Surprise!

Today I received a daunting, albeit exciting, surprise.  At the end of the day, my co-operating teacher, Mr. Wondemagegnehu (Mr. Won, for short), came up to me and said "alright, you gotta go be me."  I thought he meant he needed me to go make some phone calls for go pick something up in preparation for our competition tomorrow.  I was wrong!  He continued to inform me that he had scheduled to do a clinic with a local middle school choir after school today without realizing that he had to be our school's musical rehearsal.  Rather than rescheduling the clinic, he sent me in his place.

I was extremely nervous going into it, though I am not sure why.  I have taught middle school choir before and knew, for the most part, what I was going to need to do.  But something about not knowing the repertoire, not knowing the students or the teacher, and knowing that I was supposed to replace Mr. Won had me very intimidated.

I arrived at the school which is clearly from the early 70s and has not been updated since.  When I reach the choir room, I am greeted by shouting children and I think to myself, "strap in; it's gonna be bumpy."  I quickly found out that this group was the last class of the day and that the ensemble I would work with was coming as soon as the bell rang.  When they arrived, the students were very attentive and polite, which made the situation much less uncomfortable for me.  After hearing them sing through their two pieces, I began to "clinic," something I didn't feel extremely worthy of doing, yet had to do.

It was a spectacular experience.  The ensemble was quite talented; very musical, expressive, sang with good tone, articulate vowels and consonants, etc.  As I worked with them, I felt my nerves drift away as I realized that this was just like working with my high school students, only with a different sound coming back at me.  I ended up having a blast and realized that not all middle school choirs have to sound or be treated like a middle school choir.  I was touched when they asked me to come back some time to share more musical ideas with them.  I can only hope that their teacher enjoyed it and appreciated as much as the kids did, and that they will continue to work on and apply some of the concepts I addressed.  What a fun way to end the week, eh?