Magic Moments
(All names of minors are pseudonyms)

From: Former Theater Teaching Artist, M. Savage
School: Jane Addams Elementary (Now Lucille J. Smith Elementary)

As my series of lessons with the 3rd grade on Balinese shadow puppetry drew to a close, the class began working on a culminating a performance where each child and a partner would write and perform their own shadow puppet play. I found myself worrying about Jermaine, a student that been diagnosed with selective mutism, which his teacher told me is a form of childhood mutism in which the ability to speak is intact, but they refuse to speak in almost all social situations. His teacher said that Jermaine was a very sweet kid, but due to a tumultuous home life and early childhood trauma, he never spoke in class, either to her or his classmates. His speech making capabilities suffer from it, but he always likes drama class and participates non-verbally.

My worry was that he would get behind the screen with his puppet and not say a word, leaving his partner in the lurch. But during the last rehearsal and with his teacher guiding him, his mouth formed the words and he sometimes spoke in a whisper! I praised him, but was cautiously excited, and secretly wondered “Would he be able to do it again during the in final show?”  When the big day came, the class became very still as Jermaine and his partner headed behind the screen. And at first all we saw were the shadows of the puppets dancing on the screen. And then…he said his first line. Barely audible, but he performed his entire skit with his partner. He performed with the ensemble and took his “directors notes” and participated verbally. Wow. Afterwards, when each team took turns at a curtain call and Jermaine’s team took the stage, his face beamed with pride as he took his bow. Behind a screen and with a puppet for a character, he found his voice for the very first time and I was lucky enough to witness it.

From: Johanna McKay, Theater Teaching Artist
School: Billy Mitchell Elementary

There are many stories teachers have told me of how the shows we've done have made an impact for example, the story of Andy, an English As A Second Language student who was in my class.  He struggled academically - but he asked if he could trade roles with his friend and be George Washington, the lead in the play.  He didn't audition well, but he was really willing to work on it and took my notes so I said okay.  The next thing I know, he shows up every recess to look at my script and learn his part in advance!  When I had gone over the whole show with his class and handed out their own scripts, he kept coming - every recess, whether I could help him or not, he'd even sit outside and just go over his lines.  I began having him perform and he'd stand on the risers and proclaim, "Thank you, thank you, thank you for your vote of confidence . . . !"  (He'd pronounce it, "con-fi-DENCE" - with an upward inflection!)  He was amazing.  Even his classmates were completely blown away.  How did he know all his lines so far in advance? Soon, he'd recruited three other boys from his class to come in at recess, and by the last couple of months - I had so many kids come in at recess from other classes as well, that I'd have SEVERAL George Washingtons and SEVERAL Narrator Number Ones, etc.!  We'd rehearse for those 15 minutes as a huge MASS OF BODIES - reviewing whatever they wanted to review!  They really developed excellent expression and volume and developed wonderful, expressive faces and bodies to boot!  The teachers have told me that when they were teaching the American Revolution the kids would break out into one of our songs - either "Cherry Tree Chop" or "We're Gonna Dump Some Tea in the Bottom of the Sea!"  Or whatever the lesson discussed!  They were really impressed that the kids remembered the lyrics and moves from one year to the next - it really made history come to life for them.  (King George?  OH!  You mean the king Rudy played?!  YEAH!)

From: Kate Sobel, Principal
School: Camino Nuevo Charter Academy- Harvard

On Friday I saw two of our middle school boys come alive in drama with Mr. Tee. One student is in our Special Day Class and is particularly quiet. He walks through the hallways of our school somewhat withdrawn and is regularly encouraged to speak up and ask for help when he needs it with his academics. In drama he stepped out of his shell and into the character painted by his teacher. He interacted with the other student in his sketch and put on a show that had the class in hysterics. Later that day he came up to me and thanked me for coming to see his skit – it was clear to me that his confidence had strengthened because he’d had an audience for something in school in which he feels successful.
 
In our art class with Ms. Leah, I sat down with a girl who aspires to be “a doctor…but also an artist” when she grows up. She was intently working on a project that required her to use the same materials as everyone else in the room – shiny green paper, Xerox copies of a set of characters and objects, and a black sharpie. Her mission: use variety to make her piece stand out. After the students finished their work Ms. Leah gave them a chance to walk around the room to compare the work of their classmates to their own and look at the variety in the products everyone created from the same materials. She glowed as people commented on hers – the thoughts behind the work combined with careful attention to detail made it stick out and her vision was accomplished.

