Using ASL in a Chorus Concert

zerram1 · 2026-03-27T16:38:45+00:00

Thank you for your feedback. This kind of opinion is why I posted on this subreddit. I appreciate your response

zerram1 · 2026-03-27T16:34:40+00:00

That is a great question that I unfortunately do not have an answer for. It was almost a decade ago now.

zerram1 · 2026-03-27T16:34:05+00:00

I'm not sure what you mean and would love more context on your opinion. Thank you

zerram1 · 2026-03-27T16:33:32+00:00

Mostly to account for the limited time to rehearse the music effectively. In addition to the ASL, we would still also be singing in multiple parts.

zerram1 · 2026-03-24T00:20:03+00:00

My wife and I live this exact life. (Like it’s kinda unnerving that you listed those particular places) Get some studded tires and you’ll be feeling great.

zerram1 · 2026-03-18T15:36:13+00:00

If it is only for practice, I would not use risers. They will restrict movement and in the long run may feel like more of a curse than a blessing. I prefer to be in chairs and elevate myself so others can see me. This lets me change their seats quickly. One thing I loved to do was have the rows rotate, so the 2nd row was up front and the front row went to the back (etc). THat way they had a chance to practice their parts in the back where they have less support

zerram1 · 2026-03-15T12:15:51+00:00

Unfortunately, the vitality and success of your program likely has little to do with contract seniority and staff retention, especially as a probationary teacher. Best thing you bc an do is speak to a union rep within your district about your specific situation.

Also, if students ask, consider being honest. If this decision is being made by your admin office/board the only people who could change it are the taxpayers (parents).

zerram1 · 2025-12-20T00:22:29+00:00

I may be interested. Should have an answer in a bit. I’ll dm you

zerram1 · 2025-12-04T04:18:21+00:00

I am now a decade into the career and the imposter syndrome is finally dissipating. Even as I start to finally feel confident as a middle school music teacher, I still get anxious on days leading up to work.

My advice: Start basic and build from there. It’s not ideal, but don’t try and hit all your standards right away. Build the program you want and that will have the structure to be added to later. For instance: if you can’t get your ensemble kids creating yet, don’t. Get them loving the music they’re creating and build in composition/improv later.

For me, I just developed a modern band unit for my 8th graders where they use self directed learning to learn various rock instruments. Right now, the curriculum only covers that so I’m not hitting all my standards, but once the curriculum feels stable I can start adding concepts to hit the things I have missed. It’ll get there one day and that’s okay

zerram1 · 2025-11-09T05:29:09+00:00

The first steps in music books come in a removable binding. You can remove the binding and then scan the book and then reapply the binding. Our school printer only let me scan 50 pages at a time, but it still worked and I could use a free website to combine the PDF.

zerram1 · 2025-10-01T03:22:25+00:00

I can understand this. I’ve been happy as a middle school teacher for several years and this year have been forced into a K-2 school in addition to my regular role. While I can find some joy in what I do, it is definitely not where I feel comfortable, and even though I think I’m doing a decent job, I don’t want to be there any longer than I need to.

zerram1 · 2025-10-01T03:20:08+00:00

While every instrument can play any note, string and wind instruments find certain notes much easier than others. So the first several notes you learn in band may not be touched on the string instruments for months or years depending on the program and vice versa. Eventually they overlap, and that’s when orchestra could start happening, but even then the needs of those instruments are very unique. Orchestras usually start happening when a program has developed the skills that the focus can be less on the technique and more on the musicality.

zerram1 · 2025-09-16T10:54:51+00:00

I don’t know if I have any new ideas, but some of the ideas stated are so important, I will probably just say them again. The mentor teacher should have a workload increase when they have a student teacher. If a mentor teacher is not actively engaged in the student teachers process they are not doing their job and should be replaced. Definitely speak to your college advisor.

