My Life as a Middle School Choir Director

It's exhausting...
I love it...

I could end this post with that dichotomy and it would be 100% accurate.  Anyone who has hosted a slumber party or piled five or six middle schoolers into the minivan for a trip to the mall knows exactly what I'm referring to.  Now, multiply that by fourteen.  As in 5 (or 6) X 14 = 70/84.  My choirs at school range in size from forty to eighty students, typically.

Most veteran teachers think twice before agreeing to cover a class for me if I have to miss for a special performance or rehearsal.  That's because the veterans know that class size has a huge impact on classroom management.  Ah, classroom management.  The thing they try to teach you about in college.  And, they warn you about it in college by telling you if you don't have great skills in that area, you will likely not last in the teaching profession.  Classroom management skills are often viewed as the initial barometer for evaluating young teachers.  Yet, most young teachers don't graduate college with great classroom management skills (I sure didn't).  After all, a skill is something one needs to rehearse in order to become an expert in.  Most teachers develop these skills on the job, during their first few years of teaching.  I'm still working on improving my skills in this area.

In addition to class size, here are a few things that make my job difficult as they pertain to classroom management..
1. My room is a 180 degree semicircle with me in the middle.  I have great peripheral vision, but contrary to folklore, I do not have eyes on the back of my head.
2. Because of #1, kids feel as though they can get away with stuff:  Chat with their neighbor.  Say something funny to get a laugh, etc. much more than in a standard classroom setup. If I'm looking at the right half of the room. I cannot see the left half at all. What's worse is that the students in the right half of the room can actually see the students in the left half of the room better than I can.  So I have a situation where students see other students behaving badly even when I cannot see the bad behavior.  This can lead to a long term, negative climate issue because middle schoolers don't have the wherewithal and wisdom to realize what is actually going on.  Instead, they often think that I am letting the students across from them misbehave.  This causes the adolescent brain to think the teacher is playing favorites which is simply not the case.
3. My students' chairs are only a few inches apart from each other.  Unlike a traditional classroom with rows of desks, my kids are so close to each other that they can reach out and poke someone two seats away from them.

I try to let my students know on the first day of school every year that because our class is two to three times the size of a normal class, they need to socialize 1/2 to 2/3 as often, just to have the talking/noise level be that of a normal classroom.  This generally helps for a few weeks.

Middle school aged kids don't know what they want.  They want to have fun and they want to be successful at our performances, but, they hate being stifled.  They hate being made to work diligently on the material.  They want to talk to their friends all the time.  But they hate not sounding as good as we should when listening to the audio from last night's concert.  They want to be funny all the time and get laughs.  But they get mad when the other choir warming up next to them sounds better than their choir.  I had a student ask me a few years ago, "Mr. C why do they sound better than us?"  My answer was direct and simple.  "Because they work harder and talk in class less than our group."

Middle school aged kids rarely see their parents at work.  They rarely get to witness adults focusing, concentrating and putting in lots of effort.  For many, the only place they see this is at school.  It's no wonder they often describe the more demanding teachers as "mean."  The majority of their time outside of school spent with adults is leisure time.  Because of this their teachers and coaches are the ones that need to demonstrate focus, effort and work ethic.

Often, on Mondays, I feel like the tough, demanding parent who just got their kids back from the fun loving "I wanna be your friend" parent who had them for visitation over the weekend.  Today was no different.  A difficult Monday of explaining to my choirs that because the concert is only a few short weeks away, I will continue to ramp up the expectations in regard to behavior, effort and concentration . I really use music as the medium to teach those things.  It's exceedingly more challenging to keep adolescents focused in today's digital age of constant media bombardment.

They are addicted to technology!  Seriously, they cannot put it down.  They feel anxiety when restrictions are placed on them like insisting their phones stay in their lockers.  "But what if my mom texts me?"  I suppose that's a legitimate concern but today it spurs anxiety to the point of MANY students breaking school rules by keeping their phones on them in class.
A few weeks ago I received the Apple Classroom app which allows me to monitor their every move on the iPad, limit what apps and sites can be accessed, etc.  It was met with great resistance!  The app utilizes Bluetooth as the method of connection and multiple students complained.  "Mr. C, I can't turn Bluetooth on because it drains my battery so I won't be able to join your Apple Classroom group."
Me:  "oh, yes you will."

Parents aren't parenting like they used to.  What I mean by that is, sorry folks but it's true, there is barely any parenting happening anymore.  Because actual parenting involves doing things that might upset our children.  The vast majority of kids feel entitled.  They feel as though they have rights and deserve to be respected and also deserve to be able to speak when they want to.  WHAT???  A few years ago I coined a term:  Ignorantly disrespectful.  This is common among middle school aged students.  They are disrespectful without intentionally being disrespectful.  They feel it's ok (because they deem it important) to say something to a neighbor at any time even in a final dress rehearsal before a concert.  They think being disrespectful is only limited to things like back talk or, swearing at a teacher.  Sadly, they also think (mostly because of what they see adults doing) it's OK to yell at the ref and dispute the call.  Guess what... it's NOT.  That's disrespectful behavior.

Kids don't know what to be proud of.  Well, they know it's good to be proud of an athletic achievement, but other than that, they struggle.  We've all complimented a kid only to see them blush or behave in an embarrassed way.  Middle School is an uncomfortable age for many, and as adults we need to be encouraging.  This morning I saw a student carrying a large project into school and that student appeared to look uncomfortable.  That was sad to witness.  I've seen kids who earn solos in choir concerts claim they are "bad singers."  Ugh.  That's just sad.

