I often get asked, "What exactly is STEAM?" People understand the acronym (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Mathematics), but when you have to put it together... that's difficult. How do we exact our instruction to hit all points of this concept? How do we create projects that effectively convey our information, ensure retention, and help kids perform well on the big tests that our states are forcing upon us? How do we do that?
Our current class project is focused on the subject of Death. We refer to it as "the Death project." We gave our students an entry document that put them in the role of an intelligence officer for the Pentagon. The scenario is that an unnamed foreign dictator has found the "elixir of Immortality" and cannot die. Their job is to ascertain what it means to be immortal and how that might affect our society. In short, what happens when we cannot die? We asked them to look through five specific lenses: The Arts, Psychology/Sociology, Anthropology, Ethics/Religion, and Science. The students are tasked to culminate this knowledge in a verbal presentation using Prezi or PowerPoint to assist. Also, each student is to submit a research paper that supports their work and defines their rationale for the lens they chose.
In truth, there is a man working for the Pentagon on curing death currently. His name is Dr. Mark Roth, and he's a well known scientist. His work is being utilized by the military and is also helping hospitals save lives. We set the scenario so that they are asked to look at Dr. Roth's work. The particular link that we use for the project is linked here. Google Dr. Roth's name and you'll come up with several excellent presentations, TED talks, and other articles - so I'll leave you to that. In the scope of our project, Mr. Roth's work provides us with the Science and Technology. Students look up his work on defying death and often get complex chemical equations for their presentations. Many students choose to discuss how the equations work in their presentations.
How about Engineering? What are we engineering? What can we engineer? This is a soft spot in the STEAM dogma. What exactly can we create? If you have a teacher with a Chemistry background, it is possible to have the students create solutions comparable to Dr. Roth's, that may perform the same way. What I mean by that is the students could experiment with chemical solutions to create new solutions that have the same or similar effects, test them, and see what happens.
Another thought - that may not be so prevalent - is the idea that we "craft" a response. The "engineering" portion may simply be the construction of a paper or speech. Learning to craft written work; to engineer responses that are credible, is this not also engineering/design? One might say that I'm stretching it, and I admit that the argument is weak - yet I think you all understand my rationale; it's not incredible to think along those lines.
Thus we come to the Arts. How are the arts included in the Death project? Death is the second greatest theme in the arts. Visual arts lend themselves to this project nicely, but how do we connect the other arts? As I stated a week or two ago, I'm currently working with the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir on the Brahm's Requiem. A requiem is a mass for the dead. Essentially, a requiem is music for a Catholic funeral. All of the great composers, with a few notable exceptions (like Beethoven), have endeavored to create requiem's. It's a bit of a composer's right of passage. Brahm's requiem is particular in that he was not Catholic. Also, Brahm's chose Biblical passages that he found beautiful, which deviates greatly from the Catholic "hell-fire and brimstone" style day of judgement movements.
Utilizing the requiem as an art form, along with asking students to connect the visual arts covers two sets of arts requirements If you're able to include technology and chemistry you're now dealing with three subject areas at once. Having them write a paper hooks them academically to English requirements and I made a weak case for design.
How about Math? There are several directions one could go. I suggest taking the math to two scientific levels. The first is to gauge the mathematics that are taking place in the music. Sound waves, ranges, intervocalic distance, noise ratios... all of these items can be diagnosed and analyzed through Physics. The other direction? If you were able to utilize the Chemistry component of the project, then you will able to utilize the Algebra within the Chemistry to make it happen.
This is the idea behind STEAM. Take projects and integrate everything that you can into them. Open your classroom. Make connections to the other sciences. Let the kids see how these basic tenants of life come together and work. Form and function. Always form and function!
Until next week!
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
The Themes Model
Welcome to this week's edition of Liquid Logic - STEAM in form and function. I'd like to devote this edition to building a curriculum. There are several ways that teachers go about this, and I'm sure you've read fabulous blogs and journal articles from other more seasoned educators chronicling how to do this. I just want to throw my "hat" in the ring and say - this is what worked for us.
