24: School Visits 101: During Your Visit
with Rae De Vine
When you enter a room, when you want to get the attention of the students, let's say that they're just transitioning from another period, they're getting settled in, it's good to kind of take the temperature of the teacher beforehand. They may get the attention of the students in a way that they're accustomed to. And you might be the one that's getting their attention for the first time. Some great oldies but goodies are clapping [rhythmic clapping] and then they respond [repeated rhythmic clapping]. for the singers. You'll love this because you're not straining your voice to yell over a group of like very excited students. And just in general, you don't want to be yelling and tiring your voice in that way. And it spends a lot of energy. Another way that you can get attention of students by limited speaking and also a call and response, a lot of schools use this, so it's good to check with the teacher, but, “1 2 3, eyes on me” and then they respond “1 and 2, eyes on you.” Simple, easy. A lot of kids do it.
I've never walked into a classroom where the call and response clapping thing didn't work. I mean, you might have some that do it with a little bit more enthusiasm, but it's a tried and true method. And I think a lot of people have been taught this over generations. And you know what? Even if not everybody in the classroom is familiar with it, you'll probably have a couple people who are and then hopefully others will follow suit.
Another tool that I like to use to get the attention of a rather exuberant group of young people - I've used this for high schoolers, middle schoolers, even when I taught preschool. And this is probably something more for the vocalists or the singers. Whether or not you're an opera singer, we all have a super dramatic opera voice inside of us, and I encourage you to use it because it really throws the kids off and It gets their attention in a way that doesn't make you strain your voice.
So, for example, I used to teach at a bilingual preschool and we called all of our, our students amigos. And for anyone who doesn't speak Spanish, ‘amigos’ means ‘friends.’ And what you'll also hear me say is ‘ven aquí,’ which means ‘come here.’ And when I was having a little bit of a struggle trying to get their attention, I would go [clears throat]:
[singing] “¡Amigos, amigos, ven aquí!”
Be as extra as possible because nobody wants a performance that's not compelling. And if anyone tells you the teaching isn't performing, I don't know if they've taught. It's you're performing.
Then when I've had students who maybe the dominant language in the room is, is English and I just really want their attention. I've done this with high school students where I've just said,
[singing] “Everybody, listen to me, please sit down!”
Like, just be crazy. And they look at you, but it's so loud, it cuts through the crowd, the kind of talking, or whatever is happening. And yeah, it's a nice shift.
Now if you don't have a super dramatic opera voice, even for fun, and let's say you're an instrumentalist and the voice is not your instrument per se, you could also just start playing if you have an instrument that you brought with you, or if there's a piano in the room or something like that, play a super dramatic passage of a very well-known piece that like that's been used in commercials even. I've sung part of the Habanera to just get people's attention, and it [snaps] brings them in just like that.
Another option: After the students maybe have known you for a while, depending on, you know, maybe what's going on is I've also gotten very still and quiet and just said, “I'll wait.” Now you really have to have patience for this one because sometimes it will work and maybe sometimes it won't.
But in my experience, there's usually a few kids who are paying attention to me and they'll start taking it upon themselves to quiet down their classrooms. Like, come on, like this person is waiting for us. Like, be quiet. So I let them actually kind of do the labor of holding each other accountable in the way that like only high schoolers can. Right? So that's also a fun way if you're a little tired, you know, if you want to preserve your energy in that moment because, you know, every day is different. So we're not necessarily going to enter the classroom in the same way each time.
So when you do your introduction, one of my favorite things is to do an icebreaker depending on the class and the subject you're teaching. I think it's always really important to know who's in the room and to acknowledge that you're here because of all of these people. And so you want to know who they are, even if it's just a snippet or a snapshot. And if you can do a check in, it lets you know kind of the energy level of the room at the start of the lesson. So that can also help you manage your expectations to know if like, you know, they're really going to be engaging today and they have a lot of energy or okay, the energy is very low. Maybe they took a lot of tests this week, and, you know, they may not be asking as many questions because even kids get burnt out, right? So all of this helps you just better navigate the situation.
So one of my favorite icebreakers, after I ask everybody their names or their pronouns if they feel comfortable sharing is, for example, if you were, what kind of hairstyle would you be today? And sometimes people are like, I would be shaved bald and or I'm spiky and I have purple tips and like, Oh, or my hair is exactly the way I'm wearing it today. Like, this matches my mood and it just gives you like a little peek into the way that they're thinking, the way that they're feeling, and it's a little creative. And usually people will laugh and it's playful, right? I also do this with adults like I love this.
One of my other favorite icebreakers is to ask the students what song has been stuck on repeat for you lately? What's the song that you want to hear first thing when you wake up right before you go to bed, the song that you've been obsessed with, that you keep sharing with your friends, that you keep learning the lyrics to if it has lyrics, right? What's the song that you have just-- you can't get out of your head? Now, for music educators, this is especially fun. Keep track of the songs that they share and then make a playlist.
So that way you can do a little homework and get familiar with the musical tastes that are already present in the room. And then maybe later, at the last session, if there's space, you can play some of the music back. My little caveat is that if there's any kind of profanity in the in the song, I always tell them that I'm going to put the clean version on and they can't get mad at me.
All of these things sound like a lot, but the more that you teach, the more that you share, then it becomes second nature. There's things that you're automatically considering. Think about when you perform a piece, so you go on an audition or you're performing in a concert. There are so many little things that can really help make a performance one of your best, but then you become so good at it and so accustomed to the rhythm of that, that it becomes a part of you and part of your ethos and part of the lens through which you teach and through which you engage with young people. So remember, more importantly than anything, is to come with joy, come with intention, come with respect, yeah, and have fun. Like we want to see you having fun. We want to see your unabashed passion for what you do. And you're ultimately sharing that love with the next generation.