Observation 1-17-12: SMS Concert

1.  I observed Sacajawea Middle School's 6th grade concert at 7:30 pm. Three ensembles performed: orchestra with Hollie Sexton, choir with Charlotte Colliver and Jacob Malcyk, and band with Laurie Hickman and Susan Wadsworth.
2. The students were quite well behaved and the concert was organized very well and ran smoothly. I thought it was a good idea to have all the students sitting in the place of their performance the entire time in order to cut back on transition time, but also I think that since the students were in front of the audience the whole time even when they weren't playing they were less likely to misbehave.
3. The two most obvious learning goals I saw in the music that was performed were the variety of styles and cultural contexts and a strong emphasis on developing rhythmic accuracy.
4. I thought that the selections of repertoire were great! All of the pieces were different and allowed the students to make discoveries about different styles and different technical challenges
5. After seeing this concert I think I understand how important it is to make concerts an enjoyable event for the parents as well as the public. The key points involved in this were having a variety of repertoire, keeping the concert short enough, and having minimal transition time between ensembles.