10/5 - The Persistence of Memory

We allowed everyone in HS Choir to return to their original seats...the fussy group of girls got even worse, and Mrs. D is following up with the administration.  This is the first time in many years of teaching that she has had to take this approach.

I scared the Theory students a bit by making them sing (together).  That was fun.  I began teaching them intervals, and in the process realized how much information there is to know just about intervals, especially when ear training is included.

GM went fairly well.  I remembered one of the amusing moments from yesterday, which seemed to almost repeat itself a few times today:  The class was playing a chord progression along with me, and was doing so quite chaotically.  I was grinning during this (ok, it was really bad) and a student asked me why I was smiling.  I said, "Because I'm having fun!"  Well, I was, but only to keep myself from going mad with frustration.  Laughter followed.

Now to address the topic referenced in this post's title.  I forget things a lot, but that isn't any different than I always have been.  However, I've recently noticed something pretty cool; I'm remembering a lot of things!  That shouldn't be so exciting, I know, but consider the vast amount of information that is thrust upon a teacher — new names every day, music that you're asked to listen to, information sent from the administration, who is absent and why, who is having issues at home, who is about to have an athletic event, who just did, who forgot to turn something in, who isn't on their medication, who is supposed to be sitting where, who you've already had an in-the-hall respect lecture with, who your cooperating teacher has already had such a lecture with, etc., etc., etc...  So I'm absorbing much more material than I've previously needed to yet only forgetting the same amount that I used to; the forgetfulness has not increased proportionally (unless I'm forgetting something).  I'm proud to declare that I think I'm keeping up with the inundation of details that teachers must handle.  It keeps my mind in shape.

(A shout-out to Mrs. D — I think I'm going to have Cocoa Puffs for breakfast tomorrow......)


 (梦中人) Dreamlover (Dreams by The Cranberries) - Faye Wong

10/4

When asked to identify the benefits of choir (band and orchestra fit well into this, too), we directors list things like "teamwork, discipline, practice skills, setting and reaching goals, knowledge of one's physiology," and other such things that sound a lot like the benefits listed for sports.  We also, however, list things like "integration/coordination of different cognitive processes, knowledge of the academics of music theory (a mathematical and auditory discipline), learning skills," and other such things that sound a lot like the benefits of other academic or elective subjects.  With this in mind, I've been considering the difficulties in encouraging a school's culture to perceive choir as beneficial.  There seems to be a tendency for people to equate it either with an extracurricular team activity or with specialized electives, but it is uncommon for a culture to see it for what it is: a personally and intellectually educational experience that is rewarding and beneficial to anyone who allows themselves to be motivated.

I bring that up because of the range of students that make up HS choir.  There are those who love to sing, those who have nothing better to do, few of those who find more than one of the above benefits, and, the worst, those who think choir is social time.  This is frustrating.  There are, of course, a myriad of was to address this, and no two teachers do so in the same way.  I'll finish this topic by saying that I look forward to learning more about how the administrative and student bodies view choir.

I went way out on a limb in Theory and, in an attempt to take advantage of having so few students, had them apply their scale knowledge to playing scales on a piano.  This turned out to be very difficult for almost all of them.  I couldn't tell if it was just because the piano is intimidating or if there was a disconnect between the keyboard diagrams we've used, the scales that they know quite well, and the piano itself.

Affordable (ok, cheap) guitars don't stay in tune in a fluctuating environment.  This can be maddening.  Some other interesting stuff happened during GM classes today, but I can't remember what they were at the moment.


From A Window (Lenon/McCartney) - Graham Parker

10/1

Well, we got out the guitars again today...oops.

It wasn't actually a mistake, but it was sure a headache to have on a Friday.  I've been working this week to quell the chaos of the GM classes and have been succeeding.  This means that we ended the week by letting them sit wherever they want and play with things that make noise.  It went as well as it could, we even got some more make-up work done, and I'm just desperately hoping that things will be back to "more attentive than usual" after this guitar unit.

I was prepared at the end of the day to stay late and grade papers and work on some things but Mrs. D convinced me to "Go home!  It's Friday!  Grade them next week."  Thanks :)

Today was "Crazy Socks Day."

This was my spirited contribution.

Variations 1-4 (Andrew Lloyd Webber) - Julian Lloyd Webber (From a student.)