Experience 6

This week, my cooperating teacher suggested that I use straws and kazoos with the students to help them work on breath control, phrasing, and focus. However, the problem with giving the students a straw or kazoo is that there is the potential for many classroom management issues. The students like to bend or destroy their straws and play the kazoo when I have not instructed them to.

In anticipation of behavior issues, I set clear expectations for the straws and kazoos before handing out the materials. I explained that the students would get one straw and one kazoo which they were responsible for taking care of. If the student destroyed or lost either material, they would have to sing with words while everyone else sang through a straw or kazoo. I also explained that these materials are privileges, so if the students showed me that they could not handle them, they would have to put the materials away.

Using the straws and kazoos has been an adventure. The students sing with more forward focus, better phrasing, and better abdominal support when they use these tools. I often alternate between having them sing through a straw or kazoo then have them sing using lyrics. This helps them create the necessary support, then they have to recreate that sensation without the straw or kazoo. Using these tools has also been challenging because I have to constantly remind the students of the expectations, keep on top of behavior management, and sometimes tell the students to put the tools away because they are making poor choices. But as I continue to be very firm with my expectations and follow through with the consequences, the straws and kazoos are a great aid rather than a distraction.

Student Behavior

Throughout the last month and a half of student teaching it has been interesting to observe patterns of behavior with classes, sections, and individual students. In some instances, I have seen behavior evolve over time but in other instances behavioral patterns have continued. It has also been interesting to see how the behavior differs depending on whether I am teaching or whether my CT is teaching.

The gentlemen’s choir is very energetic. In general the students like to chat, joke around, and do tik tok dances during warmups. The students are great musicians and can accomplish a lot when they are focused, but they often break out into side conversations when the teacher is trying to give instructions. There is one student in particular that I refocus daily. He often dances in the middle of class, tips his chair back and forth, distracts his neighbors, or puts his feet on the chair in front of him. On the other hand,  the advanced women’s choir is usually very responsive and focused. The second sopranos are often guilty of talking to each other when the teacher is trying to give directions, but otherwise the students refocus quickly and get a lot of work done.

The intermediate women’s choir has the most behavior problems of the classes I work with. Some of the students prefer to draw rather than sing, some put a hoodie over their head and refuse to participate, others look at the director but don’t move their mouths, some stare off into space, and others turn around to talk with a neighbor rather than sing. Much of rehearsal every day is spent reminding the students to stop talking, put away distractions, have good posture, and sing.

I have seen the biggest shift in behavior with the 6th graders. At the beginning of the semester they were the group who were the most quiet and willing to participate, but now they get easily distracted and talk to one another rather than follow directions. Two students in particular are rarely on task. They rarely watch the director or face the front of the room, instead turning to talk to a neighbor rather than listen. If they do happen to look at the director, they giggle or stare blankly rather than sing.

The most helpful tools I have found to help with management are pacing and variety. If I teach with a lot of down time or space, I lose the attention of the students and it is hard to get it back. I have also observed that students respond well to routines because they know what to expect, however I have found that by including a little bit of variety there is higher engagement and students are less likely to be bored. I have found that in general eye contact, proximity, and nonverbal cues are the best ways to refocus students. If these are not enough, I tell the entire class to do the desired action or name the students who are doing what I asked. If needed, I also say the name of an individual student who is acting out to get their attention and refocus their behavior. My CT has brought to my attention that some behaviors are attention-seeking, so I sometimes ignore the behavior and move on. If I wait for the students to be completely silent before moving on a lot of time is wasted, but if I just continue to plow forward with the lesson the distracted students often rejoin the activity.

The students usually behave better with my CT than they do for me. I think that part of this is due to familiarity and part of this is due to trust. The students know my CT better than they know me so they are more familiar with and respond better to her personality and teaching style. Many of the students have known her for years so they trust and follow her directions well. On the other hand, I have only spent a month and a half with them so there is some trust built, but not to the same degree as my CT. As such, I usually have more behavior problems than my CT. I think that when I eventually have a more permanent job, I will gradually be able to build trust and familiarity with my students so they will eventually respond favorably to me.

