Anecdotes and Happenings from Student Teaching: Week 11

Hope y'all like Christmas, because that is what this post is about!

So this week I had the unfortunate task of working on a lot of Christmas music with my bands.  And I used to believe that worst part about Christmas music is having to listen to it, but in reality, it pales in comparison to having to pick Christmas music.  In last week's blog I talked about picking music for Percussion Ensemble and this week I picked music for our Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble.

Here is the worst part about picking Christmas music: 70% of all music out there is a medley of some kind.  It really makes for poor programming when you have two pieces that are medleys.  The traditional way of programming for concerts is in one fast piece, one slow piece and one epic piece, and the multiply that so many times based on how many total works you want to perform.

You see a medley sometimes falls in between all three types of pieces, not really focusing on one area or the other.  So then you have this awkward piece that doesn't fit into the equation.  Sometimes you may pick a medley that is mostly faster music, which can constitute as your fast work but may not be epic in nature.  Now I know I am overthinking this, but that is what I do.  I overthink things because I am somewhat OCD.

Anyway, we have settled on two pieces for Symphonic Band.  The first piece is a slow and absolutely gorgeous arrangement of "O Holy Night" and the second piece is a medley (ugh) of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas."  The kids love the Grinch so it is staying, but it's awkward because it has section that satisfy all pieces of the equation.  The third piece is still undecided and I'm not completely sure what to program for the third piece because of the aforementioned issues caused by medleys.  There are three pieces or so in circulation through our repertoire so I will have to come back to this later.

And as also mentioned in last week's blog entry, I've been spending more time with the Symphonic Band.  Todd has let me pick all the music and has given me complete control of rehearsal so that I can really make this performance mine.

The Wind Ensemble is for sure playing "Sleigh Ride" just like every other band does and is playing an easy, but nice sounding arrangement of "Silent Night."  Finally the last possible piece they may play is "Russian Christmas Music."  We showed it to the kids this week and after the sight-read, not a lot of them liked it.  Then we listened to the piece and more came around but the band is divided on how they feel.  Todd is as well, like he wants to perform it but he's just not sure it will be a good performance due to endurance issues and the fact that a lot of kids aren't crazy about it.  Right now he is relying on the idea that overtime they will come around, and I do hope they do, because Russian Christmas Music would make for a great end to my student teaching.

Now for the lesson that I learned this week.  I learned that the nice, funny teacher image is hurting my classroom management.  Kids have become comfortable with me so they talk more.  Especially people that really shouldn't be, like section leaders.  So Todd gave me power to discipline the section leaders for not being an example or even a leader.  He said I can even threaten a student's position as section leader unless they shape up.  I do feel empowered, but it is not something I want to do.  But I will do what I must to make the music happen.

Anyway, it was a pretty boring week at WXHS.  On a side note I've been playing in Skyline High School's production of West Side Story so that has kept me exceptionally busy, what with student teaching, work and the musical.  Talk about a crazy week in my normal life.

Sorry for the shorter blog but there isn't much that happened.  I will probably skip this week's post because there are only two days of school this week.

Thanks for reading!