During my last visit to DeWitt High School, students were
beginning to learn choreography for their upcoming spring pops concert. I had a
plan to work on one of their pieces with them, but because they have a guest
choreographer who was coming in that day, Ms. Eldred suggested I do warm ups
instead. I used a very similar plan as I had before, but this time, I actually
used Ms. Eldred’s suggestions. It was great to put them into practice! I used a
kinesthetic movement with each exercise I did. I also asked for small
improvements based on the sound I was hearing instead of mindlessly playing
scales while they sing along. I think I was more confident in front of the
group than before as well.
There was also an opportunity, right before I warmed them
up, to tell a funny story. Ms. Eldred was telling about finding a giant spider
in her basement the night before for a couple minutes, which brought up the
topic of spiders. I asked if I could tell a quick story, which I knew was
pretty funny, and she was all for it! Everyone laughed and reacted to the story
about lots of baby spiders invading my mom’s car and our effort to save them.
So this wasn’t productive in terms of music at all. But it was a bonding moment
in the class when everyone was laughing and “ew”-ing about bugs.
When the guest choreographer Amanda arrived, Bella Voce went
to the auditorium to learn it. I thought the choreography was somewhat advanced
for doing while singing, but it was very cool. They were also strongly
encouraged to sing as they were learning it to get used to the stamina it takes
to do both at the same time. They were a little bit lethargic, but they seemed
excited about it.
Ms. Eldred told me about her first year of the spring pops
concert. She said that the band director at the time approached her about
trying something new and collaborative. She first incorporated dance in the
first year and said that students really complained about it. However, after
several years with this tradition, students are very excited about the dance
portion. She said that some students do choir specifically for the purpose of
the dance component in the spring. She also said that the boys are the ones who
get the most excited about dancing and that they look forward to it throughout
the year.
I had a class cancelled later that morning, so I stayed for
a part of the next class, Concert Choir. I wanted to see the different energy
of DeWitt’s mixed group and wondered about differences. They were definitely
chattier than the women who meet at 7:30! Ms. Eldred had to ask them to be
quiet a little more, but it wasn’t a big issue. There was also a minor
confrontation with a student who seemed to have a very bad attitude that day.
This student was questioning everything Ms. Eldred said and being a little sassy.
Though the student was sitting in front and center of the room and it was clear
that Ms. Eldred heard everything she was saying, she basically ignored her
sassy comments. She didn’t even address the student or her attitude. This was
so interesting, and it seemed to work. Ms. Eldred didn’t even react to the poor
attitude and simply went about teaching as normal. The sassy comments did
eventually go away and were a non-issue. While this seems like a good practice,
I have seen many instances where teachers react differently and it often
results negatively. I think a lot of times teachers draw attention to the bad
attitudes and sometimes lose their cool out of annoyance. Ms. Eldred was able
to keep the focus of all of the other students well enough that they were not
concerned about the negativity in the room, and eventually it just went away. I
was really impressed.
The men in the group DID seem especially excited about the
dancing. The energy of this group seemed really fun and positive overall, and I
got really excited about working with them next year! There was a lot of
smiling and laughter throughout class.
