The end of my time at Waikato University is coming on fast

With just 8 weeks to go until I finish at the University of Waikato Faculty of Education, the end is in sight. My last day is October 15th and I leave New Zealand on October 16th, returning January 11th. Paperwork is out to two CEOs of retirement village providers, and phone calls and face-to-face meetings are anticipated in the next four weeks. I have a delightful young family who will be house sitting for me (and my cat), which is answered prayer as much for them as it is for me.

It is almost like attending one's own funeral at the University at present, with peers and students telling me what they think and what they will miss. I set up this time away from the Hamilton Chorale at the beginning of last year. They have told me not to find a nice man o'seas and not return. My response has been that the four grandchildren in this part of the world is a stronger pull than them.

I have nine singing students for next year, aiming for a total of twenty for February. I have twenty students from the current first-year teaching training group who want lessons now, so they will happen before the end of the semester, in groups. I enjoy teaching in groups, as it is not possible to hear changes in one's own voice, but hearing the effect of technique in other people's voices helps to affirm the change in one's own sound.

So: what does 2011 look like for me?

1. Working with a retirement provider rolling out the Glee Club model into all of their villages, over a two-year period, leading to guaranteed high-quality outcomes for the participants, in addition to links with a local primary school choir, and publicity in the local press. This will involve recruiting skilled people to lead and accompany the Glee Clubs.
   
2. Singing students, individually, and in groups. Face-to-face, and via the internet,with skype &/or video conferencing
3. Working with school choirs and choir directors, face-to-face and at a distance, as with the singing students
4. Working with other people in musical settings, e.g church singing, instrumental groups, beginning conductors.

Categories two to four is what I have been doing this year already in small ways, and I do not want to lose sight of this work, as it makes a difference.

But I am passionate about taking my model into more villages, because of the multitudinous benefits to the participants, and to the other residents of the villages in which the Glee Clubs now run.

Agewise Seminar: Social Connectedness for Older People

Yesterday I attended and spoke at the above conference. I was accompanied by Val and Val. There are three 'Val's in the Hilda Ross complex and they all now sing in Glee Club, which is great. I had a class to teach first thing and left half way through the class time to get to the conference. I left them to their own devices, preparing group performance for next Thursday for assessment so they had plenty to do. I collected the Vals from Hilda Ross, and got to the conference in time for the end of morning tea, and we were able to listen to two other presentations before it was my turn. I am pleased that I am technologically adept, and was able to link my own computer into the data display, and play the two video interviews that I could not play at the Bay of Plenty presentation. In addition I was able to include some of the data from my latest survey with the Glee Club; material to do with the effect of participation in Glee Club on health, feeling of wellbeing, and quality of life.

I have got more canny at getting them to fill the surveys out for me, I invited them to my home for lunch and all they had to bring was themselves and their survey completed. This was a delightful event, that happened March 27th and will be repeated. Next time the suggestion was that it would be pot luck and that suits me down to the ground :-)

The responses were once again very positive to my presentation, and each time I present I have added to the research that supports what I am finding. I am still amazed at the strength of the comments of the respondents to the simple act of singing. In discussion with Val and Val as we travelled, and in line with the responses to multiple surveys, I have come to the conclusion as to what a successful tutor in this setting needs to be:

1. musically able, to play piano, or to have someone to play piano,
   
2. to know about singing and how to get people to sing using their voices more effectively, i.e. improving,
3. to be able to build mutually respectful relationships with the participants
4. to have high expectations of the participants' capabilities
5. to know how to have fun, to laugh and be free to laugh often