Melissa+Journal+1

Theme 1 Rachel and I were unable to meet up with Tami Sellner prior to the onset of field experience, so we met her when we came into her classroom for the first time on October 31st. To my surprise, though, I had previously bet introduced to Tami last year, while at the MMEA Spring Conference for Music Educators in Minneapolis. Tami is very upbeat and friendly, and even remembered me from our prior meeting. Right away I was excited to work with her. The first thing I noticed about being part of a West choir rehearsal, is that things move FAST. There never seems to be any downtime! Consequently, the first few things I learned were from my observation of the class, because Tami was quite busy when we arrived-before AND after class. However eventually we did have time to chat with her to find out some things about what it is like, teaching choir at West. I learned that Tami has many responsibilities that keep her busy: The Scarlett Choir, Concert Choir, the small women's ensemble, West Connection Choir (which meets before school), a middle school choir, and the school musical rehearsals after school. On top of that Tami voluntarily uses her prep hour to give additional help to students. Tami let us know that we could come in whenever it worked best for us, and that letting her know by email would be appropriate. She also invited us to attend musical rehearsals in the evenings if we were able to and willing. The materials that she provided us with were our own choir folders with copies of the music that they are working on. We received a cell phone number from Tami, too, in case we needed to contact her outside of school.

Theme 2

It is so great to be back in a high school choir environment! The room is very lively and full of so many different personalities and energy levels. One thing I noticed right away is that there is never a dull moment. Tami keeps the students actively engaged throughout the entire rehearsal. The first thing Tami does to capture the students' attention and get them prepared for the day is a synchronized warm up routine. This routine involves stretching and engaging the mind and body, while thinking about preparing it for singing. Then the students give each other back rubs, and shortly afterwards she commences into a series of vocalizations. I noticed that she does several more vocal warm ups that we do in my college choir, and I wonder if that is because their rehearsal is earlier in the day, and also possibly as a way to help them focus on singing and forget about the day's distractions; I'm not sure, but I'll have to ask! Right away I can tell that the choir is indeed used to group work; that is a very good thing because they are a choir and that is what being in a choir is all about. The students seem to have a close connection to each other and generally seem to like and support each other, especially when learning new parts. I was only at West a few hours this week, but from what I can tell, the students are great at responding to questions posed by Tami. She challenges to think independently and take responsibility for learning their music, and they seem to do well with that approach to teaching. Tami keeps her students on task by continually engaging them with questions and instructions, especially calling on those students who are distracted or have a lot of energy. Sometimes when the class is over-talking her she will ask for their attention and show a confident posture and serious face; it seems so far that that is all she needs to do to get them back on track because they respect her. The only potential problems I can see so far in the class happened when the accompanist was leading a girls sectional in the other room. Several of the girls were disrespectful and tried to get away with some behavior that they normally would not do with Tami around.

Tami uses several methods for assessing her students. Often as a precursor to rehearsal, she has them work on sight-singing skills. She does this by running SmartMusic software, which will show a line of music that students then have to sing solfegge too. The choir does this as a group and the microphone on the computer picks up their singing. Then an assessment page shows them what pitches and rhythms were not correct so that they know what they need to work on. Another way Tami assesses her students is individually or in a small group when they come for lessons during her prep hour. This short lesson time is great for giving one on one help and feedback and Tami is a great personal voice teacher and encourager. When we asked her how else she assessed her students, she mentioned that per school policy she is required to give a final. She feels like given a written final would be so out of context for her singers because they hardly ever write things down or take notes in her classroom, so she came up with an alternative to a paper final. She instead has the students work in a group to come up with their own musical skit. This involves possibly composing music and synchronizing dance moves. She said she is always very impressed by how creative her students are. Other than sight-sighting, projects, and participation related activities, Tami grades her students by starting them all off with an "A." She said that as long as they come to class, conduct themselves in an appropriate manner, do the project she assigns, and come to the required amount of lessons, then they will keep that "A." I respect her method of grading and find it suitable for a high school choir.

