My school, as alluded to in the previous entry, was renovated and reopened five years ago.  Of all the elementary schools in our district, ours is the newest and most handicapped accessible (designed that way) -which means we host programs that would be difficult to manage in the older buildings.  I have the distinct pleasure and privilege of working with the children in those programs.For the most part, they come mainstreamed - with the kids in their homeroom.  Additionally I see some of them in small groups by themselves; time which has become extremely valuable in terms of getting to know them and their abilities.  I'm able to help them be more successful in the large group as a result.Ms. R., the woman who directs, coordinates and delivers the academic and life-skill instruction for this group asked if we could have a "jam session."You have to understand why those words make my stomach flip-flop.I'm a classically trained cellist.  I never really learned to improvise.  It's not something I do a lot of.  Hold on - I take that back.  I work with children, I improvise all the time - it's just that the improvising I do is more along the lines of "I'm hearing voices again, and I know it's not the ones in my head because they're the ones that tell me to go get ice cream."  And then ignoring the half-dozen children who stage-whisper, "g-e-e-e-t  i-i-i-ce  cre-e-e-e-e-am!"  My musical improvisations are not what anyone would want to spend time listening to.So trying to host a "jam session" with my limited skills (I'm strictly a boom-chuck pianist) to make something that won't be utter chaos... oh lord that I don't believe in help me!  None of this is spoken aloud, but she must have read it in my face. "oh, no stress," she said, "we're just going to make a lot of noise, low-key, no practice, do you mind?"Fortunately, the TA (teaching assistant) working with one of the older soon-to-graduate boys is an accomplished guitarist.  In fact, he was in a band back in the 80s that came this close to doing a national tour.  Ms. R's husband, a principal at another school, also  plays jazz guitar.  Last year's TA was a trumpet major where I got my music ed degree, and he's going to come.  The afore-mentioned soon-to-graduate boy has been taking drum lessons and wants to bring in his whole set - he sees himself with Aerosmith eyes.We take a few weeks in our small group session to work on some drum jams, rhymes and songs we can play with.  This year's TA is glad we've taken the time to make a plan, because the same thing happened last year and it WAS chaos!  But this year is different.For starters, we meet in my room, so there's space.  We have time to run through the three songs we've worked on.  People come and go, the other special needs class members and their TAs, the support staff who've worked with them, our interim principal.  The 5th grade class the boy belongs to.  Every time someone comes in we go through the whole set again and put something in their hands to play."Frog went a-courtin and he did ride    - rinktum body minchy cambo"Sword and buckler by his side             - rinktum body minchy cambo "Caimaneero, down to Cairo, Caimaneero cambo"Straddle-Addle Ladda-Bobbo, Ladda-Bobbo Linktum"Rinktum body minchy cambo!"  The three little one in the class can't stop dancing - they are in their element.  The TAs are playing metallophones and laughing.  The interim principal dances with a classroom teacher.  We repeat the songs ad infinitum, the songs go on long enough that everyone can find their way into the beat and stay there a while.  Even the boy who brought in the drums - he had moments of profound stability, when his playing was strong, steady, solid, unwavering.  Of course, he'd lose tempo when he tried to do fills, but the fact that he could find the pulse again and stay on it meant that he'd made significant progress musically AND in his ability to sustain mental/physical focus, no small feat, which you could only appreciate if you knew him.Wynton Marsalis need not fear for his job, but everyone left the room smiling, everyone had time to find the groove.    Even me.