Last Monday I had to teach all the classes by myself since my cooperating teacher was absent. There was also a substitute teacher in the classroom but he was not specialized in music. I was a little concerned about how I was going to manage the classroom but I thought it shouldn’t be a huge problem since I have known and taught them. As soon as the students knew that my cooperating teacher wouldn’t be in school that day, they changed their attitude and it became hard to have control over them. In smaller class like opera, I really had a great time with them while we sang individually and also by sharing with each other about how they performed.
In concert choir class, which is made up of about 50 students, we were supposed to practice two pieces in ‘messiah’ that my cooperating teacher assigned to me. When the second bell rang and all the students had to be seated in their seats, they were just all over the place, in and outside of the classroom. I tried not to get angry or feel bad in front of them because I wanted them to realize what they were supposed to do by themselves. Later I had to speak louder and louder in order to take attendance for everyone. It took about 15 minutes in order to make them realize that they were in a classroom with two teachers and it was an on going class time. But silence didn’t last long. I saw many students that would not stop talking and of course they didn’t listen to me. A few students acted out really badly, but a number of students who were worried about the class tried their best to pay attention. We didn’t have time to rehearse due to the many disturbances.
In women’s choir class, I had the same problem controlling the class. It seemed that just because the cooperating teacher was not present they could take advantage of the situation. Due to the noise and the constant interruptions, we were not able to advance far with the rehearsals. In many ways it was a learning time for me, I was confident that I could work well with them since I knew them, however it ended up being the opposite. I realized that managing a class is not easy and it takes a lot of time and effort to try to advance with rehearsals. After class I made two of the loudest students stay, so we could have a talk. At first they were hesitant and did not want to stay, making up excuses that they didn’t have time. I told them that it would only take about 3 minutes. I scolded them because they would not stop talking during class. It seems that they felt sorry and ended up apologizing. The funny part is that the same two girls were so quiet in the other class that it surprised me seeing their reaction. The substitute teacher told me that I had done well by scolding them, but I need to do the same in the actual class time in order to take control of the class.
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