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The Evolution of a Teacher is a new, heart-touching E-Book about a teacher entering the fifth decade of his career. Read about the warmth and love Mr. Allen has for his students as he shares with you the life-changing lessons learned from his mentors and students.
The Evolution of a Teacher is the "Larry D. Allen story." A teacher who begins his saga with his near-death experience at age 7, the parade of mentors that came into his life who directed him into the field of music teaching and music performance, and the students who encouraged his visions to improve the quality of music teaching, student learning and music teacher training.
The focus of this book is the spiritual nature of every student and the high level of energy that each student possesses when they enter into the classroom. Mr. Allen reveals these powerful life-changing experiences with his students and the evolution of his teaching.
One of the powerful teachings in Mr. Allen's experience is the internal teacher within every learner, and the importance for each child to listen to their internal teacher. For a student learning to play a new musical instrument their internal teacher is their vocal skills and their listening skills which have been developed since birth. The internal teacher: the vocal and listening skills will help the learner develop their beginning instrumental music skills.
Excerpted from three Purdue Calumet University students' papers:
- This [sic] e-book was very interesting
and encouraging. I think the idea of considering all students to be
angels is very encouraging. . .
- He emphasizes [sic] in this e-book the importance of reaching out to each student, regardless of their category, with love, caring, and a listening ear. When a student succeeds in school, the support triangle was in balance. This triangle consists of the student, parent, and teacher. . .
- This [sic] e-book has to do with multiculturalism in that every student that comes into a teacher's life has different cultural, religious, and family values. Accepting this reality and helping each student progress in their skill development gives everybody a feeling of accomplishment and significance. . .
Each generation learns from the previous generation. When Mr.Allen is teaching students, his vision is not one of the students he physically sees in the classroom, but his vision is of the students as leaders of the next generation: fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles, grandparents and future leaders who will teach their values to the next generation within each local community.
This vision is so powerful in that each generation can only teach what they know and what they have experienced at each stage of learning. If a child's misses a stage of learning, it is most difficult to go back and fill in that period of loss. Unfortunately, such a loss in their development is passed on to the next generation.
Finally, Mr. Allen sees "the role of the teacher" as "the highest professional calling" of the 21st century in our local communities: parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, coaches, school teachers and religious education teachers. These "teachers" are the "mentors" and "role models" who continue to influence the souls of our children: the leaders of the next generation.
Quoting from Stephen R. Covey, "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing." For our children, learning to love, care for and respect each other regardless of our individual differences is the "main thing."
It is the cultural birthright
of every child in every culture
of every generation
to enjoy the excitement of learning
and the love shared in the
teaching/learning process."
Excerpted:
ONE
The Spiritual Call:
Teach ChildrenThrough Music
At age seven, I received the clearest of all angelic sounds - a sound which was a sign from God that we are going to perform a duet throughout my life towards a mission yet to be determined. This angelic sound as a sign from God manifested itself through my survival of a life-threatening illness that should have easily ended my life in 1954. The illness attacked my body with a cunning force - a ruptured appendix that did not appear on repeated blood tests. After seven days of non-stop excruciating abdominal pain and no ability to keep down any food, I found myself in the emergency room of St. Elizabeth Hospital in Dayton, Ohio unable to walk and gangrene pouring from a ruptured appendix towards my lungs.
Emergency surgery was ordered at 1 a.m., and I clearly remember that awful smell of ether as the mask was placed over my face. As I went to sleep, I remember that my dreams were racing, and I could recall and control my thoughts in any order while floating through the air and look back at myself on the operating table.
When I awoke, I discovered a huge bandage across my abdomen and four shots of penicillin daily. The food included goats milk and lots of vegetables with few things I enjoyed eating. After one week in the hospital I returned home. My first event at home was to pass ball with my dad in the backyard. It felt great. I knew at that moment that God had sent a strong message, a message that was calling me to do important work while on earth. The years ahead would be a journey to prepare myself to understand that important mission and carry it out.
In 1957 my family joined the white flight out of the Westwood District of Dayton, Ohio to a new small town north of Dayton called Englewood. Although I did not know it at the time, this move would establish the "home place" for my family for the next four decades. I was in the fifth grade and our new house was not completed by the beginning of the school year. Thus, my family drove me daily back and forth to school from our old home in Westwood for a number of weeks into the school year.
Early in the month of September my mother received a notice about a meeting for parents and students regarding the beginning band instrument program. I was most interested in music and listened to a great deal of music at home. However, the meeting was on my father's bowling night and mother just received her driver's license and had never driven at night. The meeting was scheduled for 7:00 p.m. in the school band room which was 10 miles from our old house in Westwood.
Much to her dismay, my mother drove me to the meeting, and I had the opportunity that evening to select a band instrument - the alto saxophone. This one evening changed my life forever and set me on a long and wonderful journey. Forty-two years later I now see that this move to Englewood, Ohio was no accident. It would give me an opportunity to begin the journey for which I was called. As we drove home from the meeting, I remember how nervous my mother was driving in the night traffic. Repeatedly cars from the other direction were driving with their high beams on at all times. After the first few cars my mother began talking to these drivers, then she became angry, and finally she retaliated by trying to shine her high beams at the oncoming drivers.
The problem was that with every car that frustrated her she could not find the small foot switch that would trigger her high beams. After the 5th and 6 th try I was laughing so hysterically that tears were streaming down my face. We talked about that night for years!
My mother was never big on driving, but on this one night her efforts to provide me an opportunity to play a band instrument was not by accident. It was clearly the most important night of my school years. This was all part of the spiritual journey. Fate, destiny, and energy in the universe far outweigh the wants and likes of individuals, groups, or large organizations. On this night I was to experience my first step towards a career in music education.
As I progressed in band on the saxophone, my first big break in music came in the summer between 7th and 8th grade. The high school band director, Dick Cool, needed additional players to complete his marching band instrumentation. Nine 8th graders were selected to travel to the high school daily for the band. This required a teacher to drive us and pick us up during the actual school day. Prior to the beginning of school we went to band camp and were accepted as members of the Northmont High School Marching Band. What an experience!
Although the drive during the regular school day took its toll on us all, we were able to perform on Friday evenings at the football games and on Saturdays for parades. I can remember how much more challenging the music was for all of us, and all music had to be memorized by the Thursday of each week. We performed 5 different half time shows each season and a grand finale. Our pre-game show was a big deal as was our post-game show. We had fun, we traveled, and improved our musicianship.
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