Farewell for Now – Mrs. Graziani

After being with the school for twelve years (two as a long term sub and ten as a full time teacher) Mrs. Ashley Graziani is resigning from her position to spend some quality time with her two baby girls Amara – 20 months – and Lilliana – 8 months. While she hopes to go back to teaching once they reach kindergarten for right now she is saying goodbye. Over the years Mrs. Graziani has had the chance to influence lots of students while teaching multiple classes including: Recorders, Elementary Band, Elementary Choir, Jr. High Band, Jr. High Choir, Treble Choir, Senior High Choir,  Senior High Band, Marching Band, Bella Voci, Jazz Band and putting on the Musicals. Over the bast 12 years she has formed lots of memories but her favorite is when after every concert or musical when she got to see how the students are proud of themselves and of what they have accomplished “That moment just never gets old after the musical when you guys are done with and I remember where you guys were at point A and how far you’ve come. . . it’s why I do it.” While she knows she is doing this for her daughters it doesn’t make it any easier to say goodbye she is particularly going to miss the students and the relationships that she formed with them. Being a part of the school has made all the difference in her life by giving her every student that walked through her classroom door whether it was a student that music came easy to giving her a chance to develop a great relationship or a student who was struggling allowing her to see other ways that she could step out of herself and be there for others. Mrs. Graziani would like to tell whoever comes after her that they are walking into the best job in the world. And, to whoever plans on going into music education, she would also like to pass on something her mentor and high school choir director told her “If you decide that you want to teach music it can never be about teaching music. Music is just dots on a page, you’re here to teach kids and you have the privilege to teach them about music which is the icing on the cake.”