The second of three visits this week to catch myself up was very similar to the first two. In this post, I'll be focusing on the operational procedures of the class room.
From observations over this first few visits, there doesn't seem to be any type of grading in the classroom. I don't even notice if the teacher takes attendance. I do not believe I have heard the phrase practice in terms of the music or outside of rehearsal as well.
Throughout the day, Mr. Bishop has five classes for one class that he meets with five days a week. The classes are split up into ability level and gender, except for the Chorale group. Some of the Chorale guys also sing with the Men's ensemble that I visit. Even after asking, any administrative duties that he has are unknown to me. He was not very specific in what exactly he does but I believe he does a hallway shift where he monitors hallways. The relationship with the students is very close, as explained in the last post, and the relationship with other staff is the same. Whenever they enter the classroom for various reasons, he chit chats with them for a while while the choir just sits there. Since I've been there, I have seen no sight reading books, besides old MSVMA contest examples. The ensemble that I'm with, even though they are competing, have not opened them once.
The physical space of the choir room, though, is fantastic. There is a large riser set up with chairs and attached desks. The "audience" wall is a giant mirror that the students can see themselves in. The back of the classroom has four practice rooms with pianos for student use. The tables, however, are littered with music and papers, it's hard to find anything.
To me, it just seems so unfortunate that they have all of the resources but not the best musical environment. The program has everything it needs to succeed at a very high level, I'm just not seeing it in this group.
Careful, here, Zach. Just stay open to really seeing what is in front of you. What are the backgrounds of these students? What kind of family support is in place? What does choir represent in their overall school experiences. Then, yes, you might put yourself in the position of teacher and make different choices. And you will, and you will be very successful...just know that choices made by this teacher include a wide variety of factors. Also, I'd like you to consider that your experience in MN does not represent every state--sightreading in MI has never been as high a priority, despite the best efforts of MSVMA. As long as groups can sight-read a level less than their performance level, the message is that it is not as important, yes?
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