The first thing that I noticed about Mr. Berdahl is that he had a plan for the group and also had goals in mind. He demonstrated this a number of different ways:
- The warm ups were a learning experience and could be used to help them out with the pieces they were working on.
- He told them to pass in one piece because it was "too easy" for them. This made them feel really good about their work as an ensemble I bet. Maybe that would be just a good idea to do anyway! Just pass out a piece every once in a while that is a little too easy for them. It'll boost their confidence! I bet that's what he was thinking...clever!
- He had huge elaborate shields as hall passes. He wanted the group to all be there for rehearsal so he devised this plan so they would only want to leave if it was an emergency. Haha I think it worked pretty well and was just awesome overall! I tried to make that relate to the topic that I started with. : ]
Besides these goals, there were some other things that I observed while watching his class twice. (After this post I will write about my experience with leading warm ups.)
- Once he asked them who could help play at the basketball game that weekend. No one volunteered and they were chatting amongst themselves. That made him...come unglued. He told them that they should be proud of these girls who had made it this far and that they should be able to take just two hours out of their weekend to represent their school in this way. It was quite alarming and this kind of tone from Kelly Berdahl probably helped them to remember what their goals were. I think having a talk like this every once in a while would benefit the group and help put them on track again (although I don't think I'll be able to get quite that sort of volume...). Like Dr. Stark said, he wasn't upset with them, but more at the decision they were making.
- He gave great compliments and made them work for them. I really want to work on making my compliments more meaningful and say them a little less often so they want to work for it. Quality over quantity!
- He was very expressive with his conducting which I think makes them want to watch him.
Lot's to think about :)
Your friend,
Shannalee
Good thoughts (I notice you didn't put in anything about the gum)--HA!
ReplyDelete1/1 NS