Season One: Episode 28 Part I
Middle and High School Music with Darlene Jebson
Darlene Jebson is the Director of Worship at Brightmoor Christian Church as well as the Vocal Music and Drama Teacher at Novi Christian Academy. She earned her Bachelor's Degree in Music Education with a focus on voice and her Master's Degree in Education - both from Marygrove College. She lives with her husband Mark, daughter Molly, and son Max in Commerce Township, Michigan.
TRANSCRIPT FROM THE SHOW
Jessica: Darlene I am so glad to be talking with you.
Darlene: Well, it's great to talk to you Jessica. I'm excited to do this!
Jessica: Yes! I'm excited to have you and it's just been too long.
Darlene: Yes. I agree.
Jessica: I've been looking forward to it.
Darlene: Yes.
Jessica: So I would love for you to share kind of your musical background, how you came to be at the position you're at, you know, any of those musical things.
Darlene: I have a very odd position in my employment. I'm dually employed, but it's with the same company for lack of a better word. I'm employed through Brightmoor Christian Church and Novi Christian Academy, formerly known as Franklin Road Christian School. I am the middle school and high school music teacher and drama teacher and I'm the Director of Worship at the church. You know, it's really the best of both worlds. I get to do - really I love what I do. I get to pour into middle school and high school students and at the latter part of my day I get to get creative and research worship stuff and research the newest music and dramas and plays and church stuff that's out there.
But really the way I got started in it was long, long time ago back in high school, I really felt that I wanted to go into church music. The route that I went didn't allow me to go into the kind of church music I wanted to go into. I wanted to really sing for Jesus to make it really simple is what I wanted to make a career out of doing and my parents didn't think that was probably the wisest decision. That would not be economically smart so they encouraged me to pursue education. And I'm like, you know, I like kids. I like music. I enjoy teaching piano, which is what I always did since I was like fifteen. So I decided to go into education. I think I've been teaching almost twenty years, on and off, more part-time than full-time because I've been raising my two kids, but in that I also had the opportunity to take over the role of the Worship Director at our church and so like I said, I get the best of both worlds.
My favorite part of teaching is really the concerts. The fruition of everything that we've done throughout the year and you know it's a chance for the kids to take everything they've learned and just let it pour out of them and it makes me cry every single time we have a concert to think that we did this together. You know we've been on this journey all year long and look what came of it. So that's kind of a little bit of my history.
Jessica: Well, you didn't always teach middle and high school, right?
Darlene: Correct. Yup. I started in elementary and it's funny, you know, I love the elementary kids. I did my student teaching secondary and elementary. Loved the elementary, but I was, you know, twenty years old and I'm teaching eighteen year olds as a student teacher and that was just kind of weird. So you know loving the elementary kids and then the older I got and I think truthfully for me - and I don't think it's this way for everybody - but for me, the older my kids got, the more I wanted to be...I really wanted to be with my kids. My own personal children. I wanted to teach them; they wanted me to be their teacher so it just kind of worked that way and I love going in the halls and seeing all the little babies, but I don't miss them in the classroom as terrible as that is to say. I love hearing them. I love listening to their angelic voices, but I personally would rather make 4-, 5-, and 6-part harmonies than "Cuck-oo" (sol-mi), but again that's just me. We need the elementary music teachers or I wouldn't be able to do what I do.
Jessica: Yeah. Yeah. I always said I would never teach middle school and here I am teaching middle school and I can't imagine not teaching middle school because I just love them and so I'm curious to see what you think of this, but what are some things that you find helpful to know about older students in middle school and high school?
Darlene: Yeah. The more I'm with them, the more it's changed and I'm in a unique position in that my, my school, the school that I teach at is a very small Christian school as opposed to a large public school so we automatically have a different dynamic because I've known a lot of these students like pre-birth. I grew up with a lot of their parents so we have a huge history, but putting that aside really the biggest thing that I have learned is, first and foremost, their facial expressions and their body language does not image what they're thinking. It does not mirror what they're thinking because most of the time they're looking at me like they hate me and they would rather be in biology or chemistry lab and that's not true. You know, music is really one of their favorite classes, but they're teenagers. They don't know how to hide their facial expressions or exactly what they're thinking at that moment, but I've also learned to show them respect. You know, a different kind of respect than the little elementary kids where you're teaching them how to respect you.
Middle school different than high school because they're still learning, but some of my high schoolers Jessica are 18 years old and a couple of them are 19 so they're adults and I'm learning that it's a mutual respect. They still have the respect of 'I'm the adult. The adult in the room and I'm the teacher and they have to listen to me,' but I show them the equal amount of respect. I actually often, there's a couple of them where I will say, 'Hey Connor. I want you to come up and teach this song.' Or if there's going to be a substitute, I put the student in charge as opposed to the substitute and it shows them that I have a respect and a love for their ability as much as they do for mine.
