Dear John Special - The benefits of teaching summer schools

Published Tuesday 11 March 2008 at 12:20 by John Byrne

To complement our Summer Schools supplement, published on March 13, 2008, John Byrne talks to singer Lorna Marshall about the benefits of teaching such courses

The summer school experience is certainly a great chance to dip a toe in the waters of a new area of performance but this is as much true for the performers involved as it is for the learners taking part. There are, of course, a number of respects in which teaching and performing are already closely related - indeed there are certain areas of performance, such as stand-up comedy, where ex-teachers have done particularly well. However, for many performers who may have been the class clown or had a less than motivating school experience, it is not hard to see that getting involved in summer schools may seem less like an interesting piece of extra work, and more like the kind of job they got into the entertainment business to avoid in the first place. For other performers, the barrier to considering teaching or leading workshops is simply the popular fallacy that if you are doing anything to make a living except performing in its narrowest sense, you are somehow not fully committed to your art. Thankfully, there will be many top performers involved in this years summer schools who categorically disagree. Lorna Marshall from south London, in addition to having been a hugely successful Rafiki in The Legend of The Lion King for Disneyland Paris, is widely acknowledged to be one of Britains top jazz and soul vocalists. Ive always seen it as my mission in life to uplift people with my voice, she says, and thats what I aim to do, whether I am performing or passing on performance skills to others. In parallel with her own successful recording and live career, Lorna has been involved with many educational projects with Guildhall, Goldsmiths College, the Covent Garden Jazz Centre. In addition to sharing the stage with the likes of Rod Stewart and Diana Ross, she has shared teaching and workshop duties with fellow British jazz greats such as Courtney Pine. I work on the principal that everyone has a unique talent, so just as I dont aim to sound like any other performer when I sing, although I am certainly inspired by great singers like Aretha Franklin, Im not aiming to make any of the people in my workshops and sessions sound like me or like copies of anyone else. My aim is to help them discover their unique vocal and performing abilities. I think many performers getting involved in teaching for the first time put too much pressure on themselves to know it all or be perfect, when in fact the most useful educational experience for students is communicating to them that this is a business of trial and error like any other, and giving them the confidence to persevere and explore. Lorna also makes a point of teaching students about the business side of the music industry. I want to give them a chance to take on board, in a positive environment, some of the things I have had to learn the hard way. In an era where technology can be both a boon to young artists but also a substitute for real interaction with more experienced performers, the summer school environment creates an ideal opportunity to pass on the all important lessons of years of experience, which unlike techniques, cant be learned from a book, a DVD or by any other means. Details of Lornas teaching work can be found on her website www.lorna-marshall-live.com John Byrne is an entertainment industry career advisor and the author of several career guides for performers. Feedback and queries are welcome to dearjohn@thestage.co.uk or via www.showbusinesssuccess.com. Listen/talk to John live on the Friday edition of Colourful Mornings with Amina Taylor 9am-12am atwww.colourfulradio.com

1. Pro: Cost Benefits o Many school districts have adopted a year-round schedule because of the cost benefits. Traditional schools struggle with overcrowding, which requires building new facilities and increasing staff. A year-round school places students on "tracks" where at any one time, a certain percentage of students are on break. This means that a school that typically can hold 750 students can use the track schedule to accommodate 1,000 students instead, without worrying about additional staff or buildings. Pro: Eliminating Gaps
o

One of the main benefits of year-round schooling is eliminating the learning gap created by long summer layoffs. Students going to year-round schools do not have to be retaught material when returning to class because the layoff is smaller and students do not forget previously taught material. The longer the break, according to Charles Ballinger, executive director emeritus of the National Association for Year-Round Education, the more students forget.

Pro: Remediation Opportunities

o

Remediation activities during the short breaks for year-round schooling can help struggling students with relevant lessons being taught in class now. Traditional school schedules allow this type of remediation only during summer breaks. The material covered during the summer may be from previous months of class and must be retaught from the beginning.

