Just as there’s a rhythm to the day or week, there’s a rhythm to the school year. In my mind, the stages of the year are:
Review (Re-establish norms and basics)
Run (Push instruction/challenge with new material)
Reap (Watch the seeds of “review/run” come to fruition)
Rest (Vacation/summer)
The final step that closes the circle is Rewind (Do it all again)
We were out of sync this school year. The Review stage took a very long time, because only a portion of the students did assignments and attended virtual meets during the shut-down last spring. Once Review was established, Run was comprised of very slow, incremental progress with low expectations. I thought that Reap would be affected as well.
But I have somehow managed to Reap some beautiful results out of this crazy year. Part of this was because I was able to come back to school in person starting in early April, and see the majority of students in normal lessons and even rehearsals for some groups. The acceleration of learning was incredible. The students’ musical skills and knowledge aren’t where they would be during a normal year. But the bond between them and me was forged in all the changes we’ve navigated together.
That’s the biggest Reap: our bond. My students and I will never have another year like this one. It’ll stand out in their memories, and I hope they’ll have good feelings about the time we spent together. I hope band was as bright a spot in their Covid year as it was for me.
In the past few days, I had the honor of conducting my fifth grade band groups at their Moving-Up ceremony. As I raised my baton for the last time, I felt almost overwhelmed by emotion. Grief, for the year we should’ve had, but didn’t. Regret, for the loss of these beautiful children to their next stage of learning. Joy, that I had two years with them. Gratitude, that I still get to do the best job in the world. In that moment, it didn’t matter how well they performed the piece. Emotionally, we’d all reaped our reward.
And now it’s time to Rest. Goodbye, 2021 school year!
