Music Mentoring

Leslie Morgan, music teacher at Churchill SS, visited Viscount Montgomery School on 3 half-days recently. This will summarize the events and impact of her visit and our discussions.

Viscount Montgomery School is a K-8 school in Hamilton's east end, and is one of 3 main feeder schools to Churchill. Our middle school has about 250 students, grades 6-8. Historically, about 10% of those students have taken music at SWC each year. There has been some decline in this number over the past 2 years. Yet, the Viscount contingent has always played a significant role in the SWC program. Leslie and I believe there is room for growth in numbers, and that there may be many ways of enriching and boosting the music program at Viscount.

Things that Leslie modelled in my classroom, with my students:

- communicating with energy and purpose, to create sense of urgency and importance
- showing visible enthusiasm and interest
- using a sense of humour balanced with seriousness of purpose
- speaking with respect to the students, but also in a way that is user-friendly and not harsh
- how to approach management of students with noisy instruments- "framing" the music with silence; being disciplined; being patient; practicing silently while waiting
- how to approach evaluation and assessment in a way that allows students to grow, make some choices, save time and build respect for themselves and each other

Items we discussed:

- length of time a student should stick with one instrument- the longer the better; students shouldn't be switching, instead they should develop perseverance and problem solving skills
- how to prepare for tests adequately; spend ample time in class on the selections; be ready with some written tasks to give during test time; have students play in pairs-not to hide, but to be distinctive and supportive of each other-it's often better to play alone for a test
- timetabling pressures- students will be given only one 50 minute period per week next year!
- management of reeds and equipment
- how to start grade sixes- how to talk to them about starting- explaining the reasons for all expected behaviour; building upon a theoretical and historical study of the instruments of the orchestra

Strategies she used:

- wait for silence
- deal with interrruptions immediately; "consistent insisting"
- expect silence while you're talking; immediately deal with talkers and squawkers
- "I choose one, you choose one" from the list of prepared songs
- humour and light sarcasm
- demonstrate empathy, "I know how you feel"
- have an instrument in hand, and always be demonstrating
- sitting up front, moving around the room as needed
- taking the time to start beginners well

Things Leslie said:

- "feet flat on the floor, butt on the edge of the chair"
- "Bob's your uncle"
- "get your stuff out! Come on guys, we've got lots to do, we don't have much time"
- "let's see if we can be ready in 4 minutes"
- "starting in one minute, let's go!"
- warm air for low notes, cool air for high notes on brass instruments

Benefits of the visits:

-we have a solid basis for discussion about improving the program next year. Three visits over three days was a great way to go, because we could follow up on what was done the previous day.
- some ideas for support that we discussed and should continue to discuss: senior students from Churchill can give lessons in a coop arrangement; band can perform for each other's school or classes; exchange of news through email reports, weblogs, podcasts, etc. just to keep awareness of the big picture alive with the grade 8s especially
- a reasonable goal for next year this time would be to see 15 - 20% of Viscount grads signing up for music at SWCC

Summary: Money Well Spent

- the payoff for having her present to meet our students is immediate, and also points them toward taking music next year. This is a step in the right direction.
- advocating for our music programs, by teaming across panels this way, really builds us up in our confidence and increases our awareness of the challenges we face, and sets us up to be able to solve them cooperatively
- my biggest concern is that the music timetable can so easily be reduced at the middle school level, with such large implications for the high school program. Some of those concerns can be dealt with by working together, but it is only part of the bigger picture for arts advocacy which requires even more coordination and board-wide support.

Thank-you, Leslie for taking the time and for your professionalism

Glen Brown, music teacher, Viscount Montgomery School