Phil Kleven Week 4

It's already week 4! Time is moving very fast. This was a successful week for several reasons. I'm very comfortable with all of the groups now. When I first got started, I began working with six different orchestras preparing six different programs of music for our upcoming February concerts. I've had enough time to work with all of them and become familiar with the music. I know we will have great concerts! I continued to be very picky in rehearsal this week. I'm getting better at assessing the ensemble's sound and fixing things quickly. There was one difficult situation this week - while rehearsing a song with the concert orchestra, I found that one section of musicians hadn't practiced and were completely unable to perform the music. My cooperating teacher and I decided to give the students a playing exam and change up their seating. Things improved a bit, but we need to make significant progress before the concert. One major positive was that I found new leaders in the group by changing the seating. One student in particular (who was very tentative to move to the front stand) became a natural leader and even started to enjoy sitting up front. 

The best strategy that I learned this week is "less is more". I learned that I can't let any mistakes go by uncorrected, mainly because the students often don't know they're making them. I learned to work on smaller sections of music, and pick apart every detail until the music is as good as I want it to be. I also learned that I need to break apart sections while rehearsing, and listen to individual groups or students. During one rehearsal, my cooperating teacher mentioned that the French Horns were very out of tune. On the video she took, I could hear how out of tune they really were, but was surprised that I didn't hear it as clearly during the rehearsal. It may be important for me to record rehearsals regularly to review the sound while I'm not teaching. 

In the week ahead, I hope to learn more about my rehearsal demeanor by having my cooperating teacher record more videos of rehearsal. She is nit-picking every minor detail and word I say, but I certainly appreciate it. I am a perfectionist and want to be as close to perfect in rehearsal as I can get. Additionally, based on my experiences over the past few weeks, I believe that I will be able to more effectively communicate my expectations to the ensembles and hold them to a much higher standard while continuing to create a positive learning environment. 

 This week, I chose to focus on standard 8 - collaborative relationships. "The competent teacher builds and maintains collaborative relationships to foster cognitive, linguistic, physical, and social and emotional development. This teacher works as a team member with professional colleagues, students, parents or guardians, and community members." 

We have high school students who come over to the middle to tutor the middle school students. This is a wonderful opportunity for both students, and builds a bond between older and younger students. Additionally, the high school students gain experience in teaching, which helps solidify their own understanding of the conceptual material we study at the high school level. 

Goals for the upcoming week:

1. Continue to be picky with sound in rehearsal

2. Build more relationships with students

3. Make solid progress on edTPA planning and recording