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Open Auditions
Community Choirs of Huntington County OPEN AUDITIONS August 25. Please share. https://childrenschoirofhuntingtoncounty.org/open-auditions/
This has happened twice, and I didn’t like it the first time either
This has happened twice, and I didn’t like it the first time either.
Several years ago, toward the end of a lunch period, there was a threat called into the school that resulted in the entire 1500 student/staff population’s immediate exit from the building. We were instructed to go to the football stadium. It was a bright, sunny day and we sat in the stadium until dismissal, about two hours later.
It was a mess as parents started coming to pick up students, but all the computer equipment with identification and information on students/parents was in the vacated building. A lot was learned for future.
I’m bald. I have a collection of hats I used for outside rehearsals. I didn’t have a hat for this event and my head burned moderately significantly. It went from embarrassingly red to sore and finally to flaking. I wasn’t happy about any of it. I posted on my personal social media site, something like this:
When they find out who did this, I hope they affix that person to the flag pole in the front yard and give us all an opportunity to walk by and expressure our displeasure.
The next day I was called to an admin office where I was mildly scolded with,
We all feel like what you said — but you can’t say that.
He was right. I deleted my post and that was the end of it…..except for wondering who saw fit to copy my post and take it to the office. Was it a teacher? I don’t know for sure, but I wasn’t happy about who it was, and glad I never found out.
Then, this week…
…I get a letter from the City
“It was recently brought to the department’s attention that you upgraded your electrical panelboard without first obtaining an electrical permit.”
When we hired a contractor to install a new HVAC system, he reported that he had trouble getting our 1950’s vintage “pushmatic” breaker box to engage and recommended we consider replacing it. I brushed it off as an “upsell”, but two days later, our neighbor’s house was completely totalled (on the inside) when their breaker box malfunctioned.
I immediately contacted my HVAC contractor to ask him to go ahead and replace my breaker box. He sent an electrician. I was happy with the results and posted them.
I want to do the right thing. I worked with my contractor, the city, the city’s inspector and another contractor to make everything legal, correct and safe with the City.
My frustration….
…is with people who need to “turn me in” instead of communicating with me directly.
Rant over.
This has happened twice, and I didn’t like it the first time either Read More »
BioBand Camp Prank: Marching Band and Fire Truck
I posted the picture below and got feedback asking how we did that…. so below the pic are some steps and suggestion.
Additional pictures below.
My father was a 32-yr fire fighter and I spent much of my childhood around the firehouse. Some things you may not realize:
- Firefighters are community minded people — many are coaches for summer league sports, but genuinely interested in helping students.
- The 1000 gallons of water carried in a pumper truck needs to be flushed/recycled periodically.
- Firefighting professionals need practice – training in controlling and directing high pressure water flow. What better target than a bunch of teenagers.
- Most have a cool sense of humor.
- There is a hierarchy of command and approval in a fire department.
- You can’t just park or hide a heavy fire truck just anywhere.
- Consideration has to be made as to where that 1000 gallons of water is going to go.
- Instruments, electronics, wallets, some eyeglasses, etc…. won’t deal well with that much water.
- Without a legitimate way of opting out, which can’t really be announced in advance, you are taking some risk with parents….
- Consider the effect on thin, white t-shirts.
- Solicit help from a couple highly-trusted parents. (towels, etc)
- We’re talking about a huge amount of water and a significant amount of wet.
- What happens next?
- Don’t just call 9-1-1.
Planning
Plan it for the end of a day. You’re not going to get anything done afterward. But also, consider that your students are going to be incredibly wet….. and putting them immediately in their parents cars might not be the best idea either. Consider having some fun and games …. or snacks after.
Have a backup day — obviously you can’t do it on a rainy day.
Coordinate with the Fire Department. Ensure you’re talking to the right people. It will take at least the person in charge of a particular fire house to oversee the specific event and he may need to get approval from higher-ups. This is not a normal request they get. Allow time for some inter-departmental communication and approval.
Where? My original intent was to hide the fire truck and have it shoot water over the corner of our high school onto a totally unsuspecting group of teens. That didn’t work. The FD informed me that the truck would tear up any grass and also that there would need to be consideration of where the water would go, aka a drain. Unfortunately for us, that meant parking the truck in the middle of the school parking lot with no way that the students wouldn’t at least see it before something happened. So how do you get 100 students to get close enough to a fire truck? Keep reading.
Get school approval. At least inform your principal what you are doing so that if he/she receives phone calls, there will at least be knowledge of the event.
Protect the electronics, wallets, etc.
