I just finished the spring concert with my 4th-6th grade music students. Fantastic evening performance by all, really made the night for a few parents. I try and create opportunities for every kid. I'm particularly proud of 4 parts of the performance:
1) I have a special ed boy who is the sweetest kid in the world. He's just a slow learner, delays in both social and academic senses. But never a violent outburst, always following instructions, and easy to converse with. He asked me if he could play the theme from Jaws on the piano. I used it to bring his whole class in, we acted out a "Jaws" themed scene with him as the choreographer. The whole student body got involved, circling standing audience members with foam shark fins we made and other kids beating the black and blue curtains from the back until he gave the final cluster chord and we let out a shriek from behind the curtain. The mom and dad thanked me profusely, as he never gets that kind of attention and they said I managed to make him feel like a million bucks while not creating the pressure of the spotlight. They sent me an email later in the week again thanking me and saying that he never seemed to have an interest in music at home. They never got him piano lessons, they never see him play their home piano. But since his class moved into the upper grades and gained me as their music teacher, he's nonstop interested in music things. He researches composers, started practicing on the piano for the concert, talks about me all the time, etc. I'm floored.
2) another special ed kid, he has down syndrome. The other kids tell me he has NEVER taken part in the concerts, the parents always keep him home that day. Well for our concert he demanded to be allowed participate not only in the daytime performance but he played in a duet in the nighttime performance. And he did quite well, exceeding my expectations (which, according to the specialists' report, should include limited language and fine motor skills, both required for violin playing).
3) After the daytime performance one of my 5th graders, who is secretly one of my favorites, asked if he could perform the star spangled banner on trombone. He never auditioned for a solo. I know him to be defiant, moody, sarcastic, but he's always got my back when we're doing class because he secretly loves band and playing his instrument. I looked at him and said yes and this kid literally jumped for joy and ran home to practice. At night, he gave a rousing rendition (with wrong notes and a bad start but musically wonderful) of the Banner.
4) Being a huge Star Wars year, like many band directors I had to do some John Williams stuff and couldn't ignore Star Wars. I put together my 3 levels of band and planned on star wars. Except we didn't have time to ever rehearse it as a group. AT THE CONCERT right in front of the audience I gave the oldest kids 2 minutes to talk to the youngest kids and teach them about the advanced points in playing the music (the ritard at the end, watching me, the dynamics, melody and harmony balance, etc), while I explained what was going on to the parents and faculty. We took another 2 minutes to rehearse the changes that kids just learned, and then we played. We had a bad start and restarted (not uncommon at this level, nothing to feel bad about) and then gave the fucking best Star Wars they could have. I almost died at the end I was so happy. We were all so in sync with each other that I realized 1/3rd through that I didn't need to conduct time. I could CONDUCT, and I took the risk. I stopped just beating time and showed them the music and asked for things I hadn't asked for before, and they responded well. Some kids got lost and did as they were trained, they looked at me and I was able to fix them mid-song. The ending was glorious, all eyes locked on me for the final note. As soon as it was over there was a moment of breath and then an ovation throughout the hall. I'm very proud to say I've got the/made the smartest kids in the school, and they performed amazingly.