New Haven’s Teacher of the Year was behind the piano teaching her kids the Hallelujah Chorus. In the process she was also teaching them how to stand up straight and present themselves for job interviews.
Such is the secret behind Harriett Alfred’s methods.
Alfred has taught music at Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School since 1998. Monday night she was at the Board of Ed’s bimonthly meeting to receive her official proclamation as 2008 New Haven Teacher of the Year. She was cited for 22 years of service; mentoring of new teachers; and developing a methodology to use instructional music to prepare kids for the state-mandated academic tests.
The reason Alfred was nominated was everywhere evident in her musical classroom Wednesday at Coop. It was visible in the way her students such as Courtney Carter not only practice their soprano solos with their teacher, but also gently place their hand on Alfred’s shoulder.
“It’s not only about music,” said Courtney, who is a senior and travels in from Waterbury every day to Coop. “We talk about family things, all kinds of stuff.”
All kinds of stuff indeed. Alfred’s principal at Coop, Lola Garcia-Blocker, who nominated her, said, “Harriett bonds with our kids in a unique way. Harriett sees our music majors 90 minutes a day every day, and for four years as she’s the only chorus teacher. She’s like their mom, their aunt, their sister, their pastor. The chorus is a genuine family.
“And there’s something else about music. In academic classes, the individual shines, stands out. In a chorus, you need, each person, to come together as one. She does an incredible job teaching that kind of thing to many kids over the years.”
One of them is Paul Hudson, on the far right in the photo, along with two other students, Tiffany Davis (beside Alfred) and Anita Dyer. “Ms. Alfred,” Hudson said, “stresses how we should present ourselves, always be disciplined. There’s a lot of carryover to life in what she does.”
“Be proud of what you’re doing,” Alfred said to underline what the students, gathering around her piano during a break in rehearsal, were telling a reporter. “I tell these kids that when they sing, they’re delivering a message. That message is not just what the song contains, but what’s not said, but felt: Pride in the excellence of what they’re doing.
“Did I work you kids hard today?”
A collective “yes” harmonized about the room.
“I saw it in their eyes. Well, maybe not all their eyes. But I don’t give up on them, none of them. Social skills as well as music.”
Then she lifted up from her bench to spy one student at the far end of the piano. “Does anyone want to pay to see you slouch, to see you look like you don’t want to be there?”
Anita Dyer, who aspires, like many of Alfred’s students, to a professional career, particularly responds to Alfred’s musical challenges.
“What I liked best about yesterday’s practice,” she said, was the melissma. Ms. Alpert wasn’t 100 percent sure we could do it …”
“… That’s a section of the Haydn,” the teacher interjected, “that’s pretty difficult, where there’s a lot of long musical phrases on just one syllable of text.”
“But she gave it to us,” the young soprano went on, “because she believes in us, and she thinks it’s important. Not a lot of kids today learn it, and if we want to sing in choruses later in life it’ll be with us.”
Principal Garcia-Blocker said that her best teachers, like Alfred, are those who not only teach their subject, but are the subject. “Harriett is an artist, in the classroom and out. For her it’s not a job. It’s who she is. And the kids really respond to that.”
Alfred indeed is a soloist comfortable singing equally in classical and gospel traditions. She performs with several choruses, including New Haven’s Heritage Chorale. She’s received honors as a music educator previously from the New Haven Symphony and from Yale University.
The three finalists for the award, also recognized at the BOE ceremony, were: Rocio Barahona, a grade 2 bilingual teacher at Clinton Avenue School; Melissa Talarczyk, a kindergarten teacher at Roberto Clemente; and Hilary Walsh, a grade 2 teacher at Fair Haven School.
Alfred said that she was humbled by the award because she is surrounded by so many excellent educators. “But, honestly, I’m really grateful that finally, a teacher in the arts is getting the distinction. I’ll take it!”
Catch the spirit of this chorus and their now honored teacher at a holiday concert of the Coop Choral and Strings Department at the First and Summerfield United Methodist Church, at Church and Elm, on December 17 at 7 p.m.
Congratulations to all the teachers recognized and the hundreds of others who educate every day.
-Richard Therrien
NHPS Science Supervisor