- You must convince students to remove cell phones, iPods, mp3 players, etc from their pockets. Also wallets and anything else that a lot of water could damage. How do you do that without telling them why? Keep reading.
- You must keep all that stuff safe. Have a way to guard it.
The Prank
The day before.
Some of you are starting to get red (burned) out here….including through some really thin t-shirts. It is supposed to be hot and sunny tomorrow and I’d like to ask that you consider wearing something other than a thin, white t-shirt.
Call a couple trusted band parents and ask if they can bring a collection of old towels. In case they are going to borrow from someone, ensure them that nothing will happen to damage the towels. If you must, and you can, tell them what is going on.
The day of.
Make sure everything is okay with the FD.
If you happen to be outside, be sure to have a reason to come inside for a few minutes prior to the arrival of the fire department.
- The music isn’t going well and you want an impromptu inside rehearsal or sectional.
- The marching isn’t going well and you are going to take them inside and give them the what for.
- You’ve noticed a problem with electronics and want to deal with it.
Find a place to line the band up in a parade-block type setting where they cannot see the truck. We planned behind a corner of the building.
Put on your mean face…..and throw a temper tantrum that goes something like this:
Ok band, it is time for some fundamental marching. Set you instruments down in the grass over there. And while you’re at it, put all cell phones, watches and electronics with your instrument. I want none of that on the field. Don’t worry, these parents will watch your stuff until you have marched this block all the way around the building. How many times around depends on YOU!
There will be a lot of questioning and maybe even some complaining. Remember, you must get all the electronics out of their clothing.
Now line up. Shrink the interval to 2-steps. Two steps across, two steps front to back. You’re going to be so tight that a mis-step is going to be problematic….so you need to focus, listen to commands and get everything else out of your mind, GOT IT?
As you march around the corner, they will see the truck, but if you are sufficiently convincing, they will be concentrating more on calming you down with absolute compliance. Consider starting and stopping them a couple times.
As they get in range…. STOP and correct alignment or something. And then…
(click any image to enlarge)
Afterwards, allow them to go back to get their stuff…..have the parents who were guarding it hand out some towels. Consider a few minutes of activity in the sunlight to also help dry out the clothes a little. You may hear comments like:
I don’t get this wet when I jump into a swimming pool.
Thanks for reading.
Band Camp Prank: Marching Band and Fire Truck Read More »
Is it ever ok for a teacher to LOVE students?
There is more to school life than what happens during the academic day. Some academic teachers are also coaches or extracurricular sponsors. Coaches develop strong bonds with their athletes. Music and theater arts teachers spend considerable extracurricular time with students – evenings, weekends, summers. These teacher/student relationships are significant and life long impacting.
Is it ever ok for a teacher to LOVE students?
In a reunion with some of the students from my first teaching job, as they were sharing memories, one person put it this way:
“Come back to teach the students of the students you taught.”
I expected to hear some of the heart-warming stories and did, but one comment caught me off guard a little. As one was listing attributes he appreciated, he included…..
“…and your smile.”
What teachers do you remember most 10-20-30 years out, and for what do you remember them?
Band is the ultimate team.
Unlike a basketball team with its starting five, there is no bench in band. Everybody is in. Everybody is a starter. Few other types of groups will involve people from such varied backgrounds. There are children of doctors and lawyers performing with children of single-parents working multiple jobs or utilizing government help. There are the students who have their own cars and those who need rides, those with the iPhones and the free phones or no phone. You will find students in most bands from every church in the community and others who have never been inside a church.
High school provides a memorable time for teens and parents to be on the same team before graduation and the empty nest.
If only it were like that for all teens.
At this most critical time in their decision-making years, if teens can’t find love, acceptance, encouragement and support from parents, teachers and mentors, they will search for it elsewhere, often with disastrous results leaving them with consequences that change lives and crush dreams.
But even more than TEAM, band is FAMILY…
Most high school athletic teams are together for a “season” — maybe six weeks with a few more for preparation. Band meets in the summer, including band camp which can be 8+hours a day. Then there is every day at school with additional rehearsals in the evenings, plus the Friday football/basketball game and the Saturday competition.
…and more functional than some.
As I stood outside Door 34, she jumped out of the passenger side of the car and ran past me, teary-eyed, crying,
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
As she went by I saw the papa, for the first time, approaching me and angrily waving a piece of paper.
“How much of this schedule is mandatory?”
I paused, if only for a moment as I thought through his reaction to my answer…
“All of it.”
After grumbling something that I probably couldn’t repeat, he returned to the car and didn’t quite lay rubber in his exit. The daughter was waiting in my office, still crying and apologetic. I hugged her. How does such a sweet daughter have a parent like that?
