Musical Musings

I don’t even know what to title this…disappointment rageness?  I don’t even know…

Today I got an email from the middle school principal.  Next year there will be no 6th grade general music or 6th grade band.  Instead, because of a new required computer keyboarding class and common core stuff, there will only be “intro to instruments”.  All 6th graders have to take it, whether they want to do band or not, and they only get it once a week.

How am I supposed to grow a band program when they’re refusing to give me any time with beginners? 

In this situation, I will have to spend more time with discipline and classroom management for the kids who don’t want to be there, which is time I can’t afford to spend when I only see the classes once a week.  The kids who want to be there won’t learn anything in that amount of time to prepare them for 7/8 mixed band.  The kids this year who get it twice a week have only just gotten to 8th notes!  How am I supposed to prepare beginners for 7/8 band when I have to spend most of my time managing the ones who don’t want to be there?

If this keeps up, 6th grade band will eventually phase out and 7/8 mixed band (because there’s no time to have a separate class for each) will be beginners mixed with kids with one year experience, which will essentially mean 7th and 8th grade will just be beginner band twice - because I can’t just let the beginners flounder along with the kids who have a year.  And then those 8th graders will get to the high school with barely a beginners amount of experience, and will be so far behind.  We’ll have to lower the level that the high school band performs at.  Which is exactly the opposite of what I’m supposed to be doing - *growing* the program.

Not to mention, none of the kids who are forced into “band” will want to rent or buy their own instruments, and there is no way we have enough instruments for all of them to borrow.  There is no way!

I sent an email back right away trying to explain all of this, but I haven’t heard anything back. 

I am just so frustrated with all of this.  I had so many plans and ideas for both general music and 6th grade band for next year and now I’m just going to be starting from scratch again. 

Top 10 Things No One Tells You About Becoming a Teacher

Lack of Motivation Again….

It’s so close to the end.  Most of the other schools in the state are having finals this week.  We aren’t having finals until next week, so we’re here for an extra week.

I feel like I have lost all motivation.  Concert is done, so aside from graduation there is nothing to practice for immediately.  I have no idea what to do with choir - I’m gonna have to do something though because there’s been some questionable behavior happening during all this “free time” I’ve been giving them.  I’ll figure out something….people are just gonna lose some allowances they’ve been having.  :-/

Before I’m able to leave for the summer/get my final check I have to turn in a bunch of things and take care of some stuff.  One of those is turning in my grades and lesson plan book…Any plans I’ve emailed to my principal are accounted for… however, anything else I’ll have to type up and turn in….which is a problem because the whole first half of the year (like until almost December…) I didn’t realize I had to turn in lesson plans, so I just notated things on paper to use for myself.  I’ve also had some off weeks this half of the year… so I think that means I’ll have to try to find those handwritten notes from the first half and type up lesson plans for all those weeks ago.  Blargggg…

I don’t know, maybe I’ll ask my principal if that’s really what I have to do… maybe there’s a way around it?

In other news, tomorrow is 5th grade band day, where all of the upcoming 6th graders get to come and hear the band play and see all the instruments and hear me try to convince them to join band.  Which will be hard.  I don’t know what to tell them…

Then tomorrow after school is instrument try-out time for kids who are going to take band net year.  That should be fine…I just don’t know what to expect.

Ugh, I should not be so stressed out, the concert and drum major/drumline tryouts are over.

I am so ready for this year to be over.  I started planning for next year today.  I know one thing for sure - I’m gonna be all over classroom management from day one.  No stupidity and no second chances.  Especially for the kids in 6th grade band.  They are gonna have to be really attentive and on their best behavior if they’re going to be successful.  That’ll go for all my students actually.  High school band should be fine and maybe high school choir.  But I can’t let them think they’re running things. 

And kids aren’t going to just hang out in the band room anymore.  If they have study hall they can stay in study hall, they don’t have to come to my room to “study”.  And no food at all allowed.  I was way too lenient on where they could have food in my room and it’s always a mess.  So none of that anymore. 

I’m just done with this.

Done…but still 2 weeks to go

The Spring Concert was a big success!  I am so proud of all of my kids  :)  We had a rough week leading up to the concert but they really pulled it together in time. 

Now I still have two weeks of school.  Seniors are gone  :(  Graduation is Friday.  But I really don’t know exactly what to do.  I guess start some music for fall…

Also, teacher evaluations are this week and I am so scared!  I don’t know what to expect or what to do, and I’m the first one to be evaluated!  :O  We do have to do this evidence binder and I am so behind on mine (because really, who has time for that?) and I have to turn it in on Tuesday… so that’s what I’ll be working on tonight. 

Parents….

Need to be better to their kids!

