-: My name is Kristin Caviani.
I teach middle school general music
and choir at Northside Middle.
I teach kids how to match pitch.
I teach them how to sing in parts.
I teach them how music connects to other subjects
that they're learning in school
and other areas of life such as teamwork
and critical thinking.
In general music we do a lot of the same things
without specifically teaching them how to sing.
So they are just experiencing music
from different parts of the world
and from different time periods
as well as learning to sing a little bit
and playing a variety of different instruments.
We do a lot of drumming and playing ukulele.
They love that.
I don't work eight hours a day.
I work about 15 hours a day.
I am lucky enough to have a planning period,
so one of my periods in the day I get
solely just to plan for the coming days.
And then I do a lot of stuff at home as well.
You have to learn about your kids.
You have to know your kids so that you know
what they're going to respond to
and what they are going to like
and what is going to help grow them and help them grow
as musicians and as humans.
Being in a classroom and teaching a lesson
is as much about being able to manage everything else
that's going on in your room as giving them the information.
So I constantly have to know what's going on
in everyone's conversations and on everyone's computers.
And so it's a lot of immediate problem solving.
It's a lot of behavior and time management.
And also, you don't learn about this in college,
but there's a lot that goes into a school
at the administrative level.
You have to do a lot of paperwork.
You have to get ready for field trips.
You have to send home permission slips
and send home school-wide fundraisers
and program fundraisers and everything.
And some days I just want one week
where all I do is teach music,
and you don't always really get that.
When we have a concert, we rehearse.
I don't have after-school rehearsals with my kids
because I recognize that they do other things.
They have homework.
They have other classes.
They play sports.
They do other things, so I choose to use class time
to rehearse for those performances.
But the performance still has to be at night.
So then I choose to stay after school
because I have a lot of students that ride the bus
or walk to school.
And if they are unable to come for the performance,
and the only thing keeping them back
is that they have no transportation,
stay after school with me.
That's fine.
I love being there for my kids if I can be,
but that makes performance days,
I'm at school from 7:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m.
And that's just at school doing work.
And then I have to go home and do lesson plans
for the next week.
So busy weeks are very busy.
You eat a lot of meals at school.