Guest Conductor's!

Recently I have had two guest conductors come in to work with my bands.  My fiance (he is also a band director and wonderful!) and a good friend from college!

Every student learns differently: auditory, visual, some have to write it down, some have to do all the above, and they are more!  As a teacher the way you explain something, even if you are explaining it or showing it in different ways, may not reach every student in your class.  Sometimes it just takes a different teacher to explain something in a different way for it to click for a student.  

As well as working with the band the guest also allows you to take a step back and really listen to your group.  It is hard to be conducting, listening for mistakes, annnnd trying to get the big picture sound all at once.  I can't even tell you how nice it is to just be able to sit back and listen to the whole group, not worrying about all the other stuff.  You hear so much more of what is happening in the music, and it gives you  the opportunity to hear if they are blending and balancing the sound. Gotta love the PYRAMID OF SOUND!

My students loved having a guest.  It shakes up the routine and gives them different things to think about and learn that they might not have gotten from me!

I know for a fact that there is only so much as individuals that we can share with our students, we only have so much knowledge...that being said I am a LIFE LONG LEARNER, I will always be learning new things from colleagues from experiences and they will help me grow as an educator.  As our knowledge grows, we can share more knowledge with our students. 

  “Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.” 

― Albert Einstein

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.” 
― Henry Ford

Music is Important

Music education is something that is extremely important to me.  1.) It's my lively hood 2.) My passion 3.) MY LIFE!

This is not true for every parent or student out there, and sometimes they come across offended that you think music is important.  I defiantly don't think music is more important than any other subject.  However, if I didn't make music important, or if I didn't care about my students getting a good musical education, what kind of teacher would I be?  Not a very good one.

This is what I write in my letter to my 4th grade parents about band:

In 5th grade band your students will learn how to play an instrument, read basic notes, rhythms, dynamics, and articulations.  They will not only be learning how to play music.  

Benefits:

Problem Solving                                                                 Self-Confidence

Teamwork                                                                             Self-esteem

Goal Setting                                                                         Concentration

Self-expression                                                                   Poise

Coordination                                                                       Time management

Memory Skills

There is so much we can teach our students through music. I remember in college someone once said, I'm not just teaching music....I'm teaching my students, once they move to the "real world", how to be good, kind, and caring citizens of the world.

This has really stuck with me (OK, ready for a cliche?) children really are our future...our future business people, teachers, doctors, politicians, and so on....
I want my future leaders to be well rounded, cultured, creative, and kind. I really believe that music is a big part of teaching that. (Defiantly not the only part!)

Lesson Planning!

The most difficult thing for me to do as a band director is write out lesson plans. 

In my opinion it is difficult for band directors to write out very detailed lesson plan months in advance when we don't truly know what parts of songs, rhythms, notes, dynamics, and articulations our students are going to need work on.  It is very much an assess as you rehearse kind of gig.

My lesson plans usually look like this:

	High School Band
Time
1:55:00	Start Warm-up: B-flat round, Concert E-flat, F, and G
2:05:00	Tune
2:10:00	Begin working on M. 35-50 in (insert song) Make sure they are paying attention to dynamics/accents
2:25:00	Move on to (next section to work on with detail on what I want to hit.
2:35:00	Run through

I take my thoughts from my score study and assessments during previous rehearsals to write my lesson plans.  I am EXTREMELY flexible when it comes to changing my lesson plans on the fly.  I've gone in to class one day and had it down that we needed to work on dynamics....then they totally nailed all the dynamics so I had to move on to what did need to be worked on.  

Generally I plan out a week, sometimes two, in advance.  Past that, it is hard to get into specifics(for me).  I do love to put major school events/deadlines/playing tests and quizzes down in advance, then work my plans around those.  

*I love having the timing on my daily plan, it allows me not to dwell on something too long. After so much time the kids get burnt out on what you are rehearsing and start to rebel :)*

I really enjoy having a big desk calendar...this allows me to look at my week, write down what I want to work on or go over with a band as I hear it in rehearsals and add it to my lesson plan for the next day.

I have a system at my school where I have to have my lesson plans online, so I don't normally us a daily/weekly lesson planner BUT......

I LOVE the Erin Condren lesson planners. 

https://www.erincondren.com/teachers-lesson-planners

They are adorable, and you can personalize what you want in it/on it!

