Music teacher sees power to change students’ lives

Music teacher Kärolin Tuisk told ERR that her work at Tartu Jaan Poska Secondary School has increasingly shown her that a teacher can make a real difference in students’ lives. This school year is especially important for Tuisk, who is beginning her final year as class teacher with her current class.

“I am very excited to see what will happen,” Tuisk said on Klassikaraadio’s programme “Delta”.

Tuisk said her two years with the same class had gone well. The students’ varied interests and activities had made their time together diverse.

“The students are very enthusiastic, with very different activities and interests. There is a great deal of difference, and I think that is a very good thing,” she said.

The first day of school also brings back clear childhood memories for Tuisk. She remembers the smell of Põlva Secondary School, her first reading primer and meeting classmates with whom she later studied for nine years.

In the 10th grade, Tuisk moved from Põlva to Tartu to study viola at the Heino Eller Music School. “I was completely overwhelmed by the unknown. It was like jumping headfirst into water; everything was new, but somehow it all went smoothly and made perfect sense to me,” she recalled.

Her path from music school led Tuisk to work as a conductor and choir director. Becoming a music teacher was initially a practical decision. During the coronavirus pandemic, work for choir directors became difficult, prompting her to consider what else she could do.

“My simplest backup option was to become a music teacher at a school, but it was not that simple,” she said.

Starting as a teacher was difficult because of both the pandemic and the need to learn a new job. Tuisk said that experience standing in front of a choir did not mean teaching in front of a class came naturally. She also began teaching at the age of 23, leaving only a small age gap between her and the upper-secondary students.

“So it was very easy for students to develop a slight prejudice against me based on my age,” she said.

Support from the school proved important. Tuisk said she had a trusting school principal and head of studies, as well as a mentor whom she could approach at any time.

“I was really very, very lucky to have such a supportive team behind me,” she said. “If all beginning teachers had such opportunities, I think we would have more young teachers in schools.”

Tuisk has now worked as a teacher for seven years. Teaching is no longer merely a side activity alongside choir directing and other musical projects, but work that she finds directly meaningful.

“As a teacher, I truly feel that I can make a real difference and make things better,” she said.

Music lessons involve more than singing

In upper-secondary school, music teachers must consider that much of students’ attention is focused on subjects included in examinations. Tuisk nevertheless believes music and other cultural fields should remain visible in general education.

She said music education is closely connected to other subjects. In the new school year, she plans to use material covered in music lessons to help final-year students prepare for the Estonian language state examination.

“A notebook of examples for the Estonian language state examination comes from music lessons, because where else would those examples come from if not art history, music and literature?” she said.

Tuisk also wants students to be more than passive listeners in music lessons. Her aim is to make classes as active and varied as possible. The 12th-grade students will take a journey through Estonian music.