Your program is appreciated by all here at (CNCA) Harvard!

From: June Edmonds, Teaching Artist
School: William Anderson Elementary

I put up tons of art prints up on the walls and the children develop almost a
personal relationship them. I also talked quite a bit about the anchor work for the self portrait project, it was a Frieda Kahlo and the 3rd graders, especially, most of whom are in the after school program (RAP) group, were so extremely and sincerely interested, we could barely get to the actual drawing because of all the questions they had about Frida and Diego!

One student from RAP, Jamie, asked me if he could draw Frieda on the board if he finished his homework on time.  Of course, I said yes, and then I went home for
the day.  What I walked into the next day generated tears!  I could not erase this and did not for a week!

As I told the story of his art to various teachers, his kindergarten teacher and others, they told me he was a great kid that struggled with confidence because of some challenges he's had early on.  The way he beamed that week when I told him how much I and all the other teachers and students enjoyed
his work is impossible to describe.  Usually the protests my compliments of his work but this week I think he finally believed!

From: Tamie Smith, Teaching Artist
School: Grand View Elementary

I just wanted to call and tell you that a student told me today that he couldn't sleep last night because he was too excited about coming to art class the next day!

From: Mary Daval, Teaching Artist
School: Mark Twain Elementary

Week 2:  We were playing and singing a game called "Circle Round the Zero".  When you are "it", you get to skip around the outside of the circle and stop when the lyrics say "find a friend in the zero". All of the students are just dying to be "it ", of course.  Well, it chanced that on this turn that Chelsea would be the next "it " and circle around the zero.  Instead of taking off skipping as most students do she burst into tears and ran to the side of the room.  I was befuddled to say the least.  Once I discerned that she wasn't physically hurt, I let the teacher take care of her and I let her neighbor become "it".  I talked to the teacher about Chelsea to get some insight into her behavior. The teacher rolled her eyes and said Chelsea was just painfully shy and often cried in class when she was called on.  The teacher was clearly tired of Chelsea's behavior. 

Okay...so fast-forward to week 6.  We were playing the "Who Who" game. When your name is drawn from the drum you are the only person who gets to sing the echo.  You can go wherever you want in the room.  Another person is chosen to be the pointer.  That person goes in the center of the circle and listens with their eyes closed and then point to where they hear the echo.  Chelsea's name is drawn to be the echo and Madeline is to be the listener/pointer.  You could feel the attention in the room was really focused as everyone wondered…what would Chelsea do? We sang the song and when we got to the "who who" Chelsea sang beautifully all by herself… but we were all waiting for Michelle to point.  Well, I don't know exactly what was going on with Michelle that day but she just couldn't seem to decide where the echo was coming from.  So I had Chelsea do it again (!) and then again(!!).The teacher’s jaw dropped, I was practically in tears, and you could see that the class wanted to applaud.

Week 7: We are singing some echo games with one of my puppet friends. I use this as an opportunity to assess the students' ability to use their singing voice and to match simple pitch patterns.  When the puppet pops up in front of you, it is your turn to sing.  I held my breath when I got to Chelsea (was last week just a fluke?) – and she sang beautifully.

From: Michael Cappelli, Former Teaching Artist
School: William Green Elementary

This week, I am teaching Romeo and Juliet to my 1st and 2nd graders and we began talking about Shakespeare.  For the main activity, I tell the story of Romeo and Juliet and the boys act out parts of the story in tableau as Romeo and the girls act out the story as Juliet.
 
At the end of the story, I explained how Romeo and Juliet die and then we discussed why their families disliked each other so much.  I asked the class why Shakespeare's plays are still performed and if they reminded anyone of anything that happens in real life.  One little girl, Jenny, gave a remarkable and insightful answer.  She said that it reminded her of Martin Luther King Jr. and the way he tried to bring blacks and whites together.  She said sometimes black people and white people fall in love and that their families and friends don't like it.  
 
I thought the connection she made to MLK was beautiful and incredibly mature for a 2nd grader and I was thrilled she was able to take so much from a simple retelling of Romeo and Juliet.  

From: Tammy Moran, Teaching Artist
School: Beethoven Elementary

This week in 5th grade we were exploring the spiritual “O Won’t you Sit Down” by using the improvisation tool “question and answer”. I was playing a progression on the piano and told the class, “give an 8 beat musical answer to my question,” and prompted them to “play whatever you want, as long as you end on G.”  The entire class improvised answers at the same time and eventually individual students raised their hands for a chance to “create their own music.”  The whole class was experienced synergy as the creativity flowed.

