Practicum II: Journal

McGavock High SchoolDue Friday, April 27th, 2006

Sophomore Year Practicum Assignments 04.25.06

What is stated is my observation. The * symbolizes any of my extra input or solutions to an observation

Practicum Assignment No. 1: Classroom Space1. a.

b. There weren’t too many constraints to deal with. They had a large band room and a lot of storage space. Separate rooms for instrument storage, percussion storage, guard storage, and uniform storage. Cubby holes and racks on the walls.

c. There was congestion in the main entrance primarily because of percussion equipment. At the beginning of class one of the teachers would stand at the main entrance to keep people moving and to check for students who were late. He didn’t use board space very often, just kept random things on there. Although I think it would be more efficient if he used it. He would get made when students came through the office to get into the band room, although he left the door unlocked.

2. a. All in semi circles as drawn above. Flutes in first row. Clarinets in first row. Saxes, horns, bass clarinets and bassoons in third row. Trumpets, trombones, euphoniums, and tubas in fourth row.

b. No. Arrangement doesn’t change, students just sit in different places for different classes. Every once in a while students will take stands and chairs outside to practice in sectionals.

c. Students who are in the percussion section and the fourth row. The teacher focuses a lot on the students closest to him, therefore leaving the students in the back row with more opportunities for discipline problems. The girls on the ends of the rows also have talking problems because they’re out of his direct line of sight. Every once in a while he will shoot them a mean glance.

3. a. The only teacher movement in the classroom is the movement between the office and the front of the classroom. It does not cause any congestion. The students however are at a slighter disadvantage because the only door into the bandroom from the school is in the back row next to all the percussion. It is a very small entrance for all the students to come in, and not only does it back people up because they stop and talk, but it keeps the percussionist from setting up on time.

b. There isn’t much they can do because of the nature of the physical layout of the school and band room, but if there were a way to prevent students from stopping and talking that would be the only slight solution. Maybe have a director stand slightly off to the side and remind the students to keep moving.

4. a. The students can all see him clearly at all times because the students are on built in risers in the band room. He has to turn slightly in order to make eye contact with the students on the side.

b. No.

c. He doesn’t communicate as well with the very side of the rows because they’re not in his ‘default’ visual area. They students are not only at a learning disadvantage but others see them talking and not getting in trouble, therefore causing a ripple talking effect. He needs to concentrate more effort on making sure that he is reaching out to all of his students, no matter where they sit, and that they are following the same rules as the rest of the class.

5.a. The students can all see the teacher clearly.

b. He doesn’t use the chalkboard or dry erase board. All his announcements come through speech at the beginning of class.

c. No other visual problems.

d. Only minor distractions, small parking lot outside of the school with a loading dock and random beeping truck. People enter through a lot of doors in the classroom which is a

distraction from the teacher because he can’t just assume his students will come in one door. They're on the edge of the school though, so there are no hallway distractions. 6.a. It is a very exciting environment because so many students have a lot of talent and potential, but it is also a very stressful environment. It is somewhat stimulating, but most thoughts are cleared up when the lack of organization over powers the environment. There are no boards displaying encouragement or rules and very few instructions are posted, most are received through oral announcements.

Final Reflection

I have understood from this observation that regardless of how neat the chairs are, or how much space is between each row, no amount of physical set up will be beneficial if the environment around it is not organized. Every day the students would come in and sit in the same chair, that was in the same place everyday. The knew where their instrument would be and which folder their music was in. However, it was always constant chaos because of the mess around the physical setup. In all the corners of the room, things were pilled, instruments were in stacks, and music and equipment was constantly being broken or lost. With the classroom that I observed I would take use of the large amount of room they have in a very conservative way. I would insert cabinets and closets so that there would be an organized place to store everything, so that when students went to find something or put something back, there was a set place to get everything. I would not change the chair layout, there was not much room for change or improvement there, but I would change a few smaller details. I would hang more posters and signs. Objects to enhance self-esteem, good efforts and instruction. I take away less of the trophies, since it seemed that trophies were their goal, and make more use of the dry erase board. That way students could hear and see any announcements that they needed to know. The more organized a classroom is the quicker you can cut the crap, make the announcements and get to the real deal at hand – making music.

