Winter Concert
As of 5 hours ago, I can officially check my first set of winter concerts off my first year teacher bucket list. Being at two schools means that I have twice the number of winter concerts as a lot of music teachers. At my one school I prepared three separate grade level performances (3rd, 4th, and 5th) complete with Christmas carols, soloists, and three separate guitar ensembles! And in case all of that wasn't crazy enough, this had to be all ready to perform the Monday before Thanksgiving break after seeing each class only once a week.
Lo and behold! It was fabulous. Even though the students managed to drive me up a wall with their antics and awful rehearsals the whole week before, we had an amazing turn out, the kids looked as cute as can be, and they sounded just as good!
So by the time I was eating my way through my family's annual pie and dessert contest entries, I was already done with 1 of my 2 schools. However, the school I had left was my kindergarten through 8th grade school. And we had decided to tackle "The Nutcracker Suite."
While an amazing musical and originally a ballet, maybe only one or two of my students at the whole school were at all familiar with the music. Which meant I was not only teaching new music (rhythms, melody, harmonies, etc.) but I was teaching the plot, characters, narrator lines, and the text for the songs. Once a week classes is not conducive for a full scale musical with acting and dancing if only given about 8 weeks to prepare. Especially if you end up getting sick one of those weeks.
So I ixnayed the acting and dancing and focused on the singing. Again like my other school, the students started getting fussy the week before "I don't like this music anymore," "Why couldn't we have just sung normal Christmas music?," "Why couldn't we do dancing? It's going to be so boring." And on the day of our dress rehearsal, students started entering the gym immediately saying "Do I have to be here?" or "I don't want to be in this musical." Which those statements would have led me to say "Fine, don't come" if it weren't for the fact our performance was held at 9AM on our last Tuesday before Christmas break. So the only way a kid could not be there is if they don't come to school all together. We rehearsed and the kids could barely remember the words to the Star Spangled Banner--which they all had memorized in class that week. The gym is such a live space they sounded like mush and you couldn't hear the accompaniment track over the PA system. And my 1st and 2nd graders never showed up.
The teachers were gracious enough to hold extra rehearsals during their class times and another full school rehearsal Monday before the show. And on Monday, while extra chatty (one of my pet peeves for on stage behavior) they sounded remarkable better.
So I come to school today, and the gym is decorated beautifully, almost all of my students are wearing the correct outfit, and not a single one of them copped attitude. And even though we started about 20 minutes behind schedule and didn't have a major parent turn out, they still put on an absolutely amazing performance. They were quiet on stage, the narrators all completed their lines sans paper, and we were able to keep a steady beat during our finale.
I could not be more proud of either of my schools. And it gives me such joy that it was these students that my first winter concert experience got to be with. I hope they are as proud of themselves as I am. Cannot wait to see what we can accomplish next semester!
Lo and behold! It was fabulous. Even though the students managed to drive me up a wall with their antics and awful rehearsals the whole week before, we had an amazing turn out, the kids looked as cute as can be, and they sounded just as good!
So by the time I was eating my way through my family's annual pie and dessert contest entries, I was already done with 1 of my 2 schools. However, the school I had left was my kindergarten through 8th grade school. And we had decided to tackle "The Nutcracker Suite."
While an amazing musical and originally a ballet, maybe only one or two of my students at the whole school were at all familiar with the music. Which meant I was not only teaching new music (rhythms, melody, harmonies, etc.) but I was teaching the plot, characters, narrator lines, and the text for the songs. Once a week classes is not conducive for a full scale musical with acting and dancing if only given about 8 weeks to prepare. Especially if you end up getting sick one of those weeks.
So I ixnayed the acting and dancing and focused on the singing. Again like my other school, the students started getting fussy the week before "I don't like this music anymore," "Why couldn't we have just sung normal Christmas music?," "Why couldn't we do dancing? It's going to be so boring." And on the day of our dress rehearsal, students started entering the gym immediately saying "Do I have to be here?" or "I don't want to be in this musical." Which those statements would have led me to say "Fine, don't come" if it weren't for the fact our performance was held at 9AM on our last Tuesday before Christmas break. So the only way a kid could not be there is if they don't come to school all together. We rehearsed and the kids could barely remember the words to the Star Spangled Banner--which they all had memorized in class that week. The gym is such a live space they sounded like mush and you couldn't hear the accompaniment track over the PA system. And my 1st and 2nd graders never showed up.
Basically, I was convinced it was going to be a disaster!!
The teachers were gracious enough to hold extra rehearsals during their class times and another full school rehearsal Monday before the show. And on Monday, while extra chatty (one of my pet peeves for on stage behavior) they sounded remarkable better.
So I come to school today, and the gym is decorated beautifully, almost all of my students are wearing the correct outfit, and not a single one of them copped attitude. And even though we started about 20 minutes behind schedule and didn't have a major parent turn out, they still put on an absolutely amazing performance. They were quiet on stage, the narrators all completed their lines sans paper, and we were able to keep a steady beat during our finale.
I could not be more proud of either of my schools. And it gives me such joy that it was these students that my first winter concert experience got to be with. I hope they are as proud of themselves as I am. Cannot wait to see what we can accomplish next semester!
Comments
Post a Comment