Last Week of Sixth Grade 2019

I was once approached by a wonderful, creative, and thoughtful sixth grade boy who asked, "So, Ms. Frank, do you enjoy teaching music?" Another boy overheard what he said and inserted before I got a chance to answer, "Of course she does, why else would she do it?  If she didn't like it, wouldn't she do something else?" Well, I suppose that is one way of putting it, but I actually know a lot of teachers who would rather be doing something else, perhaps anything else, but got trapped into teaching, and who knows why? 

However, I am not one of those.  I love, love, love what I do!  Not only that, I would rather be with students than with anyone else other than my family.  But I answered him after that, I said, "Yes, I love teaching music, but sometimes I want to just teach and not deal with kids, and sometimes I just want to be with the kids and not have to teach them, but in this case, I want to do all of it, teaching and being with you all the time!"

 Every year is completely different from the last, and this blog shows that..some students are easy to be with and easy to teach, and this is a group like that.  I will miss them terribly, but will watch them move onto other classes and teachers.  I hope that some will come back to visit me, and I hope I will know them for longer than this year.  But mostly, I hope they live productive, thoughtful, creative lives, contributing to their communities and being happy, healthy and well-adjusted.  Tada!

Poem- Technology

No one really knows

How well I know

the inner workings

of the sixth grade

mind.

It is rare

to find a twelve year old

these days

who isn't obsessed

with technology

who isn't thinking 

at all times

of something

other than what is 

expected of him

If I appeal

to

their joy of the screen

Their amusement

with bouncing

from meme

to video

from mouse 

to pad

from printing

to copying

and pasting

the originality

creativity

uniqueness

is lost

if I expect them

to write a piece 

on their very own

with paper

with pencil

with whole notes

and half notes

with sharps

and flats

with ostinatos

and treble and bass

clefs

Sighs, complaints,

impossibility reigns

I persevere

and hope

for, if not the best

then, with the technology

 the better

And I must

be satisfied.