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DAY IN THE LIFE: A man of note

Marietta music teacher always on the move

JANELLE PATTERSON The Marietta Times Utlizing bean bags, Steve Brown teaches a first-grade class how to sing while moving to a beat Friday at Putnam Elementary.

He never thought he’d be anything else.

“I remember I wanted to be a music teacher when I was in elementary school and I started playing piano when I was 5 years old,” said Steve Brown, elementary music teacher for Putnam and Washington elementary schools in Marietta.

Brown spends most mornings at Washington with one planning break between classes to meet with the rest of his teaching team before spending the afternoons at Putnam, seeing the whole range of elementary ages between the schools.

And there’s not much time to himself between the classes cycling through his doors.

“We get about five minutes to break for the bathroom before the next class comes in,” he explains. “And lunch I’m really eating between the two schools. I see three sessions at Washington and then come here to Putnam for four. They’re all back to back so you have to switch gears quickly from say fourth grade to first.”

But each new class that walks in his doors– four classes in about three and a half hours Friday afternoon– is filled with wide open eyes and smiling faces jumping to see their music teacher and play his games.

“They’re excited to go to him,” said teacher Brittany Schaad, before picking up her third grade class at Putnam from his room. “He makes music fun and they sing the songs they learn from him in my classroom too.”

Eyes seemed to pop as “You’re Welcome” from Moana rang out in his second grade class.

“It depends on how you hear the strong and weak beats,” he teaches.

And you can tell he’s a dad to youngsters, because of his jokes.

“What’s a pirate’s favorite letter?” he asks another class.

“R!” they shout in answer.

“You’d think it would be ‘R,'” he says. “But a pirate’s true love is the ‘C.'”

Depending on the grade level he’s sharing concepts in a way his students can identify, sometimes teaching quarter and eighth notes through syllables of words:

“Dog, chicken, dog, Shh!,” he accompanies his words with claps for each syllable.

Or he may be teaching mathematics through counting meters.

But more than dance, call and response and clapping beats, his students also get to pick up percussion instruments or make their own.

“You have a fresh slate with elementary to teach these musical concepts in whatever way they can relate to,” he said between classes. “I use bean bags. I do a bunch of science of sound with tuning forks, pvc pipe, funnels and we basically make trumpets out of junk.”

And to keep their attention while driving through what seems like no time, he varies between movement on the risers to games on the colorful circle rug in his classroom.

Mackenzie Svarta, 7, of Marietta, jumped at the chance to sing along as her first grade class learned rhythm through a call and response song about ice cream flavors.

“I like singing,” she said. “Mr. Brown is really nice and makes it fun.”

Meanwhile the rest of her class is responding to “Who wants ice cream?” with “I do, I do!”

Then the class learns differing patterns of rhythm through their favorite flavors from choc-late to straw-ber-ry short-cake before switching to a kinetic version of “telephone.”

“You’re going to feel a rhythm in your hand and pass it on to the next person,” Brown explains to his first-graders.

Lydia Caslow, 6, of Marietta, said it’s one of her favorite subjects in school

“I actually really like the music and singing we do,” she said after passing along her rhythm.

Meanwhile Brown is observing his students as they pass the beat with two fingers tapping in the next child’s palm.

“Rhythm is just a pattern of short sounds and long sounds,” he explains to the class.

Excitement grows in the room as Brown pulls out guiros, maracas, tambourines and wood blocks and each child is allowed one instrument to echo his beats with.

Caslow picks a gourd maraca, while Svarta picks up a tambourine.

All the while Brown is mentally taking notes and adapting his teaching to make sure his students learn the concepts of music he’s teaching.

“It’s an informal assessment watching and listening to them as they perform these different exercises,” he explained between another two classes. “It’s happening all the time with no pressure.”

Scott Kratche, principal at Putnam, has nothing but praise for Brown.

“He reaches these kids in a way that others can’t,” he explains. “Their inhibitions melt and they open up in a way they typically don’t.”

Kratche says he’s amazed by all that Brown accomplishes with his students in such a short time, and only seeing each class for one out of three weeks at a time as their specialized classes rotate.

“And he also has a ukulele group and is teaching choir for both elementaries one morning a week before school,” Kratche says. “I think he’s opening doors for them.”

And why does Brown continue to teach music after 11 years solely in elementary music education?

“You don’t become a teacher for external reasons like the pay,” he says. “I have one of the best jobs in the world. Music education I think is one of the most interesting subjects that you can teach everything else with.”

At a glance

¯ Steve Brown, of Marietta, teaches music at Putnam and Washington elementary schools.

¯ Brown also leads a ukulele choir and the schools’ two choirs.

¯ Brown said he has always wanted to teach music in schools since he was in elementary himself.

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