After the lesson, we took time to reflect.  “Can anyone tell me what creating your own music feels like?” I asked.  I fielded several answers and then Sherry raised her hand and said: “Well, first it was weird and different.  Then it was cool.  But then it was weird and cool again!”  We all laughed with her good naturedly.  I looked at the teacher and said, “I think your students may have improvised their way into a life lesson.”

From:  First GradeTeacher
School: Tamarack Elementary

As a first grade teacher at Tamarack Elementary School in Avenal California I am proud of the two teachers that are putting on the literacy based art lessons.  I have found that several of my students have been able to really come out of their shells.  Where they do not like to read and write yet, they are able to manipulate and play with the paints and glues and think about the elements inside of the story better, clearer and hopefully this extra reinforcement will help them appreciate literature more. I myself would like to learn more from these art teachers so as to be able to incorporate this type of teaching into my own lessons with fluency.

From: Mary Daval
School: Lucille J. Smith Elementary

In the third grade we were playing ”Sing Me Your Name”.  Whoever catches the koosh ball sings their name and then we all echo that person.  You only get to sit down after you’ve sung your name.  

When everyone had sung and we were all seated I asked : “ How does that feel?” 

Most people agreed that they felt nervous before it was their turn.

Me:  How do you feel afterward?

Jose:  GOOOOD!

Me:  Why?

Jose:  Because you could express your inner voice.

Me:  What is your inner voice?

Jose:  That part of you that feels shy and keeps everything bottled up inside and it feels better when you let it out.

The teacher had just told me before class started that Jose was driving her crazy, and that he had spent most of the previous day in the principal’s office for disciplinary reasons!

  
From: Hilary Hahn, Teaching Artist
School: Moffet Elementary

It was a Friday, the second day I’d been teaching at Moffett Elementary School.
I was a little bit tired, but energized by the experience of teaching all day.  Today’s lesson was for beginning.

A chance to be expressive drawing space ships, remember the basics about shape and line, and introduce first graders to the idea of perspective. I felt like the day had gone well, students really responded to drawing rocket ships, coloring them with oil pastel, then pasting them onto glittery cardstock, thereby launching them into outer space.

I even had a student volunteer to disappear in space by waving goodbye to her fellow classmates and moving slowly further from her classmates toward the door. As she moved further away, I narrated the event.  Now she is ready for launch, blast-off, wave your last goodbyes, passing all clouds, passing through the atmosphere, traveling light years away into outer space.

Needless to say, all of the creating and imagining had worn me a bit by the end of the day as I rolled my art cart into Room 9, it’s storage space, and tucked it away quietly into the corner. I didn’t want to interrupt the teacher and student one-on-one who appeared to be busy at work. Yet, the student burst out excitedly, when she saw me enter the room.

”I went to outer space with her today!”
“Who? “ the teacher seemed shocked and a bit confused.
“Oh….hi” I said. Not wanting to really interrupt.
“Who is she?” the teacher asked the student.
The student was silent.
“WHO are you?,” asked the teacher again, this time to me.
“Me?...” I glanced around.
“Are you the Therapist?” she asked incredulously.
“Oh, no.” I said proudly.
“I’m the Teaching Artist.”

The teacher nodded in understanding. Then added, “Those are the first words, I’ve gotten out of her this whole time.”

The principal, Joann, had overheard. She had been standing at the door, waiting for me to lock up and was listening the entire exchange. As I left the room to join her she told me with a smile, “You’ve been here one day and already you’re making a difference.”

From: Leah Lawrence, Teaching Artist
School: Camino Nuevo Charter Academy-Harvard

I just had a visit from a very special former student, Valerie.  You may remember her as the student Mr. Tee (P.S. ARTS Theater Teaching Artist) helped coach through the application process to the Los Angeles County High School of the Arts when she was an eith grader at Camino. I barely recognized her when she walked in today.  She has turned into quite an articulate and lovely young lady in the two short years she's been away from Camino.  She was so excited to visit me and tell me she kept all the visual artwork she made while in my classes, and that she looks through it all the time. And when she's having a bad day she re-reads the letter P.S. ARTS wrote to congratulate her on her acceptance into LACHSA and it makes her feel better.  She's the ideal example for why arts education is so important.  I mean, this kid is beaming with energy and happiness all because she had art - she described her classes with Mr. Tee, as "home", her calling. Now at LACHSA she is thinking of going to on to Juliard, and has applied for a summer program at NYU.  She wants to be a theater teacher one day! This kid just made my day!

