I Wanna Be...

This past Sunday, November 24th, was the final day of UMK, and they presented their play titled Thankful.  The previous Wednesday they did a run through of the entire play from beginning to end, and it was swell!  Ms. Kristen and Bailey had created "cheater" posters with the song lyrics just in case any child forgot, but throughout the rehearsal I rarely saw any child look at them.  As you can tell from the photo below, there were quite a few poster boards, and each poster board had lyrics on the front and back.

"Cheater" Boards

There were a few small jobs that the leaders had to do throughout the performance.  My job throughout the play was to flip the poster boards as the songs were playing, Bailey had the position of leading the hand signs, and Kristen was in charge of behavior, making sure that the children were being good as they performed.  As stated earlier, the children rarely looked at the posters, and they rarely looked at Bailey who led the hand signs.  It was great that they didn't need much help, it proved to me that they truly put in the effort of learning the songs and hand signs.

If you look closely, you can notice the music stands.

What really surprised me the most from the entire performance was how well each child knew their lines from the script.  We had two music stands positioned in front of where the children would stand, and each music stand had a script on it for the children who had speaking parts.  On Wednesday there were only a few children who needed to use the music stands to read their parts, but when Sunday rolled around we almost didn't need the music stands.  The play started at 5 pm, and we had the children arrive at 4 pm in order to have enough time to practice.  Me, Bailey, and Kristen took individual groups to rehearse their "acts" and give some encouragement.  This was probably my favorite part throughout that Sunday night; being able to see the joy and excitement on the children's faces before the performance, they were so excited to sing and perform for their family and friends!  During the hour of practice time we allowed the children to practice on the microphones, and this was a great relief because I could tell that every child who had a speaking part had their parts completely memorized.

My view from the posters.

As people filed into the sanctuary, we gathered the children and had them sit on the first few pews.  At five o'clock the preschoolers, who are in a different group then we are, performed one short song called God Is Bigger.  Once they moved from the alter, the UMK group moved into position and the performance started.  The entire performance was fantastic!  The children did their best and the audience seemed to love it.  One of my good friends came to the performance, and afterwards she told me that she got teary eyed because of how adorable they were and how great they did.

Overall this project has been one great professional learning experience.  I've taught a few band camps and given lessons in the past, but I've never experienced putting together and running a small play such as this.  The main age groups I've always worked with have been 6th through 12th grade, so working with such a young age group has helped expand my teaching and leadership skills.  My methods of behavior management and music teaching had to change in order to reach this group of young minds.  I could no longer just "explain" the how-to's of music, I had to figure out a way of teaching music that was fun, memorable, and engaging.  With the help of Kristen and Bailey from FUMC, I was able to have a great experience working with an amazing group of kids, and was given the opportunity of co-teaching/leading a project that took a couple months to put together.  This project has confirmed one of my life goals I've dreamed of; the dream of being a music leader/children's leader in a church setting.  A BIG thank you to everyone who has supported me and constantly encouraged me throughout my music career!!!!  I wouldn't be here without you all!

Kristen Schwartz and I

Twenty Days to Go!

I'm so proud of each and every child in UMK!  There are exactly twenty days left before they perform for the entire congregation of Murray First United Methodist Church, and we've already started working on the script.  Ms. Kristen, Bailey, and I, have assigned twenty-two students with speaking parts.  These speaking parts are only a few lines each, some children only having a line of small scripture to enhance the music.  The script as a whole is roughly four pages, so I believe that the children will be able to have their lines memorized by November 24th.  For the past month and a half we have been solely focusing on the music, but the normal Sunday/Wednesday schedule has been rearranged to acclimate time to practice and rehearse the speaking parts, and put the entire production together.  The Bible teaching portion for small groups has been moved from twenty minutes down to fifteen minutes, and all small groups will now be gather for the last forty-five minutes to completely focus on the production.  I'm really looking forward to how the children will do, and I have faith that they will be able to pull everything off.

(The original field experience sheet for hours)

I've really been learning a lot with this project; like early childhood management and production organization.  Each week I have noticed some improvement with the songs, and am eager to see the final production.

To the right is the sheet I have been using to keep log of every hour I've put into this project.  It's actually the sheet that we use in Practicum, but I thought it would be a good format to keep track of hours for this project.  I would have scanned this in earlier, but it's very difficult to use a scanner at the Waterfield Library...they're always taken!  That aside, I've put almost 30 hours into this project, and still counting; but in my mind it's not the hours that count, it's the experience of working alongside talented leaders and passionate children.

Last night during full group time we did an entire run through of the production, and I'm very proud of where the children are right now.  Quite a few of them already have their lines memorized and are speaking up, all while using motions!  The majority are still reading directly from the script.  After the kids left for small groups me and Kristen talked about what we could do over the next few weeks to help encourage the kids to speak up.  I suggested that we remind them on Wednesday to keep there heads up,..."chins up!"...and to speak like you're yelling "hey mom!".  Hopefully these small reminders will help them to speak their lines more confidently in a few days.

Kristen reminding the group of the rules, and to remain quite during speaking parts.

I've also noticed that most of the group has every song and the motions that go along with them memorized!  We have had the power points up and running during the songs as reminders of the lyrics, but in all honesty, they probably didn't even need them.

We will be meeting five more times over the next few weeks to clean up everything and get it running more smoothly.  I unfortunately won't be able to make it next Wednesday due to PASIC, but Bailey will be helping out that day.  I LOVE this type of involvement!  Looking forward to the performance!

“I will praise God’s name with song and exalt 

Him with thanksgiving" - Psalm 69:30