A First Quarter Check-in
by Aaron Noë
Noticing the patterns
Over the summer and leading into the start of the school year, you planned, anticipated challenges, and put systems in place to help move your program forward. During the first few weeks of school, you began putting those systems and strategies into practice.
October is the perfect time to give yourself a first quarter check-in. The biggest question to ask yourself is:
What is your band still waiting for you to fix?
For example, are your students waiting…
for you to tell them when rehearsal begins?
for you to tell them to get ready?
for you to tell them when to move equipment?
The issue may not be the students. The issue may be that they have learned that you are the system (or the solution for everything).
What would happen if you stepped back?
Here’s a simple thought experiment. Imagine your typical day and think about what would happen if you didn’t intervene when the students came in the room.
Would the students enter and set up correctly?
Would the students begin warm-up procedures?
Would they have music, pencils, reeds, mutes, and equipment ready?
Would they know what is going to be rehearsed that day?
How about your student leadership?
Would they organize their sections?
Start helping younger students?
Reinforce culture?
If you answered no to some of these questions, that is exactly what a first-quarter review is designed to reveal. You now have enough experience with this year's students to see which systems are working and which ones need to be revisited, clarified, or reinforced.
Moving from dependence to Leadership
Now the objective is not to have the students run the program. But there are several responsibilities that can fall on the shoulders of the students. The role of the Band Director is to lead the band. Students should be responsible for making sure they are ready to be led.
Take some time to clarify and reinforce what students should be responsible for each day.
Be ready to make music! (e.g. have everything they need to be successful)
music, pencil, reeds, oil, etc.
they have practiced the rep they will be rehearsing.
Set & Ready to Go!
Chair in place, music stand
Run through individual warm-up routine on their own (If you don’t have this, I encourage you to develop it. It gives the students something they can focus on and gives you an opportunity to take care of attendance)
Warm-up & Repertoire on the stand, in order for the day’s rehearsal
Student Leadership knows their role
Model the daily routine
Help the first-year band members
Leadership establishes the standard. Systems make the standard repeatable. Students learn how to operate within the system.
A healthy program gradually moves routine responsibilities away from constant director intervention and gives students and student leaders appropriate ownership. Once those responsibilities are clear, the next step is to look for the problems that keep pulling you back into the middle of the process.
Which systems need to be reinforced or reevaluated?
Think back over the first quarter. What have you had to correct, remind students about, or personally fix over and over again? Those recurring problems are good places to look for systems that need to be strengthened.
Here are some examples of problems and solutions to get your program back on track with your goals.
Musical Concepts
“I keep reminding them about articulation.”
“The students keep missing a key change in one of the selections.”
Possible system: Build the articulation pattern and scale exercises into the daily warm-up activity.
Rehearsal
“They never mark their music.”
Possible system: Keep pencils on stands, build in explicit marking time, and involve student leaders in checking parts.
Logistics
“Nobody knows who moves percussion equipment.”
Possible system: Create assigned equipment crews with written responsibilities.
Communication
“Parents keep asking questions that were already emailed.”
Possible system: Use a consistent weekly communication format with the same headings each week. Something that worked well for me was including a short “In this email” section at the beginning so parents could quickly see what information was included and jump to the sections that mattered to them.
Student Leadership
“My section leaders don’t really lead.”
Possible system: Define specific weekly responsibilities rather than simply giving students titles.
Remember: Repeated problems usually don't need another reminder. They need a clear, repeatable process.
Don’t try to fix everything at once
As you're reading through this, you may identify ten or twenty things you would like to improve. You can't address all of them at once, and you don't need to.
Identify the three problems that, if addressed, would have the greatest positive impact on your program. Then prioritize them.
Start with the first one. Build a clear system around it and give students time to learn the new routine. Let that system become part of the culture before moving to the next priority.
Remember, you're building your program over time. A first-quarter review isn't about creating another long list of things to do. It's about identifying what deserves your attention next.
If you’ve identified something your program keeps waiting for you to fix, write it down. Decide what system would make it repeatable, and put the first step on your calendar. That’s the type of work The Band Director Planner was designed to help you do.
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