Also, one thing that's important in this day and age I've found is social media. You know, that's their life and I don't understand it as much because I didn't grow up that way but they are literally glued to their phones all the time. Their life is social media. I have found that I can connect with them. I have to learn to connect with them on their level. I can't expect for them to come up to my level. I have to come down to theirs. So if they're on social media, I will go on and comment on a post. I'll pour into them where they are.
Jessica: And do they have their phones in the classroom or how does that work at your school?
Darlene: At our school they're not allowed to. It's been a little tricky. We've had some, we've had some moments. Some 'come to Jesus' moments in the classroom.
Jessica: Our school is also no cell phones - well, they can have them in their locker. What about relationships and engaging students inside and outside the classroom. How do you build that respect with them - that mutual respect?
Darlene: It's hard. It really is hard. In fact a good friend of mine at the school - she's on the administrative side - we literally had this conversation about two weeks ago because I can't say I've had a struggle, but there is definitely a fine line. I'm really talking about my high schoolers. Like you, I love my middle schoolers. I mean they are a unique bunch, but really for right now I'm talking about the high schoolers because some of them are older. Because I have both of my kids in my classroom. So I was talking with my friend about this and we finally reached the point where we realize that we're not really cool anymore. In their eyes. You know, I keep thinking that as this group of girls is - they're in this circle having a conversation and up walks Mrs. Jebson because I think I'm going to join their conversation and they just stop talking and they stare at me. And I realize they don't want me in their conversation.
So you know it's tricky, Jessica. It's finding that fine line of we're not friends. I am here as your teacher, but at the same time we have to mutually respect each other. We have to mutually respect each other's opinions. And I've told them, 'If you're don't like something we're singing, I want you to tell me, but you have to tell me in a safe place,' you know. You don't get to raise your hand in the middle of class and say, 'Mrs. Jebson, this is the stupidest song I've ever heard.' Write me a note. Give me your opinion. I value your opinion.
Asking them to do things for me. I do have the final say in the classroom, but I care what they think and I care what their opinions are so as long as they know that I care and it's not my way or the highway, I think we have mutual respect and they will do what I ask them. I've then engaged them in the making of the music. Does that make sense?
Jessica: Yeah. I do something similar like what you mentioned a little bit earlier about having students in charge when there's a sub in the room. I do something similar where the middle schoolers are in charge of specific parts and you know if we're doing a particularly a drum piece and I have a student that I can trust to lead the warm-ups and go through the parts and that's really successful for them. I find having those leadership roles helps and hearing from them and getting that feedback so it's not just you're the dictator - they do exactly as you say. It's got to be a little give and take which I don't remember that so much growing up for us. You know, I don't remember in high school or even middle school. Like our opinions were just 'well, I'm glad you feel that way, but you're doing it my way' and you know. But I feel like kids nowadays react differently to that. I don't know. Maybe I'm just old now.
Darlene: Well I mean truthfully in fact there's just like this year alone like I had some other plans for our Christmas and Spring concert and they hated the songs. And so I got rid of them. I'm like, why are we doing this? I don't like them. You don't like them. They do have to have a mix of genres. We do have to make sure that is an education. We are singing languages. We are singing art songs. We are singing pop songs. We are doing a little bit of dance. We are doing a bit of that, but I'm not going to make you do something you hate because all that's going to do is tank my program. You know, they won't sign up for my class and then we're already a small school so a big class is I have 30 kids in my high school choir and that's huge. For a public school, that's like a small ensemble. Even though I have to do the due diligence in teaching them and educating them, we're still for our concerts.
First of all, we're going to sing songs that are audience pleasing because no one wants to come to a concert and be bored out of their minds. I don't want to so anyways...
Jessica: What do you do as a teacher to make it a safe atmosphere for trying new things and getting students to step out of their comfort zone?
Darlene: Because we're a small school, both my groups are auditioned groups so they have to be able to match a pitch to even be in the choir. Like my middle schoolers - I only have twelve kids. I can't have a wandering voice or they're going to stick out like a sore thumb. Now when they audition, it doesn't have to be perfect. They can sing wrong notes as long as they're at least matching a pitch and I usually have them sing like Happy Birthday with me playing the accompaniment on the piano and then we'll do some vocal exercises. If they're going up when I'm going up and they're going down when I'm going down, I know we're good.
So with that being said, in my middle school mainly I model for them. I'm always demonstrating for them and with that it grows their confidence. I'll walk up and say, 'Hunter, sing this with me.' Eventually I will back away from the singing and let her do it on her own.
Also, you've got students who are killing the vocals, who are top vocalists and you've got students who struggle and I always tell them - middle school and high school - sit next to somebody who's smarter than you. Always align yourself with somebody who can do this better than you.' There's always somebody out there and make sure you're raising your bar by doing that. And if they can't do that on their own, I will always (under the guise of needing to blend voices), I'll just start mixing people up. You know, make sure that my weaker singer is standing next to my stronger singer because that's naturally training their ears.