I've had two great luxuries in my career. The first, was having a corporation that gave me the reins and said, "Take it." where curriculum was concerned. I had freedom to construct, create, and teach music any way that I wanted too, as long as I covered the standards. The second great luxury has been my brilliant co-teacher, Sarah Papin-Thomas, who is so forward-thinking that I have a hard time keeping up with her.
In the summer of 2009, Sarah and I began our class integration by searching WHAT we needed to teach according to Indiana's state standards. We used a Venn diagram in the beginning to compare our standards for each of our classes. Then we both looked at what we had taught the prior year for ideas. By the end of the summer we decided to base our project units on themes. Since English is also an art form, we found that we could easily find poetry, prose, music, and pictures to make our curriculum, it was a matter of constructing projects around our content standards.
There are 5 major themes in the Arts: Love, Death, Nature, Psychology, and Politics/Ethics. I had been teaching my choral classes a theme a year. If the year's theme was Love, the students wrote papers about love, sang songs about love, listened to artists works about love, viewed art concerning love, and had discussions about what love really is. The next year we would do the same with Death, and so on... Since there are 5 themes, no student that participated in my classes for four years ever covered the same topic twice. Sarah had been loosely following the state English curriculum with her own twists and helpful additions. She had to look at state reading guides, suggested supplemental works, and other instructional tools and assessments. We began to construct projects that integrated both sets of standards, both sets of content, and both sets of instructional activities.
If you are integrating - look at what you both are currently doing. Odds are, you already have the answer to your curriculum questions. it's simply a matter of unifying the topics in a way that neither side loses.
The first year was rough. We were learning how to work together, and getting to know one another. Our building was under construction and we didn't have flooring, a ceiling, or reliable technology. However, where class content was concerned we began to forge a solid curriculum that was open for synthesis and experimentation, but still structured enough that students didn't feel lost. A key component to our curriculum was the project debrief. During the debrief the students were surveyed and we looked for flaws in our instruction, routine, and system. By allowing the students to point out our flaws we were able to correct the hidden things that both our eyes had missed. While it can be painful to hear a high school student point out a fault - the gain is worth it in the end. To my surprise, most students didn't abuse this privilege but took advantage of it and were quite constructive with their criticism.
Now that we're in our 3rd year of implementation we are almost a well oiled machine. Taking into consideration a number of things that our students told us, most of the kinks have been ironed out and the class flows from one topic to the next in a stream of music, art, and literature. We speak together, divide our work when necessary, assist each other - It's really an accomplishment that Sarah and I are both proud of, but the greatest craftsmanship has come in our lessons. The themes were the key. They gave us inspiration, a connection point for our content, an anchored area to work with, and another way to expose students to the aesthetic beauty and potent power of the arts.
If you find yourself searching for a way to reconstruct your curriculum - the themes may be the way to go? You can devise plans for each theme, and then I suggest finding a reading source to tie your content and concepts together. For example, this year for the Death project we focused on two texts: Requiem, by W.A. Mozart and A German Requiem by Johannes Brahms. Both requiem texts deal with death from different perspectives and have offered up a wealth of discussion points on religion, music, art, writing, history, and even science. We timed the end of the Death project, not only with Halloween, but with a performance of the Brahm's Requiem by the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir and Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.
Whenever you can pair an experience with the content in the concept you're going to make strides.
In closing: Look at the themes. Look at what you're currently teaching. Discover the common threads. Find a unifying text. Look for a good way to culminate in an experience. Then do it. And don't forget about the debrief. Let the kids tell you what worked for them and what didn't. That's the ticket.
Until next week!
