Miss Abbie - the music teacher

I came to China to teach English, so teaching English in my classes is, of course, no surprise. I even throw in a few songs in the beginning of the class, the end of the class, or both, to make learning more fun for the children. When the Chinese teachers ask me, however, to teach music to the children - to spend whole class periods on teaching the children just one song - the words, the melody, and pronunciation, that is a bit of a surprise.

This has happened at least three times so far this semester and every time that I spend the class period specifically teaching a song, I am taken back to music class in elementary school, only this time I am the music teacher. I had never thought that my teaching English would lead to me teaching children how to sing. After all, I was never a great singer. Luckily for the children, I am improving due to the fact that I sing songs between seven and fourteen times a day on school days (once or twice every class period with seven classes a day). I believe that now I can actually carry a tune with no background music.

So far, I have had a "music class" to teach baa baa black sheep, and jingle bells. All three times (Baa Baa black sheep in two classes) the Chinese teachers asked me to teach the songs the whole class period because the class would be presenting them, so they had to be sure that the children knew the words, the tune, and the pronunciation very well.

Although I never thought I would be a music teacher, I am enjoying that aspect of teaching as well. It is very rewarding to hear the children singing the songs I teach them.