Practicum Assignment No. 2: Curriculum and Instruction

1. Through out the classroom hour, the students use warm-ups – scales, articulation studies, and rhythm examples from a book. They use several books for small ensembles and practice sight-reading as an entire group. After warm-ups they work on a few pieces of concert repertoire. Each teacher usually works on one pieces, so the students have between 3-4 pieces to work on at one point in time.

2. The classroom is definitely teacher-centered. He is very focused on if things go his way, and then if they do he worries about if the students are getting the most they can out of their musical experience. Part of this has to do with the disciplinary problems of the students, but many can be solved with his leadership. The form curriculum is to provide them with the musical knowledge to understand and enjoy playing in an ensemble. Their goal is to play well at a concert festival at the end of the year. The hidden curriculum in this class is most definitely what they learn in several of the smaller, outside, ensembles. The different activities students get involved in and how they interact with each other provides them with even more opportunity and the realization of how becoming one through music can change the experience that they have.

3. After counting the number of people off task every ten minutes, I found that it averaged between 3-5 people each time.

4. I observed two students through out the period: a female flute player in the front row, and a male trumpet player in the back (4th) row. After watching them throughout the hour I noticed stark differences in their actions and reactions to their classmates and the teacher. The flute player was always very attentive, she would sit there quietly or if she ever talked she would be discussing and pointing out what was wrong that time with the student next to her. When the director was making announcements she would sit there in silence, or if he was working with another sections she would finger through the notes or mark her music. The trumpet player was quite the opposite through out rehearsal. He was constantly talking, and whenever the piece was done, instead of evaluating him self, he would turn to the trombone player to the left of him and talk and laugh about everything. The other students provoked him too. He would constantly play, or make noises/comments, when the director works with others or was talking. I think problem is partially that the students are in the back, and if they talk they won’t get in trouble as easily as if students in the front row talk, so they think they can get away with it. But it is also the directors fault and responsibility to convey the material and disciplinary actions to the students in the back row. The feed off attention, and the director needs to treat them with the same equality and attention as they do the front row. Because the director doesn’t interact with them, they interact with each other and play on their own time.

Practicum Assignment No. 3: Classroom Procedures, rules, and Routines

1.a. After the bell rings the students are usually scattering about for several more minutes, but when the teacher hollers to sit down, that is usually when class officially begins. The first activity he does to mark the beginning of class is taking the roll, and then several announcements are made. By that time, he expects all students to have taken care of everything, have instruments out and ready to play. The only inconsistency is that he doesn’t take roll at the same time every day so students don’t know if they are supposed to wait 4 minutes until class starts or 10. Because of this uncertainty it is harder to get the students attention when time rolls around for class to actually begin. To end the class the bell rings and the students pack up and leave. No announcements are made at the end expect for a random reminder being shouted over the students.

b. Anything they have to discuss is done at the beginning of class. Talking about money issues, solo and ensemble, concert festival and uniforms. Makes announcements on upcoming events for the band, and asks opinions of students by having them writing it on an anonymous notecard and putting it in a box. If there is ever an issue it is done at the beginning of class and no other time.

c. Student’s who are tardy must provide the band director with a signed note that they give to him when he calls their name in roll the following day. He writes their name down, then I’m never sure what he does with the list. Next, he asks people who didn’t have excused absences from the day before.

d. When students are seated he calls out every ones name and writes it in his grade book.

2.a. They are expected to never talk, which is somewhat unreasonable and they get yelled at if they do talk. Maybe realize that a little chatter is inevitable with high schoolers if it’s not disruptive. Movement wise, students who want to go somewhere, i.e. office, bathroom, copy machine, they must get permission from the director before getting up from their seat.

b. No, they don’t change. Sometimes percussionists go outside to work with an instructor who might have different rules, but when they come back in, all directions still apply for the classroom.

c. There are no rules posted anywhere. I think this is a disadvantage because the director never has any tangible evidence of rules to fall back on if a student misbehaves. *He needs to add more permanent objectives and rules so that the students know what is right and wrong, and also what they’re striving for through the band program.

d. He does not communicate any expectations. He just yells at them when they do something wrong and punishes them with out talking to them about it. *Once again, he should have a form of rules, so that if the students do something wrong they know what they are doing. If a student is punished for something he/she does not

know what was wrong, then they have no way of fixing in the future. Make expectations, then when they do something wrong they know why.

