More Classroom Procedures for Band

Tardy Procedure

A. When you walk into the room you will see a countdown timer on the wall. When the timer reaches zero, you will see the message, "You are tardy!"

B. Being on time means that you are in your seat working on the Warm Up before the timer has reached zero. If you are not in your seat working on the Warm Up, you are tardy, even if you are in the room.

C. If you enter the band hall late, but have a pass excusing your tardiness, place your pass in the appropriate labeled bin on the desk at the front of the room, then enter the set using the "Entering the Band Hall" procedure as quickly as possible.

C. Students who are tardy and unexcused will receive a check and must sign up for after school detention. Sign your name on the list and get into the set as quickly as possible. If entering the room late, sign your name on the list before retrieving your materials and enter the set as quickly as possible.

The detention list will be located near the door so that it can easily be signed as they walk into the room without disturbing anything else that is going on. This can also be modified (and should be) based on the school's tardy and/or detention procedures.

Distributing New Music

A. New music will be stacked on the front table in score order from highest voices to lowest voices.

B. Section leaders will be called one at a time in score order to retrieve the music for their section. They are to distribute the music as quickly as possible.

C. Upon receiving new music, each student must write their name on the top right corner of each page, in legible print, using a pencil. Under your name, write which ensemble you are in, and under that (on the third line), write your cell phone number.

     i. Example: Jane Doe

                      Concert Band

                      (555) 555-5555

    ii. If you lose your music and someone finds it, they can return it to you shortly.

   iii. If your music is found on the floor it will be placed in the "Lost" bin, and you will be assigned band hall clean up duties that week.

Returning Music

A. Students will pass in music to the person on their right. The person on the far right will ensure that parts are ordered correctly based on their number (ex: 1^st and 2^nd Trumpet) and in Score Order.

B. The conductor, or an appointed student, will retrieve the stacked music from each row and place it into its labeled manila envelope on the front table.

Distributing Binder Materials

A. The conductor or an appointed student will distribute the papers to the student on the end of each row.

B. Students will take one and pass the rest to the student on their left.

C. Students are to write their name and phone number on the top left of the page and place it immediately into their binder in the appropriate section. Any loose papers found on the floor will be placed in the "Lost" bin and the student will be placed on band hall clean up duties that week.

D. The conductor or appointed student will collect any left over papers on the other side of the rows and return them to the labeled manila envelope on the front table.

End of Rehearsal

A. Students will be given approximately two minutes at the end of class to put away their instrument and materials.

B. All stands must be pushed all the way down as shown during the orientation.

C. The chair and stand arrangement should be left as orderly as it was found.

D. All instruments must be returned properly to their cases and placed neatly back into their assigned locker (if a locker is assigned to you). No instruments may be left on the floor or placed in a locker that it is not designated for.

E. Students will pick up any loose trash on the floor.    

F. Students may retrieve their bag and form a single file line at the tape mark near the door.    

G. The conductor dismisses the students, not the bell. Students will not be dismissed until all trash has been picked up, all instruments and materials are put away in their proper place, and the rehearsal set looks as organized as it was prior to the start of rehearsal.

Absence Procedure

A. Any music or binder materials distributed during class should be left on the seat of an absent student in a neat pile.

B. At the end of class, section leaders are responsible for filling out a "Make Up Assignment" form (located in the bin at the front table... write in legible print), attaching it to the pile of papers from the student's chair (if applicable), and placing it into the "Make Up Assignments" manila envelope.

C. When an absent student returns to class, upon entering the band hall that day they are to find their make up assignment in the manila envelope. If the student has questions, they are to ask their section members and/or section leader first. If they are still confused, they may ask the conductor for help after class.

D. The student is to take the assignment and related materials home. A parent must sign the "Make Up Assignment Form" to verify  the student has practiced the material. The student can then return the signed form by placing it into the "Make Up Assignment Drop Bin" on the front desk the next day.

E. All Make Up Assignments are due the following class period after a student has returned to school.

Are there other procedures you can think of, or situations that might require procedures in a concert band setting? Please feel free to give feedback using the comments below! Thanks for reading, and until next time, take care!

Musically yours,

Mr. Cooper

PS. To go back to the previous blog, click here or use the back button on your browser.

Procedures Maximize Learning

Hello again! With the break underway and my student teaching around the corner, I've been wanting to reflect on the great experiences I gained from this past semester. I observed a great middle school teacher, worked with a small high school concert band, conducted the ASU Wind Ensemble, gave presentations to elementary kids, taught a few lessons, read a great book on teaching for recreation, and took a couple of education classes, one of which was specifically for middle and high school pedagogy and was very in depth (I read the text from cover to cover, which was not easy with the way it was printed and written). I learned quite a bit, and hopefully these reflections will help me to retain much of it, while also sharing it with anyone who might be interested. Great teachers already know the importance of today's topic - procedures.

