In writing this week's narrative, I have been thinking a lot about our focus question while I observe my co-op.
Mr. Dolan is a very entertaining and fun person. I do not think he goes out of his way to entertain his students, however, because of his fun personality, the students are always very entertained. At a middle school of two grades and 900 students, there are 300 students in the music ensembles. Mr. Dolan always jokes that he is one of the few middle school choir directors who can afford to lose a few students. I feel that entertainment is a big reason why middle school students participate in any extra-curricular activity. The young men's vocal ensemble is full of students that joke around with Mr. Dolan on a daily basis. They are learning a lot about music and being a musician, however, I can't help but wonder if that is the reason why they enroll in the program.
Then, I start thinking about how I can show my personality to my students in an entertaining way. It is important to me that "entertainment" does not over shadow the purpose of the class or ensemble - but also important to keep enrollment numbers up.
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One thing that I have really found on how to show my personality to the students in an entertaining way is definitely to just make fun of myself in a way that shows the students that I am not the be all and end all, and that I have things I'm unsure of/nervous about. I definitely wouldn't say give away all of your weaknesses, but make sure that they realize you are a human too. I've found that when trying to get the choir to correct something like a problem with diction, it is far more effective if you make light of it by grossly over exaggerating what they did rather than scold them for it (unless the problem does not improve after much time). I really believe that getting the students laughing makes them see that you are a real person.
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