BUILDING TONE AND SELF CONFIDENCE IN THE MIDDLE SCHOOL CLASSROOM Can there be a link here to the first clip?

Introduction  The problem: How do you create beautiful tone when everyone is too self conscious to try?  Work with individual students or the whole class?  Creating a safe environment  Sectionals  Working phrases and classroom techniques  Balancing time, teaching technique and the curriculum

Working with the whole class  Fixing just a couple of students tone problems while working with the entire class  Warm-ups  Listening  Vowels, vowels, vowels  Working on a piece  Taking time in the rehearsal

Creating a Safe Environment  Zero tolerance for negativity in the classroom  Demonstration  Taking risks yourself  Accepting the students where they are  Whenever possible separate the genders  ALWAYS compliment the students, remark on what they have done well before moving on to the critique.

Sectionals  Small group of students lends the ability to grow a close bond  Start out by hearing about their day  Vocalize  Record the rehearsal and play back for the students  What did they hear? What are they going to do the same/ different this time  End on a positive note

Working Phrases and Classroom Techniques  Open, Tall, More air: What does that actually mean?  Using hand motions and diagrams  Experimentation  James C McKinney, four steps to lift the soft pallet  Pull lips back into forced smile  Lips are forward and mouth is almost closed  Protrude lips forcibly  Relax lips and open jaw –IDEAL SOUND

Practical Applications  Worked on vocalization in sectionals  Safe environment  Experiment with students  First had them vocalize with no instructions  Then asked for ‘Tall’, fixed posture, warmer tone, lift the soft pallet.  HERE IS WHERE I WANT THE REST OF THE CLIPS IN ORDER THANK YOU!

Balancing time  How to make time for everything?  Knowing when the students will work and when it is time to move on.  Always make time to show the students you care  Ultimate goal:  Fun, safe, learning environment  Opportunity to express ones self through music  Building relationships with students

Conclusion  Findings in the classroom  Working with the students in small sections leads to great results  Tone needs to be worked on everyday  Use consistent phrases  Always a work in progress

Resources  Carefully crafting the choral rehearsal: Meeting Challenges by David L. Brunner challenges/ challenges/ published November 1996 MENC journal  Remember the Joy of Singing by Pete Seeger published by MENC  The Diagnosis & Correction of Vocal Faults by James C McKinney 1 st edition, Waveland Press Inc  The Functional Unity of the Singing Voice by Barbara M. Doscher 2 nd edition, The Scarecrow Press Inc  School Girls: Young Women Self-Esteem, and the Confidence Gap by Peggy Orenstein 1 st edition, Doubleday 1994  Teaching Music in the Secondary Schools by Charles R. Hoffer 5 th edition, Schirmer, Cengage Learning 2001

Thank You  Kim Faulkner, choir director Olivet Middle and High Schools  8 th grade choir students at Olivet Middle School  Suellyn Henke and all of the Education Staff  My parents and friends who have supported me throughout student teaching