Happy New Year! Resolutions (no… they’re GOALS!) for the Professional Band Geek
It’s the New Year! The big holidays are behind us. Marching Season seems like a distant past (...ok, maybe not…). And we are about to return to our bands re-energized and ready for a new challenge. And as we prepare to head back, we are thinking of all the things we want to accomplish in the new year. It’s time to make our New Year’s Resolutions! So how do we decide what resolutions are going to be successful? First piece of advice? We don’t make resolutions, we make GOALS!
Grading is fun!!! Not really… It pretty much sucks…
Grading in the band room can be difficult. It is not easy to quantify what a band director teaches. Our instruction time is vastly different from our colleagues in the Math, English, and Science departments. In those classrooms, students will receive a lot of grades for daily assignments, pop quizzes, tests, homework assignments, etc. With so many assignments, it’s not uncommon for these teachers to have 40 or more graded assignments in a given grading period. A lot of band
The Lesson Plan and the Band Class
As we move into the new school year, Wind Conductor thought it would be helpful to identify some of the terminology found in most Lesson Plan Templates and how those terms relate to the wind band classroom. Objectives: As you choose the music for the school year, consider the level of playing for your ensemble and where you would like to see them perform. Think of some of the great pieces written for Wind Band. Think which pieces are immediately accessible by your ensemble,
Most of your band parents have no idea what you are doing!
In a recent survey, Wind Conductor asked band directors (Middle School, High School, & College) to survey their students to see how many band parents were former band geeks. We heard back from over 500 responders and the results were surprising! Only 15% of the students reported that both parents were in band. That means 85% of your band has one or more parents who never took band! Check out these results: Upon first glance, it’s not so jarring. Less than half of the band