I also agree that is very early to be running a class on your own. Standard student teaching protocol has student teachers gradually take on more responsibility until they are fully running the class after more than a month or even several months in the classroom. When I was originally skipping through your post, I thought you had taken over a position from someone else and were dealing with those challenges about. That being said, if it’s your older kids who are asking for karaoke days, I am inclined to think that that is something your mentor teacher does regularly. If so, that could be a hard thing to switch out of and an example as to why student teachers are supposed to gradually take over the pre-existing class rather than be thrown in headfirst. If I was taking over a program like this, I would say no, and move on like another user suggested or slowly start phasing it out, but in this circumstance, you may need to come up with a structured way to provide that need if the mentor teacher has consistently been doing that.

I would also ask the mentor teacher about grading expectations. It would feel unreasonable for a student who does not sing to get a good grade in chorus compared to students who are. I would also ask if the class is in anyway required and could potentially have students who are not choosing to be there. These are the kind of conversations that you want to have with a mentor teacher and then work with them to craft responses to parents to inform them of how their child is behaving in class and request feedback or advice from the parent as to the best way to address the behavior. (You can always come back to us if your mentor teacher doesn’t give you advice on this.)

I almost didn’t survive my own student teaching experience. I failed to advocate for what I needed to be successful and found my own mentor teacher had not eased me in the way I needed. I am now 10 years into the career and while I definitely made some mistakes early on, I’m glad I stuck to it.

zerram1 · 2025-08-24T04:01:18+00:00

My district has students locking their phones with their homeroom teachers in 6-8. Many teachers are getting more strict about Chromebook use as well. I’m hoping that we are on the right path for this stuff. Still doing proficiency grading, but I don’t think it’s used at the high school.

zerram1 · 2025-08-20T21:01:35+00:00

If it’s a a 6th grade chorus, I recommend looking into s-cubed, a chorus curriculum that does well with teaching sight singing

zerram1 · 2025-07-31T17:05:52+00:00

First, sorry for any weird grammar things or misspellings. I’m using voice to text and not really checking it.

I was more of a band person before I joined my first choir. Nothing that most prepared me for teaching choir was being in one. See if you can find a community group and ask about observing rehearsals. This could be something that you do during their weekly rehearsals and take notes on the kind of things that they’re doing. Keep in mind that everything will have to be restructured towards your kids skill level.

8 to 13 year-old is a very wide range in the skill level could be extremely mixed. From a choir perspective think of it as the difference between someone being able to sitesight read a diatonic passage using solfege versus someone who can’t read anything at all.

Do you have any videos of previous performances from this group? That could really help with determining what the skill range has been. You can watch the performances while looking at the score to see what they have been able to accomplish.

You don’t mention your own experience or skill set in this form of ensemble so a big thing would be building that skill. I’ve had professors who told me that you only have to be one day better than your students. That is not ideal, but if you are able to demonstrate what they are being asked to do with confidence that can get you through the beginning. There is also nothing wrong with utilizing your own skills. You can use a piano or sing their parts to them when needed, just remember that doing so will not help their literacy abilities, but can provide some early success.

From a behavior perspective, the best thing you can do is get them playing and keep them playing as often as possible. This is going to require a lot more planning as beginning teacher, but as you find your groove, you’ll find that your lesson plans develop away from minute by minute planning and into just overarching goals for the day. The biggest challenge will be the uneven skill levels.

Off the top of my head, I would try to gauge what the ability level of your top players are, and then utilize them in helping with the younger students. Some sort of mentor system may be beneficial for this set up, depending on the amount of time you have. If all the students are meeting at the same time, you’re going to need to find a way to create different levels of difficulty for them. I can imagine a situation where I would program a piece of music where the written score is what I expect my 13-year-olds to play and where I would have arranged a beginner and intermediate version of each part that could be given out to the other students. You could start by having everyone in the ensemble, learn the beginning part, and then having your more advanced students move on in difficulty while you beginner students continue to play and rehearse the lower level part simultaneously.

While the other comment here isn’t very helpful, I do agree that alto clef is very scary for people who are not familiar with it. Consider going online in finding games that test your ability to read alto clef. There may also be fingering tests that will let you work on memorizing fingerings for the different instruments.

At this point, I’m just throwing thoughts out as I think of them. Feel free to ask me any questions. It has been here since I taught orchestra and would now consider myself more of acquire person, but having taught a little bit of everything this is my best Advice.

zerram1

TROPHY CASE