From: Claire Bergen, Teaching Artist
School: William Green Elementary

As a fifth grade class walked in to my room one morning, the teacher informed me that there was a new student who had just joined their class. "He doesn't speak a word of English," she explained. She assured me that the students sitting on either side of him were bilingual and would translate any instructions I gave into Spanish. This was helpful for the opening journal activity. But as we moved on to playing xylophones, I lost track of whether he was following along. Finally, we came to a point where students were improvising short jazz solos based on the words of a song. The new student raised his hand for a turn, and I hesitated to call on him: did he understand what he was raising his hand to do? I shouldn't have worried. Though his solo didn't follow the words exactly, the rhythmic pattern and even his choice of notes clearly indicated that he'd been listening intently to what we'd been playing. He didn't need to know a word of English, because he'd followed right along through the language of music. I wondered whether the general classroom offered him an opportunity to participate so fully that day as he had in music.

From: Claire Bergen, Teaching Artist
School: William Green Elementary

In fourth grade, while learning to play the recorder, we have been playing some basic music staff-reading games with a big "floor staff." Finally, a few weeks ago I decided to try having the class play a whole song from staff notation, and as I placed the oversized sheets of music notation on the board, there was a collective gasp from the class. To my surprise, they couldn't contain their excitement: "MUSIC NOTES!" they exclaimed, excitedly. I had a class of 30 nine-year-olds, on the edge of their seats at the simple prospect of reading and playing music!

From: Amber Carroll, Teaching Artist
School: Walgrove Elementary

Today I started an African American Music unit with my 4th graders.  As an introduction to the unit I played musical examples from the seven main styles of African American music and the students were to decide which style of music each example fit under.  It was just so much fun to see the excitement in the students with each musical example.  The classroom discussion reached a new level afterward.  They really were able to think deeply about the history of the music and the purpose of each style.  It was thrilling to see them make such lasting connections between the music and the life of the musicians. 

On their way out, several students came up to me and thanked me for the lesson.  Some told me how awesome they thought the Spirituals were.  Some thanked me for playing the hip-hop.  Some told me they had never heard Funk before and that it was really cool.  It's always so rewarding when you can really reach the students.  Today was a great day in the music room!

From: Jenny Swan, Teaching Artist
School: Beethoven Elementary

Just before the Winter Break a first grader brought me a piece of 
paper. It was a calendar he had drawn counting down the days until we would have art class again. I asked him why he had made the calendar and he said his parents were tired of  him always asking when next art class was going to be. With the calendar he could count the days himself. Finally he added, “Ms. Swan I get so excited about what we are making I can't wait to get back here and make it!”

Today I saw this student for the first time since the break and he pulled out his art journal - for each day of the break he had drawn a picture - he called the pictures countdown to a new year of art.

From: Jenny Swan, Teaching Artist
School: Beethoven Elementary

As a Teaching Artist at Beethoven, I’ve had the pleasure of seeing several of my fifth grade students from last year continue their art studies at local middle schools.  One of them, Roberto, has been accepted to a weekend art program at U.S.C. on the strength of the elementary school art portfolio he developed in the P.S. ARTS program. Roberto struggles academically and is in danger of not being able to matriculate to seventh grade. But as of a few weeks ago I ran into his sister who told me that his grades are holding steady at a 2.5. She said though school is difficult for him, he works hard at keeping his grades up because he knows he has to keep a 2.5 GPA to participate in the weekend art classes.

From: Jenny Swan, Artist Specialist/Teaching Artist
District: LAUSD

A student that I met during a six-week residency didn't speak or show emotion. Sammy had spoken early in his life but now at age seven he didn't speak at all. I didn't know this until two weeks into the residency when we were looking at photographs of houses and apartments in the neighborhood as preparation for drawing architectural structures. We came to picture of an apartment and to everyone’s surprise, the Sammy let out a gasp followed by a joyous laugh. He was so thrilled with the apartment building image that he did a colored pencil and oil pastel drawings of it. His teacher was so excited when he laughed aloud - it was the first sound that had ever come from him.

