Inside the Classroom: Kaylee Turner - Daniel Elementary
Inside the Classroom: Kaylee Turner - Daniel Elementary
Inside the Classroom is a series that visits Northwest ISD campuses throughout the year and highlights the magical moments that happen between teachers and students each and every day across the entire 234 square miles of NISD.
Every musician’s origin story is different. Some may have been born into a family of drummers. Some may have just discovered the clarinet in high school.
Some may have even started in an elementary music class with one of those famous plastic recorders, and that’s exactly where this week’s edition of Inside the Classroom is going. Join us as we visit Kaylee Turner, a third-year elementary music teacher who is in her second year at Johnie Daniel Elementary School.
NISD’s 23 elementary campuses all have different terminology for their art, music and physical education classes. From “Specials” to “AMP” (art, music, PE), one thing is constant, these teachers are indeed special and they are always amped about the time they have with each student.
And we mean literally - each and every student. As an elementary music teacher (the same applies to art and PE teachers as well), Ms. Turner is in the unique position that she teaches every single student on campus at least once a week.
With hundreds of students filing in and out of her music classroom every week, things could get a bit chaotic, but Ms. Turner has the logistics down to a science. We joined her on a Tuesday afternoon, which is when one of her sections of fifth graders visits, and they were obviously well versed on the rules and expectations of Ms. Turner’s class.
As students came in and quietly took their seats on numbered stickers on the carpet, Ms. Turner called on a few students who had been behaving exceptionally well and had them fill out a ticket. This classroom management tool gives the students a chance to have their name drawn on Friday with prizes on the line.
This week’s lesson began with an engaging “Good Afternoon” song. As Ms. Turner played the piano, students began singing and walking around the room. When the song reached its chorus, students stopped where they were, found a partner, and together they danced, clapped hands and sang the chorus.
This warm up was exactly what the students needed to get ready for a unique game of Pass the Pumpkin. Before the game, Ms. Turner instructed certain students to grab certain types of xylophones from different places in the room then return to their spot on the carpet.
Before they played the game, Ms. Turner taught the students how to play Pass the Pumpkin aurally on their instruments. She walked around the room to check each student’s progress and remind them different xylophone tips and techniques they had previously learned.
Once Ms. Turner was satisfied with their progress, it was time to work the Pass the Pumpkin song into a game. Students had to pass a small pumpkin around a circle, but in rhythm with the song. At the end of the song, the student holding the pumpkin left the circle and joined an instrument line to play various pitched and non-pitched percussion instruments.
As the circle got smaller, Ms. Turner’s percussion pit got larger, and the Pass the Pumpkin song took on a brand new life. One minute it was being played solely through the speakers in the classroom, then five minutes later a whole pack of Daniel Dogs were keeping the beat.
After the game was over and instruments were neatly put away, one student who had been previously designated grabbed a bucket full of plastic recorders with each student’s name and began to pass them out.
Ms. Turner and her students closed out their 45 minutes together by playing recorders, a key component of the 5th-grade music curriculum. After a quick warm up where partners tried to match each other's notes, Ms. Turner modeled the proper finger positioning on the recorder, preparing students for their next activity.
Next, they practiced playing in rhythm to the poem “Bee, Bee Bumblebee.” Students practiced playing the rhythm on each note they had learned, and as they marched around the room, they chanted and played the rhythm until each note was mastered.
Students then put away their recorders and lined up to go back to their classroom. As they were leaving, Ms. Turner placed a sticker on a poster on her door. The class had been incredibly well behaved, and now they were one sticker closer to a free day.
On this particular day, there were 16 fifth-grade students in Ms. Turner’s classroom. That little plastic recorder might be all it takes to kindle a lifelong passion for music in one Daniel Dog. Maybe a game of Pass the Pumpkin is what sparks another student’s desire to join the percussion pit in high school.
No matter where these fifth graders go after they leave Daniel Elementary, and whether music is a part of that journey or not, they’ll know their music teacher loved them, and for 45 minutes each week, Ms. Turner’s class was the coolest place to be.
Check back regularly all year as we continue to visit students and teachers throughout Northwest ISD and offer a rarely seen look Inside the Classroom.