Video Reflection
February 14, 2008
Watching this video was, at times, very frustrating for me. The first 20 minutes or so was from my portion of the Symphonic Band rehearsal. I still do not know how to handle these kids, and it’s frustrating both to experience and to watch. As of now I still have no brilliant ideas as to how to better deal with that band, but I can say that I know I’m not doing it right yet. First, I’m not talking loudly enough. When simply giving instructions I’m not loud enough, but I’m especially not loud enough when they’re playing on past a cut-off and/or just sitting there talking and I’m trying to get their attention again. I need to do better with that. (As a brief side note, I will mention that I was not feeling well at all the day of this videotaping, so that is partially to blame for my lack of energy; however, it really wasn’t that different from any other day, I’m afraid.) Musically, I will agree with Mr. Fletcher; I’m quite solid, saying all the right things in mostly all the right ways, and truly hoping to improve the music. I simply need to work on my “crowd-control,” as it were.
The other half of the video, however, was much more enjoyable to watch. This portion was of the Wind Ensemble rehearsal, and this is always a much more enjoyable hour of my day. Today, I only had them for about 25 minutes, and we worked on two pieces after warm-ups. However, this warm-up time was significant to note; it was during this time that flowers were delivered to a handful of students (it was Valentine’s Day, after all!), and I liked the way I handled it. With this group, I know some of the students individually, so I have rapport with them already, and they know they can trust me a bit more than Symphonic Band’s kids. Thus, I can stop for a couple minutes, and they know that I’m legitimately not too annoyed at the goings-on, and then they also know that, once that’s over, I do expect them to regain focus and keep working. They did this quite well. Also, they self-regulate very well. I rarely had to “shh” them or saying anything about being quiet; however, there are several times in the video that you can hear one or two of the students “shushing” their peers, in an attempt to retain quiet. I love this; it makes rehearsal such a joy, because then I don’t have to be the disciplinarian, I can just focus on the music and making music with the students (many of whom contribute so much musically to the ensemble).
Musically, Wind Ensemble is also much more enjoyable than Symphonic Band. The players are all very good, and they play together very well. The literature we can perform is of the best quality, and it’s a lot of fun simply standing in front of them and listening. The only downside to them playing so well so much of the time is that it actually can, at times, make it hard to rehearse, in that there is often such a shortage of “problems” and things to fix; then we must enter the realm of musicality, where that’s all we’re working on. That can be tough, but that’s where we’re often at with these kids.
My focus the remainder of this semester really needs to be on Symphonic Band. I will continue to enjoy and work with all the other groups, but my biggest personal work needs to be with how I approach and deal with Symphonic Band.
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