Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Diversity Means . . .

That’s the theme for this year’s "Reflections for Students".  I’ve never had any of my kids show any interest in participating in the annual Reflections contest at school.  And I’m sure my lack of time or initiative didn’t help the cause either.  So I didn’t pay much attention to the papers that came home from school except for liking the theme this year.  Diversity.  I love anything that points out the positive of differences, acceptance and respect.  I was surprised when Hadley’s piano teacher called to let us know that Hadley had been working on composing a piano piece the last few weeks that she wanted to enter into the Reflection’s contest.  It was only a few months ago that Hadley was struggling in piano (more the practicing then the actual playing).  It was always a battle and it didn’t seem like she was learning the notes and only memorizing the hand positions and if she should skip or step between the notes.  We decided to switch things up this past summer and see if there was a difference.  She started taking piano lessons from a new teacher, who just happened to be her old (but young) 3rd grade teacher.  We witnessed a complete change.  I never had to remind her or ask her to practice the piano.  We were all usually woken up bright and early to Hadley’s piano practicing.   She got new music, songs that she knew and it was fun to play instead of the scales and Bastien books she was playing in her other class.  She now loved piano!  Her teacher moved last month to Naples, Florida (she wanted to ‘enjoy the small things’ or something like that) and her mom took over as her piano teacher and has been just as great for Hadley.

She played the song while her teacher wrote down the notes.
The final piece.


She named the song, “Rainbow After the Storm” and then she had to write a small essay describing how her art entry relates to the theme, “Diversity Means. . .”  This is what she wrote--

I did “The Rainbow After the Storm” because a rainbow has different colors that work together perfectly.  I wanted to do a piano song because in music there are tons of different notes and when you put them all together they create something wonderful!

She also had to include a CD of her playing the music.  That took almost all afternoon to figure out how to get something from the piano into the computer but voice memo on the iphone worked like a charm!  Here’s the recording from when Hadley played and I recorded.  Enjoy.


 


7 comments:

Grandma Bethany said...

Hadley has so many talents. I love that she is enjoying the piano now. The teacher makes such a difference! I think I quit piano because of my teacher too. My friend who kept playing had a teacher that let her play all the modern songs. I was taught scales that I had no idea what I was playing or trying to play! Good for Hadley! and Really good for you Heather!

Natalie Nelson said...

What a wonderful theme. It is so rewarding when your child shows interest in good things and takes the initative to acomplish the task. And all on their own. I like her song. She is very talented.

Kristin said...

Sooo cool!

Monyca said...

Wow! Hadley! We did the whole Diversity Is...thing to this year but our projects PALE in comparison to this effort! Way to go!

anya said...

Love this post! Did you know that I grew up with Miss Alisha... and took piano from Kris for 10 years! Love that family!!!

Summer said...

Very impressive! Good for Hadley! Practicing the piano is a struggle at our house. Maybe I need to switch teachers too. Hadley is really talented and so beautiful too!

J-Dub04 said...

Hi Heather,

I saw your post on Kelle's blog feigning shock at people not being allowed to dress up like Native Americans. As a Native American I'm surprised at your lack of respect of a group of people - especially after seeing your post here about embracing and understanding diversity. It is disappointing that there are people in this world that don't realize that Native Americans are real people who exist today and are not 'characters' to be mocked through costumes who displayed inaccurate depiction of a group of humans and who mock our clothes and sacred ceremonies.
I'm not writing to bash you or to be rude, but in hopes to educate those who think of Native Americans as characters, a thing of the past, etc and to hope that people stop mis-representing and mocking my people. Thank you.