How do you do your planning?

Kill'em with Kindness

One of my favorite classroom management practices is positive reinforcement.
It's  definitely not the only way to manage a band classroom, but it works for me :)

I try very hard to only acknowledge students that are showing the correct behavior in the classroom.  This is not to say that I don't address students that are completely misbehaving.  However, instead of yelling or scolding the kids that are talking while I am talking, I thank the students that are being quite and respectful.

You would be surprised at how many students of all grade levels then stop talking and want to be recognized for doing the right thing as well.
One of my favorite ways to get students to sit with correct posture is to say "Trombones, wow, thank you for sitting with such excellent posture today!"  Immediately following that comment, students around the room look at me and sit very straight!

I do struggle with this technique sometimes.  It is so hard to not correct every little behavior issue, I do think in the long run there will be more benefits to using positive reinforcement more!

Thoughts?

I've felt that if you dwell too much on your errors, you're dealing in the negativity of things. I don't like that. I'd rather work on the positive reinforcement, the things I did well.

Hale Irwin

Positive Attitude Tip: 
Giving positive reinforcement to others is one of the best things you can do if you want to see a change in behavior. Finding the good in something is much more effective than focusing on the negative. 

The same can be true for yourself. When you make a mistake do you beat yourself up or do you learn from the mistake. It is all in how you look at it. Keep your attitude positive no matter what or whom you are dealing with it will make your life much happier and you will accomplish more.

As Willie Nelson once said, "Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you'll start having positive results."
(From site http://www.positivequotes.org/reinforcement/)

Score Studying

Happy snow day!


I thought I would share with you how I score study.

For me score study helps with:
1.) How to conduct the song (I LOVE conducting, I have since I was a drum major in high school).


Everyone has their own conducting, score studying as we all know just helps find the dynamic changes, places to cue, ect.)


2.) Memorizing the song ,so I don't have to look down at it instead of the students.


I think this is extremely important, not only does it help you in rehearsal to know what is coming next or who to cue; It also helps your students know you are truly paying attention and helping them through the song as you are looking around at them and not your stand.


3.) Figuring out what I want to work on with my students on a given day.

          (A hard rhythm, harmony, articulation ect.)

First I get the score sit down and follow along with a recording.  After getting a feel for style, tempo, and possible trouble spots.

Then I start putting post-it notes EVERYWHERE!  Writing things down really helps me remember what I want to do and how I want to teach it.

I like the post-it's because I can always add or take away easily.

In regards to remembering: it really helps me to write my lesson plan after I do a score study.
(More to come on how I lesson plan)

I know a teacher that after the students accomplish a goal that was on a post-it they get to toss it in a jar to see how much they have accomplished.  I think if you do this consistently it would be a really good confidence booster for a group!

Let me know if you have any ideas to add :)

The Wisdom of Quotes..

So my room is pretty bland...white walls, white boards, I have one bulletin board.  I find it crazy to have a completely boring room when you are asking your students to be creative!

I had my Middle School and High School students come up with their favorite music quotes, we got some cardboard (just being thrifty) and wrote our quotes in pencil then in permanent marker.
They got creative with bubble letters and adding music notes to them!

One of my favorite music quotes when on the big one "Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything" Plato

I'm hoping that through these quotes being up everyday that my students can be inspired and create even more of a passion for playing music.

Hi!
My name is Lauren, I'm a band director in the Cincinnati, OH area.  I am beginning this blogging journey for my benefit, as well as (hopefully) yours!

Let me first start by saying..........I am a pinterest junky. There I said it!

I've recently been in a slump looking for creative ideas and just good ideas to use in the beginning, middle, and high school band classroom.  So where do I start to look? PINTEREST duh!
Unfortunately, all I could find were these adorable blogs for elementary school music, idea after idea of the most adorable lesson plans and crafts for the elementary school music room.

While I thoroughly enjoyed reading all of these, it didn't give me much help for my older kids....they would revolt if I had them do something like "dice rhythms" or put a "rhythm tree" on my bulletin board.

So I thought...while I'm not the most qualified or experienced person to be giving advice about how to run a band, but I know my stuff and I'm defiantly creative sooooo......

This blog will be a place for Band classroom ideas, music advocacy, and more :)

(Please let me know if you have any ideas or thoughts you would like to share!!)