It was going to be teaching 3 different classes
Aged 7-9, aged 9-11 and aged 12+.
I had the aged 12 and above group first and with them we did a warm up and explained to them all about using your tummy in singing and told them about splat ( a singing term- singing please let out abdominal tension). We then learnt the beginning of finale B from Rent. Which they did great with until the harmonies. The girls in the higher group got e harmonies perfectly, it was the lower group that struggled.
I then had the aged 9-11 year olds and this was my favourite group of the day. They listened to everything I said and were eager and wanted to learn. We started with some warm up exercise, did some scales and arpeggios then sang some easy songs they all knew. After singing the song once, we sang it again but missed out words such as in the grand old duke of york we missed out up and down. If one of them said up or down they had to sit down p, so basically they were out!
As I was just covering for a one off I didn't want to start anything majorly complex with this group so I put them into groups and gave them a fairly well known song to memorise and set some easy steps to. Uncalled it the X factor game and I was a judge with two other pupils, one who had a sore throat and another who was very young and quiet and gets scared when performing in front of people. I really enjoyed this group because they listened to everything I said and wanted to learn.
Lastly I had the younger aged 7-9 year old. In this class I did basically the same as above but they were not as keen with things like the X factor. Some of them were fine and got on with the task but there was a few that either didn't want to sing in front of people, didn't want to learn a song or just didn't want to be there.
When I child doesn't want to be there It is always a grey area because they could end up enjoying it or they could end up hating it. Sometimes parents want what's best for their child but reflecting bAck to the question in my blog yesterday
What is the right thing to do?
I have been teaching a 6 year old recently and she definitely does not want to be in class as she tells me every week. After about an hour she get in a tantrum and most weeks runs out the class. Thank god I am not on my own because i cannot leave my class of students but then I cannot cut myself in half to cater for both. I have an assistant who runs after her or mans the door to stop her from leaving. This makes my job very hard and she is lovely kid, very cheeky in a funny way but she really doesn't want to be there.
What do you think about this and do you have any experience in teaching younger children that do not want to be in your class?
Hey Ruth,
ReplyDeleteThis blog makes me reflect on my previous work at chickenshed theatre. I was lucky enough do deliver to these types of age ranges most days.
I have a few questions because reading your blog you explain it was last minute and you graves resources you thought would be suited best.
In my past experiences of teaching I like to plan ahead Incase but having said that I have come across many times when I had to deliver last minute so had to do what you did. Funnily enough the sessions that were prepared last minute actually go very smoothly (sometimes better than a pre planned one) do you feel nervous and apprehensive when you teach last minute or does it give you a buzz to teach?
I did "inclusive" workshops and this was enabling everybody to take part no matter what disability or medical conditions. Which I personally think is an amazing way to work and really opens your doors to finding creative ways to add to your sessions. I like where you said about the judges section and you have two children with you one with a sore throat and one who was shy. That's an inclusive approach! (If you didn't realise) it's you observing a situation and decding what's best for each individual.
As I mentioned I delivered as part of my course in chickenshed and in the end I did it a lot off my own back because that's where I found I could see myself doing this in the future as a job.
Many times we have half term courses or camp type things so "summer shed" a few weeks worth of workshops from 9-4pm
We always had to bare in mind that children that go there Arnt nescarily eager to be there, but we have to ensure every child gets a benefit from being there. They need to feel wanted. One thing I could suggest is to see what the child is interested in, and use that as a stimulus or when your talking you could use that child as an example (showing examples with them in creates an opportunity for everyone to see them)
Hey Beth,
ReplyDeleteWell at first when she rang me I just thought ermmmmm what am i going to do? but then I just pulled out a few things from my college folders and was quite confident about them. Do be honest when I think about teaching a class with no plans if it is dance I am fine because I am good at making things up on the spot. In singing I would start with a warm up which I am quite confident at doing then do whatever comes into my head during the warm up or I would choose any songs from a book and teach it to them. I can play the piano so playing melodies and harmonies is no problem. Doing drama I would just do a warm up and play some games until something else came to my head so I think doing things as last minute is not really that bad.
I like what you say about the inclusive approach because the two children who were judges loved what they did but it is always a tough decision as to whether to encourage them to get up and sing or to find them an alternative.
That is the same with my schools, a lot of the time they don't want to be there, it is their parents that send them. One lesson I based it around one student who was being very difficult, she has a tendency to run out of class a lot and gets bored very easily. One week she kept saying she wanted to be a princess so we did a lot of workshopping about princesses and princes (for the boys). We did some acting games pretending to be royalty and did posh walks and did a short dance that was a bit like a waltz. She actually really enjoyed it which surprised me a lot. She is really funny and reminds me of a younger version of Nicki Manaj.