Happy New Year! Please let me preface this by apologizing for a long post. This is part-vent/part-seeking info. Im in my first year as a full time chorus teacher at a middle school. My experience has not prepared me for this job at all-a .6 position at a small private school, private voice studio, after school work, and music directing community theatre. I was hired because they thought I could do things apparently I cant but mostly because of my energy and passion for music and my ability to recruit-weve had over 30 students join chorus since the start of the year, a decent amount of them boys, which is a big # for this school. But I have no clue what Im doing. My mentor is the drama teacher. We were paired due to similar personalities and we are the same age. She was nice and somewhat helpful leading up to my winter concert. Then she helped out at that, saw the chaos of me trying to run it with a little teacher help, over 300 kids from 4th-8th grade(my after school Elem. Chorus was there too). Now she is in boot camp mode, giving me homework, rudely pointing everything I do wrong, and has questioned my having this job a priority(I told her I considered auditioning for a show just as a fun escape to keep the confidence up, which is now gone. She said I shouldnt music direct, perform, or date right now). She also said she expected me to be more organized and know how to do lesson plans which she called life skills. For my interview I was asked to bring in any evidence to support my getting hired. I had my resume-no lesson plans, documents etc. I literally had nothing. I was as honest at my interview as I could have been. I know how to teach vocal music. I get good results from my groups. My kids love music now more than ever and the parents are beyond thrilled with the result. I cant figure out all of the logistics and the organizational work needed to be an effective chorus teacher. Maybe my mentor is right, maybe Im not meant to be a teacher. Its just tough to hear that, even if its reality, and believe it with less than 6 months under my belt. I love teaching. I love being able to give back what Ive learned, especially at this school which has a lot of struggling families. What I really need help with now, as silly as this sounds, is: 1) How to do a lesson plan for chorus. My mentor talks about breaking down each unit(which she says for me would be diction, notes, dynamics, sight reading etc), into a day to day process so I know how long each unit will take. But I go from concert to concert and itll be different each time. Im not sure how to go about this or where/how to start. What do you all do for chorus lesson plans? 2) How to know what rep. is vocally appropriate for middle school. My 6th and 7th grade classes are divided into 2 separate ones then 3 8th grade classes. They dont get to rehearse together until close to the concert. Harmony is not their strong point. Any thoughts anyone can offer would be so greatly appreciated. Thank you all so much!
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 17:01:11 +0000
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