We do a lot of acapella singing starting in middle school and you know it's rough at the very beginning, but come high school my kids are singing Pentatonix stuff. They're singing five and six part harmonies acapella and they're killing them. I'm proud of them for that because I'm starting them young and they're proud of themselves. So you know I just keep raising their bar - and you know - unless they are tone deaf and I don't use that term lightly. I don't believe many people aren't tone deaf. I just think they haven't learned to listen. They haven't learned to hear. But unless they're tone deaf, they're eventually going to get it. It's just training of the ear.
Jessica: And do you have any specific warm-ups that you use? Do you do the same warm-ups every class or do you vary it?
Darlene: I have a pretty small repertoire of warm-ups. I do a lot, and this really stems from the vocal issues I've had, I do a lot of lip trills and I don't just do the (lip trill example). We pitch them. We're always going up and down scales with them. I do a lot of humming. A lot of placement activities as opposed to just plain singing. All of our warm-ups are on a lip trill, hum, or a vowel. My biggest thing in choir, for them, is to get their placement right. If their vowels are stuck back in their throat or if they're stuck up here. You know, I've got one girl who has a really really hooty sound and so for her I'm trying to brighten it. I'm trying to get everything a little bit more nasally. So really my warm-ups are... we do warm-up every single day and probably no more than 3-5 minutes, but lots of lip trills. That's how I start most of them.
We also do a lot of solfege. Typically like rounds. Like I'll do a - we always go back to 'do.' So like:
Do
Do-re-do
do-re-mi-ri-do
do-re-mi-fa-mi-re-do
And all the way up the scale and then we'll do it in a round. And they have a challenge for themselves. For example, my high schoolers can probably break into 8-different parts. My middle schoolers are lucky to hit two parts. They have a goal for themselves where they're like, 'Let's everyone start so we've got like a 12 person round and then it's like - we might as well be screaming at the top of our lungs. It's like it's terrible, But you know, if they finish it, they feel successful. And at the same time they're learning part-singing. They're learning diction. They're learning pitch. They're learning all that good stuff so...
Jessica: With the solfege, do you do like rote teaching with solfege or do you do any sight reading that uses the solfege as well?
Darlene: I do. In fact, now that you say that, we've been really, really lax in our sight-reading this year. We used to sight read weekly and this year, I don't know why we got away from it. I'l like, 'Oh1 we haven't sightread in a while. We definitely sight read solfege; I mean, Jessica, that's how I grew up. You know, we did festival; we did Solo and Ensemble and so that's how we did it. And so because I did it, I think we're supposed to, but we don't compete. We don't do festivals or anything, but it's good for them. And honestly, they say they hate it, but I really - I think it's a love/hate relationship because they feel successful when they've done it even though tit's no fun doing it.
Jessica: Right. It's kind of like when you learn piano growing up. You don't love the practicing, but you love showing what you can do.
Darlene: Exactly! But you can't show what you can do unless you've practiced it.
Jessica: Exactly!
Darlene: Right?!
Jessica: Right! You mentioned the repertoire that you use like a variety of art songs and pop songs and acapella songs so how do you choose your repertoire?
Darlene: I'll usually go on J.W. Pepper on their website. I kind of stalk them all year long and you know if I go under choral and I'll pick like a category like if I want madrigals, I'll pick a madrigal and I'll go through their choices. What is the new stuff out there? They've got the four or five songs out there right at the beginning and I'm always looking for pretty melodies. I'm a sucker for a beautiful melodic line. I mean I'll just go and listen online to dozens and dozens and dozens of songs. And I'll usually... Our Christmas concerts are a little different because it's K-12 so we have less repertoire to sing because again no-one wants to sit through a three hour concert. So with both of my choirs at Christmas we get about 30 minutes of music and that's with both choirs combined. My high schoolers always get more than my middle schoolers.
So I will usually pick at Christmas like one medley. Like we've done the Polar Express medley. We've done the Frozen medley. Some popular big medley of songs that they all know, that they all love and then I'll build from there. Like a classic. We'll do an O Holy Night or a Do You Hear What I Hear. They love the Pentatonix so we've done...what's the Christmas song did?
Jessica: White Winter Hymnal was the video I think I saw. I love that one. Yeah.
Darlene: That was one of their favorites. So I'm always trying to pick a couple of songs that the kids love, you know, 'cause that's that hook. A couple of things that I know the parents will love. Because we're a Christian school - this is going to sound very sacrilegious, but I don't mean it this way - but I always try to make sure we have Jesus songs. You know, songs that are lifting up Jesus because you can't necessarily do that at a public school everywhere so because we can, we will. We will lift up Christ at our concerts.
Spring is better because we get longer. So we do share a concert with the band. The band teacher and I we split probably - I would this year that I got about 45 to 50 minutes worth of music which is really fun. At spring I always like to have a language so they're singing french this year, which is challenging for all of us. But again I try to make sure that because it's a concert that's showcasing what we've done, I try to pick something that the crowd is going to like like this year we're singing the Greatest Showman stuff.
Jessica: I love that stuff.
Darlene: Yeah, we're opening with The Greatest Show and they're doing it as in a Show Choir. In fact, we're taping them tomorrow because I can't - I've got thirty kids dancing like a Show Choir. I can't mike them and our worship center seats 2100 so they won't be heard and I refuse to dance to canned music. So we're recording them tomorrow and then a friend of mine will then dub it onto the track so they will dance to their own vocals.
