Use Lunchtime to Work Together
Maximize students’ free time for rehearsals and planning — even if that means meeting during lunch period.
In Case Study: Music Program Teamwork in Tennessee, we learned how the band, orchestra and choir directors at Ravenwood High School often plan and collaborate during the only time they are free — their common lunch period.
Chris Janowiak, Cassandra Brosvik and Lauren Ramey use this same creative planning with their students.
Finding opportunities for students to work together within the music department can be difficult — though not impossible, Janowiak says. The three directors often use the lunch period to bring students together.
Janowiak’s wind ensemble and Brosvik’s honors orchestra meet during the same period but in different locations while Ramey’s chamber choir meets during another period. Conveniently, most of their students share a common lunch, or homeroom period.
“When a certain piece in choir calls for percussion instruments or a wind instrument, or when the choir and orchestra were doing all that work for the holidays, those rehearsals happened during lunchtime,” Janowiak says. “It’s just finding as much free time as possible during the day to cram all that stuff in!”
This article originally appeared in the 2019 V1 issue of Yamaha SupportED. To see more back issues, find out about Yamaha resources for music educators, or sign up to be notified when the next issue is available, click here.
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