3.a. I have never witnessed any assignments being given out. The only pseudo assignment that has ever been presented is when one of the assistant band directors said, “You need to come into my office before concert festival and play the whole piece for me. You have a week and a half so everyone has plenty of time to do it.” There has never been a post on the board about a playing test or a worksheet. The only written work that is ever turned in is the essay when the director punishes a student and tells them to write a 500-word essay.

b. I’ve never seen either teacher assign work that is out-of-class.

c. There are no procedures to help students who have missed a day. They simply miss out on a rehearsal and are a required even more to know their parts from the day before. There are no excuses for absent people when it comes to know the music.

4.a. No specific equipment in the classroom. There is a pencil sharpener in the office, it doesn’t have rules around it, but the students have to ask before they get up to go use the sharpener. There are random trashcans everywhere, but you can’t get up in the middle of class to throw something away.

b. There are usually no problems with the equipment because all they have is a pencil sharpener. The students know the rules for the storage room (i.e. which way to go in and out) and for the storage of percussion equipment. The percussionist have their own room in which they can store all of their instruments and equipment.

Reflection

Once again I would take a lot more use out of any chalk board and bulletin board space that I have available to me. I would use this to communicate the expectations I have of students and what their punishments are if they disobey. That way it is reinforcement and a constant reminder that if the students do something out of line, then there will be a consequence. I would take attendance the same way, or have an honest student just look around and record who is not there, but I would do it more consistently. I would tell the students that they have 3 minutes after the bell rings to get out their horns, get the chit-chatting out of the way, play a few notes, and then be ready for attendance. That way the students don’t question timing and begin to push their limits. If I gave written assignments that required out of classroom work, I would remind them (written on board) when it is due, and then on the day of, tell the students that it must be turned in before class began. (i.e. 3 minutes after the bell rings.) It would be due in a tray that sat next to me in front of the classroom, so that I could monitor who was putting work in their and to minimize any cheating.

Practicum Assignment No. 4: Managing Student Behavior

Today I was able to observe Mr. Havely, the assistant director. Mr. Beckman was absent, and the experience was quite different.

1.

2. Most of the student’s behavior problems started during the warm-up period. They were still antsy and the teacher never really does anything to establish class and get them settled down and into the correct state of mind. To fix this issue during the next rehearsal segment (rehearsing big chunks), he asked more questions to keep the students interactive. They would listen, respond, and then immediately he would jump back into the piece, leaving no down time for behavior problems to spring up. If a student asked a specific question he would address it and then relate it to the rest of the class so that no one would be sitting there bored and with the opportunity to misbehave.

3. Mr. Havely had a great sense of flow throughout the class. He was always keeping the students engaged and he did it by knowing exactly what was coming up. If he was finished working with a section, he knew exactly what was coming up next, instead of flipping through his score or wondering what to do. Those actions would only allow for

student misbehavior. He would constantly be ready to react if something happened and he always knew what would come next on his own teaching agenda. The only interruption occurred when an office aid walked in to give a note to the teacher, but he simple held out his hand, said a polite thank you, and set it on his podium. He did not stop to read it or address it at the time, but simply waited until a more appropriate time as to not ruin the flow of the rehearsal.

4. Another preventive strategy that the teacher used was communicating with the students more often. He would ask them questions so that they had to think of a helpful answer and apply it to their music. This kept them interacting with each other and himself in a positive way instead of opening a door for students to become rowdy and talkative.

5. One of the most effective approaches to dealing with student behavior was that if there were a problem in the classroom, he would act upon it. He would tell the student what they are doing wrong, how to fix it, and what the consequence would be next time. After that he would remind them of the expectations they are supposed to uphold within the classroom. This was a change from the other teacher because he did not just stare at the student and not say anything like he was an idiot, or he didn’t just scream at him from the top of his lungs, he would rationally, but quickly fix the problem and move on. He was very effective in making this disciplinary process efficient so that other students would tune out. I would definitely use this strategy because it solves the problems, reminds the students of their expectations, but does not completely ruin the entire flow of the class. If you think it is a larger issue than just talking in class, you can address it in class, but then speak with the student one-on-one about if a larger issue is actually contributing to the discipline problems.

