On February 23 I, Adam, Kira, and Sallie Observed the Chief Joseph Middle School Band. They were very attentive during class, with minimal disruptions, only one time I recall her having to ask a student to behave and keep his voice down. They actually surprised me for their organization of the 5th grade. When they switched works the percussion section (all by themselves) moved their instruments around to the proper arrangement and reorganized themselves in a quiet timely manner. A handy tool is that the teacher used a microphone necklace thing and her voice was amplified over the loud speakers so that students could hear her. One problem I see with this is that if she can be louder wouldn't this encourage playing while the teacher is talking? cause now students could play PPP and not pay attention to the teacher while you can clearly hear her voice over everything else, but that student if focused on that instrument.
Good thinking about the microphone. Indeed, it is common that the more noise you make as a teacher, the more the students sometime make. Oh, and middle school doesn't have 5th graders.
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