A Short Story

I’m currently taking an online course about short stories as a prerequisite for my master’s in education program. About halfway through the course, it’s going pretty well. I’ve passed 47 quizzes so far, with 52 to go (one for every chapter). I’ll have to write two papers and take a final, too. After that, I’ll still have 4 more prerequisites to take before I can be officially accepted into my 24-course master’s program.

Long story, short: it is really hard to see a light at the end of this long, long tunnel.

On a related note, studying the art of the short story has renewed my love of short-form writing. I’m really starting to miss writing my weekly column for the newspaper. Maybe a collection of short stories is in my future.

Teacher? Author? Columnist? Crazy person?

Crazy person.

What a Day

What a day. After backing my truck into a tree during a torrential downpour this morning, my day could only get better. And it did.

Much better.

I taught seven classes today, nearly 130 students in all. We sang songs from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, The Sound of Music, and several Halloween songs. We also danced. A lot. I may have also unleashed a blood-curdling witch's cackle that sent kids scrambling for cover a time or two. Or seven.

After school, I led a Musician Badge-earning presentation for a group of Girl Scouts. Part one of the lesson was about how music is made. First, we watched video clips of performers stomping and clapping to make music, then the girls and I stood in a circle and tried creating our own rhythms. Next, we watched a clip of a drum line performing an elaborate routine that was a great example of making music with instruments. Then we sat in a drum circle and jammed together. After that, we watched Julie Andrews sing "Do-Re-Mi" to learn about pitch and making music with our voices, and then the girls and I sang the song.

During part two of the lesson, we learned about music from around the world. We watched a video clip of Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" as an example from Europe, a performance by an ensemble performing traditional Chinese music, and a song by a Cuban jazz band. Then we watched clips of modern American music including pop, country, and rock.

Finally, I showed the girls a collection of my homemade instruments including cigar box guitars, percussion instruments, a shoe box violin, a diddley bow, and my garden trellis harp. I talked about how I made them and demonstrated how to play them. Then, all the girls got to play two instruments before we ran out of time.

The smiles on the girls' faces, and their sincere thanks, made me all but forget about the rough start to my day--until I walked outside and took a closer look at my truck's rear bumper.

It was just a another day in the life of Travis Naughton--a life that is never boring. Some days are frustrating. Others are maddening. A few are positively amazing. And every now and then, a day can be all of those things and more.

I can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring.

Notes From the Music Room

Armed with a thick binder, chock-full of state learning standards, I have created my own curriculum for teaching music to my students at the Primary School this year. And I have to say that so far, things are going even better than I had hoped.

My overall approach is to divide each 45-minute class period into at least three parts. The first part always involves singing. The second usually involves playing or learning about instruments. And the third part typically involves watching videos of live musical performances and/or dancing to musical selections.

Through the first six weeks of school, students in kindergarten, first, and second grades have made music with their hands and feet, with plastic tubes called “Boomwhackers” that make a musical note when they strike the ground, and with drums. They’ve also been able to see and hear a violin, a trumpet, a trombone, and a homemade harp that I brought from home.

While learning about these and other instruments, the kids have watched video clips of African drums, baroque music, classical music, and music from Japan, China, and India. They’ve listened to masterpieces from Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Wagner, Beethoven and a fantastic jazz recording by my good friend Matt Kane, an incredibly talented percussionist.

While listening to these great works and playing various instruments, the kids have learned about musical concepts such as rhythm, tempo, pitch, and dynamics. Starting tomorrow, they will get the opportunity to show off what they have learned so far. As an ensemble, they will be playing instruments such as xylophones, drums, and other assorted rhythm instruments.

The school’s first assembly of the year took place last Friday, and after weeks of rehearsing our school song, the kids finally got their chance to shine. And shine they did. Several teachers later told me that it was the best performance of the school song they had ever heard. I was extremely proud of my kids, and they were pretty proud of themselves, too.

My second graders have also been hard at work learning five songs for their concert in November. They are singing the music of Mister Rogers, including a version of “Won’t You Be My Neighbor” that I wrote with lyrics about the Primary School.

In the coming days, weeks, and months, we will sing holiday songs, patriotic songs, and more Mister Rogers songs. We will learn about melody and harmony, notation, and composition. We will listen to examples of blues, jazz, country, rock, soul, reggae, R & B, zydeco, disco, funk, hard rock, alternative, and many other genres covering the history of music in America and other parts of the world. We will also learn about (and play) homemade and conventional instruments.

Kindergartners will prepare for their winter concert, first graders will rehearse for their spring musical, and everyone will continue to sing, dance, play instruments, and have a whole lot of fun, all the way through to the end of the school year.

While all of this is going on, I’ll also be spending my evenings and weekends working towards earning a master’s degree in education. Eventually, I hope to add a music certification to my credentials so that I can teach music permanently.

In the meantime, I plan on enjoying every single day of this school year. It is the opportunity of a lifetime to be able to share my love of music with 460 of my closest friends, and I don’t want to waste a minute of it worrying about the future.