By Ed Pierce
Imagine working one job in one place for the past 41 years and you’ll realize that Patti Gordan is an exceptional and dedicated individual and an outstanding teacher who students will miss terribly when she retires next month.
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| Patti Gordan teaches a weekly General Music class for all students attending Raymond Elementary School from PreK through Grade Four. She is retiring at the end of the school year after working at the school since 1984. SUBMITTED PHOTO |
“I was a cantor at my church, where Frank McDermott, the Superintending Principal of Jordan-Small School, was a member. One day after a service he came up to me and asked me if I would be interested in applying for a seven hour a week, long term substitute position teaching band,” Gordan said. “The current teacher was going on maternity leave. I started on Jan. 4, 1984. Then, right before February vacation, he came to me again. The band teacher had decided not to come back, and the current General Music/Chorus teacher had resigned. He asked if I would be interested in the entire music position. So, I guess I put in my toe and then jumped into the deep end. Forty-plus years later, here I am.”
Growing up in Scarborough, she played saxophone for the school band and sang with the school chorus. She was also a member of a select show choir and a participant in District and All State honors music festivals. During her senior year of high school, she was awarded the John Philip Sousa Award for band. At the University of New Hampshire, Patti majored in voice and singing and appeared with the UNH Concert Choir and Women's Choir. She also participated in the UNH Wildcat Marching Band as a member of the color guard and for a brief time she was the lead singer in a rock band called "Round Trip." She earned a degree in music education from UNH and was hired as a music teacher out of college for another school, but she wasn’t happy in that job.
“I didn’t think I wanted to be a music teacher,” she said. “My mother advised me to try it one more year in a different place. I was hired by the Raymond School Department in January 1984 and have been here since.”
RES Principal Beth Peavey says the school will not be the same without Gordan.
“After 42 incredible years of inspiring students through the power of music, Patti Gordan, our beloved elementary school music teacher, is retiring,” she said. “For more than four decades, she has filled our halls with song, sparked creativity in young minds, and helped generations of children find their voice – literally and figuratively. As we celebrate her well-earned retirement, we thank Mrs. Gordan for the passion, dedication, and heart she brought to every single note.”
Gordan credits three people for being instrumental in her teaching career.
“Nancy Cash-Cobb was an important mentor. I learned to teach General Music classes by attending workshops that she organized and workshops that she presented herself,” Gordan said. “She has been, and still is, a dear friend. Norma Richard was the principal of Raymond Elementary School for the first decade of its existence. She truly believed that music education was just as important as any other subject. She supported me and encouraged me to reach for the stars and create a music program that was more than typical for most Maine elementary music programs. And Jani Cummings was a dear friend and mentor. She taught in Raymond for over 40 years, mostly first grade. She supported me in every kind of way. When I came to Raymond, I was still a beginning teacher. My skills were, shall we say, survival level. She taught me the art of teaching.”
She currently teaches all students at Raymond Elementary from PreK through Grade 4 in a weekly General Music class.
“Kindergarten has music class twice a week. We have a music curriculum which aligns with the Maine Learning Results. I plan and teach lessons, assess the students’ knowledge and skills, give them feedback and help them plan their next learning steps,” she said. “They learn singing skills, beat/rhythm skills, music artistry/listening skills, musicianship, and general musical knowledge such as musical terms, styles, instrument identification, music history and the science of music. Second through Fourth grade students also learn basic music literacy. I also teach Third and Fourth grade chorus. We rehearse once a week during the school day and present two concerts a year.”
According to Gordan, whatever songs, activities, or games she teaches to the students, she tries to be sure that they can perform them without me.
“I went to a workshop once where the presenter said that when you give someone a gift, you don’t hold on to the other end,” she said. “You let it go. I will have done no good if my students cannot make music without me.”
Married for 44 years and the mother of two grown sons who live in the area, Gordan has young grandchildren and wants to spend more time with them.
“Also, I want to go on vacation in the fall, when all the kids are back at school,” she said. “Fewer crowds, fewer lines, less expensive, and it will distract me, so I won’t think about how weird it is to not be coming back to school. If I were home, I’d probably wander around in little circles.”
She says that the best thing about being a music teacher is when her students work hard at learning a song or music game and then have a deep sense of pride that they have created something amazing and can perform it independently.
“I love listening to them sing, especially my chorus. Their angelic sound sometimes makes me tear up,” Gordan said. “I love the children’s enthusiastic expressions of affection. When they see me in the grocery store, you’d think I was some kind of star. I love the hugs and little notes, covered with hearts and music notes, that they leave in my mailbox. I always hope that I am ‘that teacher,’ the one that made a difference.”
For Gordan, her own most influential teachers include her fourth-grade teacher, Mrs. Murray, who enriched lessons with hands-on experiences and her seventh-grade English teacher, Mr. McIntyre, who used a book called “30 Days To A Better Vocabulary” and showed students that big words could be fun.
“The most influential music teacher to help me did not come into my life during childhood but in the mid-1990s,” Gordan said. “Dr. John Feierabend of Hart School of Music developed a music education method for early childhood and a music literacy education method for elementary students. I attended several of his workshops and took a week-long summer course with him. To say that it changed my professional life would be an understatement. In retirement I plan to get certified as a trainer.”
She says that her most enduring memory that she’ll take away from working at Raymond Elementary School is that it’s a warm, caring, place to work.
“I have taught generations of Raymond students,” Gordan said. “In fact, many of my current students are children of former students. It feels like a large family.” <
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