Westbrooke teacher shares music on Singing Space

Westbrooke Elementary School students might be missing their music teacher, Lisa Hewitt, but it doesn’t mean they can’t see her. Hewitt is one of thousands of music educators who have posted a video on the Singing Space Facebook page since schools have gone to the homeschool format because of the coronavirus.

“Think of this as the world’s biggest, kindest music classroom,” the Facebook page tells families.

A friend of Hewitt’s, Meg Tietz, created the page as a way to handle her anxiety.

“She’s a music teacher in Minnesota, and she was having great anxiety about all this and the possibility of not seeing her students for a while … and she turned (her anxiety) into action,” Hewitt said.

Tietz started the Facebook page and asked all of her musical friends and teachers to share videos of themselves singing and playing music. Hewitt joined immediately, picked up her guitar and sang “Going to the Zoo,” a fun ditty about elephants, monkeys, black bears and seals she typically sings with her kindergarten and first-grade students.

Hewitt said the Singing Space page can be helpful to parents and families.

“It’ll engage them in making music, and sometimes that is just a way emotionally for us to take ourselves out of a stressful situation,” she said. “And they’ll just see normal people singing with kids.”

Hewitt said many in the younger generation are buying music but not participating in it. She’s encouraging parents and grandparents to share their music stories and their childhood music.

And as far as music goes, make it creative and “make it yours,” she said.

When Orange County Public Schools opened the schools for a few days so teachers could pick up their materials, Hewitt grabbed some books and instruments so she could continue her lessons online.

“I’m going to embrace it because I’m going to do right by their kids,” Hewitt said. “Teachers really do love their kids. I have friends who are crying because they won’t see their kids again.”

Her goals during the social-distancing order are to make the students feel engaged and safe and to allow the parents to see the value of what music does.”

Hewitt has been the music educator at Westbrooke Elementary since it opened. She enjoys watching students get creative with music and watching them explore variations in songs and instruments.

The Singing Space has given music teachers around the world a chance to see what other music educators are doing in the absence of an actual classroom right now.

“It is simply designed as a safe space for children to listen and sing and be,” the site states. “This is a place for people who want to alleviate some of the stress of a difficult time for our kiddos.”