I've had two great luxuries in my career. The first, was having a corporation that gave me the reins and said, "Take it." where curriculum was concerned. I had freedom to construct, create, and teach music any way that I wanted too, as long as I covered the standards. The second great luxury has been my brilliant co-teacher, Sarah Papin-Thomas, who is so forward-thinking that I have a hard time keeping up with her.
In the summer of 2009, Sarah and I began our class integration by searching WHAT we needed to teach according to Indiana's state standards. We used a Venn diagram in the beginning to compare our standards for each of our classes. Then we both looked at what we had taught the prior year for ideas. By the end of the summer we decided to base our project units on themes. Since English is also an art form, we found that we could easily find poetry, prose, music, and pictures to make our curriculum, it was a matter of constructing projects around our content standards.
There are 5 major themes in the Arts: Love, Death, Nature, Psychology, and Politics/Ethics. I had been teaching my choral classes a theme a year. If the year's theme was Love, the students wrote papers about love, sang songs about love, listened to artists works about love, viewed art concerning love, and had discussions about what love really is. The next year we would do the same with Death, and so on... Since there are 5 themes, no student that participated in my classes for four years ever covered the same topic twice. Sarah had been loosely following the state English curriculum with her own twists and helpful additions. She had to look at state reading guides, suggested supplemental works, and other instructional tools and assessments. We began to construct projects that integrated both sets of standards, both sets of content, and both sets of instructional activities.
If you are integrating - look at what you both are currently doing. Odds are, you already have the answer to your curriculum questions. it's simply a matter of unifying the topics in a way that neither side loses.
The first year was rough. We were learning how to work together, and getting to know one another. Our building was under construction and we didn't have flooring, a ceiling, or reliable technology. However, where class content was concerned we began to forge a solid curriculum that was open for synthesis and experimentation, but still structured enough that students didn't feel lost. A key component to our curriculum was the project debrief. During the debrief the students were surveyed and we looked for flaws in our instruction, routine, and system. By allowing the students to point out our flaws we were able to correct the hidden things that both our eyes had missed. While it can be painful to hear a high school student point out a fault - the gain is worth it in the end. To my surprise, most students didn't abuse this privilege but took advantage of it and were quite constructive with their criticism.
Now that we're in our 3rd year of implementation we are almost a well oiled machine. Taking into consideration a number of things that our students told us, most of the kinks have been ironed out and the class flows from one topic to the next in a stream of music, art, and literature. We speak together, divide our work when necessary, assist each other - It's really an accomplishment that Sarah and I are both proud of, but the greatest craftsmanship has come in our lessons. The themes were the key. They gave us inspiration, a connection point for our content, an anchored area to work with, and another way to expose students to the aesthetic beauty and potent power of the arts.
If you find yourself searching for a way to reconstruct your curriculum - the themes may be the way to go? You can devise plans for each theme, and then I suggest finding a reading source to tie your content and concepts together. For example, this year for the Death project we focused on two texts: Requiem, by W.A. Mozart and A German Requiem by Johannes Brahms. Both requiem texts deal with death from different perspectives and have offered up a wealth of discussion points on religion, music, art, writing, history, and even science. We timed the end of the Death project, not only with Halloween, but with a performance of the Brahm's Requiem by the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir and Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.
Whenever you can pair an experience with the content in the concept you're going to make strides.
In closing: Look at the themes. Look at what you're currently teaching. Discover the common threads. Find a unifying text. Look for a good way to culminate in an experience. Then do it. And don't forget about the debrief. Let the kids tell you what worked for them and what didn't. That's the ticket.
Until next week!
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Coordinated Effort
So, I missed my post last week. I'm terribly sorry. I must say that I'm totally humbled by the e-mails asking what happened. In truth, it was fall break and I became so busy doing other things that I forgot all about it. By the time I thought about it - it was Sunday evening and I was preparing for school on Monday. I am sorry. I appreciate the concern. It means a lot to me that you all read my blog. Thank you.
Now, on to business... This week I want to discuss a joint effort that our team is putting together.
