Over the last month I have really learned what an amazing gift God has given me, which is the blessing of teaching at a Catholic school. My boyfriend Matthew is great at constantly reminding me of this!!!
I just wanted to list a few reasons why I love teaching at a Catholic school
- Catholic schools week! This Catholic schools week I had a very very special experience of bringing 8 of my students to a Band workshop led by Mr. Hanman who was my professor at BC! It was just so special and, as my principal noticed, my smile as I played along in the back was just huge! When I was his student I learned so much about music, but even more importantly he constantly inspires me to challenge myself and always grow as a teacher.
- Catholic Schools Week also including some of these fun activites:
- Praying a Living Rosary with the entire schoool
- Participating in a "Rock" concert with a Catholic Praise and Worship band
- Praying EVERY class! (I pray a short spontaneous prayer before every class and then end with the students joining me in a Hail Mary or Glory Be usually. For the Preschoolers we say a call and answer type prayer, aka they repeat my words, "Thank you Jesus for this beautiful day!" (It is just the sweetest thing to hear 4 years olds say. Especially when they add that they LOVE Jesus. Childlike faith- we are all called to this simple love and trust.
- The opportunity toe share my faith and my relationship with Jesus on a daily basis.
- When teaching about the Medieval period, I can play a Mass for them and then talk about how composers used the various parts of the Mass (Gloria, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, etc...) for the words for their compositions!!
- Celebrating Mass weekly with my students, especially when I had my Choir (about 20 5th-8th grade girls) sing "Unashamed" for the distribution of ashes on Ash Wed. Unashamed- Starfield
- The freedom to be able to say to students who are struggling, I am praying for you.
- Using mass songs and praise and worship songs to teach rhythm, performing techniques, and many other aspects of music!
- My choir is singing "Hold Me" by Jamie Grace and they LOVE it! Hold Me- Jamie Grace
- More and more God is telling me that my MAIN job is not to teach the students every nitty gritty aspect of music, but to simply teach students Music because it is His gift to us, His way of allowing us to share in the beauty of His creation. Whenever I think of teaching in this way, I have so much more peace, and all the worry about "not being organized and planned enough" just melt away!
So to summarize- God is good, very good.
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