Weekly Review #10

My previous post detailed the main event of the week involving 6th grade choir. It was definitely disappointing to not be able to try any of the strategies suggested after the formal observation on Monday, but in the end I know what happened was for the best and overall benefit of the choir. Of all the classes I teach, 6th grade choir is the only one I ever got the sense from that they truly looked on me as a temporary fixture and knew I'd be leaving eventually. That said, I still want them to be successful and I know the talent is there!

This week was the last week before the school's Spring Break (I am writing this from Laurel, Maryland where I am currently on Spring Break!) so there was a feeling of optimism, but also that kind of worn-out feeling as everyone pushed towards Friday. I felt really good about how classes went as we also began transitioning all of the classes back to Mr. Suzelis. I had him take one day from each of the general music classes and he did warm-ups for both the 7th and 8th grade choirs on a certain day. In 5th grade choir, we essentially team-taught part of the class. I really worked on memorizing names while he taught the music classes and so the rest of the week did much better calling on students and keeping the flow of the lesson going, particularly in 6th grade general music. I was evaluated on Friday by Mr. Suzelis in 6th garde general music and got a generally good evaluation, particularly in classroom management, which I was happy about.

In 5th grade choir I've slowly been working in greatly simplified accompaniments into the songs, not only for my own confidence, but also to help the 5th graders stay excited about their songs. It really helped on Wednesday or Thursday when Mr. Suzelis had to run back to the middle school for something, so he left me with the class and I couldn't ask him to play the accompaniments for me. The other thing this week was solo & ensemble contest on Saturday, so we were working towards that in 7th and 8th grade choirs; also preparing for large group event in May. Mr. Suzelis has largely taken over 7th and 8th grade choirs, though I still do warm-ups and sight singing (once we start that again after break). Most of class was taken up by having the soloists and ensembles perform in class to get experience and practice. I did my best to offer feedback and help to the students. For the most part, they all did well at solo & ensemble yesterday and I was particularly happy that no one gave up on their solo, even some that Mr. Suzelis was almost certain would. All in all a great week heading into the break!