Themes 3-5

11/16

Wednesday December 16th was the first day that I taught a lesson in Ms. Sellner's classroom. Rachel and I had both really enjoyed being in the Voce rehearsal, which consists of about 12 girls in grades 10-12. These girls had all tried out for Concert Choir and didn't make it, but Ms. Sellner saw so much potential in them that she wanted to work with them in a small group. The Voce group seemed to still be learning their music, so we thought it would be a good idea to work with them. The day before she told Rachel and I that we could direct a couple warm ups as well as choose one of their concert songs to conduct and work on. This first time around, Rachel took the lead on the warm ups. She taught a few new ones to them and then it was already time to move on and work on the songs. I choose to conduct the song Jeanette Isabella. The main strategy that I used in this lesson was my knowledge of conducting. I'll admit, I have MUCH to learn and much to perfect in my personal conducting style, but I used the techniques that I knew. Beyond simply conducting, however, I realized fairly quickly that I need to go much further beyond that. The girls were very shaky in this song so I had to almost start at the very beginning. I noticed right away that the alto section could not hear their parts and also lacked a lot of confidence. One of the things I did to begin to remedy this was to run through notes with just their section. In my experience repetition is very effective for note learning. When the whole choir was singing, I would join the altos and sing their part to help them feel more confident. The type of assessment that I used the most was the kind that only my ears could do: I listened; a lot and very carefully. I had to learn to trust my ears, as well as be confident and know the piece for myself. The other type of assessment I used quite a bit was inquiry based; I continually asked if they needed to rehearse something again. Luckily for Rachel and I we never had to deal with behavioral conflicts on this day. The girls are great and they listen fairly well. However, even the most well-behaved classrooms need to be managed. For classroom management I channeled a lot of what Ms. Sellner does with the girls. I did not talk over them if they were "chatty," but instead tried to implement a confident stance and a facial expression that says "I will not talk over you." That seems to go over well with the Voce group and they noticed when I was waiting for them to quiet down.

11/28 I had decided to continue to work with the Voce girls, so the second time I taught I picked up where I left off. This time, however, I was able to lead warm ups. I was really excited to teach them some new ones that I thought would help them produce a healthy and focused tone. We did different variations of vocalises that implements the "ng" sound, which helps place the tone into the mask. I also had the girls put their hands on their noses so they could feel the vibrations there, which would let them know if they were doing it correctly. I think this is an important step to take because it gives the students instant feedback. After warms ups and after Ms. Sellner and Rachel rehearsed their songs, it was time once again to work on Jeannette Isabella. This time around I was a little bit more prepared for how things were going to go and I had a much better handle on conducting. I wanted to moved past note learning and I felt like the girls were ready to take the song to the next level. We worked quite a bit on dynamic contrast in this song. Mostly on the spot I had to respond to how they were singing and give them feedback. I realized quickly that I would need to actively show them what to do; when the song was in the quiet, piano sections, I made my conducting gesture much smaller and put my finger to my lips, signaling a "shush" sign. I was pleased by how well they all responded to it. I really enjoyed this new found ability to influence the sound that the choir made.

12/1

Two days ago I taught my final lesson to the Voce Choir. In the previous couple of lessons I worked mostly on technique (notes, rhythm, dynamics). It's great to have those aspects down solid, and since they were well on their way to mastering the basics of the song, I felt like it was time to breathe life into Jeannette Isabella. I began by challenging the girls to make this song come to life for them. We talked about lyrics and what the action of the song was, and I suggested relating it to their own lives. I asked them to think about a new baby that they have known personally, and to sing about that if they choose, or to sing about the baby Jesus if they wanted to do that. I was not expecting what happened next; the song absolutely came to life. They girls sang with feeling and inflection; I was so pleased. It was so much more enjoyable to conduct that I was able to free up my conducting gesture even more, getting more in tune to the music. Also after running the song, Ms. Sellner kindly suggested some tips that would help me be much a much clearer director. I ran the song again, this time using some of those strategies, and it was even more amazing. This lesson especially reminded me why I am going into this field.

