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.