Reply To: More guys!

[nafmeadmin]

I also teach 5th and 6th grade, and I’ve had pretty good success — usually about a third of my students are boys. I started several years ago by creating a group I called “Boys’ Chorus”. I found a time in the day when I could pull ALL of the boys together (both grades) once a week for about 15 minutes. I then told them they would have their own special boys’ song on the concert. The hook was that it could be any song the group wanted — rock, rap, whatever (as long as it is appropriate for school of course, which might mean changing some words…) Depending on the tastes of the group each year we’ve done different styles — last year was Stereo Hearts (Adam Levine), the year before was Viva La Vida (Coldplay) — this year for some reason they really want to sing “Gangdam Style” (look it up on YouTube if you haven’t heard of it). We also did other things too… One year I brought in a college Men’s a cappella singing group to do a performance for the whole school; another year the H.S. Choir director brought his Men’s Choir in do an assembly. It takes a little time to build up the feeling that chorus is cool for boys, but it seems to have worked…. when I started here 8 years ago I had 19 boys in 6th grade chorus, and this year I have 50!

Of course, keeping them enrolled when they move up to 7th grade is a whole other challenge… 🙂