will Rock You" (I'm a closet fan.) It was the third time in the past month this class had done this activity, and the hope was of course, that the students would "get it." Well, J GOT IT. He has autism and is usually completely absorbed in rolling the hem of his shirt. Finding anything that distracts him from this is very difficult, and requiring him to do anything else usually frustrates him.

But yesterday, he GOT IT. He started playing the 1-2-3-rest pattern--then he started smiling--then he started LAUGHING--and he did it through the entire song, forgetting entirely about his hem. As the song progressed, you could just feel the excitement in the room--all four staff members AND the principal (who'd popped in--I LOVE principals who pop in)--were holding their breath to see if J would last to the end of the song.

He did. And you'd have thought we'd won the Super Bowl. The room erupted in applause, and everyone jumped out of their seats, embraced one another, high-fived, and wept. And J just kept on smiling.

What a great hat to wear two days a week. :)