h2b rehab

Ik ben heel bezorgd over mijn h2b klas in Hilversum. Ik vrees dat de gewone INTRO method werkt helemaal niet, and dat ik moet mijn hele lesplan weggooien. Dit klas functioneert helemaal niet, academisch gesproken, of met elkaar. Ik denk dat iets radikaal moet geburen, meer van een VMBO-achtige aanpak, met een accent op fysiek, op spelen en zingen.

Aloysius MAVO

Afgelopen vrijdag was mijn 1e lesdag met Aloysius MAVO Hilversum. Misschien wordt deze groep voor mij een "experimenteel" les-situatie. Ik heb naar Suzan L. geluistered--wij hebben met zingen begonnen, introducties in de vorm van zang, kort, krachtig--doeners!! Volgens mij werkt het hardstikke goed, en ik wil misschien hetzelfde aanpak nemen met andere groepen/scholen/stromen.

England, part 2--clash of civilizations?

On the negative side:
We took a boat trip on Wednesday around Poole Harbour. I found it interesting for a number of reasons, one being that I learned that during WWII the Allies used that area as a training ground for the invasion at Normandy (my father was part of D-Day, landing on the first day of the invasion).

When we got off the boat, I and a colleague were confronted by three English women who were also on the boat trip. They found the behavior of the students to be atrocious, and were threatening to take action with the boat company about it. According to them there were numerous incidents of spitting, an old man had his foot stomped upon, there was shoving going on, and a general total lack of respect being shown by the teenagers (this is class 2, so we are talking about 13-14 year old kids). Now, I must say that I didn't see any of this. If someone had their feet stomped, I can't imagine that it was deliberate. I also think that in general this was a group of good kids. But I can understand how, in the eyes of these women, who come from a place where politeness is considered as the highest of virtues, these kids were badly behaved. A little later on, the English staff leader was urging me to relay an urgent message to the students about their behavior, as she had received numerous complaints from locals about kids shoving people on the street, not giving space, and being rude.

This points out a clash of cultures. In Holland, I notice that kids are more free than in the states where I am from. The idea, I think, is to let teenagers be teenagers and not repress them. This has consequences for teaching. If a group of teenagers is behaving badly or is not restful enough, the burden is on the teacher instead of the students. The teacher is not engineering the situation correctly. This becomes a didactic-psychological issue. In America, the burden is on the student to be quiet, and I think for the people of Swanage, which I later heard was a very "correct" place in terms of decorum and public behavior, it is even more so.

like a bird in the wilderness

Just back from Dorset, England where I was with 75 students from Laar en Berg. It was a workweek for the English-language MYP (Middle Years Program). Beautiful place, on the Southern English coast. For those who have read novels by Thomas Hardy, you will know exactly where I am coming from. I was on a very long hike one evening, up to my knees in mud and water, travelling in hidden corners of the English countryside, mixing with wild horses, cows, and warthogs and feeling like a bird in the wilderness. I now have a bad cold and destroyed pants and shoes as a souveneir. But for the students it was an introduction to the true English soul.
Notable from this trip: there were daily classes given at The Old Malthouse in Swanage, where we stayed (used to be a boarding school for 250 students and evidently will be again soon). The 75 students were divided up into five groups, who had to devise an Olympic bid for an imaginary country. Therefore, issues such as planning, logistics, design, utilization of resources, security, marketing and promotion, etc. were discussed in the development of the bids. On the final day, each group made a presentation, after which an "Olympic Committee" awarded on of the countries the Games. I observed the five different groups over the course of three days, and I liked the way each of the teachers (all British teachers from the staff there) had a different didactic strategy--there was a lot of diversity. Different seating/table designs were employed, which led to varying degrees of inter-group collaboration. Some groups were clearly more inclined towards abstract thinking, others were "doers." Some groups were more involved with making a beautiful visual presentation, others were more preoccupied with a well-worked out idea.

intro

I am a composer, originally from New York City, and I live and work in Holland. I have worked with and written for many Dutch ensembles, notably Orkest de Volharding, Cappella Amsterdam, and the Ives Ensemble.
Since January of 2007 I also teach music in high school here. This blog will focus on my activities as a music teacher. Right now I teach at three schools, all in the Katholiek Lyceum in het Gooi system: Alberdingk Thijm College (Hilversum), Laar en Berg (Laren), and St. Aloysius MAVO (also in Hilversum). Last year I taught in Amersfoort as well, at Vestiging Het Nieuwe Eemland (Meridiaan College).