This is an AMAZING book!

The recreational book I referenced is Mr. and Mrs. Wong's "The First Days of School", a book that transforms veteran teachers who have struggled and sets up rookie teachers for break out success. It covers four major areas of being a professional educator, with the most in-depth chapter covering Classroom Management. In this chapter they stress the importance of procedures: teaching them, rehearsing them, and reinforcing them until they become routines, or habits.

A procedure is basically a specific way of accomplishing a specific task. It is you explaining to the students exactly how you want them to do something. Why is this important?

Procedures are important to everyone. They allow us to get on about our business from day to day in an organized manner. Society has procedures for everything, from how to drive to what to do when people are getting on and off an elevator (wait for people to step out before entering, for example). If you don't tell the students how something should be done, you're creating a void which they will fill on their own. After all, you can't get upset when students do something you don't like if you didn't tell them how it should be done before hand. Why would a student remove their hat or iPod headphones if you didn't tell them that was your expectation? Do you see my point?

(Procedures are a simple concept. You can probably list
several procedures used by ensembles, conductors, and
audience members during public concerts. Remember how
we learned them? They were taught, rehearsed, and reinforced.)

Also important to note is that procedures are different from rules. Violating rules requires punishment. They tell you generally what is and is not acceptable behavior. Procedures are not punishable, only correctable. They explain how you do something. For example, how do you enter the room? How do you leave the room? How is attendance taken? Who dismisses the class (the bell or the teacher)? How do you fix certain problems in the music? What should students do when they're not playing? These are not classroom rules, but rather procedures that must be taught. If they are taught, rehearsed, and reinforced, then over time they become student habits. Teachers who are meticulous about establishing procedures for everything build classes that can eventually run themselves and maximize learning in the time you have, even in the event that you have a substitute teacher.

What I've noticed in my observations as well as in my reading and reflection of my own experiences is that there are two categories of procedures for band/music rehearsals: classroom procedures, and rehearsal procedures.

"The First Days of School" is a tremendous resource for Classroom Procedures. Classroom Procedures deal with how the class operates. How you enter and leave the room, how you transition from one activity to another, take attendance, pass in assignments (in core classes). In music there are specific things to consider, like what students should do when they're not playing, practicing raising the instruments when you raise the baton, how you get their attention, or get them to stop playing, and so on.

Rehearsal Procedures in some cases are very similar, but I like to think of them a little differently. I consider these the procedures we use regularly to fix problems. Many of these we wouldn't think about because we've done them so many times, but beginning band students must be taught how to do them, and then the procedures can be reinforced through repetition until graduation. For example, if they're playing wrong notes, you can have them "Note name and finger" rather than play. If it's a rhythm problem, we have them, "Count" or "Count and finger". Teachers calls these their "bag of tricks", but in most cases, we could call them procedures. And if you use them often and consistently, fixing problems can become an automatic response rather than something that requires a great deal of thought and explanation.

How does this maximize learning? Simple - it maximizes your time. It does require some up front investment to teach the procedures, but this always pays off. I'll go into more detail in parts two and three, but here is one example.

Most of us have been in bands that were great and bands that were what we would consider undisciplined. One of our biggest pet peeves (and surely for our teachers as well) is that when they asked for our attention, the people around us wasted so much time getting quiet. How long does it take for a teacher to get a group's attention when they're off task or even helping each other with the music and thus not focusing on the teacher? As much as thirty seconds? Perhaps more? What about when the band is playing and the conductor gives a cut off or raps the baton on their stand to get us to stop. How long does it take for the band to stop? In good groups, it is an immediate response. The conductor has conditioned the ensemble to stop immediately and focus on them. In mediocre and bad groups, this reaction (whether it's to stop talking or stop playing) can take 5-30 seconds. Multiply that by the number of times a conductor must get the group's attention in a 45-55 minute rehearsal, and suddenly it's not a stretch to think that the group has lost several minutes of rehearsal time that they will ultimately never get back. How many problems could have been fixed? How much more could you have taught them?

And isn't that a depressing waste of time?

Yet many teachers out there have not learned how to do this. They probably were never trained in how to do it correctly, and perhaps have not looked in the right places to get the information. Or perhaps they're one of those teachers who has read the material, but thinks they can modify and leave out certain steps and still get it to work, then get frustrated when it doesn't work and toss out the process all together, blaming the kids for not caring about learning.

