Aaron & Elizabeth Edge
As Cordell schools bring back its music courses for students, they are able to do so in the form of their general vocal music teacher Elizabeth Edge and their band director Aaron Edge.
Both new faces to Cordell Schools, Aaron with one year here and Elizabeth just starting out, both share a love of music as well as teaching their students and seeing them prosper throughout their learning.
We got the chance to talk to Elizabeth and Aaron to discuss their school year, what their classes consist of, and what their favorite part of their job is.
Editor's note: Some of these answers have been edited for length.
We’re about a month into the school year, how has it been so far?
Elizabeth: Really it's gone better than I could have ever hoped or expected. The kids, they were without music for an entire year, last year, elementary music at least.
Then, the year before that was the COVID quarantine. So really, they only had half a year and a lot of them didn't remember much from that.
But the kids have enjoyed it and they've just been so excited to come to music and learn, and all of them just have so much fun, which makes my job a thousand times more fun than anything.
Aaron: For me it's been wild. Part of me feels like it should be November, but part of me feels like it should barely be August.
It's been a crazy start, but it's going really, really well. Compared to last year, we weren't allowed to do as much extra stuff. We weren't allowed to go to away football games and travel with the band very much.
This year, we're in full swing. We've been having our early band rehearsals every day and all that stuff. We've been going to all the football games, and we plan to go to every one of them. We have a couple of contests coming up next month that we'll be going to, which is exciting.
So far, the biggest challenge has just been the quarantine. It's hard when you're teaching a marching show to have even three or four or much less eight kids who have to miss two weeks of progress. They don't learn the music. They don't learn the sets. They don't learn the counts. They don't learn anything.
Then they have to come back to basically cram two weeks of work into a day or two. So that’s been the biggest obstacle so far, but aside from quarantines, it's been very good.
What are some things you guys are looking forward to this school year?
E: I think for me, I'm really, really looking forward to seeing the kids grow musically. They're pretty much all starting at the same level, so I'm excited to see how quickly some of the grades who do or can remember some of the things that they learned before can just skyrocket off and show how far they can go within this year.
And of course, performances, I'm hoping that we can do a Christmas program and a Spring program and things like that. I think that that would be fun.
A: For this semester, I'm just looking forward to all the live music opportunities that we have. Well, we're definitely going to do a Christmas concert. We're definitely going to do multiple marching performances. Like I said, we have two contests coming up, so twice as much as last year, and all the different football games and everything.
I'm excited for more performances. We’ll also be at Pumpkin Festival and we're going to the state fair next week for the parade. So I'm just excited to be a lot more active.
As for the full year, I'm most excited for performing, competing, and then the band gets to take their first band trip in the past several years. So we’re going to Colorado Springs and to the Denver area in May. So that's kind of in the works, and that's exciting that they get to get out again.
What is it that got you guys to want to become teachers and end teaching here in Cordell?
E: When I was in high school, I was in a show choir, and I got the opportunity to teach a class for my teacher who had to be out of the room for some reason. I got to teach the eighth graders and while I was teaching them, I was like, “No, there's no way I can do this. This is not what I want to do. I don't want to be a teacher.”
Then I started teaching them what was on their worksheet, and they just started getting it. I could just see the little light bulbs pop up above their heads, and they're like, “Oh! I know how to do this now.” That was the minute I was like, “Okay, just kidding. I want to be a teacher. That's what I'm going to do.” Then I went to college, and here I am!
A: I'm the youngest of five and, um, both my parents and all of my siblings have somehow ended up in either medical or engineering in some way or another. My oldest brother works on computer software for a hospital. So he gets a little bit of both, and it's extended family too, grandparents and uncles, they always go one of those two directions.
My best core subject in school by far was math. I really liked math, which is weird.
E: We’re opposites there.
A: We are, but I always really enjoyed math and I always picked up on it quick. I thought that it would be insulting to do anything that wasn't math or engineering. So whenever I was a junior, I had to write a paper in English about what career path you wanted to take, and I wrote about aeronautical and aerospace engineering.
I submitted the paper. I did all the research I had to do. Then that year, my assistant band director at my high school asked me what I wanted to do and I said, “Probably engineering. I'm looking at aeronautical aerospace.” I don't know how, but he knew I wasn't that into it and asked me, “Is that really what you want to do?”
I said, “ I mean, I guess? It’s what I’m good at,” and he said, “Okay, sure. But you're good at other things. Is that really what you want to do?” And of course I was in the band room all the time after school and during school when I could, and I went to all the extra things and I loved playing.
After talking with him, I was like, “You know? I really don’t. Doing equations at a desk sounds awful! Well, I would do music ed if I knew that I could do it. Getting a job seems pretty tough.” He said, “Listen here, if I walked into a school within a 30 mile radius and said that I was a certified band director with a pulse, they'd probably hire me. Don't worry about that.” So I said okay, and I jumped in and never looked back.
What would you guys say is your favorite part of your job so far?
E: I think I definitely would say my favorite part of the job is that I see the whole elementary school every week. Seeing the kids happy to come to music brightens my day, every single day. I don't know that that'll ever change. I think that's something that I'm always going to be excited to see.
