Saratoga News

Education

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Music teacher Margie Alejandro, singing and dancing with third-graders at Foothill Elementary School, is the Saratoga Union School District's Teacher of the Year.

Alejandro making beautiful music in Saratoga

By Michele Tjin

Margie Alejandro is Saratoga's pied piper. When she plays her music, the schoolchildren follow.

She lures them with rhythm and movement, and hooks them with an entertaining time in class. Today, she's got a class of third-graders singing at the top of their lungs about a holiday bird bent on finding his freedom.

"Super Turkey, he always gets away. You won't eat him this Thanksgiving Day," they sing, raising their fists in the air in superhero fashion.

Alejandro, 53, is the Saratoga Union School District's music teacher for third- through fifth-graders and travels among the three elementary schools. After 21 years of teaching, 12 of them in Saratoga, she has built a reputation of embodying energy and passion in her teaching. She has directed numerous musicals and written and composed a few of her own, as well. This fall, she was honored as the district's Teacher of the Year.

"It's huge for me," Alejandro said. "People think that arts teachers are not teachers, but this has validated the fact that I'm a teacher."

Before Alejandro became a teacher, she spent eight years on the road, composing and performing all genres of music in all types of venues, from opera to pop music to country western in hotels, on concert stages and in recording studios.

"I wanted to have my own experiences [before I taught]," she said.

Alejandro, a native of Arkansas, came from a family of performers. Her great-grandfather was known as the "Poet of the Ozarks," and her grandmother was a minstrel, whose folk song recordings are held in the Smithsonian Institution. Alejandro said she eventually stopped performing because she lacked the confidence to be on stage. She found herself in the classroom, and she hasn't looked back since.

"I love children," she said. "I love seeing what happens when they see their talent grow."

Alejandro's take on teaching music is that it should have just as rigorous a curriculum as reading, writing and arithmetic. Her students learn to read, write and perform music, sing and think critically about performances.

"I can't think of any subject where you get more benefit," she said. "You have to be diligent and hardworking. Reading music is related to math. Clapping to music, that's math."

To teach her curriculum, Alejandro relies on Qwizdom, a system that she says has revolutionized the way she teaches. It has Power Point-like slides, which she uses to show lyrics, teach concepts or give tests. To take the tests, students answer with handheld controllers that automatically tell them if their answers are correct. Alejandro also knows instantaneously who is participating and how many answered correctly.

"They're alive when they're testing," she said. "Their eyes are wide open. If I give a paper test, they say, 'Do I have to do it?' This is cooler than cool."

Alejandro said she is the only teacher in the district using the Qwizdom system, which can be adapted for other subjects, and she is one of a few in the state teaching with it.

"I'm one of those pioneers at the state level," she said. "I've never been scared of technology."

The handheld gadget is right up the students' alley. It makes sense to teach with something they really respond to, she said.

"They're technology wizards," she said.

Alejandro's teaching style also includes giving what students want. While some music teachers may be inclined to teach only folk songs, Alejandro's students leave class humming contemporary songs, such as Daniel Powter's "Bad Day." It's all about giving choices, she said.

"Why not give them the songs they will enjoy?" Alejandro said.

Alejandro has been getting her fifth-graders at all three elementary schools ready for their concerts in November, and their program runs the gamut. There are Disney songs, which she uses to illustrate pitch and intervals, as well as "My Heart Will Go On" from the movie Titanic. She said she included the movie theme song in the program as a reflection of the times her students are growing up in.

"This generation has grown up with 9-11, Katrina and the war in Iraq--they're huge tragedies and losses," she said.

Alejandro has a knack for making sure every student feels included. Her repertoire includes a song she has written about the holidays around the world. She's already written verses about Diwali, Kwanzaa, Santa Lucia and others, and plans on adding one about Eid, the Muslim holiday that commemorates the end of Ramadan. Today, the students want to sing the verse about Chinese New Year, and she pounds along on the piano.

"They sit up straighter because they feel included," Alejandro said.

Her compassionate nature toward her students has not been lost on Cathie Thermond, a Saratoga parent. Thermond recalls the time six years ago that Redwood Middle School was putting on the musical Peter Pan.

"Every girl wanted to be Wendy, but very few of them could pull off being Wendy," she said.

While it might have been easier to cut the 70 or so girls who aspired to be Wendy to a more manageable number during the auditions, Alejandro allowed each one to give her best shot.

"By encouraging them to try and sing, they felt so good and accomplished," Thermond said.

It is because Alejandro feels so strongly about including every child that she has written her own musicals to accommodate more lead parts, the teacher said.

Alejandro said she's lucky to work in Saratoga where parents appreciate and support what she does. Right back at you, the parents say. The music program is funded by the Saratoga Education Foundation, and Terrie Creamer, president of the foundation, said the future of the music program seems secure.

"The program is the heart and soul of what we fund," Creamer said. "When we look at what we grant, there's never a discussion about music."

With 900 students each week and 27 of her own private students, Alejandro is looking to slow down. She directed her last Redwood musical last year, though she'd like to compose more. She would also like to introduce younger teachers to Qwizdom as a way to contribute. But even if she is scaling back a bit, her music is just as spirited, and she will continue having a line of children following her sound for a long time to come.

The fifth-grade concerts are scheduled for the end of November. Argonaut Elementary School will have its program on Nov. 27; Foothill Elementary School on Nov. 29; and Saratoga Elementary School on Nov. 30.