Why I Teach: Helping students find their safe place in the arts
That may not be the exact phrase, but as an elementary music teacher, I think those words are true.
I’m a singer, and I love performing, but my passion is teaching. If I weren’t good at both, I wouldn’t be an effective teacher. So forget those who say the best performers are on Broadway, because I know for a fact some of the best performers are in classrooms!
Those performers often become directors as well. I direct an extracurricular musical with my fifth graders every year, and watching my cast succeed on stage is more rewarding than being on stage myself. I love watching my cast of 70 kids work together, discover their creative sides, and develop their singing and acting skills while telling a story on stage. The growth in their confidence is amazing, and I often have classroom teachers tell me how surprised they were by that one student who barely spoke in their class but was up on stage singing solo. I then get to watch as these kids progress into middle and high school performers, and I take great satisfaction knowing that I am the one who introduced them to musical theater and inspired that love in them. Some of my most rewarding moments have been after the high school musicals, when former students tell me “I wouldn’t be here today if it hadn’t been for you,” which are words I take immense pride in.
The relationships you create with students in the arts are different. The bond over a shared passion such as music gives children who might feel that they don’t fit in elsewhere a place to belong. My principal once made a comment about how my musical provided a specific group of students with their place when they were struggling to find where they fit in, and thanked me for being “their person.”
I am honored to be a safe space for my students, and hearing those words put into perspective just how important arts education is.
Lauren Helper, a member of the West Seneca Teachers Association, teaches elementary music.
Why I Teach: Helping students find their safe place in the arts
Lauren Helper, a member of the West Seneca Teachers Association, teaches elementary music.
That may not be the exact phrase, but as an elementary music teacher, I think those words are true.
I’m a singer, and I love performing, but my passion is teaching. If I weren’t good at both, I wouldn’t be an effective teacher. So forget those who say the best performers are on Broadway, because I know for a fact some of the best performers are in classrooms!
Those performers often become directors as well. I direct an extracurricular musical with my fifth graders every year, and watching my cast succeed on stage is more rewarding than being on stage myself. I love watching my cast of 70 kids work together, discover their creative sides, and develop their singing and acting skills while telling a story on stage. The growth in their confidence is amazing, and I often have classroom teachers tell me how surprised they were by that one student who barely spoke in their class but was up on stage singing solo. I then get to watch as these kids progress into middle and high school performers, and I take great satisfaction knowing that I am the one who introduced them to musical theater and inspired that love in them. Some of my most rewarding moments have been after the high school musicals, when former students tell me “I wouldn’t be here today if it hadn’t been for you,” which are words I take immense pride in.
The relationships you create with students in the arts are different. The bond over a shared passion such as music gives children who might feel that they don’t fit in elsewhere a place to belong. My principal once made a comment about how my musical provided a specific group of students with their place when they were struggling to find where they fit in, and thanked me for being “their person.”
I am honored to be a safe space for my students, and hearing those words put into perspective just how important arts education is.
Teaching is exhausting, stressful and often thankless. It requires an energy level unlike many other professions, and I like to say that teaching multiple grade levels every day means I have to use multiple personalities, since you can’t act the same way with kindergarten students as you can with fifth graders. There are many days that I am mentally, physically, and emotionally spent. But the next day, I wake up excited to go to school to see all those little faces who trust me to give them my best every day, and who genuinely are grateful for the gifts I give them. That right there is why I teach — because the students deserve teachers who love what they do, and who want their students to have only the best.
Teaching is a passion, not a job, and life is best when you get up every day to fulfill a passion, not simply go to work.
Teaching is exhausting, stressful and often thankless. It requires an energy level unlike many other professions, and I like to say that teaching multiple grade levels every day means I have to use multiple personalities, since you can’t act the same way with kindergarten students as you can with fifth graders. There are many days that I am mentally, physically, and emotionally spent. But the next day, I wake up excited to go to school to see all those little faces who trust me to give them my best every day, and who genuinely are grateful for the gifts I give them. That right there is why I teach — because the students deserve teachers who love what they do, and who want their students to have only the best.
Teaching is a passion, not a job, and life is best when you get up every day to fulfill a passion, not simply go to work.
