TEACHER HELPS STUDENTS BE MUSICAL

Pam Dumey thinks she has the best job in the world. She teaches music at Clippard Elementary School in Cape Girardeau.

"I believe I have the best job in the world," she said. "Every day I get to sing and dance with children. I get to lead them through musical experiences, encourage them to be creative and watch them be successful."

Dumey has been teaching music for 14 years but lately began using a special method in the classroom.

The Orff-Schulwerk technique uses singing, saying, dancing and playing instruments to teach children to be musical.

"Students accompany their own singing by playing specially designed xylophones, recorders and a variety of percussion instruments," Dumey said. "The goal of an Orff lesson is to practice the musical skill or concept in a musical setting."

The modern Orff lessons were developed by Jos Wytok and are based on the ideas of a German composer, Carl Orff.

"Orff believed children should learn to play, sing and dance to music in the elemental style before learning to read music notation," Dumey said. "It's similar to speaking a language before learning to read and write it."

Teachers who use the Orff method act as a facilitator and allow children to discover music through their own creativity. In her classroom, Dumey models a skill or concept and then lets the students explore.

"After exploring the skill or concept using singing, movement and instrument playing, the children create their own performance using improvisation and creative choices," she said. Often the students create their own folk dances to learn beat competency and form.

Dumey is a graduate of Southeast Missouri State University. She has completed three levels of the Orff-Schulwerk certification and has been invited to teach a master class with Wytok in 1997.

She also directs the Children's Choir and Fiesta de Musica children's choirs for Southeast Missouri Music Academy and the Adult Choir at Immaculate Conception Church in Jackson.

Dumey and her husband, John, have been married 15 years and have three children, Amanda, Sarah and Zachariah.