Jessica: Got it.
Darlene: We're doing a couple of art pieces that are just really pretty. Piano accompaniments, some acapella, some cd tracks. So I try to hit a little bit of everything.
Jessica: Do you teach theater 6-12 as well?
Darlene: Yes and no. It's changed every year. So I teach a middle school drama class and it's strictly drama. And this past year it was only eighth grade. The past four years we've done both concerts - Christmas concert and spring concert plus we've done a spring musical. I'll do a little bit of singing every day and then we'll just literally dive right into the script. And then just start taking it a part. We'll do like character exercises.
With the middle school I'll have them do a lot of their own writing of the plays. Like I'll give them a scenario. Like I've divided them into groups of six. Scenario: You're a family of six driving down the freeway and all of a sudden you meet up with a circus of aliens. Everyone has to have ten lines. Go! They're more successful doing stuff like that because they own it. And they think it's the funnest thing in the world to come up with the stupidest things they could possibly say as opposed to me handing them a script and saying, 'I know you're 6' 2", but I need you to play a dwarf right now because we're doing Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and I hope this is not affecting your function as a growing young man,' you know, and then they just feel weird doing it.
But with my high schoolers we don't really do stuff like that. It's really more just diving right into the script. And - go.
Jessica: Oh my gosh - I would love to hear more of the scenarios. Do you have any off the top of your head?
Darlene: I think one of them was Snow White and the seven dwarves meets Cinderella and her evil stepsisters and something goes wrong, but I can't remember what it is. But it's always like you have to make it like something that doesn't even make sense and that they just - they're all over it. They love it! They love it!
Jessica: Do you ever mix singing and drama like in the same classes or do you ever do drama-type things with your choirs?
Darlene: Only when we're doing a musical. I see them - my high schoolers I see them every day for 45 minutes and that seems like a lot, but it's not. Especially not when we're prepping for a full Christmas concert, a full Spring concert, and a full musical. So it's really - it's really planning things, Jessica. It's like Monday and Wednesday all we're doing is singing concert stuff. Tuesday, Thursday, Friday - plus we've got choreography in that and our choreographer is the fifth grade teacher. So when does she have her prep periods? Do they match with my class periods or can she bring her kids down? So it's really just like a - it's a guessing game every week. My accompanist is my friend Paster Solomon who is the music pastor at the church and so it's like when can he come in and play for us so it's really my schedule that changes the most. If we have Solomon one day and Mrs. Beasley the next day, then the off days are when we'll do our acting.
Jessica: It's a juggling act, isn't it?
Darlene: It is. It is, but it's fun. It keeps them on their toes. Everyday they walk in, they say what are we doing today? Are we dancing? Are we singing? Are we acting? Do we get a free day? No. No-one has time for free days.
Jessica: I know I had a student last week go, 'I'm tired. Can we just have a nap time?' And I'm like, 'Have you ever known me just to turn the lights off and let you have a nap?' They're like, 'No, but I'm so tired.' They're like, 'I just had to ask.'
Darlene: You know what I do? This is torture, Jessica. When they come in and they tell me they're tired, I make them do jumping jacks. I'm like alright. Everyone up. Find a place around the room. We've got to have some lunges and then I'll just start playing some Mozart fun thing and some dance music and jumping jacks. Start running in place. Go!
Jessica: They need to turn off their social media at night and they need to get sleep and go to bed. That's just my opinion. And then I'm like on top of that they need to move more than just in my class or in gym. They sit too much. They just do.
Darlene: I agree.
Jessica: Any other things you'd share about engaging older students?
Darlene: Honestly it's a tricky one and I think it's just connecting with them. It's like I said at the beginning - depending on the student. You know how they say like animals or dogs - if they sense your fear, this is a problem. It's really the same thing with the high schoolers. If you walk in timid and nervous and uncomfortable and shy, they're all over you, but if you walk in and you take command of that classroom - 'Phones away. Stand up. Let's sing' (Can we sit?) Nope. - Stand up and we start. I don't give them time to do anything. It's immediate. The minute the bell rings, I start warming up and if they're not with me, then they're in trouble.
Keeping them engaged and same thing with like I teach my high schoolers the way that I would teach kindergartners where I over lesson plan. Where I don't have dead time. If I have dead time, I've lost them. They're gone - for the most part. I have some students who are music geeks like I was and are just attentive to every word that you say and are on it 100% of the time. I have some kids who are constantly trying to hide their homework behind their choir folder or hide their phone behind their choir folder thinking that I don't know what they're doing. I'm like, you know as mothers we have super powers. You're hiding nothing from me. You would be better off to be doing it in the open. The minute you attempt to hide it, it's like our antenna goes up and I'm on you. I know exactly what you're doing and now you've ruined it for everyone. Put it away.
**Check out S1: E28 Part II with Darlene Jebson where Darlene shares about her experience with vocal nodules and ideas for taking care of our vocal health.
