Bringing the ICs Together

A sign saying "Everybody loves music" hangs over the chalkboard in room 201 of Immaculate Conception School in downtown Ithaca. For nearly 30 years the students at Immaculate Conception and music education juniors from Ithaca College have been proving the truth of this statement as they help each other grow as musicians, students, and teachers.

Four days a week voice, piano, and guitar music education majors leave their lives as students on South Hill. They head downtown to assume the role of teachers at the other IC, Immaculate Conception (dubbed the lab school by Ithaca students, who benefit from getting hands-on teaching experience in their junior year — a year earlier than music education majors in most schools). They are responsible for teaching music to the 192 students in prekindergarten through eighth grade there. Teaching in the lab school program has become a rite of passage in which "junior student teachers" learn the ropes in the classroom.

"Building confidence" — Junior student teacher Caroline Rodriguez '01 and young music lovers at Immaculate Conception School Photo by Anne Woodard '81

The relationship between IC and ICS began in the early 1970s. Former professor and chair of music education David Riley first worked with children at the school through a creative music education and composition endeavor known as the Manhattanville Project. The next chair of music education, Helene Wickstrom ’38, M.S. ’61, headed up an effort to bring more far-reaching music classes to the school. Throughout the years, the lab school program has grown, with the largest recent change being the addition of prekindergarten classes. The goal of the program has stayed constant: to provide both a music- and child-centered program. "We try to have the students experience music," says associate professor Verna Brummett, coordinator of the lab school program, "and we involve them as much as possible in the music-making process."

The junior student teachers, assigned to teach a different grade each semester, are split into two groups, one of which teaches Mondays and Fridays and the other Tuesdays and Thursdays. Each day a student teacher presents a 20-minute lesson during one of three periods in one of three classrooms. When not teaching, the students observe their classmates and help out in other lessons. They are mentored by a group of supervising teachers. Brummett, professor Janet Galván, assistant professor Mark Simmons, lecturer Ellen Gillson Voth, and graduate students Tina Bachelder-Schwab ’94 and Jennifer Haywood ’94 review the student teachers’ lesson plans and offer feedback after each class. These master teachers also teach the classes at the beginning of each semester so that, as Galván says, "student teachers get to observe the way we teach and apply many of the same principles, [learning from] our different teaching personalities."

All Immaculate Conception students take general music classes from pre-K through eighth grade. The entire fourth grade participates in chorus along with some fifth and sixth graders. Other students choose to take guitar or recorder lessons. Seventh and eighth graders are also able to participate in either a boys’ chorus or girls’ chorus.

From Making Lesson Plans to Producing Concerts

At the beginning of each semester the student teachers coordinate what they plan to accomplish. They establish a repertoire to be used in achieving their musical goals. Lessons involve music from many different genres, including classical, 20th century, blues, jazz, and folk. A lot of work goes into each 20-minute class. All of the students’ and teachers’ efforts culminate in a kindergarten-through eighth grade concert and a pre-K concert at the end of the semester; the winter concert is held at ICS, the spring concert in Ford Hall in the Whalen Center. Junior student teacher Marc Webster ’01 says, "This is the best preparation I can think of for student teaching next year."

Seniors who return from their block of student teaching have similarly positive reactions to the program. Amanda Tafel ’00 looks back with gratitude for the experience: "Supervising teachers worked closely with me and helped build my confidence in my teaching ability. [Junior student teaching] gave me time to work out the nervousness of being in charge and in front of a group, so that when I went out to teach during my senior year I was ready to really teach."

The program’s success is largely due to the extensive professional experience of the supervising master teachers and the dedication of the junior student teachers. "The results of this program are phenomenal," says parent Anne Woodard ’81. "This program makes me so proud of IC." Woodard, who is also the Ithaca College bursar, sent her daughter, Allison, now 14, to ICS. Through nine years there, Allison formed close bonds with her student teachers and developed a real love for music. She has gone on to take piano lessons at IC through TIPS (teaching intern program, ICQ, 1999/no. 4) and hopes to one day be a music major at Ithaca. And perhaps someday she will return to Immaculate Conception School as a junior student teacher.