orchestra Healthy Habits for Teaching
Wellness and Balance Cynthia Kiepert, WMEA State Chair, Orchestra
Happy 2017! It is a new year and al- most everyone has been busy making their New Year’s resolutions, whether for one week, one month or the whole year. It seems the talk around every
corner is about health and wellness, especially as we progress towards the next decade and beyond. School districts, clinics, offices, companies and insurance providers all seem to be encouraging participation in wellness activities and they are providing opportunities for team efforts, traveling from your mobile device,
themes for exercising and suggesting new recipes for a healthier style for their mem- bers – all good strategies to get people involved in wellness activities. Everyone performs better having colleagues, family and friends as positive support systems.
In school, we as educators are one of the support systems for our students. We provide academic knowledge, passion for our subject, creative energy into our teaching, and happy, relaxed and safe learning environments for our students. When thinking about writing to the readers for this article in January, I thought about “health, wellness and balance for students and teachers.” I selected some musical
wellness strategies that seem to make a student’s life more comfortable.
Nobuyoshi Yasuda 2016 WSMA Honors Orchestra
Conductor and music educator
UW-Eau Claire offers degrees in music education, performance (all band/ orchestral instruments, piano and voice), piano pedagogy and collaborative piano, theory and composition, and Bachelor of Arts and Science in music and music history.
Let’s visit the beginning string class: I am dealing with one of those “schedul- ing conundrums,” as listed in the WSM theme for January, a six-day schedule for elementary orchestra for grades 5-6. I have actually various schedules, depending on the school, however, here is a reoccurring one each year: one instrument class for 30 minutes in grade 5 by instrument, with cello and basses together. Do we stand, do we sit, do we start guitar style, do we have violins and violas stand right away? These are technical issues I keep struggling with each year and try each way at the same time to see which one is the best way or the most efficient. (At two schools, I see them twice in a whole month.) This year I am in a gym without technology except my school tablet), a table and chairs for the cellos, plus music stands in the gym office. I have the violins and violas stand and the cellists have posture chairs. We have walked around the gym using piz- zicato on a selection by rote; it was fun! At another school, the students sit on the old wooden “music” chairs that have a flat seat; I actually love those chairs and at that school we are in the art room. I just know from years of teaching that the chairs, if students are seated, should be flat or sloped a bit forward in order for the knees to be lower than the hips of the student. It preserves the curve of the lower spine and is much more comfortable and healthy for them when their feet are flat on the floor.
Audition Dates 2017
Thursday, Jan. 19 Saturday, Feb. 25 Saturday, Mar. 11
uwec.ly/mus-the
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Most educators provide a “healthy pic- ture” for students as we model different bowings, techniques such as shifting, how a student should stand in playing position, in rest position, how to sit and play with proper posture and how to produce a ma- ture, rich tone on the instrument. We can also relate, verbally, with a mental picture
January 2017
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