Practicum Assignment No. 5: Interview Report

Teacher: Jeff BeckmanStudent: Jacob (senior 1st chair clarinet student)

By interviewing both the teacher of 20 years and a student who has been involved

in the directors program for all four years I realized that the experience and attitude they

are getting from this program is quite different than the other might realize. After talking

with Mr. Beckman he expressed to me that teaching to him was letting the kids be really

good at something – and in this case band. He said a lot of people don’t have

opportunities to do something good through out high school so they end up as bums

working at a gas station. I completely agree that every child needs a chance to excel in

something, I just don’t think that Mr. Beckman is giving the students these options. He

also said that his largest problem in the classroom is discipline, but that it was just several

of the students and he can easily weed students out when marching band season comes

around. This is another thing I disagree with. If the students in the classroom are

consistently having a problem, then the teacher must evaluate him/herself because maybe

they are contributing to the problem. Mr. Beckman says that in the end, though, he enjoys

seeing the sense of accomplishment in these students eyes even if it’s only a small

personal development. I do agree with this because I feel that even if you can’t see a

change from the outside, the smallest things can make a difference in a student’s life –

especially when it comes to their playing.

The student I interviewed had a little bit different perspective on things and

although he was a senior and expressed how excited he was to leave, it still scared me a

little that the students and the teacher were on slightly different pages. When I asked the

student if he thought that the director cared about him as an individual he said, “I think he

wants to see us succeed, but I think he cares more about the band as a whole than us

individually.” I can completely see where this student is coming from, I got that vibe a lot

in class when Mr. Beckman would constantly try to focus more strongly on issues that

would better the look of the band instead of the students in it. Jacob also thought that

because the director always yelled at them, that it didn’t mean anything to any of the

students any more – being punished was a given, so they didn’t worry about trying to act

better. He said when he was yelled at it didn’t matter, because Mr. Beckman yelled all the

time so it was nothing new, they just tuned it out.

Although I understand most of the points that Jacob was getting at, there were a

few things that I saw from a band director point instead of a students. I saw how it would

have had better outcomes down the line, even if the students didn’t see it immediately. I

remember this from when I was a student – I didn’t want to do anything that didn’t seem

appealing at the moment. If it had long term effects it didn’t seem as rewarding as

something I would see tomorrow! For example, Mr. Beckman constantly reminded them

about solo and ensemble money and fundraising, something none of the students wanted

to do. What they didn’t realize though was that if they didn’t turn in money they couldn’t

go on any trips because of outstanding money, and if they didn’t fundraise then they

wouldn’t be able to go to band banquet. Neither of these seemed relevant to the students

then because band banquet was 4 weeks away, but once it rolled around and 1/6 of them

couldn’t pay, they realized that Mr. Beckman’s nagging was just as important had the

band banquet been tomorrow. I think overall, Mr. Beckman just needs to communicate

with the students more about what he expects from them, and then give them tools and

opportunity to work with him if they need help. Building a healthy bond can help more

than anything because teachers can then tell students their expectations, but the students

will know that they can still come ask for any amount of help to reach those expectations.

Practicum: Weekly In-classroom Assignments

February 2nd, 2006

Today was my first time at McGavock. I went in a few minutes early in order to

meet the band director, Mr. Beckman, and get a little background information on the

band program. I will be observing twice a week, the concert band (lower ensemble) and

the wind ensemble (upper ensemble.) He says that their band has a lot of discipline

programs, worse than in the past, but by the time marching season rolls around he plans

on weeding most of them out. I just sat in the back row and observed today. He seemed

unsure of how to handle disciplinary problems a lot – constantly just yelled.

February 9th, 2006

I observed again today and worked on observing the set up for the room, and the

atmosphere of the room by sitting in different places in the room. The students don’t

mind if I come and sit next to them, so I went and sat within some sections and on some

different rows. I was surprised at how much of a difference this made. It made me realize

that it’s not the same everywhere you sit. I was accustomed to being front row, very end

in high school, so I never understood why the people in the back row couldn’t pay

attention, but this helped me open up to that. It made me realize you have to make an

even further effort to reach out to the students who you are physically further away from

to keep them engaged.

February 14th, 2006

Today’s schedule was changed because they were holding an assembly in the

auditorium in order to raise money for senior prom, so instead of working with the class

Mr. Beckman and I were just able to chat for about an hour and 15 minutes. It was a great

experience because he talked to me about his philosophies and about the discipline

problems in his ensemble. He asked if I thought that some of his discipline tactics were

helpful, and I talked to him about communicating expectations instead of just

punishments. He seemed to agree that he yelled at the students too much, but just needed

to kick some of the students out in order to fix that problem. He also didn’t have a set

plan in his mind about what he wanted his students to achieve. I think that having this

goal would be much more beneficial to his program because that way when students have

problems he can have something to base his punishment off of, instead of just yelling at

them.

