My most recent visit with Ms. Eldred included a lot of great
things. I paid attention to her procedures, which are very consistent. Everyday
begins with announcements, then stretching, and vocalization in a very similar
process to what we learned in class with lip trills or humming to begin, lots
of descending patterns, and then more singing. This is followed by sight-reading,
which she does every single day. She starts sight-reading with solfege scales
and patterns in the key of the exercise. They begin with rhythm (MLT syllables) on DO
and then are given time to practice. She encourages them to practice with a
neighbor, and when she hears errors, she sometimes sings them some hints. The
sight-reading exercises are from past festival sight-reading. I know that Ms.
Eldred gives sight-singing tests as part of students’ grades. I need to inquire
more about other grading procedures.
The scheduling at DeWitt seems less than ideal for choir,
but Ms. Eldred seems to make it work. They have block scheduling, which I had
for part of high school, but this is really different than my experience. In
this schedule, they have four classes for the whole semester that meet for 90
minutes everyday. Thus, each class is only one semester. This means that some
choirs meet during school one semester and outside of school the other. Bella
Voce, the ensemble I observe, meets year-round, but I think that a lot of the
people change. Ms. Eldred mentioned this on the topic of festival. Her spring
choirs have a disadvantage because they only started meeting second semester.
Theoretically, it shouldn’t matter because they have such long class periods,
but my prediction is that ten long rehearsals is not as productive as twenty
short ones. I could be wrong! Either way, it’s really impressive that she gets
them ready for festival in such a short period of time.
The school is cosmetically very nice, and the choir room is
no exception. It is a huge room with a window (YAY) and some nice decorations.
The room has big risers with chairs on them and room to walk behind them. It
seems that the choir is respected based on interactions with office staff and
the kind of energy coming in and out of the room. It also seems like there is a
good relationship between Ms. Eldred and her accompanist, Mrs. Clark.
Ms. Eldred passed out spring pops concert music, which
included things like “You Can’t Stop the Beat.” She talked to the class a
little bit about planning choreography and the whole spring pops event. She
also talked about when all of the singers sing “For Good” and everyone cries,
and I was brought instantly back to high school. This is the kind of stuff kids
LOVE and the way they remember the meaning of being in choir. I hope to instill
similar traditions and emotional responses. I know I was a huge crier at my
last senior choir concert! I’m glad she fosters an experience for students
where they are this connected.
I guess next week I will start getting involved! I’m really
nervous to stand in front of sixty-five high school girls, but I look forward
to it.
You see a lot of detail, Lena. This will serve you very well.
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