Learning to love classical music, opera, and ballet: the Viennese solution

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music education

Virtuoso musicians, excellent opera singers, and elegant ballet dancers from the Sound of Vienna company perform a program of classical music, opera, and ballet.

Classical music, opera, and ballet! How do our students react when teachers say these words? In all honesty, I’d guess that most students would not respond very enthusiastically. Although music permeates just about every aspect of our daily lives, from special ceremonies, to movie scores, to radio or television commercials, to sports events, or just leisure listening, students usually make selections from categories that are popular and contemporary, not classical or operatic. Unless the students are from Austria, that is.

While travelling in Austria earlier this month, I had the pleasure of attending a concert in Vienna featuring classical music, opera, and ballet. The event was staged by a company called Sound of Vienna, an organization that has been been delighting international and domestic audiences with “dinner and a concert” programs for more than 15 years. Virtuoso musicians, excellent opera singers, and elegant ballet dancers presented an evening full of Viennese charm. The night I attended, the program offered many selections by Austrian composers Strauss and Mozart, with additional pieces by Lumbye, Suppe, and Ansage. All of the pieces, including the opera selections, were fresh and easy on the ear. Some of the pieces were familiar, the dancers were enthralling, and the performers even threw in a dash of comedy. I loved it all!  I’m afraid my education in classical music is very limited, and, like most American students, before attending this concert I was not particularly enthusiastic about increasing my knowledge. But this concert was so much fun and it was so entertaining that I plan to learn more about the topic right away!

The students of Vienna have a head start on me about this. Did you know that the children of Vienna, which is known as the City of Music, are regularly taken on field trips to concerts of classical music as part of their education program? Obviously, Austria is a country that takes its musical heritage very seriously, and they devote significant resources to promoting a love of this heritage among its young people. Having come from a country that offers meager support for school music education programs, this seems amazing and wonderful to me.

I think Vienna will forever be a City of Music. Everywhere we went there we saw young people carrying cases of various sizes containing musical instruments, so it was evident that Viennese children are responding very enthusiastically to the love for classical music that has been carefully nurtured by their schools. They are preparing themselves to carry on their country’s cherished musical traditions. Here in America, we could learn a lot from educators in Vienna!

If you ever plan to travel to Vienna, I would highly recommend you attend one of the many “dinner and a concert” programs available to the public there. To learn more about the events specifically staged by the company I mentioned in this blog post, check out their website at Sound of Vienna.

 

Dee Green: Teacher and Hollywood “Three Stooges” actress

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Dee Green appeared with the Three Stooges in the comedy short Brideless Groom (1947).

Many talented teachers achieve success in fields other than education. One such teacher was Delores Mae Green, who is better known as Dee Green.

Dee was a beloved music and choir teacher who was also an acclaimed actress in Hollywood. Her claim to fame is that she worked with the Three Stooges. She is well-known for playing the part of one of Shemp’s potential brides as the plain, tall, and fawning Miss Fanny Dinkelmeyer in the comedy short Brideless Groom. She also portrayed the homely and unattractive fiance in I’m a Monkey’s Uncle and the daughter of King Rootintootin’ in Mummy’s Dummies.

Dee was born on November 16, 1916, in Peoria, Illinois. After she concluded her career in show business, she earned her Master’s degree in music. She taught music and choir classes at Peoria Heights Grade School in Peoria Heights, Illinois, in the 1960’s. Throughout the late 1970’s and early 1980’s she taught Language Arts and Drama at Roosevelt Junior High, which is now known as Rockford Alternative Middle School, in Rockford, Illinois. She produced many annual events, including a production of Babes in Toyland and numerous elaborate Christmas pageants that included every student in the school.

Dee inspired more than one of her students to pursue a career in theater. Some of them eventually earned success on Broadway in New York. She was often described by her students as kind and generous, and a woman of great courage, talent, and vision.

This amazing chalkboard champion passed away from cancer on April 24, 1985.

Jeremy Anderson asks, “What keeps Educators Going?”

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Every teacher knows that the job can often be exhausting. The work load is enormous. The pressure is huge. Sometimes our students forget that we are human, too. That we have problems and challenges, just like they do. That we sometimes make mistakes. What keeps educators going, in spite of all this? Here’s a wonderful inspirational video that answers the question. It was created by motivational speaker Jeremy Anderson and  published on YouTube on 2/14/2018.

Learn more about Jeremy by visiting his website at 

https://youtu.be/fLDp2OePLzM

The valuable contributions of school libraries

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Most educators would agree that school library programs are extremely valuable to students. But did you know that, according to recent studies, strong school libraries help to increase standardized test scores? Statistics show that public schools with strong school library programs outperform those without such programs on high-stakes standardized tests. This is true regardless of parent education, poverty levels, ethnicity, or the percentage of English language learners found in the population of the school. Increases in library program elements correspond to standardized test scores at all grade levels, including elementary, middle school, and high school.

Library elements that contribute to increased test scores include the total number of hours the library is open, the total amount of technology available in the library, the total services provided by trained library staff, the presence of a program of curriculum-integrated information with literacy instruction, the informal instruction of students in the use of resources, providing teachers with information about new resources, and providing reference assistance to both teachers and students.

A strong school library program is described as one that provides a full-time teacher/librarian, a full-time paraprofessional, a robust and up-to-date collection of digital, print, and media resources with a budget to support it, and abundant access to the library’s facilities, technology, and resources. How well does your school’s library program meet the criteria?

To learn more, read the report, Remodeling Literacy Learning: Making Room for What Works, which details key findings from a nationwide survey of more than 2,400 educators representing all grade levels and subject areas. The report investigates the connection between professional learning, educator collaboration, and student learning.