A Lesson From Baba the Storyteller
Although my channel is titled “Music with Mr. Reyna”, one of my personal challenges is to ensure that the music I share it not just my own, but that of others. As a teacher of an increasingly diverse and culturally responsive curriculum, it’s imperative that I learn to work with culture bearers and those who can more authentically and appropriately share music of a certain culture than I can. While I want my students to see me as a facilitator of their musical learning, I should not have them see my way of doing music as the only way.
I’m incredibly fortunate to work at a school that promotes and facilitates bringing in guest teachers and visiting artists to provide a diverse set of worldviews and practices to our students. This year, the elementary music team partnered with the high school English department to bring Baba the Storyteller to our school for three weeks. Baba is an incredible musician from the United States and is known worldwide for being trained in the Jaliya storytelling tradition from West Africa. He uses a West African instrument called a Kora to tell stories that capture the minds of young children, teenagers, and adults worldwide. His stories provide teachable movements and spark meaningful discussions that can even lead to a healthy diversion of opinions.
Our school is very large, with 52 different sections classes from Early Years 3 to Grade 5. We were able to schedule Baba to teach one lesson to each of our classes. Our students adored him. Every single following class I had with my students, I would always get asked “When is Baba coming back?”
I’m a music teacher in China, and although my school is an international school accepting only foreign-born students, a large majority of the student population has little to no experience with African music and culture. Of course, they learn about Africa throughout their elementary years and are taught songs from various African countries in music class, but they have limited experiences with culture bearers from African traditions. Baba the Storyteller was a great way to have students learn from someone who grew up in such a tradition.
On his last day at our school, Baba agreed to do an extra lesson with a selection of 3rd grade students for my YouTube channel. My students were so excited to be a part of this project. We used the other music teacher’s classroom instead of my own as it was occupied at the time. Our theater crew came in with a camera and audio equipment as well. Unfortunately, there were some problems with the main camera, resulting in a blurry and noisy recording that is not up to my usual standards. At least my iPhone took a good video! For the students, I acquired parent permission before uploading the video.
For more information, please visit Baba’s website at babathestoryteller.com. You can also check out his YouTube channel.
I hope this is not the last time I feature a guest teacher on my channel. If you know someone who might be a good fit for a video, please reach out to me at awreyna@gmail.com and let me know!