 When T-K/kindergarten teacher, Patti Steele, organized a Guitars In The Classroom (GITC) Porch Pickup℠ to distribute ukuleles to her students learning at home back in March, she knew they would be excited. What she didn’t expect was how eager the students’ families would be to participate. She came to the home of GITC’s executive director to help hand the ukuleles out in person one weekend.  “I was actually shocked at how many families came out when the kids could pick up their instruments. They were all so excited,” explains Ms. Steele. “I got to see so many families, and by families I mean all the members, not just those I saw at drop-off or pick-up when school was in session.” Like many GITC teachers, Ms. Steele began the school year strumming and singing with her students in person as part of their everyday curriculum at Paradise Hills Elementary School in San Diego, California. But when the pandemic caused school closures, the class was forced to pivot online -- and if you can picture how difficult it is to keep a room full of kindergarteners engaged and learning in person, imagine the challenge of doing it over Zoom! Ms. Steele jokingly refers to her first weeks online as “a nightmare” but the technical challenges and the struggle to engage students through computers was anything but funny. Class attendance dropped and Ms. Steele feared she would lose track of some of her students. That is, until she reached for her ukulele!  “The greatest number of kids would show up when I said we were having ukulele time,” Ms. Steele explains. “And anytime our GITC teaching artist, Jefferson Jay, would join us online -- that’s when I had the most Zoom attendance.” These teaching artist visits to classrooms at Paradise Hills were co-funded by the San Diego Unified School District and District 4 Councilmember Monica Montgomery’s discretionary funding for her community through the City of San Diego. Ms. Steele was tapping into something that many GITC teachers are witnessing in online classrooms -- the power that music holds to engage students and increase focus and fun in distance learning settings. With all the boxes and buttons, Zoom sessions can feel impersonal or even uncomfortable for young learners. Add tech or language barriers and things get even more complicated. Music has the power to break through these barriers, or as Patti Steele puts it, to level the playing field.  “Online learning is so hard at this age, but music is a way to reach them all and level the playing field,” she explains. “Some of the parents didn’t speak English, some had to go to work, but this was some common ground. I think the ukulele is what saved me, and the kids, too. It was a common denominator and it was the highlight of my Zoom classes.”  GITC set up a Play and Pay it Forward campaign online to raise funds for student instruments. Families who could afford to contribute did so, and some GITC benefactors helped out. This community approach made it possible for GITC to help many classes at the end of the last school year. Once her students had picked up their own instruments, Ms. Steele quickly noticed that they were not the only ones enjoying classroom ukulele time. Siblings, parents, grandparents, and pets began to join in the fun, too. When the class wrote a song about COVID to the tune of Wheels On the Bus, family members pitched in ideas. And at age 64, veteran teacher Ms. Steele felt like she was getting to know her students on a whole new level. “It was such a nice inside picture into their families,” she explains. “In one family, all the siblings had ukuleles and they would all sit lined up, on the couch with this huge cat, and play together. It was great. I learned so many things I didn’t know about them.” Ms. Steele is also using the pandemic as an opportunity to expand her own GITC training, with a current focus on guitar.  GITC Faculty Trainer Joan Maute “Open [tuning] guitar is great for me and I’ve been doing that with GITC instructor, Joan Maute. I just love the sound of the guitar,” she explains. “Before that, I took a songwriting class taught by GITC founder, Jess Baron, and it was so moving to hear the amazing songs people wrote. I enjoyed getting to know everyone and the class really kept me going, despite the world feeling so scary. GITC classes have given me something to look forward to. They’ve also given me a window to the world while stuck at home, because the other teachers in my online classes are from all over the United States!” She may love strumming her guitar, but what is Ms. Steele most looking forward to when classes resume online in just a few weeks? Ukulele time with her students, of course! “I can use the ukulele in every subject and that’s the thing that’s great about it,” she explains. “It’s the thing I’m most excited about. It’s my highlight. And even if I retire, I still plan to volunteer with the teachers at my school to keep GITC going. I will help the young teachers coming in and say, “I’ll sit with you in class. I’ll tune your ukes. I’m just here to help you.’ I want to do something to take away the obstacles they think are in their way. So many avenues open up through music that we don’t even know about. It levels the playing field and brings people together -- especially now, when there is so much divide.” Check out these great photos of Patti Steele's class:
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 MIRC headquarters in Franklin, TN Please join us in welcoming Musical Instrument Reclamation Corporation (MIRC) to the GITC family! MIRC is the nation's largest wholesaler of quality used guitars and we are thrilled that they are joining our effort to infuse music into classrooms during this challenging time. We are so grateful to GITC Board Member Tom Dougherty for connecting us to MIRC CEO, Jason Gano. Gano became the CEO of MIRC in January 2020, when founding owner, Monte Richards, retired after 27 years. He had no way of knowing that just a few months later, a global pandemic and economic crisis would hit. He also had no way of knowing that many Americans would use the pandemic, and resulting home-quarantine, as an opportunity to learn how to play guitar! As a result, he reports that business is “through the roof!"  MIRC takes imperfect guitars and transforms them into quality instruments “I’m hearing lots of people say that they need something to take their minds off what’s happening, so they are focusing on guitar,” says Gano. “It’s my hope that we can help people turn this interest into a lifelong thing.” MIRC is a Franklin, Tennessee based company that takes “distressed” instruments from the industry’s leading guitar brands and rehabilitates them so they can be sold, or in GITC’s case, donated. Their small, dedicated staff is made up entirely of musicians who are passionate about their craft and pride themselves on being able to repair a broken headstock to where you can’t even tell it was broken.  These guitars are about to get a makeover! “We are saving guitars from ending up in landfills,” Gano explains. In GITC’s case, MIRC was able to donate 5 Fender nylon string guitars that will go directly into the hands of teachers and students who need them, along with two beautiful Washburn cutaways and 11 Cordoba ukuleles. “I wouldn’t be where I am today without classroom guitar so I do what I can to give back,” says Gano. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that his wife, Rosemary, has been a guitar and piano instructor at West Potomac High School in Alexandria, VA for the last 20 years! We are so grateful to welcome the Ganos and MIRC into our GITC family!  Rosemary Gano with guitar ensemble For more information on Musical Instrument Reclamation Corporation (MIRC), please visit their website www.mircweb.com.
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