I love kids. About half of my friends agree with me and half of my friends think I'm crazy. I am considering pursuing pediatrics in my medical career because I love working with kids so much. I believe children embody pure, unadulterated joy that they share freely with the world through their smiles, laughter, and songs.
Since being home, I have had a wonderful, unique opportunity to work with a great group of kids preparing a Christmas concert. My younger brother's school does not have a music teacher and they elected to do a Christmas concert for the first time this year. As fate/luck/God would have it, my mom found out that they were in need of someone to organize the concert. She lovingly volunteered me. However, I am incredibly glad that she did--it has been a truly blessed, fun experience.
For the past two months, I have worked with each grade level one-on-one each week preparing a few songs to perform at the concert. The Christmas concert is tonight and everyone is both very excited and a little bit nervous! Throughout my experience, I learned a lot and witnessed more than a few hilarious encounters with the students. I thought I would share a few of these with you today...
I loved visiting school on Mondays to work with the Kindergarten students--they always greeted me with a chorus of "Hi Miss Maggie," "Hi Miss Maggie," "Hi Miss Maggie," over and over again until I set the keyboard up and was able to quiet them down. The end of class was marked with a chorus of "Bye Miss Maggie," and "Have a great weekend," even though it was only Monday. Such joy!
After a few weeks, I learned not to call on every student who raised their hands. While singing "Happy Birthday Jesus," I had four or five preschoolers tell me their birthday was on Christmas, too. Their teacher quickly reprimanded them all, whose birthdays were not on Christmas. Too cute. While teaching "Frosty the Snowman" to the Pre-School, I asked what Frosty's eyes were made out of. A few students yelled out "Coal!" I called on one little guy, who had raised his hand. He proceeded to tell me that Frosty's eyes were made out of explosives and demonstrated what happened to Frosty's head when these explosives were detonated. Kids say the darndest things...
My favorite memory also occurred with the Pre-School students. As we stood up to sing "Jingle Bells," one of the little gents tapped a girl on the shoulder and said, "Can I hold hands with you?" He began to reach for her hand. She responded, "NO!" and turned away. While my heart broke for the boy, I also thought to myself, "You go girl!"
I hope the students know how much joy they have given me with their goofy comments, giggles, attentiveness, hard work, and simple love of music. It has been a real pleasure.
Words Truly,
Maggie
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