Hempfield townlively.com
JULY 17, 2024
SERVING THE LOCAL COMMUNITIES SINCE 1954
VOL XL • NO 15
A new approach to practice BY ADRIAN ESCHENWALD
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“When We Climb Trees” explores allure of gaming and screentime BY CATHY MOLITORIS
Catch the world premiere of a youth musical, “When We Climb Trees,” at the Junction Center, 1875 Junction Road, Manheim. The show will be performed at 2 and 6 p.m. on Saturday, July 20, and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, July 21. “When We Climb Trees” tells the story of a tight-knit group of friends who struggle with the
conflict between sharing real-life adventures and succumbing to the draw of gaming devices and screentime. “This show is really about finding balance between time to play, pretend, be a kid and be with friends with the ever-present allure of screentime and gaming,” said Steven Courtney, who wrote the show. “I find it interesting to observe the youthful cast as they ‘pretend’ See Musical pg 5
as a whole piece early in the practice process, and she said it changed the way she rehearses with her own students. “I started to incorporate bigger sections early on and having different expectations in the beginning or middle stages of preparation,” Wilson added. Wilson first became interested in exploring the rehearsal process dur ing the coronavir us pandemic , due to her orchestra’s inability to practice together while in-person gatherings were suspended. Wilson recalled her own experience as a student, which often involved the frustration of not knowing how to work through the assigned material. “ Teachers told me I needed to practice for a certain amount of time, but not how to practice effectively,” Nile Wilson Wilson said. “Many students don’t practice regularly because to be very deliberate in teaching Music Education’s (NAfME) Bienthey ’re over whelmed. These students how to rehearse.” nial Music Research and Teacher are new ways of practice, and I Wilson will present her research Education Conference in Atlanta, think it’s important for teachers at the National Association for Ga., this September.
More than just a game BY ADRIAN ESCHENWALD
Rugby football is not quite like any other sport. Originating in England in the 19th century, rugby has become increasingly popular in the United States in recent years, but many Americans are still unfamiliar with the team sport. This excludes Bella Vogel of Washington Boro, a recent graduate of Cornerstone Homeschool Co-op, which operates out of Grace Baptist Church on Marietta Avenue. Vogel has an unrelenting passion for rugby. At first glance, rugby appears similar to American football;
both sports involve teams of players clashing as they attempt to carry an egg-shaped ball to the opponent’s goal post. Both sports are descendants of games commonly played in medieval Europe, but rugby is known for its intensity and matches that can turn a rugby pitch into a battlefield. “I like how aggressive and manon-man it is,” Vogel said. “When you’re on a team, it’s like a family; you’re out on the field fighting for each other. The camaraderie is different than other sports.” Vogel discovered her passion for team sports when she began Bella Vogel (left) competes in a playing soccer at the age of 5. global rugby tournament in New See Rugby player pg 4 Zealand in December 2023.
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hether you’re an athlete or a performer, the concept of practice seems to be a straightforward process with little room for variation. Basketball players convene to run drills as a team, and they are expected to work on their jump shots at home; orchestra members rehearse a piece of music as a group, and every instrumentalist must become familiar with the material beforehand. But some educators, including Hempfield School District’s secondar y orchestra director, Nile Wilson, believe it’s not about how often you practice - it’s the way you practice. As a requirement for the program Wilson is in at Auburn University to receive her doctorate in instrumental music education, she completed a qualitative study to examine how string musicians in high school learned a new piece of music. A few of Wilson’s goals
were to determine how students of varying achievement levels grasped the new material, how they measured their progress and what strategies they used to practice. Wilson worked with orchestra directors from three high schools and one youth orchestra to select 14 participants between ninth and 12th grades, and she interviewed each student about their process of learning a solo piece from the first time they read it to the actual performance. Wilson then divided the participants into three groups by achievement level: typical, proficient and elite performers. “ T he big gest sur prise was s e e ing how m a ny st ude nt s spent most of their time looking at the tiny details of the music, waiting until the last second to put everything back together,” Wilson said. “I’m guilty of it too, but it makes it hard to see the big picture.” Wilson discovered the elite performers think of their music
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