Ruffing Music Week Two (Evan S)

Because I've already elaborated on what has happened during the first two weeks of project at Ruffing, I'm going to post about the experience I had this past Friday.

Every year at Ruffing for part of the year, the eighth graders are matched with a resident at Judson, which is a home for senior citizens. The residents share their life stories with the students in an attempt to build a relationship with them. Then, at the end of the program on the last week, there is a tea in which the students and their families meet with all of the residents and have a little tea party. The students typically read things they wrote and perform songs.

This past Friday, I went with the music teacher, Jennie, and the eighth graders to Judson to help out with all things music (and what turned into much more). I helped set up the stage with the Orff instruments and helped get the students settled for their piece, a blues composition with a bit of Elvis's "Hound Dog." It was a dreadful performance, but the residents didn't know the difference!

I sat at a table with a couple of students whose residents could not make it to the program that day. During that time I had some yummy treats and enjoyed listening to the students pass the microphone from table to table and sharing their "then and now" stories. Each pair of student and resident was assigned a topic for which they had to talk about what it was like back when the resident was the age of the student, and what it's like for the student now. The topics ranged from things like school dress to birthday parties to what's fun to do on weekends.

A highlight of the day for me was meeting up with a resident with whom I was paired when I was in eighth grade at Ruffing. It was a nice reunion.

After everything ended, I helped pack up the instruments and went back to Ruffing to help teach some young children's music classes.