Fab Gifts

 Over the years I've gotten quite a few gifts from students and parents.  Over the past few years Timmies and Starbucks cards have been popular.  I've also been given bottles of wine, restaurant cards, chocolates, homemade cookies... all the 'standard fare'.  Teaching rotary music and not having a homeroom class for the last 23 years means I get less stuff - which is just fine with me - but it also means that some of the gifts have had musical thoughtfulness put into them.  Some of them have been nothing short of FABulous:

Written on the inside cover:  To Mr. Farrer from Sarah

Official Beatles Tie Tacks purchased in England for me.

Beatles mugs - complete with signatures

A student's dad had bought this belt buckle as a teenager and was going to throw it out.  It was rescued and given to me as a gift.

A Beatles shirt gift from a student (wish I could fit into it)

A bag from "The Beatles Story", Liverpool, England

A picture given to me of the Fab Four that was taken in Madam Tussaud's Wax Museum in London, England

A student's mom had purchased this T-shirt in 1980 and since it no longer fit, she was going to throw it out.  The student asked if she could bring it to school and give it to me.

A 596 page chronology from July 7, 1902 (Paul McCartney's Dad's birth) to to November 12, 1993 (Paul's Tokyo concert) and all the recording notes in between.  It's a hard read.  (I'm still working it)

Do You Believe in Santa?

I was standing at the doorway greeting the arrival of my home room grade 3 class.  As they passed on their way to hang their coats in the closet at the back of the room, a small group was deep in conversation:

"I don't believe in Santa Claus."

"Yea, me too."

 As they proceeded toward their desks, nods of agreement shared among some, and others with quizzical expressions, I edged closer to overhear and be ready to intervene if necessary.   As I nonchalantly approached, the conversation continued:

"Like, how could that ever happen?  The whole world in one night?"  Gestures of accordance from the group.

Then a small voice, "I believe in the Easter Bunny."

"Oh, oh.  Here it comes," I thought.  Inching closer, I prepared for my intervention.

"Well, yea.  I believe in the Easter Bunny, too.  But not Santa."

"I believe in Santa and the Easter Bunny but not the Tooth Fairy." 

And around they went - each recounting what they did and didn't believe - and that was it.  Conversation done.  No taunts, teases or ridiculing.  Just statements of fact and then they were off onto another topic. 

So, who topped the list of believers in that grade 3 group?  Hands down, the bearer of chocolate eggs.

Serendipitous Music Teacher

1977 Student Teacher

As a new graduate in 1977, my plan was to be hired as a Kindergarten teacher.  This was directly attributable to my awesome practice teaching experience with Donna Hutton at DM Eagle.  As it turns out I was hired at DM Eagle to teach a 5/6 split, and did so for 5 years.  When the opportunity to teach grade 3 within the building came up, I jumped at the chance.  Surprisingly, teaching grade 3 turned out not to be my bag.  I didn't hate it, but by then teaching grade 5 had become (and still is) my absolute favourite homeroom to teach.

1983/84 - nice moustache eh?

During my first year of teaching grade 3, I had the experience of having George Merrett as my acting principal.  He was replacing a principal who was off on medical leave and this was George's first principalship.  (Years later at AV Graham, George was again my principal.  After all these years I still admire his leadership style and he remains one of my favourite principals.)  One day George pulled me aside and asked if I had ever considered administration.  I replied no.  He told me that I should consider it because I'd make a good one.  He continued to "work on me" during the school year.  The following year at DME, we had a fairly ineffectual principal.  George's encouragement was still resonating in me so I took his advice... I started my Masters in Education, a prerequisite for the Principal's Course, and made a transfer to AV Graham in order to get intermediate experience.

It was 1984 and there I was at AVG with a grade 5 home room (bonus!), teaching grade 7 rotary history (intermediate experience) and working on my Masters (more schooling).  I was on my way towards being an administrator.  In 1988 I began helping out the music teacher, Alison Rosznyai, by playing bass guitar for the school's Travel Band.  Lots of fun.  And then it all changed.

