Inspiration
Music Teachers Are Being Heroic in The Pursuit of Better Lessons & Helping The Society
These teachers are helping communities be a better place, either by making face masks or singing outdoors
One beloved middle school chorus teacher from South Orange, New Jersey, is set to stop the spread of COVID-19 in his and neighbouring countries. Jacob Ezzo is using 3D printers at home to make PPE face masks for the frontline workers. He has made nearly 40,000 medically-approved face shields for health care workers and first responders so far.
The distribution is mainly done between New Jersey to the Navajo Nation, some of the hot spots of the US.
Ezzo told NPR, “It was on Sunday that I printed it off, my first one, because I was like, 'Oh, I have Monday off. I'll do something interesting.”
Ezzo’s home weekend project developed into an alliance with other volunteers called the SOMA New Jersey 3D Printers Alliance. Apart from this, his students and ex-students are helping him as well. While some are printing maps for him, others are coordinating with the vendors.
Music is indeed a way to bring people together and who better to know this than music teachers?
On the other side, another music teacher from Macphail Memorial Elementary, Charlie Glasspool in Flesherton, Ontario, started broadcasting 20-minute lessons via Facebook Live for his students during the lockdown.
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Since not all students can have instruments, he encourages them to use their voices and other items like pots and pans to produce music. His classes are dedicated to learning in an innovative way, for example, creating a musical score with items found in the bathroom!
“So an electric toothbrush or a hairdryer or the tap or flushing the toilet. It’s been a bit improvised, a bit impromptu for most of it. But I think the idea was just hey, I’m here, I’m on your screen. We’re not in the room together but we’ll get through this,” Glasspool said. Glasspool is doing sessions outside his home, too, to help children learn how to appreciate nature, how to listen to the music of nature and get in sync with it.
These kinds of efforts, especially by the educator-community, are astonishing and make us believe that good teachers don't just teach academically, they actually make the world a better place to live eventually.