Hill named 2022 North Dakota County Teacher of the Year
Kari Hill, an instrumental music teacher in Rugby Public School District, said she loves to share the passion for her favorite subject with her students, who range from fifth graders to high school seniors.
“I love kids,” said Hill, who began playing musical instruments at age 8. “I love music and the ability to share that with them and hopefully have them share that passion themselves is a gift to me.”
Hill received an email recently notifying her she was nominated for 2022 North Dakota County Teacher of the Year.
“It was very exciting,” she said. “I got an email at the end of January saying I was nominated for Pierce County and I had to send in paperwork with several different questions. Last week, I found out I won for Pierce County.”
She said the notification invited her to apply for the 2022 North Dakota Teacher of the Year Award.
She added she wasn’t sure who had nominated her for the award at the county level.
“They don’t tell you who nominates you,” she said. “You just find out that you have been nominated. You could be nominated by someone in the community; parents; administrators; you can nominate yourself.”
“I looked at the rules and found out anyone can nominate a teacher,” she added. “It’s on their state website.”
Hill’s classroom has more space than most, with chairs and music stands arranged in rows to accommodate concert band students and others. Instruments of all kinds sit on shelves and in storage cabinets along the walls. Most are drums or percussion instruments, some of them decorated with colorful designs or beads.
Many of the instruments spark questions and lead to opportunities to learn about cultures far away from Rugby and North Dakota.
She pointed to instruments resembling gourds covered with beaded mesh.
“They’re shekeres,” she said. “We use them in my world drumming class all the time. The junior high kids can choose between band, choir, guitar, or world drumming. And I’ve taught the class sometimes to high school, too.
“The drums behind you in the cage, the colorful ones are the main part of the world drumming class, then we use different accessories like the shekeres and the maracas and gankoguis,” she added.
She said the shekeres have its origins in West Africa. The gankogues, triangular metal instruments that look like bells without clappers, come from Ghana.
She said in her world drumming class, “You teach the kids by rote. There’s no sheet music. They just watch you and learn the rhythm, so you don’t have to read sheet music in order to do it.
“Most of the music is African, or some Cuban or Latin music, so it’s fun,” she added. “Very different.
“This class is really good for kids who might think music isn’t for them, maybe,” she said of world drumming. “And they don’t have to read music, so they can just watch and learn. And sometimes they find they have an appreciation for music they really didn’t think they had.”
Learning opportunities
for all
Hill said she helps students at all levels explore music.
“I teach a piano class to some of the high school kids. They range from someone who’s never touched a piano in their life to someone who maybe took some lessons in the past and they just want to review and keep going,” she said.
She got her own start playing music at age 8 on the piano. Then, in fifth grade, she began playing in her school band. She grew up in Calvin, “about an hour north of Devils Lake,” she said.
Hill graduated from Concordia College, earning bachelor’s degrees in music education and Spanish. She earned a master’s degree in music education and received her English learner certification from St. Cloud State University in Minnesota.
“With my band students, one of the most important things to me is that they can simply enjoy playing and they can experience a lot of different music,” she said.
“One of the pieces we’re playing at our spring concert is a medley of ABBA hits,” she said, smiling. “So, students can play anything from that to a more classical piece or a lyrical piece that has a story behind it.
“You want to expose them to as many styles as you can but I want them to just enjoy it, have it be something they can experience the rest of their lives, maybe understand it on a little higher level than before and just feel good about themselves when they’re doing it,” she added.
She said her students were enthusiastic about music in general, especially those playing in the pep band.
“It usually brings them alive a little bit,” she said. “They enjoy that.”
She noted she gives “quite a bit of opportunities to vote on what we play in class” to her band students. She includes other pieces students might not know in her lessons for their instructional value.
Hill teaches 98 high school students plus 23 fifth grade band students and 36 band students in sixth grade.
“I also work with English learners,” she said.
“One of the most important things for me as a teacher is I want them to know that they’re cared about and their health and overall well-being,” she said.
“I want them to know this is a safe place for them and they can be themselves and we’re part of a team. They’re supported,” she added. “Because they won’t remember everything they learned in high school, but they’ll remember how they felt in your class, and that is very important.”