Journal #2 of Student Teaching
Jan. 23, 2012 - Jan. 27
Classroom management, etc.
Classroom management in Lois’s class is a bit of a melting pot. While each student is aware of the excellence their teacher expects of them, this does not keep the classroom from being a chore at times. For example: Concert choir is made of upper classmen who, for the most part, know how well they have been taught and realize that they are, so to speak, the crème of the crop. This seemingly gives them a sense of entitlement which can lead to (as per what happened on Friday, Jan. 27) groaning when Lois called for them to take out the Brahms piece they will be performing. Immediately, Lois told them how disrespectful they were being to Brahms and the spirit of the piece and, like the professional choir they are, they were ready to work. This is a rare occurrence for this class as she normally doesn’t need to reprimand these students as they are overall easy to get back on track to work on the challenging pieces they learn.
On the complete other side of the spectrum, her 6th period Chorale is made up of fifty 7th and 8th grade students. A very small amount have been a member of her Voices and Harmony group, so they are ahead of the curve in comparison with some of their peers who are still fuzzy on basic musicianship. This leads to problems that would never occur in Concert choir including: bullying, cell phone use and excessive talking. This means that there’s more rehearsal time spent on “crowd control” which includes shushing, waiting for complete silence before going on and more tightly enforcing rules on certain “problem” students. With this kind of environment, Lois modifies her rehearsal by keeping each student singing or actively involved they can so that they don’t have a chance to become bored. She is also less likely to let discussions concerning the music last longer than a few minutes.
Lois Castonguay gave me the responsibility to lead warm-up this week. I make it a point to always have body stretches and high to low (as well as low to high) sighing before any singing takes place. On Monday, Jan 23rd, I introduced the choir to a breathing exercise that focuses on quick intake of air; this exercise also calls for a full intake as it is best recognized when the tummy moves. My first day of doing this, I realized that I was doing a poor job of explaining why we were doing the exercise and how the exercise was supposed to work. So my assignment (to myself) is to find an explanation that I can comfortably explain without confusing students. While this is an excellent exercise, without proper explanation and fastidious guidance, the students doing it wrong could hurt themselves or simply do something that could enforce bad habits. If this is the case, I may forgo doing the exercise at all.
On Tuesday, I chose to do a much easier breathing exercise, which focuses on relaxation as well as breath control. The exercise calls for students to be seated and take a 4 count breath through the nose, hold for 7 counts and then exhale through the mouth with a “WHOOSH” sound. This was much more successful and also guided students to a quieter, more focused mindset for the rehearsal. I modified the exercise very slightly after Lois pointed out that I should direct the choir to exhale and then begin the counted breathing.
For the sigh’s, I wanted to make it more fun so I had students act as if they were throwing a ball, sighing high to low during the throw. During the day, I modified it to conceptualizing a bow and arrow. Treble choir was sounding weak especially at the top of their arpeggios so I attempted to combine the “Bow and Arrow” with the ascending vocalize. I had them release the “arrow” as they prepared to sing the high note of the arpeggio; however, this seemed to be a lot for the girls to concentrate on (as far as bringing the arrow back and then releasing and preparing for this again for each repetition). In this case, it seemed fitting to revert back to using the ball throwing visual instead. The next day, Lois suggested that if we have students doing a motion and singing, that the motion should not incorporate moving the shoulders up too far or having students get on their tip-toes as it can cause tension and undo the relaxation from prior exercises.
On Thursday I introduced a piece to the last choir of the day (Ye Banks and Braeses.) Most of my lesson plans have me introducing the piece by having them repeat after me small portions of solfege using pitch combinations from the piece. This has been effective thus far however I realize that my queues are awkward and unclear. This is definitely something I need to get right before I am in front of the next choir. Also, Lois pointed out that I have a tendency to talk AT the students, addressing them as “you.” This authoritative tendency I have has also effected how I speak; apparently I force my voice to a much lower register, which isn’t conducive to teaching students about vocal health.
