Preliminaries

My first experience at Edgemont Elementary was before the semeter even started, when I went to introduce myself to the first graders of Mrs. Amesse's class. Here are a few of my observations.

Mrs. Amesse is a very experienced teacher! She has been working with this grade for some time and I am impressed with the capable and confident way she manages her class. She makes it look easy. Her students come from a variety of backgrounds and seem to be very bright, if distractible, children. It has been a long time since I have worked with children of that age, and I had forgotten how very young and small they are! Keeping their attention is going to have to be a major focus for me in my teaching, because they seem to have difficulty staying on task for any length of time unless their attention is completely absorbed.

After I gave my introduction to the children, I sat at the back of the room to observe the goings-on of the class and get a better feel for the classroom environment and culture. It wasn't long, however, before I was sucked into participating (quite willingly, of course) in a lesson. Mrs. Amesse was teaching math, explaining addition by combining short red and blue blocks to form a long row of blocks. My task was to assist a sweet boy with a faraway look in his eyes, who seemed to be having a hard time grasping the concept.

"Could you help walk him through this for a few minutes until he goes to the special education class?" Mrs. Amesse asked. "He's got a kind of Syndrome, it's sort of like Down's, but different..."

I have a strong background in Special Education, so I asked "What is the Syndrome called?" thinking there was perhaps some chance that I might recognize it.

"Prader-Willi Syndrome, you probably haven't heard of it..."

I gasped. "I know exactly what that is! I can definitely help!" Since April, I have been working at a group home that specializes in the care of adults with Prader-Willi individuals. This rare genetic disorder is one with which I have become intimately familiar. Prader-Willi occurs in only 1 of 15,000 people or fewer; the fact that I happen to work with other individuals who have this condition, and just happened to find myself in a classroom with another such individual, is absolutely amazing! I am certain it was meant to be. We spent a few minutes getting to know each other before it was time for my new friend to leave for his special education class and for me to head home.

I am excited to get to know these students more, and begin planning for how I can meet their needs as a class and as individuals as Mrs. Amesse and I work towards a goal of integrated education. This is going to be a great growth experience!

- Sarah Earl

Introduction

BYU ArtsBridge, a part of the BYU ARTS Partnership, is a program for connecting arts teachers-in-training with students currently in local public schools to foster arts integration. Whether their discipline is Drama, Visual Arts, Dance, or Music, these student teachers, known as "Arts Bridge scholars," work together with public school teachers to integrate their art form into daily classroom life.

My name is Sarah Earl, a 2018 BYU ArtsBridge Scholar. I am studying Music Education at BYU, with an emphasis in K-12 Choral Music. I grew up in Las Vegas, Nevada, where I discovered my passion for music with the Clark County Children's Choir and pursued it to the Las Vegas Academy of the Arts and then to BYU, where I have studied music for three years. As an ArtsBridge Scholar, I am pleased to be working with Dianne Amesse and her first grade class at Edgemont Elementary here in Provo, Utah. This program is a fantastic opportunity for me to gain real teaching experience with real students, rather than my peers role-playing, as we often do in my music education classes. As one of my teachers loves to say, "this is where the rubber meets the road!"

My goal as an ArtsBridge Scholar, first and foremost, is to be a benefit to the students I will teach. I am here to serve them, not the other way around. My secondary goal is to be a benefit to the teacher I work with, and then finally to develop my abilities as a teacher and a musician. The idea behind Arts Integration is to make music a part of the everyday classroom experience, not something that is reserved exclusively for "special time" once a week in their music class. Music can be used in countless ways within the regular classroom, and I am so excited to open the doors of the world of music to these first graders and invite them inside! I hope you will enjoy following along in my adventure.

- Sarah Earl