Our school works in teams. It's part of our project-based learning community. My team is the Sophomore team. My team deals primarily with Sophomores day-to-day. Community teaming is a great way to get arts people involved. Before this I spent most of my non-teaching time alone in my office. Now that I have a team, I feel connected. We meet on Mondays and Thursdays during our common prep time. There are several advantages to the meetings, but the greatest advantage is working together to solve common problems for students.
My colleagues John Bowers and Keith Starost teach an integrated class known as GeoIED. GeoIED is comprised of Geometry combined with Intro. to Engineering and Design. Every integrated class at our school is structured with a science (Geometry) coupled with the practical application (Engineering/Design). This is a fundamental building block for STEAM schools. Since the arts are universal they can easily fit any subject. Savvy teachers see the connections and begin to structure classes that utilize the science to create the art.
REMEMBER: The idea is that neither class suffers loss. Both sets of standards should be covered evenly. If you're doing it correctly, students should display mastery in both areas.
Throughout the year John and Keith work with local university engineering programs to create projects that prepare students for college level classes. Math and Science majors typically have a shortage of females in them, so these universities approached John a few years ago, about creating a program to advertise careers in the Sciences to female students specifically. John came up with the idea for a program we call, "LeSTEM." The last two years the program has been fairly successful. This year John, and his teammate Keith, have proposed that we add the arts to the program and re-name it, "LeSTEAM." My co-teacher, Sarah, and I are privileged to join our teammates working toward creating interest among women in both the arts and sciences.
The basic idea behind LeSTEAM is to encourage young ladies to explore careers in math, engineering, science, and the arts. The program works like a job fair, but the ladies are encouraged to share their journey with the students, to help the girls see that opportunities are available for them in these fields, and to combat the "uncool" brand many of these areas have been labeled with.
So what's the connection between these STEM classes and the Arts? Educators have long pointed out the fact that students have trouble making connections between subjects. Why wouldn't they? Prior to first grade students compartmentalized their learning. We have a system of bells that separate the subjects. We set schedules for subjects. Teachers specialize in certain areas and they teach them separately. In early education, this makes sense. Students have to have an understanding of basic arithmetic and language skills; but in high school? I would suggest that students begin transitioning to combined classes, or at the very least, combined projects, around 6th or 7th grade.
While the LeSTEAM program is about careers, it is important to note the connection. The arts are aesthetic, they're beautiful. The sciences are utility; the sciences are functional. Connecting those two things bring us the buildings of I.M. Pei, the work of Alexander Calder. Structures that are aesthetic in both form and function. Art with utility; utility with beauty. All of our packaging is design. All of our performance is design.
The greatest art is crafted and, truly, so is the greatest science.
Now, on to business... This week I want to discuss a joint effort that our team is putting together.
Our school works in teams. It's part of our project-based learning community. My team is the Sophomore team. My team deals primarily with Sophomores day-to-day. Community teaming is a great way to get arts people involved. Before this I spent most of my non-teaching time alone in my office. Now that I have a team, I feel connected. We meet on Mondays and Thursdays during our common prep time. There are several advantages to the meetings, but the greatest advantage is working together to solve common problems for students.
My colleagues John Bowers and Keith Starost teach an integrated class known as GeoIED. GeoIED is comprised of Geometry combined with Intro. to Engineering and Design. Every integrated class at our school is structured with a science (Geometry) coupled with the practical application (Engineering/Design). This is a fundamental building block for STEAM schools. Since the arts are universal they can easily fit any subject. Savvy teachers see the connections and begin to structure classes that utilize the science to create the art.
REMEMBER: The idea is that neither class suffers loss. Both sets of standards should be covered evenly. If you're doing it correctly, students should display mastery in both areas.
