Over the course of this semester in Secondary Methods, I have had the opportunity to

observe four different secondary level music classroom settings. When choosing the observation

locations, I tried to spend equal amounts of time in middle and high school classrooms. I was

lucky enough to get the opportunity to observe two of my former schools with my former

teachers: Trottier Middle School in Southborough, MA with Jamie Clark and Carolyn Alzapiedi,

and Algonquin Regional High School in Northborough, MA with Eric Vincent and Olivia

Goliger. In addition to these observations, I applied and was chosen to work with the MMEA All

State Choir, then was subsequently invited to work with the MMEA Northeast District Treble

Choir. Throughout all of these classroom and rehearsal observations, I found that there was much

to compare and contrast in terms of teaching styles, classroom management, and student

response.

In my observations at Trottier Middle School, I found a unique culture of respect and

enthusiasm. This culture is extremely familiar to me—it is exactly the same as when I was a

student here—and I have yet to see anything quite like it anywhere else. This music department

is the most tightly-knit group in the school, and this department has a long-standing reputation

for their unique talent, level of dedication to their music, respect for one another and the

teachers, excitement to be involved in the program, and kindness towards each other. Though the

choruses do not participate in any competitions, the concert bands, jazz bands, and orchestras

annually win high praise at each competition (MICCA, MAJE, UNH Clark Terry Jazz Festival).

I was lucky enough to observe the most influential teacher I’ve ever had, band and orchestra

director Jamie Clark. I talked with Mr. Clark about the steps he took to build a culture as special

as this, and he credited the students for upholding these high standards. He said that it took

around two or three years to create the culture with frequent reminders of what the behavioral
and musical expectations were. He advised that, when building a culture, it will take about one

full rotation of the student body. In this case, he said that the eighth graders would take on the

responsibility of reinforcing the expectations for the younger students, modeling peer

teaching/learning. It is evident in each of his classes that Mr. Clark receives a certain level of

respect, and as a result of this, few classroom management tactics are implemented. During this

shadow day, I observed his Big Band (audition jazz band), and sixth, seventh, and eighth grade

orchestra classes. The students respond well to non-verbal rehearsal directions and show great

understanding of their mistakes before the teacher has to correct them. The teacher often will

prompt the ensemble to provide suggestions on how to improve their playing, which is a great

way to bring the students into the conversation, give them leadership opportunities, and provide a

safe space for students to take accountability for their progress. It was interesting to me, from the

teacher’s perspective, how skilled these students are at switching very quickly between styles.

Students are able to list the characteristics of each style they play, as well as the piece’s historical

significance and context; this is due to Mr. Clark’s heavy emphasis on learning the background

of the music, as well as learning about the musician who wrote the piece. On the whole, students

seem eager to participate and learn during rehearsals. On occasion, the class will veer off into a

tangent, though students are quick to refocus when asked. There is an abundance of positive

feedback on the music, though Mr. Clark is not hesitant to be quite critical about the students’

performance—his attention to detail, which the students mirror, is what sets his ensembles apart.

The students are not afraid to offer suggestions to their peers, as well. If a student is having

trouble playing a certain section of a piece or is seeming to have physical difficulties playing

something on their instruments, their neighbor in the section is likely to offer kind support,

which was such a rare occurrence compared to any other class I have observed. There is so much
kindness and compassion in the room, it makes the learning environment feel extremely safe and

welcoming.

This same day, I observed Carolyn Alzapiedi’s choral and general music classes, which

were vastly different experiences. The choral environment is relatively similar to that of Mr.

Clark’s instrumental ensembles, as these students share the same respect and kindness within the

classroom. These classes, however, seem to need a little bit more redirection, as they are more

talkative and at times, unfocused. Classroom management strategies in Mrs. Alzapiedi’s

classrooms consist of repeating directions, putting a hand up to quiet the class, and projecting

over the students’ talking to ask them to refocus their attention to the task at hand. The students

are similarly willing to help one another if they are struggling: there were several instances

where students were confused about their harmony parts, so their section neighbors helped them

review their parts. I really liked how the teacher walked around the room a lot, making sure each

section had her full attention. Class participation came without much prompting, every student

seemed interested in the subject matter and was, for the most part, ready to learn once the lesson

began—it was mostly during their downtime that they began to engage in side conversations.

