For the first time, Wayne City is offering an early morning music appreciation dual credit class for seniors already in psychology for the first hour of the day. This class helps students take a college class in a more understandable way, with a familiar teacher, than if they were to take it in college later in life. Additionally, it is a general class that will be required in many fields.
On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, these seniors go to their psychology classes, then on Tuesdays and Thursdays, they come to school for their music appreciation class at 7:35 a.m with teacher Jessica Fagan. Despite the early mornings, many of the seniors are very thankful, including Zoe Wiggins, who states that, “Even though it’s hard getting up early, I am super thankful that Mrs. Fagan will do this class for us. Even getting one class out of the way helps a lot.” The early morning class is definitely not everyone’s cup of tea, but those who take advantage of it are grateful at the end of the day.
With that being said, not all of the seniors in the class are taking the music appreciation and psychology classes during the early bird hour. MaKayla Reynolds decided to take the class as her first hour to begin with, so she comes in every day to have class at 8 a.m. for dual credit. “I really enjoy having music appreciation first thing in the morning.” MaKayla claims, “Mrs. Fagan makes it interesting and relaxed, and it’s been the best class I’ve had in the morning so far.” Fagan often teaches with a more engaged method. Little to none of the students complain about her teaching methods.
This was the first year that Fagan has taught a dual credit course. In the past, the music history class was just a regular class that could be used as an intro to the actual class students take in college. So many students did not take this class in favor of taking psychology. When making this class into a dual credit course, a concern of many would be that the class could become too difficult or overwhelming for students taking both dual credit courses. However, Fagan is happy to report that she is, “Thrilled to be doing a dual credit class,” and her students are doing “Extremely well.” The results so far bring promise of many more students in the following years.