There are loving parents who are working 2-3 jobs each, going to school and dealing with the challenges of large families – and it is somewhere between difficult and impossible for them to spend a lot of time at football games, parades and competitions. I get that. But what do you say to this parent?
“We need to pull [Benjamin] out of band because he won’t clean his room and he needs to learn respect. He loves band and so this is the only valuable thing we can take away to make our point.”
Or this one?
“Why should I pay money for her to spend time spinning a flag. There are no colleges that will offer scholarships and besides, what job is that going to prepare her for?”
Or to these students?
“Can you please give me something to do. I’ll straighten the library….anything….just don’t make me go home.”
“I have a job so I can earn the money for my band fee, and I keep hiding it, but my mother keeps finding it and taking it.”
“I have to quit music lessons. My dad found out I was using some of my job money for music lessons and says that if I am going to waste my money on that – I can start paying rent.”
“Please don’t try to introduce yourself to my dad. Please don’t. Please, please, please don’t. He is not a nice man.”
I want to share the LOVE they may be missing.
Educationally, the L-word is dangerous. Administrations encourage admiration and respect, but love is conspicuously absent. Understandable. Inappropriate teacher student relationships make national news and destroy lives. Elementary teachers can hug students, but by middle school it is to be a touchless relationship. I disagree.
Sometimes an appropriate touch, handshake, high five, tap on the shoulder or even a hug – can be powerfully effective in mentoring, consoling or encouraging. It doesn’t have to be physical. It can be listening and responding when others won’t.
C.S. Lewis in his book, The Four Loves, divides the Greek vocabulary for “love” into four categories: Storge (στοργή storgē) -affection, Philia (Philia (φιλία philía) – friendship, Éros (ἔρως érōs) – romantic love, and Agápe (ἀγάπη agápē) – charity.
None of those match completely what I’m trying to define. Storge (affection) can include the physical. Philia (i.e. Philadelphia – brotherly love) comes close but can include the sexual. Éros is obviously not appropriate, and Agápe, often interpreted as the love between Christians is also close, but gets into spiritual and that is not quite it either.
I “L” my students with a parental type. I see their potential and their youthful enthusiasm and I love that. I love their willingness to share with me things that they can’t comfortably share anywhere else.
“You are always the one to trust with issues like this because you treat us like people and not just another bunch of “teenagers”.”
I ADMIRE students who…
- pay band fees out of a paycheck
- pay for private instruction lessons out-of-pocket
- seem completely self-supporting (clothes, obligations)
- apologize for the way their parent(s) behaved
- juggle the extra rehearsals and activities with job and homework — and go for the best grades without parental encouragement or expectation
- keep a positive attitude when others have parents involved and but they don’t
Nobody said life is fair. Those who endure hardships can be the better for it later. Trust me on that. As the oldest of five children raised in a single parent family by a polio surviving mother (and if you have no idea what that means, thank God), I understand poverty, but also how to work through it, with it, around it, and above it …. so cut me some slack when I don’t expect less from the less fortunate.
Students often impress me with friend choices and for the way they support and encourage each other. It is moving to see how friends and band members surround one who is hurting, physically or emotionally. With proper relationships established, teachers can be included in, or involved separately in similar support and encouragement – even of some personal issues.
I RESPECT students …
- who work through moderate pain or discomfort without complaint
- who have the musical ability to thrive, but can’t get the new instrument, or the private lessons, or go to the summer camps….or even stay in band, because of a parent who doesn’t see the value of band or color guard
- expect more of themselves than their parents do
- endure custody battles and try not to allow it to interfere with band
I hope these students appreciate how hard I try to make their situations work out.
And we have students whose parents are their biggest cheerleaders and amazing supporters…..
- helping them earn the highest of Boy or Girl Scout honors
- supporting their garage band
- encouraging out of country mission trips
- inspiring them to pursue the same vocation as the parent
- or spending countless hours volunteering for band (committees, sewing, cooking, feeding, chaperoning, driving, etc)
We have CARING students who….
- stand outside Wal-mart when it is below freezing to ring bells and play Salvation Army brass ensemble music
- volunteer in nursing homes and with church youth groups in a host of different types of volunteerism
- help raise money for those sick and injured
I am a retired high school teacher who appropriately loves, admires, and respects students.
Is it ever ok for a teacher to LOVE students? Read More »
Music Teacher Unreasonable (?) Expectations
Three things prompted this post:
- The Meme (below) about putting students on a stage, because….