Students responded well to nonverbal cues during rehearsals, such as motions implying a change

in dynamics, musical cues, and conducting. The students seemed generally enthusiastic about the

music they were singing, and this is largely due to Mrs. Alzapiedi’s instruction—she has a lot of

enthusiasm for the music her students create and is their biggest supporter, both inside and

outside of the classroom. The students have a predictable routine to follow at the start of each

class: they will enter the classroom, find their folders in their class’ bin, then take their spots on

the risers. The ensemble has a repertoire of warmups, so they pick from those each week—this

provides a sense of familiarity and comfortability. I recognized these same warmups from when I
was a student in her classes, so I asked the teacher why she always uses the same warmups. She

replied that she had read a study on the importance of familiar routines for vocal warmups, as

students tend to not feel comfortable with how their voices sound before warming up. If the

teacher is able to control the repertoire and prescribe tunes that the students will feel comfortable

singing, then it makes them feel more secure, even if they do not think they sound their best. In

her general music classes, classroom management became more of an issue. Since this class is

required of sixth and seventh graders, the students do not necessarily have a passion for making

music and, at times, will make that known. Even though she tried her best to refocus the class,

many of the students in the class continued to be disruptive throughout the lesson. At this point,

as long as the students were being safe with their bodies and Orff instruments, she focused her

attention on the students that were asking for help after delivering a reminder that their next class

would consist of a playing test on the xylophones. In Carolyn Alzapiedi’s classroom, students are

supported well and encouraged to participate in creating an inclusive environment.

At Algonquin Regional High School, I got the opportunity to observe my former band

director, Eric Vincent. During my observation day, I sat in on his Beginning Guitar class, as well

as his Jazz Improvisation class. After being immersed in this environment as a student, it became

apparent to me that, similarly to Trottier’s culture, this one was established with a similar focus

on mutual respect and kindness. Beginning with his guitar class, the students were all quite

respectful to each other. I asked Mr. Vincent what he had done to create this classroom

environment, and he said that he asked the students to adhere to the idea that everyone in this

class is trying to learn a new set of skills that are entirely foreign to them, so everyone should

receive the same high level of respect and kindness, no matter the skill level. He put this

agreement into the course syllabus that the students had to sign and return in order to prove that
they read and understood the course expectations. He said that this class had the tendency to be a

bit shy while performing for and practicing with one another at the beginning of the semester,

though I did not see this attitude reflected in their playing. Since I am a guitar player (and his

former student), Mr. Vincent asked if I could participate and play guitar with the students, as well

as provide any feedback I saw necessary on their playing—I happily accepted this offer. There

were eight students in the class, and the class began with each student going around the room and

improvising eight bars at a time over a blues backing track using a major pentatonic scale. The

students, up until this point, were working out of a packet given by the teacher, and had covered

such topics as basic open shapes for major and minor chords, as well as hand positioning for

major, minor, and pentatonic scales. Improvisation was introduced in the first week of class in

order for students to have the chance to begin building their confidence levels early on in the

semester, as well as a means to act as an informal method of assessment, as the teacher is able to

see how the student is able to internalize and implement the new skills they are learning. The rest

of the class was spent learning new open chord shapes using the packets and whiteboard and

both chord charts and tablature. Overall, this class seemed like a well-oiled machine, as the

students knew exactly what the expectations were during this class period and put in the work

necessary to meet them. In Mr. Vincent’s jazz improvisation class later in the class, I observed a

small group of five extremely talented and dedicated students. This group was composed of

students from the highest level jazz band who were already a close-knit group of friends.

Students, during this class, were focusing on how to interact with the band. Mr. Vincent guided

each student as they chose and called tunes to play, set the tempo, and counted off the combo. He

also gave them an introduction to chart analysis, which I was asked to help with once questions

arose. They were very capable students, and were able to figure out the answers to their
questions through gentle reminders and guiding questions from both Mr. Vincent and myself. For

the most part, the students were very confident in their skills, since the routine of consistent

improvisation and expected participation was set from the beginning. There is an extremely

strong community in this classroom, as the students are each other’s biggest fans and are always

quick to offer compliments and constructive feedback on each other’s solos and performances. A

similar agreement was made on the signed course expectations sheet, though the teacher says it

was not even necessary with this particular class. The students are immersed in such a caring and

respectful environment that is extremely conducive to learning and growing, which is a testament

to the quality of teaching shown by Eric Vincent.

