CECIL TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Walk down the halls of Cecil Intermediate School and you may hear the beat of the drums and feel the vibration in the floors. It’s all part of new programming to impact children’s overall well-being inside the classroom.
“This is the age where children are starting to discover ‘Who am I? Am I different than my friends? What do I like? What do I not like?” said Deanna Grandstaff, the band director at Cecil Intermediate.
A drum circle allows these 5th and 6th students to let those feelings flow in a first-of-its-kind programming in the Canon-McMillian School District.
“The entire impetus of this was mental health and mental well-being of children and knowing the children in the room and seeing their faces light up because they were doing something where they were moving, weren’t communicating through words but they were communicating through their hands,” Grandstaff said.
The three-day workshop comes after Grandstaff was the first Pennsylvania teacher to be selected as a CMA Foundation Teacher of Excellence. With that prestige came $5000 to bring back her district’s music program.
“I could spend that money on a bass clarinet, but that would only impact one child in my band program and that didn’t sit right to me so I wanted to bring in programming that wouldn’t just impact my band students but every student at Cecil Intermediate School,” Grandstaff said.
The work expands outside music as these kids learn teamwork, communication and patience.
“We did the drums, and I had a littler one that was louder, and I liked the rhythms,” said Wyatt Saut who’s in the 5th grade.
Saut told Channel 11 he felt the energy in class as he walked away with new skills and a smile on his face. Something Grandstaff hopes her students take beyond the classroom.
“The success that students experience in music does propel them to finding success in other areas of their lives,” Grandstaff said.
The program will expand to include all 5th and 6th graders in the district, so students at North Strabane will have the workshop the week of March 10th.
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