Todd, those are drums not books.

Things that are unexpected can be terrifying. Or at least uncomfortable. And I could argue for simple consistency (but not like school uniforms or “template” courses) as a way to create safe and easily understood expectations. Yes, creating patterns in structure can lend itself to a familiar and often safe feeling in any event, happening anywhere. So, yay for structure and consistency!

But, sometimes that structure becomes complacent. It becomes stagnate. It becomes too familiar. and routine, rote, and unmemorable. Our good intentions around creating a happy familiar structure for our students turn against us. And perhaps, as instructors, we find our work less “interesting.” Or something.

I’ve been there.

I stood in that damn classroom and wondered for the one thousandth time if I should do it. Would it be too weird? Too loud? Would anyone care? Would it just be some novel event that would be joyous for a week and then a monotonous nightmare forever? Would I get in trouble with other teachers complaining about the distraction? What would the principal actually think? What if a kid broke something I paid for? Would I get mad and quit the experiment?

You can’t experiment if you don’t start. So, I did.

I spent about 500 bucks on 15 percussion instruments. Djembes. Other drums of various shapes. A damn cowbell. A tambourine. Shakers and maracas. A cabasa. Bongos and bells.

I had prepped the students prior to buying them and they were excited. Who wouldn’t be! I mean getting to play drums in a high school English class! And still get credit for it. I’m in!

So, we talked about playing together. A lot. We talked about allowing others to be heard. We talked about our responsibility to the class sound. To the stuff in it, like the instruments the emotions. The fear. We talked about jazz and the value of each person. Some students were so damn happy they went out and bought their own drums. Some brought guitars. We created sound for the first ten minutes of class for two years.

Every class began with ten minutes of holy unification though the beating of drums. I guess.

There were moments of brilliance. Many more moments of sheer terror and some sick cacophony that must have driven everyone mad. Except those of us playing. We were there, playing our part in whatever was happening.

Looking back it was all worth it. Like any new addition to a classroom experience, it had good days and bad. I was lucky that our classes were 80 minutes long. Ten minutes at the start was easy to accommodate in the rest of the “structured” activities.

One of my favorite type of response from students was when they commented on how it kinda loosened them up. Maybe relaxed them a bit before the “work” of the class. I wrote about this experiment once before and here are a few student’s comments.

A good warm up to clear the mind… (Kinda) like wiping a new slate for learning. Drumming helped me get things off my mind before I had to learn and it was a good thing…

I still to this day talk about the drumming activity we did together. It taught us team work and helped us to warm up to each other and the teacher. It also got our brains working for the rest of the class. Great experience! Even inspired me to buy my own drum (and I still play it).

I think drumming in class is a good thing! Getting into the sound the drum makes by each drummer can tell you a lot about how or what the drummer is going through. Also drumming is a way to clear your mind from whatever you were going through prior to class so express and then prepare for class and what lay in store for you.

Drumming was cool, but you don’t need to drum to be creative in your classroom. To shake things up or to try an experiment. maybe a short “Epiphany of the week” question at the start of each class, or maybe a short visualization. Maybe just have them focus on breathing for a minute. You know, breathing is good… Maybe a short round of PechaFlickr or similar. A short walk on occasion. Maybe something at the end of class like a, “What did you learn today?” Or doing some hippy group hug?

So, if you don’t already, and likely you do, I vote you get out and experiment. It might hurt. It might be amazing. Hard to say, right.