In Olivia Goliger’s classroom, I witnessed the highest level of compassion and

enthusiasm for music since observing Jamie Clark at Trottier Middle School. As my former

teacher, I feel as though she was one of my greatest influences in my education. Ms. Goliger

builds individual bonds with each of her students, making each student feel valued and loved for

being themselves and their enthusiasm for learning and making music. I observed her Chamber

Choir, Camerata Choir, Concert Choir, and Beginning Piano classes. Chamber Choir is an

audition-based SATB choir filled with extremely dedicated musicians. I observed the students

rehearsing rather challenging repertoire with impressive results. It was evident in their

performance when they had questions about the music, as their confidence and sound became

visibly and audibly weaker. In response to this, Ms. Goliger would break down the problem areas

and recontextualize them against the other parts. By chunking the information into smaller and

more manageable pieces, the students were able to regain their confidence with the pieces. Much

of this rehearsal consisted of fine-tuning vowel pronunciation and specific areas of each of their

four pieces that were giving them trouble. Classroom management occasionally poses a
challenge, as the students are all close friends and can become quite chatty during moments of

downtime. To remedy this, Ms. Goliger has a few classroom management strategies, the most

common being holding her hand up and waiting for students to mirror her action and quiet down;

this worked each time. After this rehearsal, I asked her how she approaches getting the students

in the right mindset to rehearse their repertoire, and she said that she relies on two main methods:

individual imagery preparation before singing, and utilizing warmups as a means of mental and

physical preparation in order to sing. Creating an inner image is a key aspect of teaching Ms.

Goliger credits for eliciting the emotional connection of the pieces, and warming up is treated as

a way for students to ground themselves and become present in the moment during the beginning

of rehearsal; both of these come across clearly in their performance. The experience while

observing her Camerata Choir is almost the same in behavior, just with a different group of

students. This group is an all-treble audition ensemble that is held to a similar level of

excellence. The same classroom management situation and strategy applies to this group, though

they seemed to be a bit less focused than the Chamber Choir. The Concert Choir was an

interesting group to watch, as the ensemble is mostly made up of freshmen. Since this is such a

young group, this level of ensemble has a heavy focus on reinforcing expectations and building a

solid culture. As a result, there was a lot more classroom management taking place during this

class. In addition to the aforementioned strategy, I observed Ms. Goliger projecting over the

student conversations, repeating instructions several times, and physically coming around the

piano to get the attention of the students; all of these worked after a little bit of time. Later in the

day, I observed her Beginning Piano class. Since this class was mostly individual practice-based,

I observed her one-on-one interactions with each student. Ms. Goliger checked in with each of

her twelve students at least three times throughout the course of the class, checking in on their
progress and answering questions. Periodically, she would ask the class to detach their

headphones so they could practice a song all together—this not only served as a peer learning

experience for the students, but also as a method of informal assessment for Ms. Goliger to check

in on the students’ progress with each piece. The class was very focused and on-task, so there

was not a time in which the teacher had to reinforce behavioral expectations. Olivia Goliger

creates an exceptional classroom experience for her students, prioritizing personal growth and

excellence above any musical accomplishment, which ultimately drives the students to want to

work hard and perform to the best of their abilities.

I was extremely lucky to have been accepted to work with the MMEA Northeast Treble

Choir and the MMEA high school All State Choir. The Northeast Treble Choir is composed of

fifth through seventh graders. I worked closely with educator Chris McGillucuddy during the

treble choir rehearsal, who said that the creation of this ensemble was to combat the declining

music department retention rate when students transition from elementary to middle school.

