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unusual chorus schedulingDate: November 15, 2012 by Theodore Hine  Views: 1180
Hi all,
I recently took a new (very) part-time position teaching chorus at a magnet school. The school serves students in grades pre-K through eight, but my choir is composed of only sixth, seventh and eighth graders. The students in my ensemble all elect to be in choir and the administration is very supportive (yay!). I meet with my choir one day a week for about 80 minutes. Unfortunately, there's a hitch: about halfway through the period, six students leave to go to Spanish class and another six arrive from Spanish class (the remainder attend for the entire period). My choir consists of only 24 students total, so this is a significant portion of my class. The schedule only solidified in mid-October, but since then I haven't been able to figure out a way to effectively plan curriculum around this interruption. I usually end up repeating myself quite a bit, so the students who stay for the entire period receive some of the same instruction twice.
Has anyone else ever had to work with a situation like this? Any advice?
Thanks!
-Ted Hine
John Howell on November 15, 2012 12:20pm
Ted: I operate on a somewhat similar schedule, with college students, not because of exactly the same kind of scheduling conflicts but almost. I decided years ago that I would rather have more participants than limit my ensemble to those who could commit for the entire rehearsal schedule. I have never regretted that decision, although I know that many of my colleagues simply could not operate that way, and thanks to conflicting class schedules that change from one semester to the next, I sometimes don't have my full ensemble all in the same place at the same time until the first of the two dress rehearsals I usually schedule! (It does help that before getting into teaching I spent a good many years as a professional performer, and I KNOW how much can be accomplished under less than optimal conditions--and often IS!!!)
And of course with college students I can always call sectional rehearsals and give some students time off, but you can't really do that in your situation. (Or could you have reliable students work with sections while you get the others caught up? Some 8th graders are very reliable, and the leadership experience can be great for them.)
About the only suggestion I have for your situation is to plan your rehearsals VERY carefully in advance, so that anything that gets missed by some students at one rehearsal gets worked on by them at the next rehearsal. (Something you probably need to do anyway, given flu season and other time lost to illness or injuries.) A bit awkward, meeting only once a week, but combined with some judicious repetition (which may be adviseable anyway) it might work.
All the best,
John
Applauded by an audience of 1
on December 11, 2012 7:17am
I had a similar situation when I had to share some students with a theatre class. Even though I only had one period, I basically made two choirs. I had the "purple" choir which was 10 students plus 6 that would leave half way through class, and the "gold choir" which was my base 10 again plus another 10 that came in halfway through the hour. (Our school colors are purple and gold.) Each choir had its own music, folders, seating assignments, etc. This limited my time to only 30 minutes twice a week with each choir but the kids in both choirs saw me for the full time. It worked really well and the kids loved it. We performed separately at concerts but would usually do one "group number". The ones who liked this layout the most were the students in both choirs. They learned twice the repertoire and they felt special because they were in two groups.
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