Monthly Post

In my mentorship I work with kids, last week I watched and assisted a Choir one class with children who were five through eight. Before they started singing the normal warm up songs, Mr. Billy (the teacher) had them sing songs off a chart with sounds so they can properly pronounce things.
He had one volunteer read the sound, one read the title, one read the song lyrics, and then they all sang the song together when i turned on the music. This was very encouraging for the kids because they felt as though they had taught and led the class with the song.
For example a sound would be "ake" a student might say "ace" and they would be corrected then another student would say the sound correctly and the class would repeat, and even though some got it wrong they got a chance to correct themselves afterwards.
It was nice working with the kids and seeing how happy they were to be able to sing the song correctly because they first learned the sounds. Though all the kids did not want to participate at the beginning by the end of the year all of the students will have mastered these sounds and songs, and will happily repeat them.

Blog 6: Second Interview

My mentor is Mr. Billy Rugh and he works at Creative Planet School of the Arts (CPSOA) .

1. How extensive is your experience working with children in voice classes?

2. What are some differences between working with children and working with adults?

3. For what reasons did you decide to create the school CPSOA?
4. How do you keep yourself up to date with the musical world in order to teach properly?

5. What experience do you personally have in choir and/or solo voice?

Blog 5: Project Reflection and Working EQ

The Pentagon:

1. A positive outcome from what I have done so far for my senior project is the closer relationship I have made with my mentor, like how open he was speaking to me and helping me get many more people to talk to and experiences I wouldn't have even thought about being beneficial for my project (like going to choir rehearsals and recording studios). Also the things I have learned from my research, some things I knew before but others have enlightened me, such as how many damaging techniques there are and how easy it is to fall into them. 

2. My interview helped me realize how important the arts, singing specifically, are in a persons life and how uplifting it can be, the research also backed this up by saying how important choir and working in groups is for young children to build up confidence, the ability to open to different people, and to speak publicly comfortably.

3. My mentorship has really worked well for me in the senior project, I feel like I have a solid mentor who is capable of helping me out a lot with this whole project; he also understands it's school related, and because he is a principal, he is taking my questions and my need for help very seriously which I am so thankful for.

4. The research has worked but it's been one of the harder things for me, because finding credible sources and good information has been hard, but hopefully I will get better.

5. The potential questions I want to study is, Is singing important for a child's development and does it work into adulthood? 

For my mentorship I am going to attend choir and solo voice classes at Creative Planet School of the Arts and in the end if my mentor thinks I have learned enough he plans on letting me teach a class possibly.

Mentorship

Boomwhackers
Over the summer I worked with a few different groups of students but this was the oldest group of students(about 12-14) I had the pleasure of taking choir classes with and helping. This is a short video of an activity we had to do with the boomwhackers, its the song "That's What Makes You Beautiful" and we had about ten minutes to practice before this.
The students at Creative Planet, where I mentored, are very talented in singing, dancing, acting, and drawing and they can really take anything you throw at them, even making music. This is a small part of what I did over the summer; it is just a fun part of the choir class I participated in.

Blog 4: Interview Preparation

1. I plan on interviewing my mentor Billy Rugh (Mr. Billy)  because he has been teaching voice for almost a decade, and he has also been a part of a choir so he has experience as both a vocalist and a vocal teacher. He's actually taught me since I was in second grade so I know him personally. 

(Mr.Billy is on the left)

2. 

• Voice is a difficult class to teach, how do you manage all the different voices you are given?
• What is the most important part of a vocal class?
• In coaching a singer or class (good or bad) what is important to emphasis in a lesson?
• Does experience being in both the teacher and student roles help you teach a class?

Blog 3: Topic Choice and Semester 1 ESLR Goals

1. My topic is singing.

2. In each component of the ESLRs I want to grow differently and I feel by the end of the year I can accomplish these goals.
In being a better iPoly Citizen I want to of course complete my community service hours which I believe I already have for the 200 hours, but in the senior project mentorship I'm hoping to do more, and go over the 60 hours. Also I will try my hardest to miss less school and stay healthy so my attendance and participation won't go down; both of these things will help me be a better iPoly Citizen. 
To grow as an effective Learner this year I want to utilize my teachers advice and help as much as I possibly can, I also want to participate fully in all academics and projects, but specifically in model assembly because it has had my interest since sophomore year.
I feel I need to focus on becoming an Effective User of Technology because I'm not that good at using different applications and things that I should probably know about. I will try to ask people for help as much as possible to make sure that when I use technology in my presentations it will be the proper format and work correctly.  
As for growing as an effective communicator I'm very excited and interested in the different events and committees we have to/get to participate in during senior year. The opportunities offered to us to help others in these committees really interests me, I'm looking forward to signing up and participating to my fullest in this aspect of senior year.

Blog 2: Mentorship

1. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Al75YAaQjJ1kdGtfLXF1VW1DTmhqU205NG9nbFhZUkE&usp=sharing

2. Billy Rugh
(626) 856-1710

3. What questions were raised because of the 10 hour experience?
- Does vocal training in a child help or harm their voice for the future?
- Is solo voice more helpful to vocal range than choral singing?
-Is it helpful for children to participate in voice?

4. What is the most important thing you gained from this experience?
The most important thing I gained from this experience was to watch the teachers work with and warm up the children. I never really knew how to properly warm up my voice before singing without a teacher's help but I got to see and record teachers as they did this.

5.How did what you did help you choose a topic?
This mentor ship helped me choose my topic of singing because it showed me how interesting and how much i wonder about the vocal chords and singing in general. I took classes in choir and in solo voice and they both interested me even though they are different in nature. Choir singing interested me in how the blend of certain notes work together and make perfect harmony, and solo voice caught my interest by how the vocal range in different for everyone and how you an stretch your vocal range and get past breaks in your voice.