- Our Christmas Concerts are next Fri/Sat, and
- A recent discussion involving music teachers and an administrator
In a recent Professional Development event discussion involving middle and high school music teachers and an administrator, one of the question prompts had to do with what we expect from our students. The admin was mildly surprised when the nearly immediate response from multiple music teachers was – 100%. I saw him write that response in his notes.
But it is true. I’ve shared this video before, but it is a good demonstration of our level of expectation from our students. In a math or english class, for example, if you miss one out of one hundred, that is still a high ‘A’. When this director gives everyone in the band the opportunity to miss one (only one) note, you can hear the tragedy. Then he goes for the second note, which would still be a high ‘A’ in any other class.
Music Teacher Unreasonable (?) Expectations Read More »
Band Students Make Better Employees
By John Gardner
Teens are looking for part-time jobs during high school. Common is the parental directive that he must at least pay the insurance and for the gas to drive the family car — or to purchase her own vehicle.
The challenge, for both the student and the employer is the complexity of band student’s schedule.
Band students make better employees and employers find the payback for working around rehearsal and performance schedules is a win-win for the business too.
Marching bands start training right after school is out in the Spring, if not before. During these early sessions, a challenge is to keep the newbies from giving up.
After enjoying top-of-the-heap status in middle school they start high school marching band at the bottom of the section with the lowest status and the least seniority. New skill requirements include memorizing music, horn angles, posture and feet-with-the-beat. Never before have they had to endure high temperature rehearsals that last 2-3-4 hours at a time, often standing with water and restroom breaks few and far between. Everybody (directors, staff, section leaders, seniors, upperclassmen) is telling them they’re messing up and pressuring (hopefully constructively) them to “get it”. They are thrust into a whole new level of physical activity with a strict discipline code. Some will quit and most will think about it as they try to answer the question, “What did I get myself into?”
“Band will be fun. It is fun being together during the football games, on the buses for those long trips, and for hours at competitions. But before you get to the fun part, you have to pay the price…..and there is no short cut, no easy way out, no discount. Pay the price and enjoy the results.”
By the time they are old enough to get a job, they have learned to pay the price. They have seen the benefits of dedication and are willing to commit to a job. Band students won’t quit the job because the manager gives them criticism because they understand that is what makes them better. And they learn that striving for excellence is a worthy goal.
Band students understand dedication, commitment
and that striving for excellence is a worthy goal.
——————–
At the age they are joining marching band, teens are battling with balancing the reality that they are not quite adults with the increasing desire for freedom, responsibility and individuality. Some rebel against parents, push back against teachers and are super-sensitive to peer-criticism. And yet, marching band requires they give up individual freedoms for the good of the cause, makes them earn responsibility and tells them they have to look, act and behave like everybody else – uniformity.
The first time they are thrust into a fast-paced, pressurized workplace environment, teens from the general school population will be more likely to throw a tantrum, quit — or get fired. Not band students.
Band students understand the value of,
and respect for chain of command.
——————–
Students are together in lots of different classroom mixes, but only for fifty minutes on school days for a semester or two. Band students can be together for 10-15 hours Monday through Thursday, plus 3 hours for a Friday night football game and 14 hours for a Saturday rehearsal/competition. Couples break up, personalities don’t mesh, they come from different parts of town and with different family and economic situations — but they learn to work together, a skill many non-band teens and a lot of adults never develop.
As I talk to teens (and even many of their parents), one of the most common reasons to quit a job is because of relationships with co-workers. Band students will be even more frustrated with the mediocrity and lack of cooperation and weak work ethic they will find in the workplace, but they will commit to making it work.
Band students know how to cooperate
and collaborate with those from
different backgrounds and capabilities.
——————–
In a part-time work environment there will be competition for hours, raises, promotions and responsibilities. The tendency is to look out for self and to heck with the other guy. Students compete within a band but they want everyone to do well. They compete with other bands but will wish them good luck as they pass on the way to the competition field. They will applaud for other bands – even those that beat them. Band students are team players and they understand sportsmanship.
Band students learn good sportsmanship.
——————–
By the time they’re ready for that first job (students usually turn 16 during sophomore or junior year), band students have already learned patience as marching band staff is teaching or fixing drill; perseverance and endurance through extreme temperatures, long rehearsals and so much more we teacher types throw at them.
They understand, through the system of seniority in most bands, that they will need to prove themselves and demonstrate strong work ethic to earn leadership positions or, when they get a job, a raise.
Band students learn patience,
perseverance and endurance.
——————–
There is often a penalty for arriving late to a band rehearsal. When I was in a marching band, it was a lap around the field per minute late. Some bands use push-ups — or job assignments. Arrive late today and you get to take the water to the field tomorrow. And because there are always new things happening in a rehearsal, missing is never an option. Some bands will make you an alternate for an unexcused absence. So when band students get a job with a schedule, they are there — and on time.