February 16th, 2006

This past week, unfortunately, Mr. Grey, that band booster president passed away

and so the booster program and the secretary’s office (Mrs. Grey) have been completely

falling apart. Today I worked a lot with helping him organize, since I love to organize,

some of the files for new students that need to be recorded. He usually doesn’t have the

time to input those things, so I helped him with that today and he talked to me about a lot

of the practical things like fundraising for trips. They’re planning a trip to Hawaii for next

year, and we talked a lot about the benefits of certain fundraisers for students, and how

you handle families that can not afford to put their child through band by themselves.

This was really helpful because I’ve never really been educated about what to do in

situations like those.

February 28th, 2006

Today was an awesome day because it was my first day actually getting to work

with some of the students. They are working on Armenian Dances right now and are

progressively working towards state concert festival. I got to work with the clarinet

section, as a whole and individually, on some of the harder parts in that piece. I loved

being able to help them because a lot of them needed individual attention that they

wouldn’t only from rehearsal. This helped strengthen the section before they went back

into work with the ensemble. For the second half of rehearsal Mr. Beckman gave me a

score to Armenian and I sat in one of the rows and followed along. I haven’t taken

conducting yet, but it was really interesting to follow along with the score. I was able to

see how he worked in certain sections and how he grouped the problems he would fix. I

picked up on a lot of things I would try and do when I was conducting from a score, such

as already have some spots picked out to work on, so I’m not standing there shuffling

through the score trying to find something during rehearsal. This only causes down time

and it opens opportunities for behavior problems.

March 14th, 2006

It was beautiful outside today so we split the band up into woodwind and brass

sectional so that we could pinpoint some individual issues before taking the piece to

concert festival. The brass went outside, the percussion went into one of their rehearsal

rooms and woodwinds stayed in the main band room. I didn’t work with any students

today, just sat next to the saxophones for a while and helped with some tuning and

rhythms when there were discrepancies. One of the best enjoyments is being able to

watch the students grow. One of the saxophone players is slowly starting to not only

catch his mistakes but know how to fix them now. Tuning is still an issue sometime, but

he makes a constant effort to try and fix the issues if he’s causing a problem. This helped

me realize that when you’re a director you’re looking at the big picture and you’re

looking for big improvements and noticeable changes, but you have to be patient and

realize that in order to see the big picture, students are going to take little steps first.

Small victories are something worth celebrating for them, even if you can’t tell a

noticeable difference in how it affects the ensemble.

March 28th, 2006

I solely observed today. It’s getting really close to concert festival and the

teachers are just working with the students and running large chunks. They fix minor

details, but at this point they want to make sure the students feel the whole flow of the

piece. Each director got 12 minutes, which really means Mr. Beckman gets 24 and the

others get six ;), and they ran their entire selections and made sure that none of the

students had any questions before the day of festival.

March 30th, 2006

All-State conventions, honor bands and all county groups are always such a

rewarding experience for me because you are among a group full of students who are not

only fine musicians, but students who truly want to be there. This was the first time I’d

been to an all-state band that I wasn’t participating in. I got to see it from an outside

perspective and watch how the students reacted to a new and outstanding conductor. I

watched my McGavock students and noticed that none of them talked like they did in

class and that they seemed to get more out of a situation where they were working with

different people for once. I also enjoyed seeing how the director worked with a group of

students he had never taught before and a group who had never worked together as

musicians before either. He was able to connect to them through the music and speak to

them as if they were all highly esteemed musicians. I loved this philosophy because when

he treated them like adults and with respect, then they treated not only him, but also their

colleagues the same way, therefore making their experience more rewarding.

April 3rd, 2006

Today was one of those days that you think is going to be a good day, but really

ends up being bad. Through my observations today I learned that emotional consistency

is the only way to gain control and run an effective classroom. Today Mr. Beckman

comes in and he’s being nice and discussing concert festival, but then 7 minutes into the

period, a trumpet player is talking, and Mr. Beckman completely blows up. He rants

about how he was going to let it slide, and try to start off on the right track after festival

and how they should want to achieve this and they’re not letting do it. Moments like this

really ruin the relationship the student and teacher have and the flow of the classroom.

