Christine Smith will be leaving Malad Elementary after an amazing decade.  We spoke with her about her experience teaching music, her love for her hometown, and her plans for the future.

Christine started teaching a fifth grade class in 2015. “I learned a lot about the tremendous demands that are placed on our classroom teachers that year. The next year, I was hired for the music teaching job. I found that the music teaching job was a perfect place for me. This allowed me to know all of the students and to be a part of the Dragon Leader program. 

I had taught for maybe two years when Jennifer Brown shared with me the book “Leader in Me” by Stephen and Sean Covey. I LOVED IT! I think I underlined and made notes from every page. I shared it with Ms. McIntyre and she got the ball rolling for the whole school to read the book and do a book study on it as a faculty. It has taken several years to get our own version of this leadership model developed into what we have today as our Dragon Leader program, but it has made a tremendous difference,” Smith said. 

“I especially enjoyed working with the Lighthouse Team. This is a group of 20 fifth grade students that have special training in the 8 habits and use these skills to do many different leadership opportunities. I have given leadership lessons, created monthly assemblies, practiced scripts for our programs, created special musical numbers for Talent Shows and helped with morning announcement videos. The 8 habits have become a daily vocabulary and language that we use in all of our lessons. These habits will help not only the students become great leaders but also the faculty and staff.”

There are a number of specific events that Smith will miss, but one in particular stands out.  “Performing the Veterans Program each year has been an incredible honor. I will greatly miss working with our local American Legion. Our Veterans are some of the bravest people I know and are my heroes. I hope that we will always give our fifth grade students the incredible experience of putting on a Veterans Program because their patriotism for their country and respect for our Veterans begins there.”

Even beyond her love of teaching, Smith has a strong sense of the value of music in student’s lives. “Every year I teach a unit on what music does for us intellectually, socially, and emotionally. Music is proven to improve our brain functions between our left and right hemispheres. When we listen to uplifting music our brain is transferring so many messages and making new pathways throughout the brain. However, fireworks go off in our brain when we actually play an instrument and perform music.”

This has a direct connection to academic performance and social development.  “We often stress and worry about how can we get our students’ scores to go up each year as they are testing. The fact that our school district values music especially in the elementary school is a huge benefit to our student’s scores increasing and their brain power developing.

Music also creates social skills, self-esteem, hard work ethic, grit, perseverance, self-motivation, self-discipline and confidence. There are endless qualities that can be developed from students having music in their lives. I have seen it with my own children and with all the students I have taught for the last 9 years.”

MES students presented Mrs Music with a Thank You poster.

 Asked about her future plans, Smith acknowledged it will be hard to leave.  “There have been many times throughout the last few months where tears have come to my eyes as the students are smiling and singing their very best,” she said. “They smile as we do fun activities and play the instruments. So, saying good-bye and letting go of this dream job has been very hard for me.  I am getting married in June and moving to Albuquerque, New Mexico at the end of August. I will still be in Malad quite a bit for the next few years as my children and parents are still in this area. I hope the children will continue to come up to me when they see me and give me a hug as they have done all throughout the last 10 years of my teaching career.

Her advice to the next music teacher? “Honestly- to pray every day for the energy to give all the love that they can to the children and those they work with. I love teaching music but it is a demanding job to keep your energy up for all the classes that you see throughout each day and week. I knew that the students looked forward to their music specials class each week. Sometimes this was one of the only happy places that the students had in their lives. I felt a tremendous responsibility to always be positive, loving and have fun with the students so that their music specials was a place they could let go of their worries and struggles and be happy for 40 minutes of their week. Music is a place that all students can succeed, feel safe, loved, develop a love for music, and learn how to become a better dragon leader. The next teacher will hopefully be able to enjoy the special moments as I did and also give their whole heart and soul to lifting and loving the children as I tried to do each day.

Looking back, she feels Malad is a unique place for music. 

“For the last several years, the PTO has been able to bring in a group that does plays with our students and in one week’s time are able to perform a very delightful production for the community. I have received the comment from the directors of those plays that our students are the best singers that they have worked with around the nation. They wondered how we could have so many students that sing on pitch and love to sing. 

I think the families in our community appreciate and value music. This makes our students very unique from other students around the nation. I am so very grateful for the administration and school board that has made music a certified teaching job and a priority in our elementary school. Unfortunately, not very many school districts still have this precious privilege. We are unique in that we see the importance of music and the students benefit greatly from the intellectual, emotional and social abilities that are gained because of music class in their lives.

By way of parting words, Smith said, “No words can describe and portray what is in my heart. The last ten years have been very challenging for me for many different reasons. But thanks to the children’s hugs and smiles I was able to keep going. Because of the teachers and staff checking on me and being there for me, I was able to keep going. Because of the parent’s kind texts, gifts and cards throughout the last 10 years, I was able to keep going. So, a huge thank you to all of you that have encouraged and loved me in so many thoughtful ways. 

My greatest hope would be that Malad will always make music a valued and important part of our elementary students’ education. I would also hope that students will always remember how they felt in my classroom and when they were around me. They were seen, they were loved, and they were encouraged to be the best musician and dragon leader they could be. I love you all and will never forget all that you have done for me!”

We wish Mrs. Music well on her life’s next journey!