This was my first exposure to a high school orchestra. Mike Certalic seemed pretty laid back, but he definitely managed his class room well. From what I observed, he seemed well-liked.
He had a great book of classical warm-ups. I liked how he varied each warm-up from the way it was presented in the book. He would have the students play with many different bowing techniques as well as having them change the direction of their bowing in patterns (2, 3, 4, 6). This was a great way for them to practice technique while also learning to be musical. It was definitely 'killing a couple of birds' with one warm-up.
One thing that I noticed was there were a lot of students (especially in the back) that were not playing with any enthusiasm and had incredibly poor posture. Some students weren't even playing at all for minutes at a time. I never noticed that he addressed this issue at all, but maybe he is fully aware and just has to pick his battles. Overall, I enjoyed the orchestra and would be excited to teach one of my own in the future!
You are right that MC has some great orchestras.. also that some of the students were not as engaged as we would like to see. However, keep in mind that he has many groups, and the one that you observed was likely one that had some less advanced students. Take heart with the fact that they were all given the same opportunities to play in orchestra... we never know when something will "click" and one of the low achievers will suddenly become great!
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