Throughout the year John and Keith work with local university engineering programs to create projects that prepare students for college level classes. Math and Science majors typically have a shortage of females in them, so these universities approached John a few years ago, about creating a program to advertise careers in the Sciences to female students specifically. John came up with the idea for a program we call, "LeSTEM." The last two years the program has been fairly successful. This year John, and his teammate Keith, have proposed that we add the arts to the program and re-name it, "LeSTEAM." My co-teacher, Sarah, and I are privileged to join our teammates working toward creating interest among women in both the arts and sciences.
The basic idea behind LeSTEAM is to encourage young ladies to explore careers in math, engineering, science, and the arts. The program works like a job fair, but the ladies are encouraged to share their journey with the students, to help the girls see that opportunities are available for them in these fields, and to combat the "uncool" brand many of these areas have been labeled with.
So what's the connection between these STEM classes and the Arts? Educators have long pointed out the fact that students have trouble making connections between subjects. Why wouldn't they? Prior to first grade students compartmentalized their learning. We have a system of bells that separate the subjects. We set schedules for subjects. Teachers specialize in certain areas and they teach them separately. In early education, this makes sense. Students have to have an understanding of basic arithmetic and language skills; but in high school? I would suggest that students begin transitioning to combined classes, or at the very least, combined projects, around 6th or 7th grade.
While the LeSTEAM program is about careers, it is important to note the connection. The arts are aesthetic, they're beautiful. The sciences are utility; the sciences are functional. Connecting those two things bring us the buildings of I.M. Pei, the work of Alexander Calder. Structures that are aesthetic in both form and function. Art with utility; utility with beauty. All of our packaging is design. All of our performance is design.
The greatest art is crafted and, truly, so is the greatest science.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Singing in the Rain
It's a lame title this week, I know, but the weather and the week have not been lost on me...
It was my privilege to conduct the 78th Annual Shelby County Choral Festival on Monday night. On Tuesday I was rehearsing the Brahm's Requiem with the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir (which is why I am late with this post). This evening I will be conducting the Triton Central High School Chamber Choir at their Fall Choral Preview. While my body is tired, and my mind is swimming with breath marks, phrase cadences, and special cues, I find myself completely contented by the music and the people that I have been working with.
This morning I awoke to the sound of my alarm and the Brahm's double fugue scrolling in my head. I was trying to get myself moving when I recalled what Dr. Eric Stark had said during last night's rehearsal; Dr. Stark made a plea to the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir not only to practice the technical aspects of the Brahm's Requiem, but to consider the spiritual aspects as well. He asked us to reflect a little bit on the meaning of the music; on the meaning of the text.
This is something that I have asked my student's to do while studying their own songs. Most of our repertoire is made up of madrigals. I have often stopped rehearsal and said, "What did the poet mean here?" and "How did the composer interpret these words with music?" or "What is the meaning of this metaphor?" For high school students, this is a task that requires both analysis and higher order thinking. Often the composers and lyricists that have created this music have lived. By "lived" I mean, they have experienced love, sex, pain, joy, nature, and even death to varying degrees, and were attempting to capture the joys and sorrows of those things in their aesthetic medium. Asking high school students to wrap their minds around those concepts, when they have not experienced them first-hand, is difficult.
We should still do it, though. We should still make the attempt.
There's a higher calling for us as educators; a hidden secret that no one in the government, or general populus seems to understand or care about. Like Dr. Stark with the adults in the ISC, it is our job - not only to instruct the students on the nuts and bolts of our subject areas - but of LIFE; to show them that there are things out there that are wonderful and beautiful and great and terrible. We have to instill in students a sense that there is something out there in the world that is greater than themselves. And it's worth discovering. It's worth digging for. It's worth fighting for...
In 2004, I had a student named... let's call him Bobby. Bobby was a Senior. Zealous, idealistic, passionate about music; I really didn't have a clue about teaching - but I understood music. I set out to change lives. That's what we're doing, right? Teaching? So, I saw that the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir were performing the Brahm's Requiem. I set up a field trip for my lowest choir, which Bobby happened to be in. My goal: expose students from under served, underprivileged, under educated homes to something amazing - something life changing. I had no idea what would happen, but I was crazy enough to try it.