Teaching and Instruction

In general, my cooperating teacher uses moderate to fast pacing. This helps to keep the students engaged. At times, she will have the students work on one piece for the majority of the class period, but she still maintain a fast pacing by constantly changing how she asks the students to sing. She might ask one part to sing, ask all parts to sing, instruct them to focus on vowels, tell them to focus on ending consonants, draw attention to a specific articulation, or remind students of the dynamics. If the students are struggling on a specific section, she has them repeat it several times in rapid succession or sing while doing some sort of movement so that the repetition is not boring.

My cooperating teacher’s instruction is different depending on how long the students have been working on a piece. When the piece is brand new, she has them listen to a recording to gain familiarity with the piece. As they begin to rehearse new repertoire she has the students sing through the piece a little bit at a time, supporting the students by playing one part on the piano and singing with the other part. She often has the students stand in circles so that they gain more confidence and part independence. As it gets closer to a performance, she begins to have them sing longer chunks or the entire song so they can begin to tie the seams and understand the bigger picture. They correct sections as needed then sing the entire piece again.

As the concert approaches, she pushes them to sing as much as possible from memory so that performing from memory in the concert is easy. A week or two before the concert, she might also record the students and have them listen to the recording to help them understand what they need to improve on. She also shifts her focus from pitch accuracy to artistic interpretation of the piece through diction, dynamics, and articulation.

Many of the questions my cooperating teacher asks are recall questions. For example, she will often ask the student how many times a particular melody happens to help them perform accurately from memory. However, she also asks reflective questions to help the student connect the pieces to their own lives or to help with student think of ways they can improve their singing.

Few activities are student-led, but they are always student-focused. At times the students get to lead a familiar warm-up, make suggestions for improvement, or determine dance moves in a listening or movement activity. Usually, my cooperating teacher usually tells the students what to sing and how to sing it, but she always listens to the students to determine what pieces or concepts need the most attention. She is very aware of student behavior, posture, note accuracy, blend, diction, and dynamics and consistently makes corrections to help the students make the best sound possible. She uses a mix of modeling and verbalizing in her instruction. She often has the students sing, comments on an improvement to be made, models the way that it should sound, and has the students sing with the adaptation.

Experience 5

This week my cooperating teacher and I spent a lot of time discussing non-traditional ways to teach choir. Middle schoolers have a short attention span and so they focus better when they do active activities to do throughout the class period. This was especially true on Friday because it was the end of the week, Valentine’s day, and right before a 3-day weekend.

I have found that it can be really helpful to have the students do a wall push-up, wall sits, or sit-ups during slower pieces so that the students engage their abdominal muscles and support the sound through a sustained note or crescendo. If students are not to listening to one another or rush the tempo, I have found that it is helpful to tell them to close their eyes so that they focus more on what they hear. If the students have trouble with a particular rhythm, it can be helpful to have them do body percussion to internalize the rhythm. Or if the altos keep wanting to sing the melody, it can be helpful to have them squat to remember that they go to a lower pitch.

I have found that when I incorporate more movement and fun activities into singing, the students are able to focus more easily and produce better sound. Incorporating movement also keeps the music fresh and interesting so the students and myself are less likely to get bored while rehearsing the same music week after week. I look forward to finding other ways to bring movement into the choral classroom to help the students stay engaged and to keep the music alive.

Classroom Environment

My cooperating teacher meets the students at the door and greets them each by name. She displays a music related question or prompt on the projector for students to complete at the beginning of class. As students enter the room they spit out their gum, put their belongings on either the rug or foam mat at the front of the room, grab their binder from the designated slot, and sit in their assigned seats.

The back of the room has three riser-like steps so that each of the three rows of chairs is at a different height and it is easy to see over the other students. The walls have music related posters displaying vocabulary, dynamics, and solfege. There are also inspirational posters about working hard and the current date and date of the next concert are clearly displayed. Student supplies such as pencils, tissues, hand sanitizer, and the clipboard to sign out when leaving the room are all on a shelf near the door.

When the tardy bell rings, my CT closes the door and takes attendance. She compares her seating chart with the numbered seats to easily identify which students are absent. Students are given a few minutes to complete the prompt from the projector, they discuss the answer to the prompt, and the students stand for warm ups.

