I went to the UMEA conference last weekend and went to a session about teaching students how to tune their instruments by Michael Hopkins. My favorite quote from his sessions was, "If they tune like pigs, they sound like pigs." So true! I'm trying to be more consistent with my expectations during tuning time to make sure all students follow directions to stay quiet and tune carefully.
The beauty of that quote is that is works for ALL aspects of playing and rehearsing. I noticed that some of my classes were getting a little lax in their rehearsal behaviors. Students were not all stopping together and it drives me crazy to waste class time waiting for students to stop and listen. I reviewed my expectations with them...we practiced the expectations...and it was getting better, but not perfect.
In the middle of rehearsal the other day, that quote popped in my head and I told students about it. I told them how it applies to our rehearsals - if we rehearse like pigs, we sound like pigs. Then I drew a PIG-O-METER on the board and gave them points on the 'clean' side if they started and stopped together, and a point on the 'slop' side if they were not together. This little game IMMEDIATELY transformed my classes! I did this with 7th, 8th and 9th grade - and am tracking their scores on the board each day so every class can see how other classes are doing. We've gotten so much done in the last few days.
Is there something that's bothering you about your rehearsals? It's fixable. Anything you want to change can change for the better. Teach on, my friends.
I tried this yesterday with my 5th grade group and was amazed at the difference it made!
ReplyDeleteIt was one of our most productive rehearsals of the year. I found that this activity really gave the students ownership over their rehearsal and brought an awareness to themselves that before was only just me reviewing expectations like a broken record.
I am astonished at how well this worked with my 7th graders. All it took was two sloppies before the kids began to self-regulate themselves. I've done this now for the past two days with amazing results. My hope is that this will translate to long-term habits...that the students begin to enjoy having rehearsals that are focused, and that I do not have to "police" them. Thank you for the idea!!
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