Advertise on ChoralNet
High School scheduling problems/building a programDate: January 6, 2013 by Arielle Warshay  Views: 1499
This is my second year at an urban charter school (General/Vocal Music 6-12) and my third year teaching. The program is very new - it got started because of a grant the school received and this is the fifth year it's been in existence. High school choir, which I teach two periods a day, is basically only there to fulfill an arts requirement for graduation so students are pretty much only there for one semester. Their only other choices are art and orchestra, although if they haven't been playing a string instrument snce at least middle school, they aren't really allowed to join. Some students want to be there; many others don't. Almost nobody takes it seriously - which I realize is my job to change, and I'm trying to do so! I talked to the woman who does the scheduling for all the students to ask if she could keep most of my students in choir for the whole year and she said that could be possible, only when I sent her a list of students I wanted she said she already completed almost all the scheduling and didn't keep any of my current students in the class. How do I convince the administration that choir needs to be a full year AND they need to have at least a few students who want to be there if they want the program to actually grow? They have expressed an interest in growing the program, but it was also expressed to me by the principal that I'll probably have to do an after-school program if I want another choir that has students who want to be there. Any suggestions on how to fix the scheduling program and/or the best way to build an after-school program? The biggest roadblock with the after-school choir is recruitment because I'm only there until 10am and don't know well over half of the students in the school, and the best time to reach them all during homeroom I have to be teaching at the middle school. How can I reach everyone without having to completely rely on the homeroom teachers to just pass out information? (Some are reliable - others are not.)
Thanks!
Replies (6): Threaded | Chronological
John Howell on January 6, 2013 2:19pm
Hi, Arielle. Sounds as if the first question is how to get attitudes adjusted. No, maybe the first question is WHO is the "they" that "have expressed an interest in growing the program"? THEN you deal with attitudes. And only then can you get down to the nitty-gritty of specific changes in schedules, including your own, because beurocracies tend to move VERY slowly, but they can move if someone gets the ball rolling.
I assume that at a private school the decisions are made by the principal or headmaster, and if this is a college-prep school with lots of AP classes and a Baccelaureate degree it might be an uphill battle because there are only so many hours in the day, but if you have support from the TOP that's a good place to start. And does the principal or HM understand what a fantastic draw and positive public relations a music program can be? Not to mention preparing students to compete for choir seats when they go on to college! This CAN be a major plus for the school, but is that important for them?
Of COURSE you have to be on friendly and collegial terms with "the woman who does the scheduling," but you have to find out what HER timelines and deadlilnes are and follow them religiously. And if I may ask, you say you have choir 2 periods, but is it the same students both periods? I think we need a little more information.
But what would be perceived as "growth" in the program? By you, by your head administrator, by those with the thankless job of scheduling, and by both the students and their parents? It sounds like right now just getting students for 2 consecutive semesters would be a major step forward. How much choice in this do the students (or their families) have?
And here's a radical idea. Make your present choir into something that isn't just one more Fine Arts choice, but is a desination because it has become something really COOL that students will fight to get into! And how will you do that? Well that depends entirely on your school's demographics, but it might very well involve moving away from doing all standard classical repertoire. (Yes, I'm an advocate of show choir or even jazz choir, when it's done well and with high standards.) I've had students come from small high school programs where there was only ONE choir, but that choir did a wide variety of styles and programs, and they got a lot out of those programs AND were well prepared for college auditions.
Give us a little more info, and a little more about your own schedule. Why can't you meet after school? Is your middle school teaching in the same school, or a different one?
All the best,
John
on January 28, 2013 5:14pm
In my district, the beginning level choirs satisfy high school graduation requirements, but they don't satisfy the state's fine arts requirements for university admissions. A quick google search didn't show that to be the case in Michigan, but it's possible that a beginning choir might not be rigorous enough to meet admissions requirements for some of your students who will be applying to colleges elsewhere. Any charter school is going to be keen on their students' college application success rate, so perhaps you could use that possibility, and the need to differentiate instruction (a helpful buzzword) to justify one of your high school choir periods being more advanced, and requiring a prerequisite and/or instructor approval. This will be more appealing to the more serious singers obviously, and you will naturally get more retention in that choir than in the y'all come choir (and more recruitment too, as the word of mouth spreads). Quality attracts quality. If you could have one beginning choir that is enrolled by semester, and one intermediate-advanced choir that is a year-long class, that would naturally help things along for your program, while still giving your administration some of the flexibility that they are accustomed to in their scheduling. I'm sure it's too late this year to make such a change, but it would be worthwhile to start pursuing now, for next year.
Do you have a commited core group of parents that could form a booster group? Parents are often more successful at leaning on administrators than teachers are.
Ultimately, this is not something that is going to be solved overnight. You are in a multi-year (as in, five to ten year) effort to build a program, and overcoming administrative resistance is a common piece of the process. One good piece of advice, from somebody very much on the uphill part of that battle myself, is this: don't get frustrated with your administration if you haven't proven the worth of your program yet. You need to sell it before they are going to buy it. You'll want to get your choirs as visible as possible on campus and off, to make sure that the whole school starts to understand how important a choir is to school culture and to the community at large. Make sure they're singing the national anthem at sports events, graduation, pep rallies, caroling through the halls just before winter break, your city's parks & rec events, senior luncheons, Rotary club meetings, opening day at little league, etc. Make sure you get all of your concerts in the local papers, and make sure your administration sees all of the good press you are bringing to the school. Become the (cheerfully) squeaky wheel.
If you haven't become acquainted with Chorus America's advocacy materials, by all means do so now: http://www.chorusamerica.org/advocacy-research/making-case-your-school-choir-advocacy-guide
on January 29, 2013 8:59am
Bruce: I don't question your statement, but I'm very curious about it. You wrote, "In my district, the beginning level choirs satisfy high school graduation requirements, but they don't satisfy the state's fine arts requirements for university admissions."
I'm at a state university, and I'm not aware that there is ANY "fine arts requirments" for admission to this university. We set our own admission requirements. And I'm not aware of any state having "fine arts reuirements" for graduation from high school, although my experience is admittedly limited. So who is it that has set these requirments, and who is it that actually observes and enforces them?
All the best,
John
on January 29, 2013 12:28pm
John, l don't know about other states, but the University of California system requires one year of visual/performing arts coursework for admission. My son's high school requires two years of electives drawn from foreign language, visual/performing arts, or career/tech ed, and I think one of those years is required by the state (California) for graduation.
Applauded by an audience of 1
on January 29, 2013 8:32pm
True, the UC system requires one year of fine art/visual arts credit, however, there are a lot of other colleges in California that require NO fine arts credits. There is always the junior college route as well. They only reason many schools in CA still have music is because of this UC requirement, even though only 1% of most high school seniors even get accepted to a UC.
on January 30, 2013 12:00am
The UC system has historically accepted the top 12.5% of California high school graduates. No guarantees on WHICH UC you'll be sent to, and no guarantees that you'll be able to get the classes you want, but the percentage of accepted students from California should be much higher than 1%.
Applauded by an audience of 1
|
Help support ChoralNet by buying via these links
|
Subscribe to thread
New message
Reply
