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VERSA
TION
CHORAL CON
S
CHORAL CONVERSATIONS

supervisor said noontime concerts for local community connect with someone who can help you. If you are not
clubs and newspaper photos of the at-risk students be- a singer and tone is not happening, partner with a voice
ing served. My response was twofold: 1) I couldn’t ask person—you’ll have to think of something valuable to
university students to miss their classes in the middle of them that can make this an equally beneficial event.
the day, and 2) I could not support newspaper photos
labeling the middle school students in the program as 5. Rule of thumb: if you drive by a school each day as
at risk. I took the grant but negotiated the terms. you go to work and you know that the program is strug-
So, if you are partnering with another group, find gling, perhaps you could connect with them in some
the people who want to solve the problems together. small way that might be helpful and that would also
Don’t let them just give you their problems, hoping allow your students to gain something as well. Don’t
you’ll solve it for them. It’s easy to say yes, but much just reach out to “save” a teacher or program that is
more challenging to remove yourself from that situa- struggling. The secret is for you to need something they
tion if it becomes negative. It really winds up not being could contribute to help you or your students. There
collaborative at all. needs to be a sense of equality, a mutual contribution
I had a wonderful partnership in place with Raa and mutual benefit.
Middle School, strongly supported by the principal, The Raa MS program was valued by the middle
music faculty, general faculty and FSU music education school students because I asked them to invest in mak-
program. We had before-school jazz, steel pans, strings, ing the FSU student teachers the best on the planet. To
and a world music choir—it was wonderful. My stu- do that, we needed middle school singers who would
dents were able to pull off their own full concerts with work hard, pay attention, and then politely verbally
Raa Middle School, and then they moved seamlessly to provide specific examples of successful teaching dur-
their student teaching because of that Raa partnership. ing that rehearsal. They knew their job was to help
me make them better and they took it seriously (and
How might we encourage those who may be they also loved having all those highly motivated young
feeling discouraged or having a hard time find- teachers trusting them to help). This school district had
ing the time for a partnership? What are the once been a fabulous place to attend but had suffered
best steps to take in a collaborative direction? student enrollment loss due to families moving farther
out to the suburbs. This FSU/Raa partnership turned
1. Make a plan. What do you want to accomplish? Is the school around. Anyone requesting to attend was ac-
there a problem, or do you want to add something to cepted, and more than 100 academically moderate to
your choral program that would benefit your program very strong students transferred to the school for the
or your students? arts enrichment provided by FSU College of Music.

2. Start small so you can control most things that might Has advocacy for the choral art played a role in
make you miserable as you learn from mistakes. your career? How do we explain to the general
population (to parents, administrators, and our
3. Adopt-a-Choir (AAC) is easy to do. I’ve had many audiences) that we are a naturally collaborative
former students set up a short-term, combined event field and we provide more than excellent mu-
with feeder programs. A teacher in South Carolina de- sic?
cided to create AAC with middle school singers and
volunteer singers in a nursing home. Most any com- I don’t consider myself particularly strong as a pro-
bination of singers can be adopted if approached in a fessional advocate—I don’t think I do that very effec-
tactful, diplomatic way. tively. During my career at Florida State University, I
found my colleagues involved in the Florida Music Ed-
4. If your choral program is not currently thriving, then ucators Association (FMEA) to be amazing advocates,

50 CHORAL JOURNAL October 2024 Volume 65 Number 3