Observation #3

Mr. Armstead's classroom is highly structured and has many consistent operational procedures.

When walking into the room, you notice that there is one large, lecture style room with five small rooms off of it.  Two small rooms are offices, one is the music library, and the two largest are set up as practice rooms.  Whether or not there are chairs depends on the day.  On Monday, there were chairs, because much of the hour would be spent solfeging independently.

The choir uses solfege to learn every new piece, regardless of origin or style.  He gives the students time to write in syllables in class, and what they cannot finish is homework.  Every student must finish all syllables before they ever sing the song.  Monday was solfege day.  They began by warming up, and then took attendance.  Josh ran this portion of the class.  Mr. Armstead then stepped in to begin the new piece.  He helped them find the key, then he left the room.

Josh and I stood at the front of the room ready to answer any questions; there were many.  I was actually quite surprised by some of the questions.  I found that many students could solfege, but they didn't really understand the underlying concepts.

Mr. Armstead's classes are divided by gender and grade.  The men and women do sing together often, but they learn the music separately and combine only for the concert.  He grades solely based on participation and assignment completion.

Mr. Armstead also talked to me about Solo and Ensemble at length.  He sends 40+ students to S&E each year.  He sends them for comments only.  Most students do not take private lessons; only one student currently takes lessons.  Mr. Armstead assigns and teaches each student's piece to them during class time.