Performance Rehearsal

I did a performance rehearsal with the kids today. I told them that we'll pretend that we're performing in front of an audience. At first I wanted them to stand in a straight line, then in circles. Then I realized that it's very difficult to manage the situation when they kept moving around, so I decided to keep them in a line for all the songs.

I remember my professor in "Teaching Instrumental Music Part I" has mentioned that in at a band rehearsal, it is wise to speak less and play more. That's what I tried doing today during our practice. After asking them to stay in the line, I just went through all of the songs with them without much of a break, so they couldn't use the breaks to start a conversation or start fooling around.

Kaitlyn got upset after the first song because she missed her mom. She used to be out in the open area with another teacher, but she came to my classroom after she returned from a vacation. I think she's still trying to adjust. So I asked her to sit and be our audience. She almost started to cry when she said she misses her mom, but she smiled again when I said to her. She didn't join us in singing afterall, but she was a great audience~

I was going to have the performance with them tomorrow, but Iris said that she's not going to be here, so I decided to wait for Monday. I wouldn't want her to miss out!

After rehearsing, I read a story to them, called "Matthew and the Midnight Flood", by Robert Munsch. I had to stop a couple of times because of their talking. But what I realized is that they were still listening to the story, just that they wanted to discuss about it. So I asked them to raise their hand if they have something to say, because I couldn't hear everybody at the same time. Although some of the comments got a bit off topic, I think it's always nicer to have the kids speak to the whole class then amongst themselves during a lesson, when we're having whole-group learning time. ^^