Week 5: Women's Choir Blues

This short week was even more challenging than the last, but with those challenges came great successes.  We had an inservice day Monday where I learned a lot about the big changes happening to the MPS district.  We are required to add a 1/2 hour onto each day, but DPI hasn't yet told us what that extra time entails.  We spent a part of the day planning scenarios of what this time could look like.  The hardest thing is that we don't know whether we'll have students during this time or not.  It is also a scary thought to know my work day was just extended a 1/2 hour and it will not be reflected in my future pay... The times, they are a changin'... back.

Tuesday I had my first observation by my university supervisor.  I was terrified, and she was coming second block, so my lesson in first block with Treble was a flop.  I just didn't feel focused and I had too many goals to tackle in a short time, which was a good lesson, but a hard one to learn an hour before you're getting supervised for the first time.  I shook it off as best I could, and my lesson with Concert choir went well.  My supervisor was so impressed with all that Erica is doing and what the kids are capable of.  It was a good start to observations, and I hope the next 5 go as well or better!

Wednesday I had a hard time with Women's choir.  I feel like they hate me, but in reality, there are a few strong personalities that just don't like the fact that I'm new and think I'm coming in to change everything.  I cried for the first time at school that day.  They just seemed to challenge everything that I did, and after a rough lesson on Tuesday with Treble, it was enough to make me break.  Erica swooped in to help, of course, but by then my confidence was shot.  I calmly went to the staff bathroom during water break and curled up by the sinks and cried.  I felt so defeated.  I let myself cry for 10 minutes, sucked it up, and went back to class to teach Men's choir.  They are so goofy and happy for any help I can give, they cheered me up a little.  They are seriously one of my favorite groups.  Afterward, Erica and I sat down to talk about what happened.  It really all went downhill because I needed to do better score study.  It made sense, as many behavior management issues were because I had planned the lesson to death and not been listening or understanding the score as well as I should have.  Lesson learned: knowing your score inside and out can be more valuable than having a clearly defined lesson plan!

Thursday was better.  I watched Erica as she taught the piece I flopped on to Treble.  It was amazing.  She is truly an artist as a teacher.  Her transitions were seamless, she previewed parts of the lesson in her warm ups... I can only hope I get to that level!  She taught a melisma section of the piece by "pitch set."  I hadn't been familiar with the term before, but it is teaching the pitch without rhythm.  So often we isolate the rhythm and not pitch, when the pitch is the hardest part!  It was amazing and it really made the students understand what was on the page as opposed to learning it aurally.  I took over Concert choir, and it went sooo well!  I voluntarily taught the entire hour, and it went well.  It was a much needed victory after such a failure the day before.  So funny how things can be so up and down!

Next week I begin my two weeks of full rehearsals.  Please pray that I won't let the bad lessons get to me, because I'm sure there will be flopped lessons.  I am so grateful for your continued encouragement. Here we go!