Middle and High School Music with Darlene Jebson
Darlene Jebson is the Director of Worship at Brightmoor Christian Church as well as the Vocal Music and Drama Teacher at Novi Christian Academy. She earned her Bachelor's Degree in Music Education with a focus on voice and her Master's Degree in Education - both from Marygrove College. She lives with her husband Mark, daughter Molly, and son Max in Commerce Township, Michigan.
TRANSCRIPT FROM THE SHOW
Jessica: Darlene I am so glad to be talking with you.
Darlene: Well, it's great to talk to you Jessica. I'm excited to do this!
Jessica: Yes! I'm excited to have you and it's just been too long.
Darlene: Yes. I agree.
Jessica: I've been looking forward to it.
Darlene: Yes.
Jessica: So I would love for you to share kind of your musical background, how you came to be at the position you're at, you know, any of those musical things.
Darlene: I have a very odd position in my employment. I'm dually employed, but it's with the same company for lack of a better word. I'm employed through Brightmoor Christian Church and Novi Christian Academy, formerly known as Franklin Road Christian School. I am the middle school and high school music teacher and drama teacher and I'm the Director of Worship at the church. You know, it's really the best of both worlds. I get to do - really I love what I do. I get to pour into middle school and high school students and at the latter part of my day I get to get creative and research worship stuff and research the newest music and dramas and plays and church stuff that's out there.
But really the way I got started in it was long, long time ago back in high school, I really felt that I wanted to go into church music. The route that I went didn't allow me to go into the kind of church music I wanted to go into. I wanted to really sing for Jesus to make it really simple is what I wanted to make a career out of doing and my parents didn't think that was probably the wisest decision. That would not be economically smart so they encouraged me to pursue education. And I'm like, you know, I like kids. I like music. I enjoy teaching piano, which is what I always did since I was like fifteen. So I decided to go into education. I think I've been teaching almost twenty years, on and off, more part-time than full-time because I've been raising my two kids, but in that I also had the opportunity to take over the role of the Worship Director at our church and so like I said, I get the best of both worlds.
My favorite part of teaching is really the concerts. The fruition of everything that we've done throughout the year and you know it's a chance for the kids to take everything they've learned and just let it pour out of them and it makes me cry every single time we have a concert to think that we did this together. You know we've been on this journey all year long and look what came of it. So that's kind of a little bit of my history.
Jessica: Well, you didn't always teach middle and high school, right?
Darlene: Correct. Yup. I started in elementary and it's funny, you know, I love the elementary kids. I did my student teaching secondary and elementary. Loved the elementary, but I was, you know, twenty years old and I'm teaching eighteen year olds as a student teacher and that was just kind of weird. So you know loving the elementary kids and then the older I got and I think truthfully for me - and I don't think it's this way for everybody - but for me, the older my kids got, the more I wanted to be...I really wanted to be with my kids. My own personal children. I wanted to teach them; they wanted me to be their teacher so it just kind of worked that way and I love going in the halls and seeing all the little babies, but I don't miss them in the classroom as terrible as that is to say. I love hearing them. I love listening to their angelic voices, but I personally would rather make 4-, 5-, and 6-part harmonies than "Cuck-oo" (sol-mi), but again that's just me. We need the elementary music teachers or I wouldn't be able to do what I do.
Jessica: Yeah. Yeah. I always said I would never teach middle school and here I am teaching middle school and I can't imagine not teaching middle school because I just love them and so I'm curious to see what you think of this, but what are some things that you find helpful to know about older students in middle school and high school?
Darlene: Yeah. The more I'm with them, the more it's changed and I'm in a unique position in that my, my school, the school that I teach at is a very small Christian school as opposed to a large public school so we automatically have a different dynamic because I've known a lot of these students like pre-birth. I grew up with a lot of their parents so we have a huge history, but putting that aside really the biggest thing that I have learned is, first and foremost, their facial expressions and their body language does not image what they're thinking. It does not mirror what they're thinking because most of the time they're looking at me like they hate me and they would rather be in biology or chemistry lab and that's not true. You know, music is really one of their favorite classes, but they're teenagers. They don't know how to hide their facial expressions or exactly what they're thinking at that moment, but I've also learned to show them respect. You know, a different kind of respect than the little elementary kids where you're teaching them how to respect you.
Middle school different than high school because they're still learning, but some of my high schoolers Jessica are 18 years old and a couple of them are 19 so they're adults and I'm learning that it's a mutual respect. They still have the respect of 'I'm the adult. The adult in the room and I'm the teacher and they have to listen to me,' but I show them the equal amount of respect. I actually often, there's a couple of them where I will say, 'Hey Connor. I want you to come up and teach this song.' Or if there's going to be a substitute, I put the student in charge as opposed to the substitute and it shows them that I have a respect and a love for their ability as much as they do for mine.
Also, one thing that's important in this day and age I've found is social media. You know, that's their life and I don't understand it as much because I didn't grow up that way but they are literally glued to their phones all the time. Their life is social media. I have found that I can connect with them. I have to learn to connect with them on their level. I can't expect for them to come up to my level. I have to come down to theirs. So if they're on social media, I will go on and comment on a post. I'll pour into them where they are.
