jennifer mcgill - Hanford High School

It’s been exciting watching the students gain confidence in themselves since the return. They are so joyful to be here and singing with each other. They are re-learning how to socialize and it’s inspiring to see new friendships emerging. Watching them connect with each other and the music these past few months is what matters. There are so many challenges to overcome this year. The goal in all of my classes is to have fun, reconnect, and allow students to feel comfortable singing without the anxiety of making mistakes. We wanted to have the students perform in as many events as possible (concerts, festivals, community events, etc) to expose them to a community that was shut down for so long. 

We also have an amazing Collaborative Pianist, Adam Long. His connection with the students is a joy to observe. He has a lot to offer, and the students have connected to him in a beautiful way. The highlight of spring is always the Pops Concert. I allow them to collaborate and choose the music within a theme. We learn the music and add choreography. We have been collaborating with our American Sign Language Department for over 15 years for this concert. We have a fun warm-up we do with each choir. It’s called “chocolate” and then each choir has a different food. So Womens’ Choir is Chocolate Cookies, Men’s Choir is Chocolate Donuts, Advanced Women’s Ensemble is Chocolate Brownies, and Chamber Singers is Chocolate Truffles. The warm-up has hand motions as they sing. Throughout the warm-up they have to move around the room to new partners and sing. It’s really fun and gets them up and moving. At our first concert, we’ll sing the warm-up and each choir doesn’t realize they all have a different food. They all start laughing and it eases the tension of that ‘first concert’ feeling.