Grammar Gazette- Issue 1, 2013

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Starting the new year with new shoes MR TRENT DRIVER, DEAN OF ACADEMIC DEVELOPMENT

ARTICLE

AUTHOR

I AM NOT ONE usually to blow my own trumpet, to be honest. Blowing my own tuba, well that is an entirely different story. I must, however, qualify things a little. Firstly, it is not just that I don’t usually blow my own trumpet; it is more that I have never really blown a trumpet. Ever. Not at all. Or blown into a clarinet for that matter, or even tinkled any ivories. I will confess that I got close to mastering three chords on an old guitar in my undergraduate university days, but that, and a couple of bad renditions of Creedence Clearwater Revival songs, were as near as I have ever been to musicianship. Secondly, it wasn’t really my tuba at all. I just borrowed it. But, I can confirm that I blew it; however, I am not prepared to attest to the quality of the sound the said blowing produced. The tuba and I were brought together by Mr Paul Kucharski, the School’s Co-ordinator of Band Programme and Brass, as part of the Staff Takeaway Conference Day for the Brisbane Girls Grammar teaching staff in January. For thirty minutes I was with nine other staff experiencing what girls would go through when they pick up an instrument for the first time and join an ensemble. English teachers, History teachers, Mathematics teachers, Librarians and musically challenged me were all introduced to our instruments and led through the

learning curve of being able to make them produce a sound. Twenty-five minutes later we had laid down a recording of Hot Cross Buns*. For half an hour we wore our students’ shoes; we put ourselves in their place to rethink the way we understand the sorts of experiences that they have at this School. We all felt the anxiety of doing the wrong thing, of not being able to keep up, of not being as good as those sitting around us. We struggled with doing something new for the first time; we all wondered whether or not we were in the wrong place and, in fact, should have been somewhere we would feel more comfortable. We wondered the things that our students might wonder on any given day of the week. And, we enjoyed it. My experience with big brass was just one small part of the Staff Takeaway Conference Day on Thursday 24 January 2013 in one corner of the School. The programme comprised over fifty individual workshop sessions across the day, all run by teachers from across the School. In each session teachers shared their area of expertise, modelled innovative practices that engage girls in classrooms, or asked us to reflect on what it is like to be a student in a place such as Girls Grammar. It was a chance to take the time to learn from each other and share ideas with each other.

GRAMMAR GAZETTE