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Readying for the performance of "Of Mice and Mozart," a play about the life of the composer as told by mice, Catherine Alspaugh rushed from student to student on Friday, checking costumes and making sure every detail was ready.
Leading 27 students, most of who were dressed as mice, to the front of the community room at Country Meadows Retirement Community in Frederick where they were set to perform the play.
But then, no one ever said earning the title of Teacher of the Year came without effort.
Alspaugh, a 22-year veteran of Frederick County Public Schools, was selected after a group of parents approached the school's administration and petitioned for her to receive the honor. Alspaugh said she then had to write a paper detailing her educational philosophy as part of the nominating process. She said that though the nomination seemed like a long process and though she had put a lot of effort into it, she was still surprised to learn that she had been selected.
"It's very exciting," she said.
Her dedication to her current class of third graders, those 27 children who she directed in the play, is evident. As the children took their final bow on May 12 before a delighted audience of senior citizens, Alspaugh smiled as she hugged Ian Shelley, who played Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
In her director's notes, printed in the program for the play, she calls her class "27 of the best kids who ever darkened the door of New Market Elementary School."
Alspaugh said she has been doing a play and tying it into her educational curriculum for the last six years, and her classes have taken these plays to Country Meadows for the last four.
During that time, she has worked on developing the plays with music teacher Julie Seiler.
Seiler said that "Of Mice and Mozart," written by Michael and Jill Gallina, consists of Mozart pieces with humorous lyrics that are "kid friendly." She said that the children were practicing the play both in music class and then after school for six weeks, and several parents volunteered to make backdrops and costumes for the play, and to help print T-shirts depicting mice holding a sign proclaiming their love for the famous composer.
As the children sang at Country Meadows, they laid out the tale of Mozart's childhood genius for music, and how though he wrote many pieces that are still famous today, he died a pauper.
Alspaugh said the play allowed her to tie in lessons about the Baroque period of music and art, and to teach about the historical context in which Mozart lived. She said some of these lessons, incorporated into the play, were humorous.
In the song "Musicians Will Always Be Baroque," the lesson of unappreciated artistic genius is taught through a pun. "Mozart was broke," Alspaugh said.
Alspaugh has taught both first and third grade in Frederick County since 1987, she said.
She earned her bachelor's degree in American studies at Mary Washington College of the University of Virginia. She earned her advanced professional certificate by completing coursework at the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, University of Maryland, Goucher College and the University of Connecticut, according to a press release from Frederick County Schools.
As part of her award, Alspaugh received a new car from Ideal Hyundai in Frederick as part of a partnership with the school, the release said.
Alspaugh's nomination also puts her in the running for Maryland's teacher of the year. On May 28 she will be honored by the Maryland Board of Education along with 23 other teachers from all of Maryland's school districts, and on Oct. 2, one will be selected to compete for the National Teacher of the Year Award.
E-mail Christian Brown at chbrown@gazette.net.
