By KATE PIERCE
Contributing Writer
A new music teacher at Pine Hills Elementary School is only 22 years old and already creating a positive and creative environment for the students in his classroom.
Nathaniel Wardlaw is the youngest member of the Albany City School District Music Department. He works at Pine Hills on Wednesday afternoons, Thursdays, and Fridays, and at the Delaware Community School on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesday mornings.
Wardlaw graduated from The College of Saint Rose in May of 2015 with a bachelor’s degree in Music Education. About six weeks later, he was hired to teach elementary general music and chorus full time between Pine Hills and Delaware.
“Nate has blended right in with our faculty and is always willing to help out in any way he can,” said Josephine Amore, co-chair of the Music Department in the Albany City School District. “The students love him and he has grown the chorus program at Delaware and Pine Hills. We are very proud to call Nate our colleague.”
Wardlaw teaches kindergarten through fifth grade at Pine Hills, and at Delaware he teaches kindergarten through sixth grade. Between the two schools he instructs close to 900 students.
This past December, Wardlaw helped to conduct 90 students from Pine Hills at a local tree lighting ceremony, and both schools put on an annual winter concert.
“He is an incredibly hard working person. You’d never know that he just worked a 14 hour day, though, because of how tough he is. I have an unlimited amount of respect for his attitude towards teaching in high-needs schools. He has a talent for relating to his students, respecting all of their different cultures and making sure that they know that they are cared for,” said Rukan Khondker, his current roommate. “Nate has been one of my closest friends for a few years.”
One of Wardlaw’s favorite parts about his job are the musical activities that he can use to teach music to his students. “I like coming up with games and stuff to teach concepts. I like teaching the kids about music in a way that they can relate to, with hip hop and pop. I like being the person who is an adult who listens to the same kind of music they listen to. I mean, the kids are into you know, Fetty Wap, Bruno Mars, stuff like that.”
An influential teacher played a large role in the young music instructor’s career path back when he was a student living in Amherst, Massachusetts.
“My middle school chorus teacher, Dave Ranen – he was awesome. He took an interest in me, knew that I played piano and let me play with them sometimes. He was a cool guy. And I was like, ‘Oh, cool music teacher guy. I want to be a cool music teacher guy.’”
Wardlaw’s ultimate goal is to give his students the experience that he had when he was their age. “What I really want is to be somebody who is a positive adult role model for them, somebody they actually look forward to seeing, and respect,” he said. “Somebody who likes them and provides a fun, structured environment for them while teaching them.”
Wardlaw said that his experience and education at Saint Rose played a large role in both getting hired and being prepared for his current position. “My favorite part about being at Saint Rose was a mixture between the friends I made and the connections I made,” he said. “ I don’t know if I would have been in necessarily as good of a situation as I’m in right now if it wasn’t for Saint Rose.”
The Albany area is appealing to Wardlaw even after his time at Saint Rose. “I kinda lucked out, all in all, with the connections that I made living in Albany, observing in Albany, student teaching in Albany, and now working in Albany.”
Originally, he did not envision himself teaching elementary music in an urban environment. “I thought I wanted to be a high school teacher, and I think that someday in the future, like when I finish my master’s degree, maybe I’ll move to the upper levels,” said Wardlaw. “But when I was doing my student teaching placement at Sheridan Preparatory Academy in Albany, I really liked working with urban little kids. So when I got offered the job, I took it, and I’m gonna run with it for as long as I can.”
Wardlaw is currently enrolled in graduate school online through Messiah College, studying choral conducting. He is also a musical director for a local non-profit children’s theater, and works as an accompanist. Along with piano he also plays the guitar, bass, and banjo.
“One of the most impressive things about him is how he can learn any instrument in basically two hours or less,” said Khondker. “It’s pretty standard to walk in to him just playing banjo or electric bass or whatever instrument is in the living room.”
As a recently-employed graduate of the Saint Rose music education program, Wardlaw has advice for any current students.“If you’re going to go into your student teaching placement and you want to get a job right away, you gotta be really proactive, and try to get your cooperating teacher to be on your side and like what you do,” he said.
“Show up on time. Always offer to help. Go above and beyond, and it really pays off.”
A piece of advice that Wardlaw believes applies to any college student: “If you put in time and effort, people will notice, and good things will happen.”