Jessica: And do they have their phones in the classroom or how does that work at your school?
Darlene: At our school they're not allowed to. It's been a little tricky. We've had some, we've had some moments. Some 'come to Jesus' moments in the classroom.
Jessica: Our school is also no cell phones - well, they can have them in their locker. What about relationships and engaging students inside and outside the classroom. How do you build that respect with them - that mutual respect?
Darlene: It's hard. It really is hard. In fact a good friend of mine at the school - she's on the administrative side - we literally had this conversation about two weeks ago because I can't say I've had a struggle, but there is definitely a fine line. I'm really talking about my high schoolers. Like you, I love my middle schoolers. I mean they are a unique bunch, but really for right now I'm talking about the high schoolers because some of them are older. Because I have both of my kids in my classroom. So I was talking with my friend about this and we finally reached the point where we realize that we're not really cool anymore. In their eyes. You know, I keep thinking that as this group of girls is - they're in this circle having a conversation and up walks Mrs. Jebson because I think I'm going to join their conversation and they just stop talking and they stare at me. And I realize they don't want me in their conversation.
So you know it's tricky, Jessica. It's finding that fine line of we're not friends. I am here as your teacher, but at the same time we have to mutually respect each other. We have to mutually respect each other's opinions. And I've told them, 'If you're don't like something we're singing, I want you to tell me, but you have to tell me in a safe place,' you know. You don't get to raise your hand in the middle of class and say, 'Mrs. Jebson, this is the stupidest song I've ever heard.' Write me a note. Give me your opinion. I value your opinion.
Asking them to do things for me. I do have the final say in the classroom, but I care what they think and I care what their opinions are so as long as they know that I care and it's not my way or the highway, I think we have mutual respect and they will do what I ask them. I've then engaged them in the making of the music. Does that make sense?
Jessica: Yeah. I do something similar like what you mentioned a little bit earlier about having students in charge when there's a sub in the room. I do something similar where the middle schoolers are in charge of specific parts and you know if we're doing a particularly a drum piece and I have a student that I can trust to lead the warm-ups and go through the parts and that's really successful for them. I find having those leadership roles helps and hearing from them and getting that feedback so it's not just you're the dictator - they do exactly as you say. It's got to be a little give and take which I don't remember that so much growing up for us. You know, I don't remember in high school or even middle school. Like our opinions were just 'well, I'm glad you feel that way, but you're doing it my way' and you know. But I feel like kids nowadays react differently to that. I don't know. Maybe I'm just old now.
Darlene: Well I mean truthfully in fact there's just like this year alone like I had some other plans for our Christmas and Spring concert and they hated the songs. And so I got rid of them. I'm like, why are we doing this? I don't like them. You don't like them. They do have to have a mix of genres. We do have to make sure that is an education. We are singing languages. We are singing art songs. We are singing pop songs. We are doing a little bit of dance. We are doing a bit of that, but I'm not going to make you do something you hate because all that's going to do is tank my program. You know, they won't sign up for my class and then we're already a small school so a big class is I have 30 kids in my high school choir and that's huge. For a public school, that's like a small ensemble. Even though I have to do the due diligence in teaching them and educating them, we're still for our concerts.
First of all, we're going to sing songs that are audience pleasing because no one wants to come to a concert and be bored out of their minds. I don't want to so anyways...
Jessica: What do you do as a teacher to make it a safe atmosphere for trying new things and getting students to step out of their comfort zone?
Darlene: Because we're a small school, both my groups are auditioned groups so they have to be able to match a pitch to even be in the choir. Like my middle schoolers - I only have twelve kids. I can't have a wandering voice or they're going to stick out like a sore thumb. Now when they audition, it doesn't have to be perfect. They can sing wrong notes as long as they're at least matching a pitch and I usually have them sing like Happy Birthday with me playing the accompaniment on the piano and then we'll do some vocal exercises. If they're going up when I'm going up and they're going down when I'm going down, I know we're good.
So with that being said, in my middle school mainly I model for them. I'm always demonstrating for them and with that it grows their confidence. I'll walk up and say, 'Hunter, sing this with me.' Eventually I will back away from the singing and let her do it on her own.
Also, you've got students who are killing the vocals, who are top vocalists and you've got students who struggle and I always tell them - middle school and high school - sit next to somebody who's smarter than you. Always align yourself with somebody who can do this better than you.' There's always somebody out there and make sure you're raising your bar by doing that. And if they can't do that on their own, I will always (under the guise of needing to blend voices), I'll just start mixing people up. You know, make sure that my weaker singer is standing next to my stronger singer because that's naturally training their ears. We do a lot of acapella singing starting in middle school and you know it's rough at the very beginning, but come high school my kids are singing Pentatonix stuff. They're singing five and six part harmonies acapella and they're killing them. I'm proud of them for that because I'm starting them young and they're proud of themselves. So you know I just keep raising their bar - and you know - unless they are tone deaf and I don't use that term lightly. I don't believe many people aren't tone deaf. I just think they haven't learned to listen. They haven't learned to hear. But unless they're tone deaf, they're eventually going to get it. It's just training of the ear.