A: Probably the satisfaction of a finalized polished product. Last year, the spring concert that happened in May. We did all grades fifth through twelfth grade, and I think my favorite part was the fifth grade concert at first, because those were the kids that had me the most.
I went from teaching them what the instrument was called to, how to hold the thing. Then, by the end of the year, they had a good sounding concert. I like looking back at where we were versus where we are now and just seeing the development. Highschool was just as satisfying because when I first came in, they didn't know me and I didn't know them, it was after five months of not playing their instruments. So it was delightfully questionable the sounds that were in that room.
The concert ended up being really, really good and a lot of fun, and there was a lot of energy and emotions in it. So a finalized, polished product and then reflection is probably my favorite part in general.
This kind of goes back to the one you just answered, but what is it that motivates you in teaching?
E: Motivates me for teaching. Sometimes it's not easy to get up there and be excited and energetic all the time, and for both of our jobs, that's really what it takes. If they know you're tired, they're gonna just be tired, but it's kind of the same answer, just seeing the kids coming in and being excited for music.
I can really feed off of their energy if they're like, “It's music day! I'm so excited to see Mrs. Edge!” Then they come in and it literally just brightens my day. It makes me motivated to do my job. I’ll steal some of [Aaron’s] answer too, really seeing just in the first few weeks of school where they started and where they're at now.
I've got kids that couldn't read music and now I've got kids that tell me exactly where on the staff those notes are supposed to be. Seeing how far they've come in such a short amount of time motivates me.
A: I never want to do any job halfway. One of the biggest crimes that I see across the state and across the country are band directors who are okay with just staying where they are. I guess what motivates me is, I was taught and I was raised this way, but I was also taught to be an educator that believes in this.
I was taught that you should never settle with where you're at and you can always improve. I always want to get to the next step, and I don't want to sit stagnant in mediocrity rather push past that. What motivates me is just improvement. It can be very, very, very small, and it can be very, very, very slow, but I want improvement on an individual level and then as a full ensemble.
Earlier you said you’ve had a long history in music, so what does music mean to you guys?
E: My mom was a singer and then whenever I was growing up we had all kinds of musical instruments around the house. I honestly don't think that my life would be what it is today without music.
I don't even remember a time in my life that I didn't have music going on. Music is pretty much everything. It’s how I live my life is through music.
A: Looking back at how I started, it's the most incredible accidental discovery that I made. When I first picked up an instrument, it was because I was homeschooled actually. A homeschool band came to Ardmore where I grew up and they had a day where they were going to get instruments.
My mom brought me and my two older siblings to this place, and I had no idea what I was doing there. My brother really wanted to play percussion, my sister wanted to play clarinet, and my mom told the band director, “Give him something he can hold.” He handed me this little cornet, and I definitely didn't realize that that would be something that altered my entire life's path.
Now, music is far more than a career. I try to not let music be my job. I try to let it be my passion first, and then I try to teach it as my job. Now, music is whatever feeling I want to have, or whatever feeling I have in the present. It's just a demonstration of that that I can connect with. It’s also a good way to pass the time.
So what about you guys? How did you two meet?
E: That’s a story.
A: Funny enough, it was kinda through music in a way.
E: This story was also told at our wedding. His brother takes credit for us meeting.
A: So my brother was traveling a lot with his job and found this Italian ice and ice cream store that he just fell in love with in New York. He decided on a whim to just open one in Ardmore, Oklahoma. I was 16 at the time whenever he opened it, and I was his first employee.
I worked there for a while and I was not supposed to go into work one day but I got called in. Begrudgingly, I went to go work at this ice cream store. Then this girl walked in through the front door and sits down at a table, and she was wearing an All-State jacket and I was an All-State trumpet player. So I immediately knew what that was, and I wanted to talk to her about it. She was also kinda pretty.
I asked her what she went to All-State for. She said choir. Then of course I had to humble brag and say I was in band. Then we just started the conversation, and for some reason, she actually kept talking to me.
E: I did. Then, I asked for his Facebook Messenger because I didn't ask for your number. Apparently I just asked for your Facebook.
A: You found me on Facebook, I messaged you to get your phone number, and you sent me the wrong number. I thought you played me but turns out she just typoed.
E: On accident! It was a misunderstanding.
A: It was just this crazy sequence of events that somehow led to us being in an ice cream shop with an All-State jacket.
E: Then, we went to All-State together that year. That was his senior year of All-Astate, and that was my junior year of All-State. So we actually got to hang out at the All-State festival in January, which was cool.
To finish this off, my final question for you is, when you’re not teaching how do you guys like to spend your time?
E: We have a dog at home, so I like to go home and play with the dog. I really love to cook, and both of us just kind of like to relax. Sometimes we listen to music when we’re at home, but other times it's like we've had so much of it throughout the day that it's kind of a lot.
A: When I'm not teaching, I feel like I need to catch up on sleep. I just sleep, but I'm a big fan of food and honestly I like to go home and pretty much do as little as possible so I do the boring stuff, the TV and video games when I'm at home. But whenever it's not a teaching day, I like to get out of the house, see people, and do stuff actively. I just like to hang out with people.