Out-of-School Time Champion: Andrew Saletta

Onward! School Community Youth Collaborative - Cortez, Colorado

For many years, this program instructor has provided phenomenal music clubs for our youth, including Musical Theatre, Rock Band Club, Choir, and Ukulele. Andrew is a master teacher who utilizes an exceptional teaching toolkit to instruct students with musical knowledge, provide student leadership opportunities, and prepare students for public musical performances that continually wow our small community. Student choice and leadership are evident in his clubs, as most performances involve a song that the students wrote themselves. Students are confident when they enter his learning space, as he has built a safe environment based on student ownership and support. Our students are so blessed by this program instructor's musical passion and dedication to providing amazing learning opportunities year after year. He helps elevate our free OST program to a level comparable to expensive, private courses, and we are so grateful to be able to make these experiences accessible to all students.

As the Musical Theatre instructor, Andrew collaborated with our Stagecraft program instructor to put on a performance of The Wizard of Oz for our community. Over 350 community members attended over two evenings. The free show was held at our Community Opera House, which is in a revitalization process. The audience was amazed by the elementary and middle school actors' improvisation skills, humor, and musical voices. The students performed whole group songs and many solos, all very polished. An immense amount of work went into the performance, which the program instructor described as "a project of joy." This joy could also be felt by the community audience that thoroughly enjoyed the performance, and backstage, the pride the student performers felt was palpable. A highlight of the final show was when Toto the puppet's head came off while being walked by one of the students. While everyone, including the actors, found it funny, no one quite knew what to do. Andrew came up to the stage and said, "Don't worry, I'm a veterinarian!" and helped reattach Toto's head, modeling for the students that it is ok when things don't go perfectly; we can roll with it, fix the problem, and carry on with the show.

Andrew also leads a weekly Rock Band Club for secondary students. Popping into one of their regular sessions, you see an immense amount of student leadership and collaboration, facilitated through thoughtful planning by this program instructor. They begin by getting all of the instruments tuned up. Andrew encourages them to use the resources they have around the room, including each other, to get the instruments tuned. He lends an ear when necessary. When everyone is ready, they begin practicing the first of three songs that their Rock Band, "The Space Vikings," is going to be performing at the opening of a new indoor community skate park.

The drummer counts them in, and all the students play their parts. After the first go through, Andrew suggests an adjustment for the guitarists, and they all retry the riff together. He tells the students that all of the guitarists are capable of the riff, so he wants them all to play it. He then draws out the shape of the song on the board, pointing out where the song builds up each time. For the second go through, Andrew lets the students decide where to pick the song back up from to practice again. Students are very collaborative. The last go through is great. Andrew provides specific praise, celebrating S’s work on bass guitar and E’s confidence on drums. S says she has been practicing a lot at home.

Andrew asks students if they think they should move on to the next song or practice the first one again. Students decide they may not have enough time for all three songs if they don’t move on to the next one. They will come back at the end to play the first song, if time allows. Several students switch instruments/vocals for the second song. Andrew assesses student confidence with the second song through thumbs up, sideways, or down. They review chords for this song and then begin playing. The students stop to make sure they are all on the same tempo and then go through the song again. Andrew jumps in with a piano solo to help the kids keep going when there aren’t vocals. He asks them to consider how the song went and if they want the distortion in the song or not. Students discuss and decide to keep the distortion, but to tone it down a bit. A student and Andrew give feedback on guitar rhythms that could be cleaned up. Andrew adjusts instruction for beginners vs. veterans, but reinforces that both approaches have value and that students need to go with the right approach for them and then move to the next level when they are ready.

They move on to the third song, "We are the Monsters," a song that the students wrote themselves. Several students change instruments again. They get clarifications from each other and Andrew on the entry of the song. Students are very fluent in musical language. Andrew fills in for a student who is absent and gives feedback after the song, saying that there needs to be some volume adjustments. He then asks the students to assess how that song went while they work to adjust guitar volumes.

Andrew asks students for a star (things that are great) and a wish (something that could be better). One student shares that they think that some songs have too many instruments. Andrew explains that they need to let everyone play instruments in each song, and when students go out and make their own rock bands, they can decide exactly how many of each instrument they want. One student suggests that if all the guitars turn down a bit, that might solve the problem. Another student suggests going over music fundamentals again. Andrew

encourages students to make adjustments with each other during songs regarding things like volume levels, and he models how to kindly make those requests. He then praises their work for the day and spends a little more time helping the bass guitarist during the final few minutes of the club.