We were seated in the second mezzanine in Hilbert Circle Theater, in downtown Indianapolis. I had 35 with me that night along with a bus driver, two chaperones and myself. We spread out among the students, although I had faith that they would be respectful for the show. I had preached etiquette to them and wasn't horribly worried about the students causing trouble. They were all respectable, they were just raw and many had never been downtown for anything. I seated myself on the end of the row next to a large blonde girl named... let's call her Suzy.
The moment the orchestra began to tune, my kids became still. They were intoxicated by the sound; sounds they had never heard live before. The piece began. Suzy began to weep softly . I asked her if she was okay. She said, "I've never heard anything so beautiful before. Never." When the choir came in I stopped watching the stage and started watching my students. Their eyes focused, their mouths opened, their breath stopped. They watched, they listened, they were still... They were in choir, and did not know what a real choir sounded like. They were learning to sing, but had no clue what singing really sounded like.
Before I knew it, the concert was over and we were working our way downstairs to our bus. I had made late night dinner plans for the students; again - trying to create an evening, an experience, a moment that they would remember. We boarded the bus, which took us to the restaurant. On the bus I asked the students questions: What did they like? What did they dislike? What did they see? What did they hear? What did they think? I was surprised at their answers. It was obvious that some of them were doing some serious soul-searching post concert. They were thinking, not only about their situations, but about the direction that their lives were taking. Something had become awakened in many of them. Bobby asked me, "People live like this?" When I asked him what he meant by that, he replied with his backwoods accent, "People get fancied up like this every weekend and get to hear this stuff?" I said, "Yes. I think there are people that are fortunate enough to do this every weekend."
Fast forward to April, 2012. ISC was performing the Berlioz Requiem at Hilbert Circle Theater in downtown Indianapolis. I was going to the concert, but this time as a performer singing Bass II in the choir. I had invited my students to the show, but Prom was that night and I knew that many of them would be going there instead. I was pleased to see seven students elected to come to the concert instead of going to Prom. After the concert I said, "You guys missed Prom?" One boy remarked, "Nah, we came over to see you and then we're going to meet up with everyone else for dinner. We didn't miss anything, we made a night of it." I talked to them for a little bit and then wished them all a good evening.
I was leaving Hilbert with my wife and some friends when I heard, "Hey - Foley!" I turned in the doorway to see a tall blonde kid with glasses in a tux standing with a pretty brunette in a classy dress. It was Bobby. He was grown up, but he hadn't changed much. He came over and said, "I hadn't heard this one; The Berlioz, I mean." I said, "It's good to see you, Bobby! Have you been coming to the symphony?"
He smiled and said, "I have season tickets."
It was my privilege to conduct the 78th Annual Shelby County Choral Festival on Monday night. On Tuesday I was rehearsing the Brahm's Requiem with the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir (which is why I am late with this post). This evening I will be conducting the Triton Central High School Chamber Choir at their Fall Choral Preview. While my body is tired, and my mind is swimming with breath marks, phrase cadences, and special cues, I find myself completely contented by the music and the people that I have been working with.
This morning I awoke to the sound of my alarm and the Brahm's double fugue scrolling in my head. I was trying to get myself moving when I recalled what Dr. Eric Stark had said during last night's rehearsal; Dr. Stark made a plea to the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir not only to practice the technical aspects of the Brahm's Requiem, but to consider the spiritual aspects as well. He asked us to reflect a little bit on the meaning of the music; on the meaning of the text.
This is something that I have asked my student's to do while studying their own songs. Most of our repertoire is made up of madrigals. I have often stopped rehearsal and said, "What did the poet mean here?" and "How did the composer interpret these words with music?" or "What is the meaning of this metaphor?" For high school students, this is a task that requires both analysis and higher order thinking. Often the composers and lyricists that have created this music have lived. By "lived" I mean, they have experienced love, sex, pain, joy, nature, and even death to varying degrees, and were attempting to capture the joys and sorrows of those things in their aesthetic medium. Asking high school students to wrap their minds around those concepts, when they have not experienced them first-hand, is difficult.