While sitting in on rehearsals for the treble choir, conducted by composer Jim Papoulis, I was

taken aback by the level of professionalism these young middle school students brought to the

rehearsal setting. I was volunteering on the second and final day of rehearsals, so the foundation

of expected behavior and level of musicality had already been laid the day before. I ushered the

students into the auditorium and onto the stage, and asked them to recall their riser spots. As

soon as I asked this, they silently walked to their spots, took a seat, and waited calmly and

quietly for Jim to begin the rehearsal. After talking to a chaperoning teacher, I learned that this

expectation was set during the previous rehearsal and that the students have been enthusiastic

about learning from and working with Jim as a conductor; this became evident as soon as he

walked onstage. As soon as Jim stepped onto the podium, the students’ faces lit up while he
began greeting them. He asked questions to the whole ensemble, and anyone who felt

comfortable answering out loud for everyone to hear would raise their hands—I thought the way

he handled classroom participation was quite interesting, as this was only the first time of many

that he did this. Throughout the rehearsal, in order to give the students breaks from standing and

singing, he would ask them to sit in their riser sports, and begin conversations with the group at

large. The students became visibly excited and made them feel included in the culture of the

ensemble. Jim had such an impressive way of speaking to and directing these students: even with

such a large group of students, he took the time during each break to foster relationships with as

many students as he could—this made the students feel important and would visibly reinvigorate

their passion for performing. One thing I found particularly interesting was his method of calling

on individual students to sing their part by themselves to check for understanding. This only ever

occurred if the student had previously said that they felt comfortable with this, however, it was

hard not to notice the way that some students were having difficulty with the pressure of the

situation. Another observation I made about Jim’s method of teaching was his tendency to keep

the students moving. He would, every fifteen to twenty minutes, have the students change

positions (sitting to standing, vice versa). I thought this was a great way to keep the students

engaged and keep them moving, in addition to the copious amounts of choreography within the

program. Jim allowed the students to give feedback on what movements they did or did not want

to perform during their set, which gave the students a voice and made them feel important as part

of the ensemble. Jim Papoulis had such an interesting approach to conducting this ensemble and

student satisfaction was evident in their performance.

` While working with the MMEA All State choir, I was amazed by the work of conductor

Wendy Moy. This group is composed of two hundred and fifty high school students who have
passed two rounds of auditions in order to participate. Student interest is already high, so Wendy

does not need to do much on her part to excite the students. The rehearsal begins with Wendy

encouraging the students to talk to one another, which I thought was interesting. She does this

frequently throughout the day, which takes away from the urge to talk while getting work done

on the pieces. I thought this method of teaching was so intelligent, though I am not entirely sure

it would work in a smaller curricular ensemble. I was thoroughly impressed by the skill level she

was able to reach with the students, as they were singing incredibly difficult pieces with little to

no mistakes from the beginning of the rehearsal. This is a testament to the work ethic of the

ensemble, as the pieces had to be learned on their own prior to participating in this rehearsal. It

was revealed about halfway through the ten-hour rehearsal that the students were given a

different arrangement than Wendy had chosen, as a mistake had occurred within MMEA’s

ordering process. As a result of this, Wendy came to this rehearsal prepared to conduct the

version that the students had already learned; this was one of the most impressive moments of

teacher flexibility that I have observed. When the students learned of this, they were so eager to

learn the version that Wendy had originally chosen; thus began an hour and a half of Wendy

teaching the right arrangement by rote. At the end of the hour-and-a-half long practice session,

the students had the entire piece memorized and entirely correct. I observed Wendy’s method as

an interesting form of chunking information: she routinely worked on the hardest part of each

tune first, before working backwards from the end to the beginning, then running the whole

piece. I thought the results of this turned out to be magnificent, but I am skeptical about how this

would translate into a smaller curricular ensemble. Wendy also encouraged frequent breaks for

students to stand and stretch, walk around their section, and to get water. This made the students

feel cared for and like they were supported individually, even if they were one of many in such a
large ensemble. Since the group was so large, Wendy was not able to make personal connections

with each student, but she was always welcoming to any student who came up to talk with her. I

was extremely impressed by the teaching and directing methods of professor Wendy Moy.

Throughout my observations, I witnessed several exceptional teachers creating such

important connections with their students. I took special interest in the way the teachers

interacted with students and responded to their behaviors—I thought that, for the most part, each

teacher handled this well. As a lot of these educators were my former teachers, it added a special

level of understanding of what the student perspective is on the receiving end of these teaching

strategies. I was extremely lucky to have been able to observe such extraordinary teaching at the

secondary level this semester.