Skip to main content

Immersion

Last Wednesday I visited Oakland Mills Middle School as a part of American Education Week. I got the chance to observe a GT Social Studies class and a Band rehearsal. I learned quite a bit from each class. Today I want to share something about what I experienced in Mrs. Reichl's Band class.

Symphonic Band is for more experienced players. The room was packed. This is a class that students choose, and must audition for a place, and every bit of the room was filled. In fact, for the beginning of the rehearsal visiting parents had to stand because there was not one extra inch of space for chairs.

Once the opening activities were taken care of, the percussion players went to their posts in the back of the room, and the parents were invited to take those seats. As a choral singer for most of of my life, I had never been to a school band rehearsal. Let me tell you, if you want to have the full experience, you should definitely sit behind the tubas and in front of the percussion! Have you ever heard the term "surround-sound"? That is exactly what we experienced.

In one class period we observed students involved in sight reading, learning musical vocabulary, making music, improving technique, listening to other students, and above all, focusing on the director and student intern. The level of attention demanded and received was awe-inspiring. The students knew the expectations; the teachers gave clear, positive directions and suggestions. Musical performance and student behavior were shaped with a look, a gesture, a raised eyebrow, a breath.

Every student was in that room by choice. Yet I would hazard a guess that the the level of work and the expectations for behavior far exceed those for any other class they are taking. So why are they there?

Immersion. For that one class period, everyone is immersed in the hands on experience of making music. There are no cliques, no smart kids vs dumb kids, no popular kids vs awkward kids. What a relief for these middle schoolers to spend some portion of the day unfettered by the discomforts of being adolescent. Making music is a multi-sensory, full mind-body experience. Lori Reichl shares the joy of that with her students, and for that she has a full house.

Meaningful work. Instant feedback. Working together. Active listening. The joy of creating something beautiful. This is not something that supplements education. This is education.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents.  When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...
1 comment
Read more

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday.  Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was  "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018.  2018 .  But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest.  In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...
1 comment
Read more

Separate and Unequal

  Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in  broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not.  It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...
1 comment
Read more