1973 - rock and roll hippie guitar player

Alison pulled me aside one day and told me that the board had approved a year's leave for her to go to France for schooling.  The principal at the time, didn't want Alison's program to change while she was gone.  "So I told him you could do it, Rick," she told me.  "He asked me if you could play all the instruments and I told him of course you could."  Now,  Alison knew that I had gotten stuck playing baritone in grades 9 & 10 and could play the recorder that I had learned at the faculty of Education, but that was my total experience with written music and band instruments.  My moxie to that point had been as a self-taught rock and roll hippie guitar player.  "So what?  You can do it," she continued, "Go see him, tell him you can play the instruments, and then learn how."

So that's what I did.  That summer I took home a flute, clarinet, sax, trumpet, trombone, and tuba and taught myself how to play and read music for them.  And that's how a teacher with a BSc in biology and a BA in psychology serendipitously fell into teaching music.

So what happened to becoming a principal?  Was it just a pipe dream?  No, but I think the process provided me with a reality check.  Even though I believed I would have made a good principal, I came to the realization that I didn't become a teacher in order to give up teaching to become a non-teaching supervisor.  I wanted to teach.  And I discovered I wanted to teach music.

In hindsight, there was no other way that I could have become a music teacher, barring the above circumstances and people.  Most of my life appears to have been directed by circumstance - not to be confused with luck.  Was it destiny?  Fortune?  Lot?  Fate?  No, I don't think so.  I still had the freedom to make choices.  I believe it has been more eventuality than kismet.  Conditions beyond my control, people who have come into my life, and situations that I could never hope to have created, have all conspired to shape me.  Of that I am truly grateful.  And as I am now being similarly shepherded towards the next chapters in my life, I pray that I choose wisely.

Damage Control

In the past, AV Graham has had a very large intermediate population.  Up until two years ago we had, for many years, 5 classes of grade 7 students and 5 classes of grade 8 students.  That's over 300 hormonal pubescents - and I taught them all instrumental music.  Instruments are shared and I would have up to ten different kids playing the same alto, or bass guitar, or drums - the three most popular instruments.  Flutes, clarinets, trumpets, tenors, baritones, and trombones would have multiple players as well - it's never a problem with the tuba.  Needless to say, my job includes damage control and prevention.

In September of each year the students are required to pass a test on the care and safety of the instrument they play.  They are allowed to play only their assigned instrument, and must report any damage that they find as soon as they see it.  My motto:  "If your instrument doesn't look, sound, feel, smell or taste right, bring it to me right away."  This is the way I discover most unreported damage, both accidental and intentional.

One Monday morning at the beginning of 1st period a student brought me her trumpet.  The 2nd valve would not move.  The instrument had been damaged and would have to be sent out for repair - and I wasn't going to spend my repair budget on an instrument that was handled unsafely.  I went first to the 'Instrument Sign Out Book' and found out that a grade 8 boy had had it out for the weekend.  His class had also been the last one to play on Friday.  Bingo.  I sent for him. 

When he arrived I asked him, "Did you play your trumpet over the weekend."

"Yeah."

"Is there something you want to tell me about the trumpet?"

"No."

"But you did play it and it worked fine."

"Yup."

"Did you let anyone else play the trumpet?"

"No."

"The second valve is jammed and won't budge.  How do you explain that no one but you has played it, and it was fully playable when you did, but it's now broken?"

"I dunno."

"Really?  Then how did it get damaged?"

"I don't know.  It was working fine when I played it."

I stopped short of calling him a liar and later that day I called home.

"Hi, Mrs. ______?  This is Rick Farrer from AV Graham.  I teach your son music.  I'm not sure how to deal with this issue.... but it appears your child's trumpet was damaged over the weekend.  First period today it was brought immediately to me by the student who found it and it has definitely been mishandled and I have to send it away to be fixed.  Your son claims it was working fine for him and that he didn't let anyone else play it.  I am at a loss as to how this damage could have happened and he would know nothing about it."

"My son didn't damage the trumpet."

"Oh great," I thought, "here it comes..."

"I did," she continued.  "I was making his bed and the trumpet was on the floor behind his bed in the opened case.  I didn't see it and I accidentally stepped on it.  It looked fine so I just closed the case."

"Well, I guess he was telling the truth then," I confided.  "I'm glad I didn't call him a liar."

"When you get the bill for the repair send it to me," she said.

I thanked her and was just about to say goodbye when she added, "And he's going to pay for it.  I'm tired of tripping over the stuff he has all over the floor of his room!"

  

As I hung up I thought, "We need more moms like her."