Theme 6: Overall experience

When I think back to how much I experienced and learned this past month of being at West High School, I struggle to put it all into words. My time at West was so clarifying and significant in many ways that journaling hardly does it justice. I'm going to be honest; when first given my placement assignment I was very nervous. I knew of West's "reputation." It's a great school by many standards and has many students. I was intimidated. Furthermore, I had met Ms. Sellner previously, and had heard of the great things she has accomplished in her teaching career. Here was this wonderful teacher who was about to have me, a mere student in her classroom. However, it wasn't long into my field experience before I started to realize that I was fortunate to be at this school. Right away I felt accepted into the school as a person who has a common goal with the faculty there; we all want to teach! Ms. Sellner has been an awesome role model. She is very driven and capable but also one of the kindest teachers I have met. She connects with her students so well, and likewise, she connected with Rachel and I. We were fortunate enough to be able to sit down and discuss things with her on more than one occasion. Ms. Sellner opened up to us what being a teacher is really truly like, the ins and the outs. She also gave us the opportunity to lead in her classroom often, never concerned that were would "mess everything up." It was such a great environment to be in. But the thing that really truly spoke the most to me during my time at West were the students. I'll admit, I came into this experience very unsure of what I was doing and lacking a strong sense of direction and self. Throughout the progress of getting to know several of the students and helping them to learn music, I got in touch with my inner teacher again. I experienced being a music teacher for the first time, and it felt so right. Having a title doesn't matter to me, nor does making a lot of money or being a famous singer. What matters the most to me is helping others. Through music I am able to share something with others that they may not already know. It is a gift that I am capable of giving, and it is a gift that reaps many benefits. Seeing the faces of the Voce girls after they successfully and meaningfully sang through a song was absolutely priceless. I had just started to get to know these girls and I was already bursting with pride. Being at West reminded me what teaching is all about; it reminded me of what I can't wait to do every single day.

Video Critique

Watching myself teaching a real music class of high school students for the first time was very eye opening. I discovered new things about myself, some positive, and some things that I want to change in the future. Rachel and I recorded the lesson that we co-taught on Monday November 28th. The class that we taught was the small Voce Choir, which consists of twelve girls in the tenth through twelfth grade. At this point in the semester the girls were coming down to the last week of rehearsal until their big holiday concert, so becoming solid and competent on the music was a priority. Rachel and I started off the lesson by both leading a few vocalises. During my portion I felt it was important to introduce a new way of things about tone focus, so we did a series of descending five notes scales on various words like "ningee" and "zinga mama." While watching the video I was pleased to see that I explained my intent of those warm ups with the students. I told them that it helps focus the tone and give it a direction. Sense that was indeed the objective for that portion of the lesson, I would say that I successfully communicated that with them. This objective was not the kind that is easily measured, and it is a definitely a work in progress. The second portion of my time teaching on Monday was the rehearsal of their concert piece, "Jeanette Isabella." The main objective while working on this song is to learn it well and to sing with feeling for the concert. However there are more specific goals that I worked each time I taught it. One this particular day I concentrated the most on singing the dynamics. Watching the video I can see that I never specifically stated that as my goal of the day. However, as we worked on dynamics the majority of the time I feel like they understand that was the goal, if not right away, eventually. The last portion that I taught in class that same day was the rehearsal of "Fah Who Foraze," a song from the movie "How The Grinch Stole Christmas." This was an extra part that I hadn't prepared to do as I was asked to work on it just that morning. My objective was simple, my job was to help the get their notes down. I did state that very briefly before beginning, and the girls were already well aware that they needed to work on the notes. Overall I did not see that I was overly clear all the time about the lesson standards and objectives, but I was pleased to see that it did come out in my rhetoric eventually before I was done teaching. It was interesting me to see this, because while teaching I wasn't aware of the fact that I was taking time to stop and explain what we were doing and why.