GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) - Andy Schneider had a vision.
As a band education major at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, he wanted to marry his girlfriend of two or three years, Amy Rischling. In spring 2011, when she was student teaching under John Schultz at Walnut Middle School, Schneider decided to pop the question. Specifically, he wanted to propose to Rischling in the Walnut band room.
So Schneider called Schultz to inquire about the idea. Schultz liked it and together, the two wrote a quick arrangement of “Here Comes the Bride” to perform while Schneider proposed to Rischling.
“We told Amy to run to Ron’s Music to pick up some books. She did that and it bought us time to teach the sixth graders quick,” Schneider said. “We told them it had to be a secret. The whole idea was that she was going to take out whatever song they were working on. When she said to do that, they got out ’Here Comes the Bride,’ but she wasn’t supposed to see it. She counted off this song and instead of playing the song, they played ’Here Comes the Bride.’”
Schneider said the proposal “worked out really well” because Rischling said yes. The couple married in June 2012 and went on to pursue their lives together. However, they would later return to the Walnut band room where their journey began to pursue their careers together.
Just this year, Andy Schneider started his role as band director at Barr Middle School after previously teaching at Doniphan-Trumbull Public Schools and Sandy Creek Public Schools. His wife, Amy, has been the band director at Westridge Middle School since May 2017 when she transitioned there from Grand Island Senior High.
With all three middle school band teachers collaborating to teach at all three Grand Island Public Schools middle schools, this means the Schneiders are teaching alongside each other, The Grand Island Independent reported.
“A lot of people question us on whether we can work with each other or if we are sure we want to do this,” Amy Schneider said. “For me and him, it just came down to us making our marriage work. It is a choice you make when you get married and take the job you want. No matter what happens along the way, we are going to make it work without a problem. That is just a commitment we have.”
Andy Schneider said that when he got the job, he was “pretty excited about it.” He added it has been great so far.
“You would think it would be a hassle going home and talking about the day when we’ve been with each other all day,” he said. “But it is actually kind of nice because we can go home and vent to each other about stuff that happened during the day. We talk about certain instances that happened throughout the day at school. It doesn’t have a negative effect on us.”
Did the Schneiders ever think they would work together as husband and wife? Amy Schneider laughed and said, “Probably not.”
She said: “When we met and we were both pursuing music education, we knew that if we ended up getting married, we had to look for a place where there were two band or music jobs available. But we favor teaching band. It is not often that you get an opportunity to find two band jobs that we both really wanted in the same town, let alone the same building.”
Andy Schneider said he enjoys teaching middle school band alongside Amy and Schultz. He said he appreciates being able to learn from them, see them teach, and take mental notes of what did and did not work.
Amy Schneider said she enjoys learning from Andy and watching him making connections with students.
“I just like his genuine passion for every kid in the room,” she said. “He just really tries to reach out to every kid in any way that he can. He tries to make connections with each kid. He has a great sense of humor and a great way of working with kids - especially middle-schoolers. He has a great personality for that.”
Andy said he and Amy have an “old school approach” to teaching and that their styles are similar. He added her dad was a band director, and former Barr band director Lew Cole was a mentor to him as his former teacher. As a result, Andy said, he and Amy try to channel both their teaching styles.
“We think classroom management is a big point to get across to students,” he said. “We both think students don’t really care how much you know until they know how much you care. We really try to make sure that the learning environment is structured and that there is discipline and expectations set before any learning happens.”
In her classroom, Amy Schneider said, she wants her students to leave not only with the knowledge of how to play an instrument, but with the work ethic and leadership skills necessary to succeed in life.
Schultz said the Schneiders are “fantastic” teachers who work well with students.
“They work together and, although they don’t do everything the same, they work together very well. They get along great and are just both great for kids,” he said. “I enjoy getting to spend time with them daily, watching them teach, taking things from how they teach and adapting it for my classroom. They are just fun people to be around. We laugh a lot and have a great time teaching.”
Amy Schneider said she and Andy try to help each other grow as educators.
“We will have conversations about what it is like and what we should do with a particular situation. We help each other through that,” she said. “We can go home and ’talk shop’ just as easily as we can at school. Andy is just someone that is easy to talk to and make choices with.”
She added it is her desire to continue learning and bettering herself that makes her an extraordinary teacher.
“I know it is something I will just continue to do. I don’t think I will ever master it,” she said. “It’s one of those things where if you think you’ve mastered it, you’re not doing it right. You just got to keep trying to make yourself better. I hope that throughout my teaching career, I will continue to grow and find new ways to be a better teacher.”
___
Information from: The Grand Island Independent, http://www.theindependent.com
Please read our comment policy before commenting.