Jessica: And do you have any specific warm-ups that you use? Do you do the same warm-ups every class or do you vary it?
Darlene: I have a pretty small repertoire of warm-ups. I do a lot, and this really stems from the vocal issues I've had, I do a lot of lip trills and I don't just do the (lip trill example). We pitch them. We're always going up and down scales with them. I do a lot of humming. A lot of placement activities as opposed to just plain singing. All of our warm-ups are on a lip trill, hum, or a vowel. My biggest thing in choir, for them, is to get their placement right. If their vowels are stuck back in their throat or if they're stuck up here. You know, I've got one girl who has a really really hooty sound and so for her I'm trying to brighten it. I'm trying to get everything a little bit more nasally. So really my warm-ups are... we do warm-up every single day and probably no more than 3-5 minutes, but lots of lip trills. That's how I start most of them.
We also do a lot of solfege. Typically like rounds. Like I'll do a - we always go back to 'do.' So like:
Do
Do-re-do
do-re-mi-ri-do
do-re-mi-fa-mi-re-do
And all the way up the scale and then we'll do it in a round. And they have a challenge for themselves. For example, my high schoolers can probably break into 8-different parts. My middle schoolers are lucky to hit two parts. They have a goal for themselves where they're like, 'Let's everyone start so we've got like a 12 person round and then it's like - we might as well be screaming at the top of our lungs. It's like it's terrible, But you know, if they finish it, they feel successful. And at the same time they're learning part-singing. They're learning diction. They're learning pitch. They're learning all that good stuff so...
Jessica: With the solfege, do you do like rote teaching with solfege or do you do any sight reading that uses the solfege as well?
Darlene: I do. In fact, now that you say that, we've been really, really lax in our sight-reading this year. We used to sight read weekly and this year, I don't know why we got away from it. I'l like, 'Oh1 we haven't sightread in a while. We definitely sight read solfege; I mean, Jessica, that's how I grew up. You know, we did festival; we did Solo and Ensemble and so that's how we did it. And so because I did it, I think we're supposed to, but we don't compete. We don't do festivals or anything, but it's good for them. And honestly, they say they hate it, but I really - I think it's a love/hate relationship because they feel successful when they've done it even though tit's no fun doing it.
Jessica: Right. It's kind of like when you learn piano growing up. You don't love the practicing, but you love showing what you can do.
Darlene: Exactly! But you can't show what you can do unless you've practiced it.
Jessica: Exactly!
Darlene: Right?!
Jessica: Right! You mentioned the repertoire that you use like a variety of art songs and pop songs and acapella songs so how do you choose your repertoire?
Darlene: I'll usually go on J.W. Pepper on their website. I kind of stalk them all year long and you know if I go under choral and I'll pick like a category like if I want madrigals, I'll pick a madrigal and I'll go through their choices. What is the new stuff out there? They've got the four or five songs out there right at the beginning and I'm always looking for pretty melodies. I'm a sucker for a beautiful melodic line. I mean I'll just go and listen online to dozens and dozens and dozens of songs. And I'll usually... Our Christmas concerts are a little different because it's K-12 so we have less repertoire to sing because again no-one wants to sit through a three hour concert. So with both of my choirs at Christmas we get about 30 minutes of music and that's with both choirs combined. My high schoolers always get more than my middle schoolers.
So I will usually pick at Christmas like one medley. Like we've done the Polar Express medley. We've done the Frozen medley. Some popular big medley of songs that they all know, that they all love and then I'll build from there. Like a classic. We'll do an O Holy Night or a Do You Hear What I Hear. They love the Pentatonix so we've done...what's the Christmas song did?
Jessica: White Winter Hymnal was the video I think I saw. I love that one. Yeah.
Darlene: That was one of their favorites. So I'm always trying to pick a couple of songs that the kids love, you know, 'cause that's that hook. A couple of things that I know the parents will love. Because we're a Christian school - this is going to sound very sacrilegious, but I don't mean it this way - but I always try to make sure we have Jesus songs. You know, songs that are lifting up Jesus because you can't necessarily do that at a public school everywhere so because we can, we will. We will lift up Christ at our concerts.
Spring is better because we get longer. So we do share a concert with the band. The band teacher and I we split probably - I would this year that I got about 45 to 50 minutes worth of music which is really fun. At spring I always like to have a language so they're singing french this year, which is challenging for all of us. But again I try to make sure that because it's a concert that's showcasing what we've done, I try to pick something that the crowd is going to like like this year we're singing the Greatest Showman stuff.
Jessica: I love that stuff.
Darlene: Yeah, we're opening with The Greatest Show and they're doing it as in a Show Choir. In fact, we're taping them tomorrow because I can't - I've got thirty kids dancing like a Show Choir. I can't mike them and our worship center seats 2100 so they won't be heard and I refuse to dance to canned music. So we're recording them tomorrow and then a friend of mine will then dub it onto the track so they will dance to their own vocals.
