BHS Secondary Observation

I fully accept the fact that punctuality is not my strong-suit, and thus was the case upon my observing Kelly Berdahl's band at Bozeman High. While I had every intention, as I always do, of arriving at the observation early enough to speak with Mr. Berdahl, I found myself rushing to find parking and enter his classroom as the bell starting class began to ring. Upon introducing my fellow observers and myself, Mr. Berdahl described myself as a graduate student doing research on the effects of high school students who eat donuts and drink red-bull for breakfast. This introduction provided a hearty laugh from the students, as well as additional comments from those students whose breakfasts, in fact, had consisted of sugary foods and various energy-boosting beverages. This set a atmosphere of the classroom to one of ease, and, unfortunately, non-focus. The students were very often off-task and disrupting class. Mr. Berdahl would wind his way through the chairs and instrumental sections in an apparent attempt to curb the focus, but where one section would stay on task, another would be disruptive. In fact, being as this class took place immediately after Spring Break, the first 1/3 of the class was spent sharing vacation stories, both from the students and from the instructor. While I do feel that keeping student/teacher interactions as relaxed and open as much as possible, these interactions on this particular day took up far too much class time. I'm curious how much time Mr. Berdahl had allotted for this practice, and also how much would be the "norm". Generally, the rehearsal was somewhat successful, but I feel it could have been even more so through more disciplined structure on the part of the instructor. That being said, I commend Mr. Berdahl on his ability to still accomplish general class improvement among such easily distractible students. It shows great skill on his part, and is a quality to be emulated and refined upon.