I love Pinterest. I love pinning stuff for my orchestra classroom. But a lot of the things I pin are for the elementary general music classroom and I have to adapt them to use with my 4th and 5th graders. Although I have found a lot of good "adaptable" stuff, I discovered another orchestra teacher's blog on Pinterest a few weeks ago and started wondering: Why aren't there more of us doing this?
So here we go! My hope is that through this blog, I can share some things that have worked for me and gain some knowledge from all the fabulous orchestra teachers out there. Some days, I don't feel like I have it together at all, but maybe we can all muddle through together!
Let's jump in with both feet, shall we? I'm looking for advice on how to handle kids who want to quit. I find that this time of year is particularly challenging. The 4th grade beginners are starting to learn more notes and skills and it's getting harder. The 5th graders, who have one year of playing under their belt, start to learn music with multiple parts for spring festivals and concerts this time of year. It's not easy! And I have a handful of kids who want to give up.
I really think I'm in the business of teaching life skills just as much as teaching string technique, so I try to find out why a student is losing interest. More often than not, it is because the material is getting harder. I try to work through the problem with the kiddo and find out a solution. I've even been known to have the "we need to finish what we start" conversation.
There's one little guy in particular who has probably missed 3 weeks of class and who just doesn't want to play anymore. I've tried talking with him: Is not coming to orchestra going to make it easier or harder? Why is it important to finish what we start? I've tried coming down hard: When we sign up for orchestra, we sign up for the year. I've tried getting his classroom teacher on my side. Nothing has helped.
So help me out! How do you handle tough kiddos like that?
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