After just recently finishing up the requirements for her Bachelor Degrees in both Education and Music, Kindersley’s Adelle Sawatzky is back in town for an amazing opportunity. She was lucky enough to secure a part-time contract with Elizabeth School, that will see her teach Grade 5/6 band for the remainder of the school year.

Sawatzky says she spent 5 great years at the University of Regina attaining these goals, making new friendships and doing lots of hard work in-between. Her main area of study was classical voice, but she also logged considerable time with both the piano and trumpet over her 5 years of school. She has always been into music, taking piano lessons at age 7 and private voice lessons when she was 9.

Adelle’s new role at Elizabeth School comes because the former band teacher chased an opportunity in Newfoundland, creating an opening for the recently graduated local.

“I was interested in the position because I had just graduated from university, and when you graduate you can get your teachers certificate and start teaching right away,” explained Sawatzky, “You can substitute teach or some people get temporary contracts, so I was fortunate enough to successfully apply, and get the part-time position at Elizabeth.”

Sawatzky might not know her plans outside of the immediate future, but what she does know is this great opportunity at home is something that can get her teaching career off to a head-start.

“It has been really cool because there has been a lot of support for not only music, but just people who do come back to the community to teach. It is kind of the best situation anyone could have for their first time teaching,” she said, “Parents reach out, community members. They are excited for me and excited for their kids to be taught by a community member. I think that is the number one benefit.”

Another added benefit is the fact that Sawatzky’s former band teacher at KCS Colleen Oscar-Swan, has acted as a great mentor.

“She has showed me the ropes a lot, and what it takes to navigate a whole room of children with instruments that can be loud,” laughed Sawatzky.

Dealing with health restrictions in the band room has been one of the challenges she’s had to face so far, but help from Oscar-Swan, as well as the schools administration staff has been key to letting her settle in to her first role. She described what she tries to convey to her class in an interesting comparison.

“It’s like when children first start to begin to read. We do the basics, but even when kids are learning to read in Grade 1 they can find things that are exciting to them. It’s the same thing for music. There is great music written for younger players that is exciting while still teaching fundamentals.” detailed Sawatzky, “It’s a really exciting time for a young musician because they are just starting to get their feet wet with all this new music. They are basically learning a new language in music, so it’s very exciting for them.”

Sawatzky will continue to push this message as her time this year at Elizabeth ticks down, and continue working on making her first real job as a teacher a memorable one.

“I’ve got really hard-working students at Elizabeth, so it has been great!”