Sadly, the majority of kids today just aren't fans of music.  Unlike when I was a child, they don't spend hours listening to music as a passtime.  They also don't watch hours upon hours of Bugs Bunny cartoons that all had FANTASTIC original soundtracks.  They also don't listen to music riding in the car.  This may be the most significant difference with kids today.  On every car trip (short or long) I took as a kid, the radio was usually on so I was getting almost constant exposure to music of a great variety.  Kids today have ear buds in while riding in the car.  And most of them, sadly, are not listening to music.  I started to notice this a few years ago when fewer and fewer 6th graders wanted to sing karaoke on Fridays.  Often, they would rather play Name that Tune instead (If my choirs earn it, we spend the last twenty minutes of Friday's class on one of these two fun activities).  And, their favorite Name That Tune category is almost always TV Theme Songs.

The Journey (the process)

The Journey... The older I get the more I understand and appreciate the fact that life is about the journey. The process.  The everyday doing of the things that we all need to do. The good decisions, the hard decisions and the mistakes.  It's what life is all about. It is my life's journey and mission to help adolescents learn to make good decisions in their daily lives and I am so incredibly blessed to be able to use the beautiful medium of music to help them learn these things in my classroom. Please continue to dialogue with your son or daughter about life in the Creekside Choir room. We are a microcosm of real life.  Choir class is the class that comes closest to what a real life job/career will look and feel like in adulthood (a bold statement, I know). We have groups/teams (sections within each choir) that need to coordinate with each other.  We have departments (different choirs throughout the day) who all need to be on the same page to create our finished product that has a very specific deadline. We cannot postpone or delay this deadline.  In Math class, if one member of the team fails to live up to expectations, it only affects that team member's grade (pay/promotion/demotion, ect). In a music class, if a team member makes a bad decision, the entire product is potentially reduced in overall quality. WE ARE A TEAM! While making this point in class the other day, I referenced a friend of mine who is an engineer at a plant that manufactures transmissions for vehicles. A little while later I noticed a couple students goofing around while we were running one of the songs. I quietly mentioned to them, "you have caused our transmission to have a defect and it now needs to return to the factory for warranty work which will cost our company more money." I love making real world analogies like these for the kids. I'm a big picture guy.

Motivation

What motivates you?

Stop and think for a moment...

What REALLY motivates you?

Money?  Your children?  Your career?  Your hobbies?  Your maker/creator?  Food?

What do you think motivates kids?  Is it toys?  Electronics?  Food?

What motivates adolescents?  Their friends?  Social Media?  Video games?  Sports?  Food?

With all the Education Reform that has taken place in recent decades, I am amazed by the fact that I have yet to see the issue of Student Motivation be addressed.  How is it that a teachers' evaluation can be tied to student test scores if the students aren't necessarily even trying to do well on the test?

Try to Be a Rainbow in Someone's Cloud (and, stay in performing arts classes!)

 As someone who has performed and taught music my entire adult life, I've always loved touting the fact that I was, and my classes were, the bright spot in the day for my students. The one class where there very likely would not be homework. The one class where students are encouraged to emote. The class that was a release of energy and a remedy for stress and anxiety rather than be a source. And, as Maya Angelou put it, "the rainbow in someone's cloud." 

But... doing music can also put students outside their comfort zone. Ironically, this is where the magic/learning happens. Many students realize this and stick with it. Others are made too uncomfortable by it and elect to take a different course. Then, there are those who do love it (including the process which is often messy) but also choose to walk away. There are many reasons why an adolescent would elect out of music education. From my experience, most of those reasons often have little to do with music. Most often the student who opts out of music/arts education in school feels pressured to take something else. Those pressures are VERY real to the typical twelve year old. As adults we, of course, realize that generally these things, in the grand scheme, are often "no big deal." But to the twelve year old, these are really big decisions. 

The advent of Advanced Placement courses in most US public high schools ultimately meant one thing for music/arts education:  There will be fewer students in those programs.  Period.  It's a numbers game. Any AP course can be added as an elective course to any high school student's schedule. There are only so many slots in the school day for electives so the students who take multiple AP courses often, unfortunately, opt out of music/arts classes (including two of my own children!). Academically, I have nothing but respect for upper level coursework. My youngest child was almost a college sophomore upon graduating HS thanks to Dual Enrollment AP courses earning him credits from a local college (of course, we had to pay tuition for those credits).  What does it say that a professional musician and music educator has two children opting out of music education? It says there is something wrong with the system. We have systematically made it more challenging for high school students to keep music education in their lives. In turn, we've made it easier for them to walk away. It's very academically easy to prioritize and AP course over staying marching band or choir. It's also easy to academically assume that the student should get more out of an AP course, or, learn more, than they could possibly learn in a band, choir or orchestra class. Except that every single music educator in the world would be jumping up and down shouting, "NO!" The amazing thing about arts education is that in addition to learning how to do art, students learn so many other valuable things and skills. Teamwork and cooperation are two huge elements of participating in a performing group. Ultimately, being in a band, choir or orchestra makes you a better, kinder more well rounded human who is able to feel and understand emotions more deeply. 

Will any of that emotional learning earn me more money someday when I'm an adult? The staunch capitalists of the world would probably say, no. But the artists of the world wouldn't care. And, many who have taken years of music/arts education in school are now considered great resources in the business world because they often possess creativity at a level that exceeds others who opted out of arts at a younger age.

More importantly, that emotional learning and shaping we get from participating in the arts on a daily basis, helps us become better citizens of the planet!  It helps us become better parents, and members of the community. It even helps us become leaders with better communication skills. Arts education is worth advocating for.