Sunday, February 8, 2009

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Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Believers

Some days, no matter how great your lesson, some students have other plans. I have a class of 32 non-band/non-orchestra 6th graders. They are not the brightest and the best, but most days they get the job done. Sometimes I have to explain and demonstrate that job several times and in different ways. Some of the boys want to hide in the back and not participate. This is not permitted. They are there to do their job which is move, sing and play. I had to go back and walk through each step of the body percussion piece with 4 of the boys when I noticed that they weren't doing anything. They finally realized that I wasn't going to do anything else until they attempted the piece. I explained that performing the piece was what we do in this class, broke it down into tiny steps and guided them through it until they could perform it with the class. They succeeded eventually.