ROTTERDAM Bragle teaches elementary music, heart and soul Editor’s Note: This is part of a regular series of notable teachers from around the Capital Region. BY MICHAEL GOOT Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Michael Goot at 395-3105 or mgoot@dailygazette.net.
Being a music teacher is in Kathleen Bragle’s genes. Her mother was a teacher of everything from kindergarten to grade 12 and her father was a history teacher, in addition to being a violist. Music and history blended to create the teacher Bragle is today: she has students sing rap songs about the presidents and states. She wants to have a meaningful impact on students’ lives. “Get to know them in a unique way that perhaps a classroom teacher doesn’t,” she said. Bragle looked around her spacious music room, which was formerly part of Jefferson Elementary School’s cafeteria before a building renovation in 2003. She said it has the best acoustics in the school. “I like this room to be a peaceful place for them — a place where they can create something beautiful, a place where they can relax, but also a place charged with creative energy.” Bragle grew up in Westchester County and did her undergraduate work at the College of Saint Rose. She was at the University of Illinois pursuing a master’s in musicology — the history of music — with the hope of teaching at the college level. “I walked across the street to music ed building and fell in love,” she said. She started her career in Albany in 1970 for two years and after some time off to raise children came to the Schalmont district in 1976. She has been exclusively at Jefferson since 1982. Bragle said the students are largely the same, despite being busier and pulled in so many different directions. “I find them to be very respectful, very kind and very loving.” START YOUNG Bragle said she particularly enjoys teaching kindergartners because they are precious and untouched by the world. This year, she was teaching them twice a week because the district expanded to full-day kindergarten. “They are the joy of my life. They are the reason I am not retiring,” she said. “These guys have really wrapped themselves around my heart a few times.” .................>>>>.......................>>>>................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01400&AppName=1
Logged