I postponed choir class by 30 minutes today because one of my students needed to talk.  Apparently he made a stupid mistake last night (literally: he ate a brownie that his brother had bought for himself), and his mom completely went off on him and told him he was a failure who should just drop out of school and focus on work because he’s not good at anything!  :(  And this is a kid who really struggles even when he’s trying his hardest.  He’s a 15 year old kid - is belittling him really the best way to get him to work harder? 

He’s such a sweetheart and tries so hard in choir - he’s the only bass, and he thinks he can’t sing well, but he really can… being the only bass it’s pretty easy for me to hear him.  He said that he’s been told he’s a failure so many times that he’s begun to believe it - so then I helped him come up with things he is good at and we came up with a good list of things in just a couple of minutes!  I suppose when you’re only spoken to about the things you aren’t good at, that’s all you can see in yourself.  :( 

I just really wish his parents - and all my kids parents, because I’m sure he’s not the only one in this situation - would treat their kids better.  Yelling at them and calling them stupid is really not going to get them to want to work and better themselves - that’s just not how teenagers work. 

I’m just so heartbroken.  I want so much for my kids to succeed and be happy… and I feel like there’s only so much I can do.  I wish I could do more.

4 more weeks!

It seemed like the end of the year would never come and now it’s only 4 weeks away and the concert is a week from Thursday and drum major and drumline tryouts are the Friday and Saturday after that, and then graduation is the following Friday.  And then this Friday is Field Day, which I have no idea about… Then I have to fit in instrument introduction and tryout day for the 5th graders who are planning to be in band in 6th grade…

I feel crazy and like I’m running out of time!  It just hit me very suddenly and I feel extra crazy stressed.  I can do it though! 

I’ll be so glad when all of this is over and I can just have a break.

Also, I have no plan for Survey Class…

betheteacheryouloved:

firstyearmusicteacher:

I never know what to do in that silly class.  I just had them do a research project on a musician from our state, and tomorrow only two more people have to present.  So that won’t take up any time…

I am so lost with this stupid class.  :( 

Only 24 more days….

Not sure what survey class is? Is it kind of like an advisory period?

It’s basically music appreciation, except it’s only vocal music, and it lasts all year instead of just half a year.  And this was the first year it was offered so there was nothing for me to go off of for curriculum  :P

Survey of Vocal Music

This class been a struggle for me all year.  Honestly, I’ve enjoyed quite a bit of it, and my kids in that class are great.  But it’s essentially a vocal-only music appreciation class. 

From the research I’ve done, most music appreciation classes only last one half of the year, so expecting me to teach this class for an entire year - especially with a smaller range of topics - was a pretty big expectation!

I feel like I did a good job.  I’ve exposed those kids to a lot:

• Popular music by decade from the 1950s to present
• Song parodies (they got to write their own)
• Rock operas
• Jukebox musicals (they came up with those on their own too)
• Musicals
• Opera (we watched some of the Magic Flute, as well as some clips from various others)
• A cappella music
• Barbershop quartets
• Beatboxing
• Musicians from our great state (ha)

I am proud of what I did with that class - this was the first year it was offered and (unfortunately?) is also going to be the last, at least for a while.  There was nothing for me to really build off of, and I had to come up with every activity that that class did. 

And today I realized that the seniors in that small class (3 of the 5 students) only have 9 more days of class.  So I’m trying to come up with some kind of project to give them to take up the rest of the year - give myself a break from trying to come up with something new every week.  They’ll have 8 days to work on it, and then present and turn it in on the 9th day, or by their final date (at the latest). 

I found another music appreciation class final project rubric and I think I could modify it for my class.  A short (2-3 page) paper, an oral presentation (including the information from the paper but not read directly), and some kind of multimedia or visual aspect (a recording, video, powerpoint, poster, etc.).  And the topic would be for them to choose an influential musical subject from the course that they enjoyed - and that was new to them.  Could be a specific person or band, a writer or composer, a song or album, a genre that made an impact on it’s generation, even a location that made unique contributions to music - basically anything. 

And then they would present on their subject’s history, origins, influences and it’s influence on music.

I don’t know, that seems like it might be a little much.  But they would have a week and a half to do it.  I’ll think about it.  If I decide to do it, I’ll have time to write up a rubric and information handout tomorrow.

Anonymous asked: could i suggest yorkshire ballad for your 7/8 third piece? it's lovely and if you propose it as a challenge and focus on it, it will turn out well.

Thank you for the suggestion!  It sounds like a really beautiful piece, but I looked at the score and there’s no way my little band could have that worked up in 11 more rehearsals!  :(  I’ll probably keep it in mind for next year’s Concert Assessment though - I’ll actually have alto saxes in the high school band next year  :)  Thanks!