BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Teaching was music to Cindy Canova’s ears, leading to a 26.5-year career in the Bradford County School District that ended with her retirement last December.
“As a friend of mine would say, I am in a different season of life now,” said Canova, who taught music at the elementary and middle school levels. “I’ve taught in the school system. I’ve done a lot of things over the years with music in the community.”
It was only natural for Canova to go into teaching music as a career. Her paternal grandmother, Mona Canova, taught music at Starke Elementary and also taught private piano lessons. Canova was one of her grandmother’s piano students.
“I studied with her all through high school,” said Canova, who possesses the piano she learned to play on, which was given to her after her grandmother’s death.
Canova said her mother, Joan, was a “wonderful pianist,” too, and also gave private lessons.
“My love of music came from my family,” Canova said.
Canova began giving private piano lessons as well when she was still a student at Bradford High School and is still teaching one on one today.
She, of course, was involved in the music program at BHS when she was a student and also served as an accompanist for choirs.
Canova received a scholarship to Santa Fe College. Before her two years there were up, she was contacted by a University of Florida professor who taught organ. He had heard about her and told her he’d like her to study with him.
“I received a full scholarship to UF, where I studied organ,” Canova said. “I eventually got my bachelor’s degree in Music Education.”
Becoming a music teacher seemed like a natural career choice. As Canova said, teaching allowed her “to share the joy of music with others and to help students realize that music is not just something you do when you’re a young person.”
Teaching was also a good choice because she said she believed she was good at helping people in general.
“I feel like that God’s given me the ability to see the needs in others,” Canova said.
Teaching elementary and middle school
Canova began teaching at Bradford Middle School three days a week. She also spent one day each at Brooker and Hampton elementary schools before the BMS position became full-time entering her second year of teaching.
That wasn’t the end of her elementary school experience. Canova eventually wound up teaching at Starke Elementary, which is where she was when she retired. For some of her time at Starke Elementary, she returned to teaching one day a week at the Brooker and Hampton schools. Canova said she went to Brooker and Hampton on consecutive days to keep loading and unloading materials from her car to a minimum.
“The small-school days had to be back to back due to the fact that there was no music room,” Canova said. “Anything I needed I had to pack up and haul. That means you drive up to the school, you unload, you set up an area in the library like your music room (at Starke Elementary). At the end of the day, you pack it back up into the car, and you go to the other outlying school the next day.”
Teaching in middle school and elementary school, of course, provided different experiences. Middle school music classes are more performance-based. Though she taught elementary students how to play instruments, count rhythms and read notes, Canova said at that level — especially with the youngest students — it’s more about introducing students to music and, hopefully, fostering a love for it.
“In middle school, you’re perfecting songs A, B and C, and you’re going over them for their phrasing and for their sound — the more higher-level technical things,” Canova said. “In elementary, you just want them to like what they’re doing.”
Canova did more than just ensure that elementary students liked what they were doing. She taught the older elementary students how play various instruments and how to read notes, for example.
“Older elementary — they like challenges,” Canova said. “They have more confidence. They don’t mind singing solos or playing rhythm instruments in small groups.”
With technology becoming a part of teaching, Canova was able to do more with her elementary students. She may not be able to play certain instruments, but she could show her students other people playing those instruments on YouTube videos.
“I tried to introduce my students to a new instrument once or twice a week,” she said.
During her time at BMS, she introduced students to new experiences. Her philosophy was if students were going to understand how to perform, they were going to have to attend performances.
“I took kids to the Times-Union Performing Arts Center there in Jacksonville to see Broadway shows,” Canova said. “I loved to look at their faces. A lot of them had never been to Jacksonville before.”
Canova also liked introducing middle school students to types of music they may not have been familiar with.
“You can teach them music from different genres,” Canova said. “You can help guide and teach them to accept things that are different.”
Teaching one on one
As someone who enjoys helping others, Canova especially enjoys teaching students one on one through private piano lessons. Obviously, it’s a lot different than working with groups of students in the classroom.
“Picture a classroom of, let’s say, 22 students, and you’re trying to teach a certain concept or a certain skill to all these children at the same time,” Canova said. “Will 100 percent of them understand? No. You’re lucky if 50 percent of them understand.
“If you’re the intuitive one that I am, and you see that little Johnny over here is not really understanding — you see it on his face — do you have time to talk to little Johnny about that and help him understand that skill? No.”
Her private students are able to go at their own pace so that they can comprehend what Canova’s teaching. Canova said she tells her private students, “You are on your own here. We can move as quickly through these books as you want. It depends on you. It depends on your attentiveness. It depends on your practicing habits.”
Private lessons offer such special moments. Canova mentioned a recent occurrence in which she and a student were playing a duet that they had been working on for a couple of weeks.
“It just gave me this warm feeling in my heart because I could tell that that child was feeling confident and feeling happy about the challenge they had met,” Canova said. “It sounded good. They knew it sounded good. They knew they had done a good job even without me praising them.”
Passing on her piano knowledge to private students is something Canova will continue to do.
“I like to share my gift with those who are willing to learn, who want to learn and who have an appreciation for it,” Canova said.
The future
Canova’s last official day was Dec. 31, 2023, but because of the holiday break, her last day in the classroom actually occurred earlier in the month.
She let administrators know at the end of the previous year that she would be retiring. Then, word started spreading around campus.
“There were very heart-felt moments when teachers began to learn of my retirement,” Canova said.
She admitted it was rough when the students began learning that she was leaving.
“They just have to understand that you still love them and care about them, but it’s time for you to retire,” Canova said.
She reassured her students that they’d probably still have chances to see her.
“I still live in Starke,” she told them. “I’m sure I’ll see you at the Walmart or the Winn-Dixie.”
Canova enjoys gardening, so she expects to devote time to that hobby. She also has some landscaping ideas for her home that she wants to bring to fruition.
Other than that, she has no big plans and doesn’t intend to do any traveling.
“It’s time for me now just to unwind a little bit, enjoy my beautiful yard, work with my private piano students and have more time with my family,” Canova said.