Classroom management, etc.
Classroom management in Lois’s class is a bit of a melting pot. While each student is aware of the excellence their teacher expects of them, this does not keep the classroom from being a chore at times. For example: Concert choir is made of upper classmen who, for the most part, know how well they have been taught and realize that they are, so to speak, the crème of the crop. This seemingly gives them a sense of entitlement which can lead to (as per what happened on Friday, Jan. 27) groaning when Lois called for them to take out the Brahms piece they will be performing. Immediately, Lois told them how disrespectful they were being to Brahms and the spirit of the piece and, like the professional choir they are, they were ready to work. This is a rare occurrence for this class as she normally doesn’t need to reprimand these students as they are overall easy to get back on track to work on the challenging pieces they learn.
On the complete other side of the spectrum, her 6th period Chorale is made up of fifty 7th and 8th grade students. A very small amount have been a member of her Voices and Harmony group, so they are ahead of the curve in comparison with some of their peers who are still fuzzy on basic musicianship. This leads to problems that would never occur in Concert choir including: bullying, cell phone use and excessive talking. This means that there’s more rehearsal time spent on “crowd control” which includes shushing, waiting for complete silence before going on and more tightly enforcing rules on certain “problem” students. With this kind of environment, Lois modifies her rehearsal by keeping each student singing or actively involved they can so that they don’t have a chance to become bored. She is also less likely to let discussions concerning the music last longer than a few minutes.
Lois Castonguay gave me the responsibility to lead warm-up this week. I make it a point to always have body stretches and high to low (as well as low to high) sighing before any singing takes place. On Monday, Jan 23rd, I introduced the choir to a breathing exercise that focuses on quick intake of air; this exercise also calls for a full intake as it is best recognized when the tummy moves. My first day of doing this, I realized that I was doing a poor job of explaining why we were doing the exercise and how the exercise was supposed to work. So my assignment (to myself) is to find an explanation that I can comfortably explain without confusing students. While this is an excellent exercise, without proper explanation and fastidious guidance, the students doing it wrong could hurt themselves or simply do something that could enforce bad habits. If this is the case, I may forgo doing the exercise at all.
On Tuesday, I chose to do a much easier breathing exercise, which focuses on relaxation as well as breath control. The exercise calls for students to be seated and take a 4 count breath through the nose, hold for 7 counts and then exhale through the mouth with a “WHOOSH” sound. This was much more successful and also guided students to a quieter, more focused mindset for the rehearsal. I modified the exercise very slightly after Lois pointed out that I should direct the choir to exhale and then begin the counted breathing.
For the sigh’s, I wanted to make it more fun so I had students act as if they were throwing a ball, sighing high to low during the throw. During the day, I modified it to conceptualizing a bow and arrow. Treble choir was sounding weak especially at the top of their arpeggios so I attempted to combine the “Bow and Arrow” with the ascending vocalize. I had them release the “arrow” as they prepared to sing the high note of the arpeggio; however, this seemed to be a lot for the girls to concentrate on (as far as bringing the arrow back and then releasing and preparing for this again for each repetition). In this case, it seemed fitting to revert back to using the ball throwing visual instead. The next day, Lois suggested that if we have students doing a motion and singing, that the motion should not incorporate moving the shoulders up too far or having students get on their tip-toes as it can cause tension and undo the relaxation from prior exercises.
On Thursday I introduced a piece to the last choir of the day (Ye Banks and Braeses.) Most of my lesson plans have me introducing the piece by having them repeat after me small portions of solfege using pitch combinations from the piece. This has been effective thus far however I realize that my queues are awkward and unclear. This is definitely something I need to get right before I am in front of the next choir. Also, Lois pointed out that I have a tendency to talk AT the students, addressing them as “you.” This authoritative tendency I have has also effected how I speak; apparently I force my voice to a much lower register, which isn’t conducive to teaching students about vocal health.