Madison Gehr – Music Education Internship

My name is Madison Gehr and I am currently doing a music internship at Garden Spot High School. My internship is during the second block of the school day from 8:55 to 10:15. I also take it upon myself to show up early for the first block class. My day begins with the middle school band. I take daily attendance before helping some students with their instruments. I was also given the privilege to direct and conduct one of our holiday songs for the upcoming Christmas concert! My day in the middle school band isn’t always the same. Sometimes I work with the students on the song that I am conducting, other times I can play the euphonium with the band. I love learning instruments, and since we did not have a tuba or euphonium I took it upon myself to teach myself how to play the instruments.

Once the middle schoolers leave at 7:55 I have around an hour to do tons of other things. Sometimes it is spent practicing instruments and doing random tasks for Mrs. Bennici and Mrs. Lerrick. I often also use that time to prepare for the following day or week with the song that I am conducting with the middle school band! Following that I head over to the chorus room to help with the specialized music classes! Each day is a little bit different from what we do with the class, but it always starts with me singing a hello song and playing the ukulele. Then we get into body percussion, stomping, clapping, snapping, and patting our laps is what we often use for those songs. Recently we have been introducing different instruments to the kids, so we talk about them before giving a little show of what the instruments are and what they sound like. Then we do a few more fun activities to wrap up before playing or listening to our goodbye song! With that song, we always sing along and do fun movements to engage the group!

With my internship there are never necessarily projects to do for it, but what I would currently consider a project is working with the students on the song I am conducting. It is called Count Rockula, a fun song for the kids to play and show off their skills. I think that I would consider that my current project because it is really what the kids are all working towards for their concert. While working on that song I have to purposefully plan to make sure I have things ready to work on, so lots of my time is spent planning things I want to work on. Whether that’s rhythm, dynamics, articulation, and tons of other things!

This internship has given me loads more experience for the future. My plans have not changed in the slightest and I still plan on working towards becoming a band director in the future. It has given me tons of insight into how much work is put into working with the kids and making the experience enjoyable and memorable! It has also given me tons of time and experience to learn new instruments and broaden my knowledge of how to play them! All in all, I think it is an amazing experience and would recommend it!