Choir was chaotic today. We spent the class handing out sign-up forms and talking about class rules, upcoming events, and the cycle of Applied Music class priorities. The district has a 6-day cycle, so in order to accommodate students that are in multiple ensembles, there is a sequence of priorities. This means that there are 2 days during which we have a full choir, 2 days during which we do not have students who are also in band, and 2 days during which we do not have students who are also in orchestra.
I gave the Theory class a diagnostic quiz today that I made the night before. It had 5 questions, ranging in difficulty from "notate the pitch 'E' on the treble clef" to "identify the most consonant harmonization to the following phrase". One student got almost everything right, including the harmonization question. One student returned the quiz completely blank. The other three filled in the spectrum. Providing an education to all of them, without favoritism, will be a challenge that I look forward to. It was also today that I realized playing and discussing music in the middle of class every day would be beneficial, but I did not have music prepared. I lectured on pitch-naming.
The GM classes were spent on introductions today. A funny thing happened when they asked what kind of music I like and I listed a lot of things, including Renaissance music. One student asked, "What is 'Renaissance'?" So I answered, "The Renaissance was a mostly 15th century cultural movement that..." blah blah blah. The students were deer in headlights, and Mrs. D joked about me "going college professor" on them. Oops.
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