My Journey
2008 Broward
County Arts Teacher of the Year Acceptance Speech
Given by Nicole M. Greggs, NBCT- Early/Middle Childhood Music
Plantation Park Elementary School, Broward County FL
On Wed. Sept. 24, 2008 at 6pm, Broward Center for the Performing Arts
I am a product of Broward Co. schools. I grew up in Coral Springs & attended Coral Springs Elem., Coral Springs Middle School, & Coral Springs High School. I always loved music; I took voice lessons in high school. I worked at Winn-Dixie to pay for piano lessons too. After I graduated, I went to the University of Miami on a full scholarship & studied voice & music education in Salzburg, Austria at both the Mozarteum & the Orff Institute. I graduated magna cum laude & 1st in the UM School of Music in 1991. Go ‘Canes!
I began teaching at 2 schools in Broward, 50% each, then decided to pursue my Master of Arts in Teaching at FAU with not just one, but 3 focuses (it would never be like me to do just one thing at a time!): I specialized in music education, choral conducting, & vocal performance. I finished in 1997. While pursuing my Masters degree and working full-time, I took on a third position. I became Asst. Director of the Florida Singing Sons Boychoir. I also got married & rewrote the Broward Elementary Music Curriculum to align with the new-at-the-time Sunshine State Standards. I maintained my Florida Singing Sons Boychoir position for 4 years until baby #1, who you saw play a recorder duet with me tonight, came along.
I kept on teaching. In 1998 I started MusicMakers! Summer Camp in the City of Coral Springs to further my vision that music could change the world. MusicMakers! has been going strong for 11 years. I decided after baby #2 to pursue National Board certification, which I earned in 2004. Thank you Stephanie Colman, my mentor! I have continued to impact music education in Broward County & the state of Florida through workshops to local music teachers & through my continued efforts to update the Broward Elementary Music Curriculum through electronic curriculum planning tools & BEEP lessons.
Not just music, but art & poetry also helped me define my direction in life. About 2000, I decided my oddly shaped little music room needed more life, so I painted it in a garden theme. After 4 years or so, I got tired of the bugs in the garden, & when the room was remodeled due to damage from roof leaks, I repainted the room with a nautical boardwalk theme. A lot of planning & creativity went into the Boardwalk, & my students love it! It’s definitely a happy, one-of-a-kind-place. Music curriculum is cleverly depicted on the walls, & each wall represents a different Sunshine State Standard. Even daydreamers learn by looking. I used to be one of those daydreamers.
People often ask me, why do you work so hard? What drives you? Can’t you just relax??? Well, I always said that I didn’t pick music, music picked me. The desire to help students & my own children “connect the dots” through music constantly shapes my life & teaching practice. It fires everything I do.
Music has always been my passion because of how it transformed my spirit. Music & the arts gave me hope for my future when no one else thought I stood a chance, or when others thought I was just another face in the crowd. I never believed them. Like every person, I went through some rough waters growing up. Music, art, & poetry helped me find self-affirmation & an outlet for my emotions.
Anyone who knows me knows I am dedicated to teaching music…. But it’s not just me who benefits from my arts passion. Meghan Larkins, a former student & chorister of mine, was in 5th grade when her mother died of brain cancer. Having taught 4 of her 7 siblings, I rallied the Chorus Booster Association to help raise money to pay the family medical bills so the family could keep their home. It amazed me when Meghan came to sing in our winter concert just a few days after her mom passed away, cheered on by her family. All told, we were able to raise $15K in cash & donations for the family. Even better, as a result of the community’s outpouring of love, Meghan’s older brother Zachary, who suffers from drowning-induced cerebral palsy, & who was also in my Chorus, began studying again after his mother’s passing. He passed the FCAT & graduated from South Plantation High School with a regular diploma… no small achievement for a child that doctors predicted would never walk or talk!
I use music, poetry, & art to reach out to children because I know they work. Just look at my classroom; it speaks for itself. Not only do I teach music, I teach LIFE. Last year our school’s Relay for Life team held a Family Bingo Night in conjunction with a Music Fair, & we raised over $2K to fight cancer. In addition, our school chorus donated $200 from our Spring Sing-a-thon toward the cause.
If a child is upset, whatever the reason, concentrating in school is difficult if not impossible. The arts help balance mind & spirit. Thousands of kids whose physical needs are met feel emotionally lost in the crowd, unnoticed, unguided, resentful, & lonely. They need a way to discover their talents, because recognizing those sparks of greatness in themselves is a better high than any drug. The arts are drug prevention. The arts help those that feel lost find a direction in life. Kids of all backgrounds- rich, poor, black, white, & everything in between- need opportunities to learn about a world that is greater than what their parents, the internet, or TV show them. They need to know there is more to life than just survival, & that school in not just a place to drudge through, but a place to build opportunities for one’s future... a better future than what they have ever known. They need to be in awe of what they can do & of who they are.
We’ve all heard the research. Participating in music studies can raise children’s test scores. That’s wonderful, it truly is. But let’s not forget the even bigger benefits to the whole child & to the world. Studying music brings children to new awareness of their surroundings & of their own specialness. Music is a social, scientific, mathematical, literacy-based subject that encompasses all of life. No matter what style you choose, you are obligated to perform it historically correctly… which means understanding what the world was like at the time it was popular, or understanding the culture from which the song comes. In group performance, everyone shares in that knowledge & in recreating the work. This builds cooperation, teamwork, respect for others, & all those other wonderful skills which businesses so highly prize. Music incorporates reading, math, health, physical coordination, creativity, problem-solving, & pretty much every other subject taught in school, plus it’s FUN. It teaches commitment, perseverance, self-discipline… suffice it to say that no one loses from quality music or arts instruction. I applaud the School Board of Broward County for taking a stand to support educating the whole child through its support of the Arts Teacher of the Year Award, the SEAS program, the Broward All-County Honors Band, Choirs, & Orchestras, & the Broward Elementary Music Performance Assessment, to name just a few events.
But most importantly, the arts help us discover who we really are. They provide an appropriate avenue for joy, healing, worship, grief, anger, & every other emotion known to man. They are our cultural legacy. President John F. Kennedy said that the quality of a nation’s arts indicates the content of its character. As American citizens, we must maintain a melting pot of musical styles in our lives, just as we maintain a well-balanced diet.
I believe the goal of all public schools should be to raise our children above a “basic education” in the 3 R’s, to a level of literacy & appreciation for all people, for that is what our Constitution & Declaration of Independence call for. If we are to be self-governed, then Americans must continue to use the arts to teach the character traits needed for effective living in today’s world. How do we do that? Study the past, know what is happening in the present, & dream & plan for the future. My dream has always been to receive this award.
Thank you to Broward Cultural Affairs Council, the School Board of Broward County, Broward Center for the Arts, all of the sponsors for this award, Taravella High School, my colleagues at Plantation Park Elementary & music teachers around the district, my students & their parents, my accompanist & friend Cynthia Hesse, my Principal Julie Gittelman, Intern Principal Debra R. Friedman, & AP Linda Villareale; the City of Coral Springs; MusicMakers! Summer Camp Staff Donice Rufus, Mark Henschel, & Adelin Alexanian + counselors; my family & friends; my children, & most of all, my beautiful husband. It has always been, & continues to be, my honor, privilege, & joy to serve Broward’s students & teachers.
I leave you with my favorite quote: “It is not so much that children can make beautiful music, but that Music can make beautiful children.” That is what it’s all about. Thank you.