Music is making a difference for the students at Rigby Middle School thanks to one dedicated teacher and the Idaho Lottery’s Scratch for Schools program.
Spencer Chiu has been teaching math at Rigby Middle School for 10 years. He’s been participating in Scratch for Schools events since joining the school and diligently saving his winnings. With a background in music, as well as mathematics, Spencer was approached about taking on the responsibilities of becoming the school’s Choir teacher.
The one thing he felt that would make the program more successful was a high-quality piano. The school does have two traditional, tall, upright pianos. Both though, are not functionable for his needs and neither one has been tuned in the past decade.
Spencer thought that a nice digital piano would work ideally for Choir. “The upright style piano where, if I sit and play, students would not be able to see my cues and directions because I’m playing the piano and trying to direct music with my head motions and body movements. This was one of the driving factors for me to pursue the digital piano—one that is lighter, not blocking the students’ view of my music directing, and one that does not need tuning,” he said.
Over the years from Scratch for Schools, Spencer had saved about $2,000 of the winnings in a school account. After negotiating with a local music store in Rexburg, Spencer was able to make the dream of a new digital piano a reality for teaching Choir this year.
“The way we utilize the piano is to bring out what music is really about for the students. It’s more than just notes and music. It’s moving people. My goal is to have students be part of the music so that they are moving someone in the audience,” said Spencer on his goal for improving the student experience through teaching the arts at Rigby Middle School.
As author Victor Hugo once said, “Music expresses that which cannot be put into words.” And thanks to Scratch for Schools and Spencer Chiu, the sweet sound of music and his choir experience for students at Rigby Middle School is doing just that.
