I belong to some groups on Facebook called "Music Teachers", "I'm a General Music Teacher", "Elementary Music Teachers". I found these groups earlier this year and have found them a great resource tool. Questions come across about how to teach certain concepts, new song games to teach, dances to use, etc.......... It's like a virtual collaboration team. I love it.
These groups are also used as a venting source and it reminds me that I don't have it bad at all. Music teachers working on a cart, teaching in a "closet", being treated as a "prep period". I have it WONDERFUL where I work.
Recently on one of these groups a program from a concert came across. The person posting was very discouraged about how a student in a wheelchair was not being included into their concert program. The program listed the students name and as a side note at the bottom said "and Jade". This teacher was very distraught that the wheelchair limited their inclusion into a program that had been great at including them previously. This got me to thinking......... Dangerous, I know.
We have a student in 1st grade this year that is wheel-chair bound. Noah has an infectious smile and a will to get him through any obstacle. I, however, have treated his wheelchair as an obstacle and not allowed him to be who he is which I'm embarrassed to admit. Thanks to social media, I was able to realize how I was putting MY limitations on him and what he was capable of. Considering I have a special-needs daughter of my own, this should be on the front of my radar.
My focus this year has been on rhythm. We have drilled rhythmic dictation throughout the year sometimes without the kids realizing it. I found a great game called "Rhythm Races" on Teachers Pay Teachers. This was a game created by Lindsay Jervis and I highly recommend it.You can purchase it here. Rhythm Races
The concept is simple. Based on their rhythm ability level, I tap a rhythm, they race down on their scooters, search through the rhythm choices and race back. The kids love it and their rhythm skills have SKY-ROCKETED!!!!! This is a game I will use for years to come.
The races on the scooters blind-sided me as to how Noah could participate. The scooters are on the floor and I saw it as a way Noah "could not" participate. I had him help me keep score. He was thrilled to sit by me and be the teacher's helper and I never thought about it.
After my Facebook group brought the idea of inclusion to my frontal lobe, I realized I was doing Noah a dis-service by not allowing him to participate in the game.
Today when his class attended, I had the scooters all set out, and he wheeled right up beside my chair to get the whiteboard for scoring. I told him he was going to play on a team today and I am not kidding.............. I almost cried in front of them. His face was BRILLIANT! If ever there was a word to describe his excitement, this is what his face resembled. Those that know Noah can imagine the face and hand gestures he made when he's excited.
I pulled a "chair-height" table out of my office and put the rhythm cards on top of it. His team would all scooter down, stand up and search through the cards and scooter back. Noah would simply wheel himself down and the cards were at his height. The first round he got the correct answer and the word BRILLIANT doesn't even do justice to his face. His team cheered him on, and I wished I would have caught it on video. I did, however, catch another round on video to show how simple this adaptation to this game was for him. How humble I was made today that I wouldn't think of something so easy to make him so happy.
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