I have felt kind of stuck for the last couple of years. I get frustrated with myself and my students pretty frequently, and I’m tired of feeling mediocre all the time. This year I’m trying an experiment to see if I can intentionally change the culture of my classes to be more positive, more engaged, and more about achieving excellence.
This summer I read The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle, and I was impressed with a lot of the research and ideas presented in the book. This year I’m going to take a few of those ideas and see if I can implement them in my classes to make a difference in the culture of the orchestra program.
In the book, Coyle talks about the importance of “threshold moments” (like the beginning of a school year) and using that time to share your vision with the members of your group. Those first few hours or days together is when you can get people to buy-in to the mission and vision of the group, and it can make a huge difference in how committed group members are. Here’s how I plan to do that with my students this year.
Communicating Purpose and Vision
I’ve often thought about my overarching goals for my students and how to measure success, but I don’t often discuss that with my students. Coyle says that while most leaders think the members of their group understand the purpose and vision of what they’re doing, most group members don’t have any clue. The most successful groups make that purpose and vision crystal clear, and they talk about it all the time.
I usually let my students come up with a theme for the year, but this year I’ve decided our theme is going to be “Create beauty.” Those two words encapsulate everything I want to achieve with my students this year. I want them to learn technique so they can play beautifully. I want them to learn music history so they can better appreciate – and create – beauty. I want them to learn how to contribute to our class and the school as a whole to make our community a more beautiful place. Beauty isn’t about perfection or some unreachable standard; it’s about using your abilities to make things better than you found them.
To communicate that to my students, I’m going to make a poster with the theme up at the front of the class. Our t-shirts this year will have the theme on it. We will have discussions about what it means to create beauty and what makes something beautiful. Every class we will intentionally play or do something beautiful, even if it’s just a measure of music, or cleaning the classroom.
Creating Belonging and Safety
It’s not enough to establish a purpose and vision. We also need to make orchestra a safe place where every group member contributes and is appreciated. They need to start building positive relationships with me and each other as quickly as possible.
I’ll admit, I’m not great at relationships. I usually start off the year by going over the disclosure and playing a silly getting-to-know-you game that most of the students hate. I try to get them talking to each other, but it usually doesn’t go well and I’m always just relieved when the first day is over and we can start doing stuff.
Instead, this year I’m going to start working on music-related skills immediately, in a way that gets the students working together on a project.
Yes, we’re going to play a name game, but one that helps them learn to stay on beat and keep a steady rhythm going. We’re going to play a variation of the game “Big Booty.” Students will start in small groups of 4-5 and sit in a circle. Each person in the circle will introduce themselves so everyone knows their names. They will then get assigned a number. To play, the students will clap along to a drum beat. On beat and keeping a steady rhythm, the first person will call out a number. The person whose number was called has to say the name of the person who called on them and then say another number, all while staying in time with the beat. If someone can’t say the names/numbers correctly or misses the beat, that person has to go to the last number spot and everyone else moves up a number. After doing this for a few minutes, we’ll switch up the groups and combine groups to get the students learning as many names as possible.
We’ll also start working on our music, even though the students won’t have their instruments yet. First day of class, the students will have the concert music in hand and we’ll start working on rhythms. They’ll work in sections and we’ll have the different sections clap the rhythms for each other, always focusing on making sure every single person in the section can do it, helping each other when someone needs help. We’ll talk about creating beauty, and I’ll give them an assignment on what to prepare for next time, so we can create that moment of beauty with their instruments.
When class is over, I’ll make sure to thank them for being part of our group. I’ll tell them how excited I am to work with them this year, and remind them to make something beautiful today.
What are you planning to do with your students on the first day of school this year? How are you going to create a culture of excellence, or how have you created that culture in the past? I’d love to hear your ideas as I continue to experiment this year.