Choral Methods: Charlotte High School Observation #3

It is incredible to me to see what these choral teachers do in a day. And then when you have a day where you are going on a field trip to choral festival, forget about having room or time to think! The top choir was filing in and out of the choir room in their choir dresses and suits. They definitely had a buzz of excitement that they were going to be able to leave school during the day. The class which was going to go tomorrow, Concert Choir, meets at the time of my observation. They came in the room and the chaos became oh so real. I started feeling a little overwhelmed. There were 120 students approximately in the classroom at that time. And I have heard my teacher say this before, but I never really thought much about it. But Bethany said that she was not going to talk over all those students. "It is 120 against 1." Now, I have had teachers say that, but it had never felt so real as it did standing by the front of the room. There were so many of them! And it was just her, against all those students. Yet she was able to maintain control of the classroom. Bethany rehearsed both groups in the time period before they left for the festival.

Another notable factor was how many questions Bethany was getting asked. You could could five seconds or less between each little thing that the students came up to her for. She was asked about hair spray, bobby pins, safety pins. Even the parent chaperone followed her around with questions and other things to fill her in on. In her office, Mrs. Zeuch had every little thing you could think to find in a bathroom linen closet. And through all of this, Bethany answered every question with a cool response and moved onto the next question without skipping a beat. I felt bad about interacting with her during the observation just because of everything she had to juggle I was just an extra added thing. It was really incredible to watch.

In comparison to other disciplines, I can't imagine there being as much dependency on the teacher as there is in a choral setting. I don't know if that is because they allow their students to need them more or if it is because the students create a bond that allows them to let themselves become more dependent on this particular adult. It could just be a result of the security in the relationship that was established between teacher and student.