Lummis music teacher goes extra mile
Educator leads classes before school day starts
By JAN HOGAN
VIEW STAFF WRITER
She gets up extra early on Monday mornings to be at work well before school begins -- and doesn't get paid extra. So why is Kim Dotts, a music teacher at Lummis Elementary School, so eager to teach a class before school hours?
"Life is about the journey, the moment to moment," she said. "When I wake up Monday mornings, I have something to look forward to. This, for me, is fun."
Dotts' fun starts at 8 a.m. on Mondays. Before the regular school day begins, she teaches basic guitar to 24 Lummis fourth- and fifth-grade students in a 45-minute class called The Guitar Ensemble.
The students performed at the school's winter concert in December, playing "Pat-a-Pan" to accompany the Lummis Honor Choir. The guitar players gave a perfect performance after only 10 guitar lessons, Dotts said.
To help the students, she put together a spiral-bound music book of folk songs, such as "Molly Malone," "Irish Washer Woman" and "This Land is My Land." A separate laminated sheet shows fingering positions for 12 chords.
To help them further, Dotts said she includes fun as she teaches, breaking up the lesson by asking students to be detectives of music and using a funny, high-society type of accent.
Also, instead of all slowly strumming together, students might be divided in groups by chord. One group might play a G chord. Another might come in only for the C and D7 part, each playing only their part as they follow the music.
Sometimes playing isn't playing at all. For "This Land is My Land," Dotts pointed out that the notation "N.C." meant "no chord."
"You can pat your guitar for the first two beats, then start strumming," she told students recently.
Spencer Smith, 11, said he'd always wanted to play guitar. He called the class exciting, but said it also is difficult.
"Because I've never read notes on paper before," he said.
"I like it because it's teamwork," said Shannon Knapp, 10. "It's fun to play together."
Parents appreciate the class, as well. Kyra Schindler's father, Cliff, said his 9-year-old loves the class.
"Kids listen to music all the time. For Kyra, it gives her a sense of how difficult it is to play guitar," he said.
Elissa Katz, whose daughter Jolie takes the guitar lessons, said she appreciated that Dotts held the class before school began.
"Otherwise we would never be able to fit it into our crazy lifestyle," she said.
Dotts, who has taught music for nearly two decades, earned an honor's degree in music education with an emphasis in piano and voice from Penn State University in 1988. She was the first-ever recipient of the National Federation of Schools of Music Outstanding Scholarships.
She performed as a vocal soloist with the Penn State Singers, the University Choir and the Concert Choir, as well as being a choir member in the Fred Waring's U.S. Chorus television program. In addition, she was a soloist with the Nittany Valley Symphony Orchestra and the Pennsylvania Chorale, which is Central Pennsylvania's first and only professional vocal ensemble.
She was teaching in upstate New York's Catskills region when she learned of another teacher who used banjo, mandolin and guitar to foster learning skills in junior high school-age students.
Fast forward 20 years and she implemented a similar program at Lummis, 9000 Hillpointe Road, soon after being hired.
Before the class was formed, an announcement about it was sent home with students. The response saw more than 70 children signing on. Dotts ended up holding the class five days a week, in eight-week sessions, to accommodate them all.
This year, she limited the number of participants to 24. Students obtained a space on a first-come, first-served basis.
The limit on guitar lessons was necessary, as Lummis also has a 60-member Honor Choir that practices before school once per week, and a Percussion Ensemble, made up of 20 students, that also meets before school once per week. All the groups are fourth- and fifth-graders and are led by Dotts.
"I think it's wonderful. It's awesome," said Lisa Hanna, assistant principal at Lummis. "The kids are so excited to learn. She makes it fun for them."
The Lummis class will continue until the end of March.