My CT does physical warm ups, breathing exercises, vocal exploration, phonation exercises, diction and vowel exercises, and has the students sing a rote song in a round. The student sit and take out sight reading. They use a procedure similar to MPAs so they will feel more prepared in the sight-reading room. My CT has the students identify the key signature, time signature, starting note, ending note, and range. The student speak the solfege in rhythm, establish the key, sing the exercise, talk about what needs to be improved, and sing the exercise again.

The students put away their sight reading page and stand. They sing one of their pieces as far as possible from memory. Once they reach a point where they can’t remember what is next, my CT reviews the parts individually then together. The students sing the section several times and are given a new goal to focus on with each repetition. During one repetition they focus on dynamics and during another repetition they focus on diction. My CT gives the students physical tasks to complete to remind them of their goals. She has the use arm movements to portray the growth and decay of the dynamics or punch the air to remind them to emphasize certain consonants. These movement keep the students engaged and focused as they sing.

My CT has the students take out another piece and stand in circles according to voice part. The students are a little talkative and sloppy forming circles but are refocused easily. Most students participate and the change in singing formation helps them stay interested and focused. My CT plays each voice part individually at the piano then has all the voice parts sing simultaneously. Being in close proximity with others in their voice part helps the students to sing out more confidently. The bell rings, so my CT dismisses the students. They put their binders away in their designated slots, gather their belongings, and exit after another class period of music making.

Experience 4

This week has been both challenging and exciting. Now that I have been working with the students for several weeks I have been able to form relationships with them. Many of the students talk to me before or after class and ask me about college, what I did over the weekend, invite me to attend performances for their extracurricular activities, or give me a drawing. But now that they are more familiar with me, they are sometimes less willing to participate and push the boundaries to see how much they can get away with. I am now having more problems with classroom management so I am learning to develop the skills of awareness, remaining firm, and planning more engaging lessons to prevent boredom and behavior problems.

The intermediate choir I am working with has been especially challenging. I am struggling to get students to participate so I am worried they will not be prepared for their concert and MPAs. My cooperating teacher has suggested that I use faster pacing and more variety while I teach to keep the students engaged. She has suggested having the students sing in circles, record audio of the students singing for them to listen to, sing facing a wall so they get more immediate audio feedback, use movement such as punching the air each time there is an accent, have them sing along to an accompaniment track while I conduct, and give a candy prize to the student with the best vowels. I hope that as I incorporate more variety into my teaching that I can keep the students engaged so that they will want to sing and be better prepared for their upcoming performances.

Despite these challenges, there are also very rewarding moments. For example, I recently went to a school board meeting where the students who went to All State were recognized. I was so happy to see them receiving recognition for their accomplishments, and many of them excitedly said hi to me before or after the meeting. I could tell that they were very happy that I had taken time out of my day to come and support them and I was so proud of all of their hard work.

Experience 3

One of my largest challenges this last week was finding balance. When I first started student teaching it was pretty easy to find balance because I was mostly observing my cooperating teacher and when I got home I had plenty of time to relax. But now that I am taking over more and more responsibilities it has been more difficult to take care of myself mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally. 

Firstly, I am healing after having all four of my wisdom teeth removed. I did have to miss one day of school to get rest, but I went through my normal schedule for the rest of the week. When I returned to the classroom I packed many soft foods for snacks and lunch, an ice pack to use between classes, and medicine to keep the pain down so I could continue to talk and teach. Secondly, my cooperating teacher was gone for two days straight so I spent many late nights planning lessons for each choir. Needless to say, by the end of the week I was exhausted.

However, this last week also taught me a lot about self care. If I am spending a lot of time creating lesson plans, I have started setting a timer to force myself to take a short break to drink water, rest, and stretch. I have also started scheduling time to hang out with friends because I crave spending time with adults after being with middle schoolers all week. Similarly, I try to incorporate short relaxing activities such as reading, family time, 10-minute yoga videos, or 30-minute TV episodes into my daily routine. Lastly, I try to spread out to my to do list over the entire week so that I can go to bed on time every night, rather than having to stay up to check a last-minute item off my to-do list. As I have worked on balancing every aspect of my life, I have found that I am happier and I have the energy to do all the things that are required in life.