From: Jenny Swan, Teaching Artist
School: LAUSD

Recently I did a two hour Professional Development Workshop with about thirty LAUSD teachers.  They had a planned union walkout in protest of various concerns. Since I had been working with these teachers previously, when they saw it was me they warned me of what would be happening. They said they planned to walk out halfway through the session. I figured that half a session was better than nothing, so I proceeded to do a workshop about the history of popsicle sticks and their use in the arts. When I looked up at the clock, to my surprise, the two hours had almost passed! The teachers were so absorbed in building sculptures and drawing elaborate bases that no one had walked out!

From: Martha Ramirez-Oropeza
School: Edison Language Academy
The year I started teaching at Edison, I had a fruitful yet challenging first experience. I was told that I would be in charge of the traditional fifth grade graduation play in Spanish. I had a student who was determined not to participate in the play. He was an obvious leader with an attitude of being bored with life at 11. He stared defiantly at me from the back of the room, “too cool” for doing theatre exercises. His friends also imitated him. Although the rest of the 60 kids were very enthusiastic, they liked this boy and were always trying to make him participate. I used all of my “engaging” tactics, but nothing seemed to work. Things were getting worse. The teacher even began threatening him. We all suffered her harsh words.

It was only a few weeks before the performance, when the teacher who had been helping me play the music with the cd player was absent. The substitute didn’t speak Spanish and did not have a clue as to what to do. I was sincerely worried as the music was one of the threads that linked all of the stories together. I obviously made some kind of gesture, and thinking out loud said, “What am I going to do?” Unexpectedly, the boy timidly raised his hand. He asked if he could take her place to be the “DJ”. Everybody gasped! Much to my surprise he had memorized all of the cues and did a great job!

The next rehearsal, which would be in the big cafeteria stage, he begged me to let him carry the equipment and be in charge of the music.  I rewarded him the title of “DJ” which he loved. His friends changed their attitude as well and carried all of the props to the final rehearsals. The teacher told me there was also a remarkable change in his overall achievements.

I was truly transformed as a teacher as much as that student had been changed.  All of my tactics of providing a creative space did not work until I was vulnerable and the real need I expressed triggered something in that boy’s noble heart.

Jennifer Seifert, Teaching Artist
School: FDR-Carson

I was teaching a lesson on character to a class of students who were severely handicapped and I found that even my usual sure-fire techniques for engaging students weren’t working. The students were totally unresponsive to questions like, “If you were a princess, how do you think that would affect your attitude?” Out of ideas, I pulled a fluffy, sparkly, princess dress off my rack of costumes and put in on Rachel, a student with severe autism. Her body language immediately changed and she stood up straight, hugged her arms around herself and broke out in a huge smile. I said, “Now, how does that make you feel?” And she replied, “I feel beautiful!” I don’t think I could have gotten my point across any better than that.

Jennifer Seifert, Teaching Artist
School: FDR-Carson

I had to deal with an altercation between Andrew, a fifth grader, and a girl he was making fun of.  Andrew has severe emotional problems and learning disabilities.  Many times, if given consequences to his actions he ends up in a tantrum, flailing his arms and legs on the floor. However, this particular day, I removed him from the situation, and asked him what was happening.  He kept repeating over and over "I'm so angry, I hate her! I'm so angry, I hate her etc."  I told him to sit down with his arts journal, and write down all of the feelings he was having.  I explained that it was a safe place to do that, and he could write down what he wanted to scream out loud.  I’ve been trying to get the kids to write more about their experiences and figured we would change his focus, and avoid hurting this poor girl's feelings anymore than they already had been.  At first he was seething, and screaming, “I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO WRITE...!”  I just told him to breathe, and write down the emotions that were going through his body, and what emotions he would like to replace them with.  Sure enough he filled an entire page, and at the end looked up at me and said "Miss Jen! I don't even feel angry anymore. I feel a lot better!"

Jennifer Seifert, Teaching Artist
School: FDR-Carson

Student responding to a civil rights poem I taught them in drama class. Langston Hughes’, “I, Too.”

“This poem made me feel like I could be touched in my heart! It opened my heart. It said to me, when you grow older, you could make a difference in this world, you can make like easier and safer for people to live in or you could find the cure to cancer. It told me something that I believe! That I could do a thing to bring happiness to American citizens and make people happy. I could be the President of the United States and also look to find the cures to cancer and the cures for other problems.

I, too am America!”