Jessica: Got it.
Darlene: We're doing a couple of art pieces that are just really pretty. Piano accompaniments, some acapella, some cd tracks. So I try to hit a little bit of everything.
Jessica: Do you teach theater 6-12 as well?
Darlene: Yes and no. It's changed every year. So I teach a middle school drama class and it's strictly drama. And this past year it was only eighth grade. The past four years we've done both concerts - Christmas concert and spring concert plus we've done a spring musical. I'll do a little bit of singing every day and then we'll just literally dive right into the script. And then just start taking it a part. We'll do like character exercises.
With the middle school I'll have them do a lot of their own writing of the plays. Like I'll give them a scenario. Like I've divided them into groups of six. Scenario: You're a family of six driving down the freeway and all of a sudden you meet up with a circus of aliens. Everyone has to have ten lines. Go! They're more successful doing stuff like that because they own it. And they think it's the funnest thing in the world to come up with the stupidest things they could possibly say as opposed to me handing them a script and saying, 'I know you're 6' 2", but I need you to play a dwarf right now because we're doing Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and I hope this is not affecting your function as a growing young man,' you know, and then they just feel weird doing it. But with my high schoolers we don't really do stuff like that. It's really more just diving right into the script. And - go.
Jessica: Oh my gosh - I would love to hear more of the scenarios. Do you have any off the top of your head?
Darlene: I think one of them was Snow White and the seven dwarves meets Cinderella and her evil stepsisters and something goes wrong, but I can't remember what it is. But it's always like you have to make it like something that doesn't even make sense and that they just - they're all over it. They love it! They love it!
Jessica: Do you ever mix singing and drama like in the same classes or do you ever do drama-type things with your choirs?
Darlene: Only when we're doing a musical. I see them - my high schoolers I see them every day for 45 minutes and that seems like a lot, but it's not. Especially not when we're prepping for a full Christmas concert, a full Spring concert, and a full musical. So it's really - it's really planning things, Jessica. It's like Monday and Wednesday all we're doing is singing concert stuff. Tuesday, Thursday, Friday - plus we've got choreography in that and our choreographer is the fifth grade teacher. So when does she have her prep periods? Do they match with my class periods or can she bring her kids down? So it's really just like a - it's a guessing game every week. My accompanist is my friend Paster Solomon who is the music pastor at the church and so it's like when can he come in and play for us so it's really my schedule that changes the most. If we have Solomon one day and Mrs. Beasley the next day, then the off days are when we'll do our acting.
Jessica: It's a juggling act, isn't it?
Darlene: It is. It is, but it's fun. It keeps them on their toes. Everyday they walk in, they say what are we doing today? Are we dancing? Are we singing? Are we acting? Do we get a free day? No. No-one has time for free days.
Jessica: I know I had a student last week go, 'I'm tired. Can we just have a nap time?' And I'm like, 'Have you ever known me just to turn the lights off and let you have a nap?' They're like, 'No, but I'm so tired.' They're like, 'I just had to ask.'
Darlene: You know what I do? This is torture, Jessica. When they come in and they tell me they're tired, I make them do jumping jacks. I'm like alright. Everyone up. Find a place around the room. We've got to have some lunges and then I'll just start playing some Mozart fun thing and some dance music and jumping jacks. Start running in place. Go!
Jessica: They need to turn off their social media at night and they need to get sleep and go to bed. That's just my opinion. And then I'm like on top of that they need to move more than just in my class or in gym. They sit too much. They just do.
Darlene: I agree.
Jessica: Any other things you'd share about engaging older students?
Darlene: Honestly it's a tricky one and I think it's just connecting with them. It's like I said at the beginning - depending on the student. You know how they say like animals or dogs - if they sense your fear, this is a problem. It's really the same thing with the high schoolers. If you walk in timid and nervous and uncomfortable and shy, they're all over you, but if you walk in and you take command of that classroom - 'Phones away. Stand up. Let's sing' (Can we sit?) Nope. - Stand up and we start. I don't give them time to do anything. It's immediate. The minute the bell rings, I start warming up and if they're not with me, then they're in trouble.
Keeping them engaged and same thing with like I teach my high schoolers the way that I would teach kindergartners where I over lesson plan. Where I don't have dead time. If I have dead time, I've lost them. They're gone - for the most part. I have some students who are music geeks like I was and are just attentive to every word that you say and are on it 100% of the time. I have some kids who are constantly trying to hide their homework behind their choir folder or hide their phone behind their choir folder thinking that I don't know what they're doing. I'm like, you know as mothers we have super powers. You're hiding nothing from me. You would be better off to be doing it in the open. The minute you attempt to hide it, it's like our antenna goes up and I'm on you. I know exactly what you're doing and now you've ruined it for everyone. Put it away.
**Check out S1: E28 Part II with Darlene Jebson where Darlene shares about her experience with vocal nodules and ideas for taking care of our vocal health.
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