“Quaver works. It closes gaps. And I expect my teachers to use it.”
By Kristin Clark Taylor
Dr. Anysia Trevino is a leader in the field of elementary education.
Speak with her for the first time and you’ll feel it instantly: The depth of her passion, the clarity of her vision, the uncompromising sense of commitment she feels towards her educators and her students – all of it flows straight from her heart. She is a fountain.
From the very beginning, Dr. Trevino, Deputy Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction & HR in the Brownsville (Texas) ISD, was deliberate in her attempts to bring an effective SEL resource to her community.
“Even before the district-wide SEL requirements were put into place,” she says with unbridled enthusiasm, “I’d already put together a team to evaluate the programs that were out there – and there were a lot of them. That’s how important Social and Emotional Learning is to me.”
After assembling a diverse, district-wide team of teachers, counselors, and administrators, Trevino remembers how one SEL resource quickly distinguished itself from its competitors and rose straight to the top: QuaverReady.
“Right from the start,” she says, “we could see that this was the resource we needed.”
“Quaver’s SEL program felt so comfortable and user-friendly; so non-threatening,” she remembers. “As the curriculum was being introduced to us, the Quaver rep played this beautiful Baroque music and asked all of us to relax — breathe in, breathe out! – which we all did, and it set such a great tone.”
Today, many educators in Trevino’s district utilize that same exercise in their classrooms, particularly in the mornings. “It starts everyone off on a positive note,” she says, “the students and the teachers.”
“We all have stresses in our lives,” Trevino readily concedes. “When the kids are having a bad day, it effects the teacher. When the teacher has a bad day, if effects the students. Having Quaver in the classroom helps everyone identify and manage their emotions. It’s a win-win.”
Trevino says she makes it a priority to ensure that all of her principals understand the importance of social and emotional learning as well.
“I tell my principals, ‘If we can’t close the emotional gap, then we can’t close the instructional gap. Emotion is so closely tied to instruction and learning.’”
QuaverReady, she says, is what’s helping them close this “gap.”
Music: The Universal Language
“In our leadership academy,” she says, “I always make SEL a topic of conversation.”
“And what I said very early on was, ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, SEL is a top priority, and we’re going to be using Quaver to teach these skills!’”
“We’re all in lockstep,” she says with pride, “I’m always popping into the classrooms to make sure these great resources are not just being taught, but being applied.”
Most mornings, Dr. Trevino says You-Nique can be heard blaring on the school intercoms. “What’s a better way to start the day than that?”
“I love that Quaver uses music so beautifully to teach SEL. Music is the connective force. No matter which language you speak, everyone understands music,” she says.
“Music,” she finishes, “is the universal language.”
And coming together to celebrate each other – the things we have in common as well as the things that make us so beautifully You-Nique – is what QuaverReady is really all about.
Kristin Clark Taylor is an author and a journalist.
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For more information on QuaverMusic, go to www.quavered.com.