Students need to know the minute that you walk in the door, that they are your first

priority and that they can expect a smiling face. For some students the band room maybe

be the only positive or consistent part of their day, and the teacher must go to great

lengths to make sure that it is always that way. The teacher always has to tell students

what’s and be respectful towards the students. No sarcasm – it only builds up a well

between students and teacher.

CBDNA

CBDNA was an amazing experience. It taught me so much about the behind-the-

scenes aspect of being a band director and how much organization, people skills, and

responsibility it takes to lead a group of young students. This helped me with time

management and the ability to bend a little and be flexible depending on certain

situations. Through this I also realized that not everyone will be as polite as you are, but

that you must treat them with great respect, regardless of their actions.

April 6th, 2006

Today I realized that a lot of students work well if they have smaller rules or goals

in order to achieve an overall success in something. For instance, these band students

were told that before the end of the year they had to have their festival music perfect, but

there were no smaller goals to accomplish along the way. If you let them know that by

the beginning of the first week, they must have a playing test on measures 1-34, then that

gives them a smaller goal to work towards first. Also, instead of just telling students to

“behave!” explain to them what actions are behaving and misbehaving. Explain to talking

throughout class unless it’s a musical question. Instead of saying “quit playing your

instrument!” (which is obviously contradictory), establish a rule that says ‘your

instrument must remain in your lap and out of your mouth unless you are instructed to

play.’ By doing this students aren’t just told what not to do, but instead what actions they

can take to do the things the right way. I think that some of these rules would help the

class a lot.

April 13th, 2006

Today we started working with kids individually because Solo and Ensemble

festival is coming up in two weeks. It was annoying because most of the students hadn’t

picked out their music for their solo or ensemble yet, so much of the period (which was

allowed for practicing and individual attention) was spent helping students find an

appropriate solo. Maybe a solution for this in the future is to have a set day when students

are required to show their piece to the director and have it approved in advanced. By

doing this, later practice days can be put to good use instead of wasted by kids roaming

the band room. I helped Jamie and Sheree a lot today on their solos because they were

both having problems with rhythms. I feel that a lot of these kids not only need musical

help, but just individual attention. Many seem to come from families that aren’t stable

and parents that don’t give much attention to their children. Sheree was a wonderful

player and I helped her project her notes and told her to reach for the notes whether she

hit them or not. She was afraid to mess up and I told her if she missed a note she couldn’t

freak out and stop, but instead she just had to keep going and act like she was too good to

play the right note there anyway. She played it again with much improvement and we

made sure to go back and fix the notes she had consistently been missing. I stayed after a

few minutes today to talk to some of the students because some of them just love talking

to someone who will listen – no matter what it was about. The conversations range from

favorite clothing stores, to how long they’re played their instruments, to if they hate

marching band. Most of these kids don’t care who they’re talking with, they just want

some one to talk with and some feeling of acceptance.

April 18th, 2006

Today was a great day, but held a very new and interesting experience for me. I

worked with Joey, a junior, tenor sax player with Autism, and it was a very eye opening

experience for me. He is integrated into the mainstream public school system, but Ms.

Kelly, his advisor, goes around to all of his classes with him. Mr. Beckman asked me to

hear him play through his solo, although he thought he wouldn’t need any help. I wasn’t

sure quite how I should speak to him, so I just spoke to him normally and saw how he

responded to me the first time. I learned that he understood everything that I was saying

completely perfectly, but that it just took a little bit of time for him to process what he

wanted to say. I worked with him like I did every other music student and he picked up

and fixed everything that I asked him to. He was a phenomenal player and said that he

had only been playing for a year. I loved asking him questions, and he loved asking a lot

of questions because I was probably the only one who would take the time to listen to

what he had to say. He was a wonderful guy, and the experience of working with Joey

was probably as equally benefiting to me as it was to him.

April 20th, 2006

Today was a really productive day with the kids and their music. It is two days

before solo and ensemble festival and everything is coming along really well. I worked

with Jamie, Desiree, and several other clarinet students, and they’ve all improved

drastically since last week. I help them a lot with dynamics but I’ve also learned how to

help them stylistically without making them feel like they are stupid for not thinking of

that themselves. It’s a nice feeling to help them and have them appreciate and understand

what you are trying to do. Most of them try really hard, although they don’t have much

motivation at home, and I think my clarinet students will do pretty well at solo festival.