Con: Child Care

o

Establishing reliable child care for younger students can be very difficult when they are on break for two or three weeks every six to nine weeks. If the students in the same home are on different tracks, it can make finding reliable child care next to impossible.

Con: Vacations
o

One of the major benefits of a traditional school schedule is that families are able to spend time together during the summer months and everyone can be on vacation at the same time. With the track scheduling year-round schools employ, not all the children in the family may be on a break at the same time.

Con: Inconsistency Within School District

o

In some school districts, not all the schools use the same schooling schedule. It may be possible for elementary students to be on a year-round schedule but middle and high school students to be on a traditional school schedule. This mixing of schedules can be very difficult on families and students.

Con: The Summer Job

o

Many high school students use the summer as an opportunity to obtain jobs for spending money or to save for college. Other students may be able to obtain internships to begin

gaining experience in future career paths. The year-round school schedule does not allow for a full-time summer job or internships for these students.

References
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Education Bug: Year Round School Debate

With a good teacher there is no problem. It *is* stressful for the teacher. For the students, it depends upon them and their needs. I had some dynamic students do some wonderful things. We did Reading Buddy work with the kindergartens, which gave me time to work with half of the class. Getting in a student teacher helps, too. It benefits the students, if they have the right attitude. You can appoint team leaders, create small groups, and encourage them to work together more closely. The younger ones benefit socially by observing the older ones. The older ones have more respect, which the teacher models, for those less socially, emotionally, or intellectually able. How important is age (i.e .a child born in January vs. December)? You want a mix of kids in a class: social, emotional, independent, and I havent seen any research on this topic but form my own perceptions the less mature children, who come from families with no siblings, have a hard time learning to receive less attention from one teacher. This, of course, is a good lesson. Maturity is much less chronological age than emotional age. What emotional and social factors have to be considered? Considered by whom? Usually it is the teachers who put together class lists in June for September. They look for more mature students in the higher grade, and try to create a split with mature, independent, more able kids for that. They often will create classes, due to numbers, that have 3:1 ratio of younger to older kids. There are limits on class size by school, district, provincial, and this is part of the process. The parents always think their kids are the smartest, most independent, bright learners, but also deserve NOT to be in a split grade class. You cant have both. What models work best for split grades? Adopting some of the Ministry split grade curriculum, in which similar topics are grouped, is ideal. Using more of a multi-grade model, in which learning doesnt focus on just one strand per grade, with flexibility and independent projects works with kids. There are groupings of topics.- the ministry OCUP curriculum has a ton of info on them. Having adequate materials texts, hands-on materials help a great deal. Parents can fund raise

for this. Mostly, the teacher can adapt in all areas. When you are doing regrouping in math, gr. 4 does one digit, gr. 5 does two. You are building layers of curriculum on top of one another. To reinforce it does not hurt as Gr. 5 attend to a review lesson that teaches a concept fresh to gr. 4. There are no models, only teaching strategies skills the teachers must adopt and master: Integrated Pedagogies Instructional Concepts, Skills, Tactics, Strategies and Organizers that assist them in creating curriculum. They must be good teachers, willing to aim for great. Parents worry needlessly. This is a way of life in Ontario schools. They must be as supportive as they can be: volunteering, offering assistance and understanding. It can be so much fun in such a class. You have one grade doing an experiment, the other (theoretically) doing reading, or research, while they all watch the exciting experiments. The kids cant wait until next year when they can do them, too. I had a great phone interview with the journalist, it helped me reflect on my views from the perspective of parents. Many worry needlessly, since their child was chosen for a split grade class, it reflects the abilities of the child as being strengths that lead teachers to believe that s/he is the best candidate for such a placement. Parents must go in with the attitude that each teacher has strengths that a child can benefit from, rather than being negative towards such a classroom. A straight grade class often has a number of special needs students, which further complicates and/or benefits a classroom community. Each class is a complicated mix of curriculum, environment, student attitude and teacher behaviour. The article is to come out in the September edition of Today's Parent magazine. y You might also like: