""Some teachers get frustrated by slang," Taryn Gontjes, who teaches choir to middle school students in Michigan, tells TODAY.com. "That's not a battle I want to fight, so I might as well use it to my advantage. Let's just embrace it and make it funny.""
""I can use a song like this as a vehicle to work on vowel shapes or sing in the right register," she says. "They learn these concepts in a silly way, but I'll translate that into a piece of music we're already working on. At that point, they're invested and ready to learn.""
""So many types of kids walk into my classroom, with various interests and passions, and it's fun to bring them together," she says. "Choir can be a lot scarier than playing an instrument - not all, but most violins and trumpets sound the same - but voices are all so different.""
A Michigan middle school choir teacher asked students to write and perform a song using current slang terms like "67," "Skibidi Ohio," "Slay," and "Rizzler." Students adapted a Dutch folksong warm-up, Sarasponda, with new lyrics and then performed the piece in class. The performance posted to TikTok under the account "That Weird Choir Teacher" and drew millions of views and repeated listens. The activity functioned as a teaching tool for vowel shapes, register, and vocal technique while increasing student investment. Choir served to bring together students with varied interests and to celebrate vocal individuality.
Read at TODAY.com
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