One of the reasons I am writing this series is to try and change the perception about teaching middle school, in some small way, among peers and pre-service teachers entering the profession. I feel like middle school often gets shortchanged in the music education profession, and I have a few ideas for why that is:
1.) Based on a completely unscientific survey of teachers I have known throughout the years, I feel like the majority of undergrads who major in choral music education entered the profession because they had an amazing high school music experience. It's the most recent experience in their minds, and it was most likely a high level one that inspired them to become a music teacher. They either didn't sing in middle school (like me), or often had a poor or at least unmemorable middle school music experience. This isn't always the case, but I think it's fairly common. So when a choral undergrad is thinking about their future as a music educator, high school choir director is often the end goal because it's the freshest or best experience they had. We also have those wonderful teachers who know they want to teach elementary music, but among the secondary folks, I have found that the tendency is to want to teach high school.
2.) The vast majority of music education programs in our country take place within the context of a conservatory model. Theory, aural skills, applied lessons and recitals, conducting courses...it's all great, don't get me wrong. But it doesn't leave enough room for music education methods classes and so a lot of things get shortchanged. In my experience and observation, elementary music methods and choral methods specific to middle school both get shortchanged because of limited time. How to effectively teach middle school, choose and adapt repertoire for the middle school singer, and work with the changing middle school voice are topics that are often not explored in enough depth because you can only go into so much depth in a 4-5 year degree. Undergrads often enter student teaching with an identity that is more performer than teacher (because they just spent 4+ years in a conservatory model that emphasizes developing the musician far more than developing the teacher), and those performer skills that were emphasized (theory, conducting, voice) often transfer more readily to teaching high school choir than they do other levels.
3.) Historically, at least in Colorado, there haven't been as many strong middle school programs as there have been high school programs (more accurately, I think no one knew where the strong middle school choir programs WERE, and the strong high schools were easier to find), so when it was time to do practicum and student teach, some pre-service teachers didn't always have as many positive experiences with what middle school singers can do. That experience matters. When you work with someone who opens your mind to what is possible with middle school, you are much likely to want to teach middle school yourself (this is what happened with me). Luckily, in recent years not only is the number of thriving middle school choir programs in Colorado increasing, but we are finding each other more often, connecting and making it easier to find middle school choir teachers who are doing great work in our state.
4.) When you start out teaching middle school choir, especially as a young teacher, you're going to suck at it. There is so much you have to learn and most of it you can only learn through experience, and so you are going to struggle for a few years and that is going to be quite discouraging. Teaching middle school choir is tough. There are all sorts of unique challenges and idiosyncrasies to the age group that take a while to figure out. If you get really discouraged in the beginning, you may quit or change levels before you have enough time to get good. At the risk of being slightly controversial, I believe it's easier to get least a decent result out of a high school choir program as a newer teacher (unless you are truly building something from scratch) than it is to do the same with middle school. So if you put two new teachers in new programs, one at a high school and one at a middle school, the middle school teacher is probably much less likely to stick with the position and overcome the discouraging early years until they figure things out and get good at it.
If you are a middle school choir teacher who is relatively new to teaching middle school and you are struggling, I encourage you to stick with it. If you are a pre-service teacher thinking about what you want your first job to be, I encourage you to consider teaching middle school choir. There are challenges yes, but there are also so many rewards, as I am covering in this series.
Sometimes the challenge is the exact same as the reward, as in the case of Middle Schooler Energy™. MSE can be overwhelming, even intimidating, and definitely contributes to the belief that middle schoolers are hyper, unruly, and difficult to handle. Because yes, they are energetic, no two ways about it.
To oversimplify things a bit, I think there are two possible approaches a teacher can make when faced with that energy. One can try and calm or reduce that energy, which treats it more like an obstacle to the learning, or one can treat it is an asset and try to harness that energy and use it for purposes that support the learning.
Granted, this is easier to do in a class like choir: we're all up doing things the majority of the time, there are no desks, we aren't doing a lot of lecturing and pencil/paper/computer work, and so we don't NEED the classroom calm to get things done. But since this is a choir blog, I'm going to focus on choir, and how harnessing that massive Middle Schooler Energy helps to accomplish our goals.
"Middle Schoolers have so much energy, but if you can win their loyalty and get them all moving in the same direction, they will move mountains for you." -Emily Martin, one of the many things I say all the time that I didn't come up with, because she said it to me first.
When that MSE is harnessed and applied towards the goals of the choir, your middle schoolers will work hard, they will approach overcoming challenges with enthusiasm, and some of them will start to become more than a little obsessed with choir. I have also found that using that MSE to your advantage not only helps create a more enthusiastic, hard-working choir, it also creates a bigger, more vibrant choral sound.
Okay I'm about to get controversial again. First my disclaimer: every classroom is different, every teacher is going to need to have their own management style that works for them. What I saw work in Mrs. Martin's choirs and what has in turn worked for me in my career will not work for everyone, and there of course many great choral educators who do things completely different than the way I do them. Likewise, there are many different choral sounds and all of them (well most of them) have value. It's a big tent. Having said all of that, this is what I believe:
I personally love a big, vibrant, passionate sound from my middle school choirs. I've never liked the "whimpy," breathy sound that you often hear from middle school singers. In addition, as a matter of preference I don't love the laser-focused "children's choir" sound for middle school singers either. Of course that children's choir sound is beautiful, and perhaps even the breathy sound has its defenders, but they are just not the tone I'm interested in producing. I think it's so difficult to get middle school kids to be comfortable and vulnerable with singing, that once you get them going you should just turn them loose. So this is what I'm getting at:
I personally believe that overly managing or overly disciplining your middle school choir restricts vocal production and results in a less free, less vibrant choral tone.
Luckily I have a pretty small reader base, because I wouldn't be surprised if I take some flak for that statement. Again, we don't do peer-reviewed research on this blog, but I observed my mentor's management style and heard what her choirs sounded like, and I have seen the results of my own management style (which is quite similar to hers) with my own choir's sound. Likewise, I have observed middle school choirs over the years with a director who ran a really tight ship, and I noticed that overall those choirs had a smaller, more restrained choral tone. I must stress yet again that I've done no actual research on this phenomenon, and that correlation doesn't prove causality anyway, but this is just something I personally believe. And unlike say, someone's particular beliefs on vaccines, my personal belief isn't causing harm to anyone else.
My choral classroom was designed to maximize MSE basically be picking my battles. What you would often see in my room would be an atmosphere of controlled chaos. I found over the years that when my kids felt free to be their energetic, weird selves, then they felt comfortable in my room. When they felt comfortable, and that their energy and personality was valued rather than treated as a problem, they would sing out more. My classroom environment helped facilitate the big, vibrant choral sound that I wanted, because my kids were singing with personality, with passion, with their whole hearts.
When you allow their energy to flourish, and when you match their energy with a high energy teaching style, you can really start to get something amazing going. It isn't always easy, and sometimes your classroom is going to feel like it's one crazy comment or silly joke away from going off the rails (because it totally is), but it creates the kind of joyful middle school choral experience that I absolutely love, and facilitates the kind of choral sound that I prefer.
I was originally going to talk about middle school singers' unique energy and loyalty in the same post, but this one is running long so I will address loyalty in
Part 5. Thank you for reading!
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