Haslett Internship - Visit 2

This week's visit allowed me to see class period that included content that isn't always present in every choral rehearsal, and it allowed me to focus on Mr. Boyce's rehearsing and teaching techniques in a unique way.  The night before my observation was their pre-festival concert, so Mr. Boyce started off rehearsal and got the students' attention by playing a recording of their performance.  Most students sat and listened with some talking here and there, while others were on their phones and others even seemed completely oblivious to what was going on, carrying on loud conversations in groups.  At the end of the piece, Mr. Boyce gave the students one minute to discuss positive comments and constructive comments with a small group before they shared the comments as a class. This brought some of the same, with some students clearly engaged in the activity and some getting distracted with other things.  However, when Mr. Boyce called on individuals to share their thoughts, it was the distracted students that surprised me most with their responses.  One student who I had written off as thinking he was "too cool" for choir actually had a super insiteful comment about the way they sounded in their fall concert and how far they had come this concert. I'm not sure I can pinpoint and how Mr. Boyce instills a sense of ownership in these students yet, but he does and it becomes evident when they are invited to participate in the conversation about what they are doing.  It seems so simple, yet something that is often missing in classrooms that I have been a part of.

Because of this interaction and many more, it is clear that Mr. Boyce has great rapport with his students.  He is always so genuine.  While he doesn't sugarcoat, he is always supportive and not only helping his students to grow, but helping them want to grow. They trust him and are encouraged by him, and therefore they trust and encourage each other.

In rehearsing the repertoire in the second half of the rehearsal, Mr. Boyce's gesture always reflected the style and was attentive to what the boys needed, such as cut-off gestures that reflected different consonant releases.  He also would have reminders that he could throw into his gesture, such as his "North and South" sound (represented by his forearm straight up and down) rather than is "East and West" sound.  He modeled this consept often, planing out his vowels for East and West and lengthening and rounding them for the preferred North and South sound.  In fact, modeling was used often in his rehearsal and the student's sound was always changed.  Even from last week, I thought their balance had greatly improved, which was one of their big goals.

Structure in the classroom

Having structure in the classroom is helpful in fostering security in both productivity and feelings of safety in students. A routine builds student expectations and therefore helps students as well as the teacher in transitioning from task to task.  I think those expectations can also help strengthen students' focus in the class period, that somehow knowing what is coming next helps to prepare them to better approach the task.  When students know what to expect, they can feel willing (and wanting) to participate, and feel more comfortable doing so.  Conversely, when students are blindsided, it can take a while for the class as a whole to adjust to what is being asked of them.  Genuine participation might be diminished due to the unsteadiness brought on with the unfamiliarity or lack of a structure.

While having structure is very important in the music classroom, I think teachers need to balance that structure with flexibility.  Structure is different than rigidity, and flexibility is different than disjointed chaos.

Haslett Internship - Visit 1

Yesterday I was able to make my first visit out to Haslett High School to observe the Varsity Choir. This choir is made up of young men who are mostly freshmen.  The men seemed very well behaved for being some of the youngest students in the school, and generally they seemed to really enjoy choir.  My walk from the office to the choir room was very cool, because as I got closer I realized that some of the students around me were also going to the choir room, and they were singing together.  During the announcements the students were generally near their seats and talking to each other while two of the students took attendance.  During warm-ups, they were all singing and doing movements to each vocalise without having to be reminded to do so.  The students only got very loud and disruptive a couple of times, and when that happened Mr. Boyce had some great classroom management strategies in place.

At the end of many transition times, Mr. Boyce would chant a couple patterns on "sh" until the students were all echoing him.  He also didn't just stay on the podium for the whole rehearsal, which I found really cool and very effective in keeping the class focused.  During sight-reading practice times, he weaved in and out of the sections, sometimes sitting down with a group that was practicing to sing it with them.  The students seemed to really love it when he did this.  He also moved from section to section when he would isolate a specific part in their repertoire.  This gave the sections that weren't being worked with some time to chat and I even spotted four or five students on their phones, but this didn't seem to bother Mr. Boyce and it didn't distract the section that was working.  There were only a couple of times that Mr. Boyce had to use strictly verbal instructions to refocus the group.  Something else that isn't necessarily a classroom management strategy that Mr. Boyce did was admit that he didn't know something about the piece, and then he sort of led a conversation with the students to try and make a decision about a phrase.  Seeing this further solidified my observation that Mr. Boyce and his students have a great relationship where they feel safe to make mistakes and learn from each other.

There were a couple of individual students that stood out to me.  One of them was a tenor who asked super musical questions, and used solfege AND signs when he was singing a phrase that he had a question about.  After he asked the question, a different student turned around and sang using hand signs as they tried to figure something out.  The students are clearly growing their skills and are encouraged to use them.  The other student that stood out to me has special needs.  Mr. Boyce said that he has severe autism and is non-verbal, but he loves choir.  He has sat in this class for the past four years, sitting a chair away from the tenor section.  He keeps to himself mostly and sort of just sits calmly, but as soon as any singing starts he starts moving his arms and becomes very alert.  The other students treated him very well when they came in contact with him, further affirming that this classroom is a very safe place.

Effective and Rewarding Rehearsals

I think effective and rewarding rehearsals can look very different from rehearsal to rehearsal and teacher to teacher, but some over-arching goals of these rehearsals stay consistent: 1. To strive for a positive, lasting change to the sound as the group works towards a goal, 2. To strive for each member of the choir, including the teacher, to learn something at each rehearsal, be it a musical something or otherwise, and 3. For every person involved to find some joy in the process!

While no rehearsal will probably look exactly alike, there are some characteristics that seem to be present in all effective and rewarding rehearsals. The most satisfying rehearsals never seem to include an abundance of talking, but also have a variety of musical ways of getting to a specific point or idea.  Also, varying the amounts of time spent making music and trying to keep those times balanced is something that can make or break the focus of the rehearsal.  When the conductor-teacher can let the choir just sing and make music for a long section of a piece while still knowing when to rehearse shorter excerpts, it lets the singers explore musically and maybe even improve on their own while still allowing the teacher to refocus the class when the need arises. Personally, overcoming challenges always has me leaving rehearsals feeling like I accomplished something. This might mean getting after a difficult couple of measures, an in-depth discussion of the text or text setting, or even just accomplishing what the conductor-teacher had planned for the day. As we have discussed, the preparation and planning on the part of the teacher also plays an important role in the success of a rehearsal so that questions can be answered, music can be experienced by all involved in many different ways, and goals can be accomplished.