We should still do it, though. We should still make the attempt.
There's a higher calling for us as educators; a hidden secret that no one in the government, or general populus seems to understand or care about. Like Dr. Stark with the adults in the ISC, it is our job - not only to instruct the students on the nuts and bolts of our subject areas - but of LIFE; to show them that there are things out there that are wonderful and beautiful and great and terrible. We have to instill in students a sense that there is something out there in the world that is greater than themselves. And it's worth discovering. It's worth digging for. It's worth fighting for...
In 2004, I had a student named... let's call him Bobby. Bobby was a Senior. Zealous, idealistic, passionate about music; I really didn't have a clue about teaching - but I understood music. I set out to change lives. That's what we're doing, right? Teaching? So, I saw that the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir were performing the Brahm's Requiem. I set up a field trip for my lowest choir, which Bobby happened to be in. My goal: expose students from under served, underprivileged, under educated homes to something amazing - something life changing. I had no idea what would happen, but I was crazy enough to try it.
We were seated in the second mezzanine in Hilbert Circle Theater, in downtown Indianapolis. I had 35 with me that night along with a bus driver, two chaperones and myself. We spread out among the students, although I had faith that they would be respectful for the show. I had preached etiquette to them and wasn't horribly worried about the students causing trouble. They were all respectable, they were just raw and many had never been downtown for anything. I seated myself on the end of the row next to a large blonde girl named... let's call her Suzy.
The moment the orchestra began to tune, my kids became still. They were intoxicated by the sound; sounds they had never heard live before. The piece began. Suzy began to weep softly . I asked her if she was okay. She said, "I've never heard anything so beautiful before. Never." When the choir came in I stopped watching the stage and started watching my students. Their eyes focused, their mouths opened, their breath stopped. They watched, they listened, they were still... They were in choir, and did not know what a real choir sounded like. They were learning to sing, but had no clue what singing really sounded like.
Before I knew it, the concert was over and we were working our way downstairs to our bus. I had made late night dinner plans for the students; again - trying to create an evening, an experience, a moment that they would remember. We boarded the bus, which took us to the restaurant. On the bus I asked the students questions: What did they like? What did they dislike? What did they see? What did they hear? What did they think? I was surprised at their answers. It was obvious that some of them were doing some serious soul-searching post concert. They were thinking, not only about their situations, but about the direction that their lives were taking. Something had become awakened in many of them. Bobby asked me, "People live like this?" When I asked him what he meant by that, he replied with his backwoods accent, "People get fancied up like this every weekend and get to hear this stuff?" I said, "Yes. I think there are people that are fortunate enough to do this every weekend."
Fast forward to April, 2012. ISC was performing the Berlioz Requiem at Hilbert Circle Theater in downtown Indianapolis. I was going to the concert, but this time as a performer singing Bass II in the choir. I had invited my students to the show, but Prom was that night and I knew that many of them would be going there instead. I was pleased to see seven students elected to come to the concert instead of going to Prom. After the concert I said, "You guys missed Prom?" One boy remarked, "Nah, we came over to see you and then we're going to meet up with everyone else for dinner. We didn't miss anything, we made a night of it." I talked to them for a little bit and then wished them all a good evening.
I was leaving Hilbert with my wife and some friends when I heard, "Hey - Foley!" I turned in the doorway to see a tall blonde kid with glasses in a tux standing with a pretty brunette in a classy dress. It was Bobby. He was grown up, but he hadn't changed much. He came over and said, "I hadn't heard this one; The Berlioz, I mean." I said, "It's good to see you, Bobby! Have you been coming to the symphony?"
He smiled and said, "I have season tickets."
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