Band students learn the value
of attendance and punctuality.
——————–
Bands rehearse scores of hours per minute of marching band show. Stretches, running and endurance exercises, fundamentals (yes, they already know how to march, right?) and then sets of drill over, and over. Do they get tired? Absolutely, but they understand the price of success and that there are no shortcuts to achieving it.
Band students learn that there are
no shortcuts to success.
——————–
Most years, prior to the final competition of the season, we allow seniors to talk to the band. They say a variety of things, but there are two predominant themes: 1) Band is family, and 2) band taught them responsibility with accountability.
Band students learn
responsibility and accountability.
——————–
Where, outside of public education, is the focus on making the student (or employee) feel good about themselves at the expense of excellence? We read about schools eliminating valedictorians and class rank or even grades, so lower achievers don’t get a negative vibe.
When my child was in first grade, the education fad of the day was a program called “writing to read”, where the emphasis was on the child being able to read whatever they wrote. Spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc…. were not corrected. Teachers emphasized that a child reader would have a higher self-esteem.
Students who have gone through a feel-good system can hit a brick wall when they get to college or into the workforce. Good band directors instill in their students that a healthy self-esteem comes through achieving excellence. In that pursuit, however, the student learns to accept criticism from directors, staff, seniors and section leaders – and they are willing to pay the price to get the prize. Here is a post I wrote about Excellence and Self Esteem.
Band students learn that self-esteem
is raised by achieving excellence
——————–
Because of their extreme rehearsal schedules on top of homework and, especially with the responsibilities of a job, band students develop good time management skills.
Band students develop time management skills
——————–
Band students make better employees. Hire them.
Band Students Make Better Employees Read More »
May I Grovel For Your Services?
By John Gardner
I had five music students studying individually with me at the small, liberal arts university. I had a signed adjunct faculty contract for the upcoming year.
The person who asked me to sign the contract called and asked me to come in. It sounded serious.
“We need you to voluntarily let us cancel your contract. You will not have any students this year.”
They had negotiated with a “Performance Major” student to come, but part of that negotiation included that the student would study with the principal on that instrument from the local professional orchestra.
But, when they went to the instrumental instructor, the instructor refused to make the trip for one student. He wanted all of them. To get all of them, the music department needed me to give up my contract. It was a signed agreement, so I needed to do so on my own. Of course, there were apologies.
I did.
In a relatively short amount of time, the performance major changed majors and sold her instruments. Another changed majors and dropped instrumental lessons. And a third was threatening to do so.
And then…..
…..they were back to a number the instructor was not willing to work with.
I got a call from the Department Chair asking me to come in. Mad, hurt, disappointed and convinced I’d never work with the university again, I went.
After knocking and entering, he got out of his chair, down on his knees with hands in praying position — and crawing on his knees toward me as he asked,
“May I grovel for your services?”
At the first private lesson with a student who studied with me prior to the contract cancellation, I noticed several tick marks next to several of the exercises in the book she was working from. When I asked what those were all about,
“He would tell me to play each of these ten times each and then come to the practice room where he had gone to practice.”
I was furious — not with the student. That instructor was banned from the campus.
May I Grovel For Your Services? Read More »
Dr. William Revelli
William Revelli was a legendary Director of Bands at the University of Michigan for decades. I didn’t know that when he stepped on the podium to rehearse the high school clinic band I was in at the Morehead State University. There were six bands. I was in the top (Honor) band and had earned the first chair. That was a pretty big deal — and so was he.
Two remembrances of that Honor Band experience. These are the only two things I remember. I can’t tell you what we played or anything else. But these made a lasting imprint.
At precisely the start time for the rehearsal, Dr. Revelli stepped onto the podium, introduced himself, pointed to two empty chairs and asked that they be removed. Some of us could see the two girls walking quickly toward the stage via the auditorium isle. When they got the the stage, Revelli asked what they were doing.
“We’re in this band.”
“No. You’re not. There are no more chairs.”
“What are we supposed to do?”
“Go tell someone to put you in a different band.
My rehearsal has already started.”
And then, he turned to ME and asked me to stand. He asked my name and turns to the band and introduces me as their Concert Master. And then, he asked me to play a tuning note. I did.
After a pause, he asks me to play it again. I did.
“No, play the same note you played the first time.”
(He was saying I didn’t match my first pitch.)
“I can do that.”, said the 4th chair clarinet guy
“No, you cannot. You are not the Concert Master.”
And then, rehearsal proceeded.
Dr. William Revelli Read More »