Everyone suffers. The students miss out on a great or even good education and the teacher lives with daily anxiety and a general sense of failure, perhaps eventually leaving the profession they worked so hard to enter, and that promised to be so rewarding. I've already met several such folks in my time in college, who were excited to teach music and ultimately discovered "it was not for them".

This is why procedures are so important, and why having a procedure for everything is so important. The more procedures you create for anticipated needs, the more efficiently you can use the precious little time available to you, and thus maximize learning for the students, resulting in amazing ensembles with passionate and musical performances. Procedures also offer some routine and consistency for those who need it most, the children whose home lives are chaotic and unstable on a day to day basis. It doesn't just maximize your learning time, it contributes to a person's positive personal and emotional growth. Amazing, isn't it?

I'm obviously sold on procedures, and I think any master teacher is as well. I hope anyone else reading this who isn't saying, "Well, duh Chris" is now convinced as well. Please tune in next time for my second entry where I'll reflect on Classroom Procedures. It may seem more boring than the rehearsal procedures I mentioned, but classroom procedures are critical for reducing the amount of time wasted on things that have nothing to do with getting better. I don't know about you, but that sounds pretty enticing to me. Plus, I'll share the procedures that I've observed, experienced, or considered, and otherwise plan to use so that you have specific examples to work with.

Thanks for reading, and until next time, take care!

Musically yours,
Mr. Cooper

PS. Interested in reading "The First Days of School"? You can find that and many other great products by Harry and Marry Wong at EffectiveTeaching.com. But don't just read it... apply it!

Continue to Part II (Classroom Procedures)

Philosophy of Education

I've redesigned the blog... what do you think? Over the break I hope to produce several new blogs reflecting on observations and other experiences from this past semester, so I wanted to improve the layout in preparation. I hope you like it!

So, for one of my education classes we were required to write our Philosophy of Education. This was actually pretty tough! What my teacher received had one paragraph subtracted, and another added about specific philosophers that influenced my philosophy. But to be honest, I didn't even know about those guys until recently reading about them. My philosophy is based on what leading music educators have written, and on other things I have seen in action, like El Sistema. So for my blog I've reinserted the paragraph about character building. Let me know what you think!

________________________________________________________________________

Philosophy of Education

I believe music is an essential component of the human condition. It has been said that music can express that which words cannot. While I believe all students have musical potential, and can benefit even from general study of Classical Music, those who engage in music performance encounter an emotional and aesthetic experience that is unique. In doing so, they not only develop a creative outlet, but gain a deeper understanding of the human condition than what is otherwise possible. My primary job, then, is to unleash each student’s music making possibilities by helping them to develop strong fundamental instrumental performance techniques and music literacy skills while exposing them to the best music ever written, with the goal of achieving music making experiences that are exciting, emotional, and passionate. All the while, students develop a skill that they can take pride in, one that boosts their self-image, while also gaining a valuable social experience that allows them to develop emotionally throughout their teenage years. The values of a great music education are truly innumerable!

Students will discover that it is always easier to play at a higher level when proper technique is used, and therefore proper technique, when reinforced, is intrinsically motivating. Ensemble techniques can often be complex, and require incredible sensitivity to one’s own playing and the playing of everyone else involved, but again students will be motivated to give this effort once they have experienced the musical benefits. I believe the key to motivating students toward this end is to demand excellence from both the individuals and the ensemble as a whole. Students must experience music making at a high level, because that unique aesthetic and emotional experience is addicting – it becomes the key to intrinsic motivation.

I believe students learn best in a safe, structured environment. Ensemble music making is inherently a group activity, and so success requires a classroom culture based on mutual respect and collaboration. I will strive to create a community of learners, in which students work together as I guide them towards the discovery of what facilitates the most musical outcome, whether in regards to fundamental playing techniques or musical interpretation. When an ensemble is only as good as its weakest player, it is counterproductive to demean that player. Instead, students will learn to give additional support to the weaker players because their improvement will benefit everyone. Additionally, I will solicit student’s suggestions on musical interpretation, and keep those that are effective, as I believe this will result in the students feeling more ownership over the music being performed (as opposed to forcing the students to perform my personal interpretation of the music). Advocated by Benjamin Zander, this creates a rehearsal atmosphere of collaboration not only between the students, but between myself and the students, which I believe will further increase student motivation. These activities will be focused through the use of procedures to maximize our time on task, and further increase student learning.

While students will work together to improve as individuals, they will also be held accountable as individuals. I believe the key to truly great ensembles relies on the independence of each performer, and so students will be assessed on their ability to perform independently as well as in the group. To unleash their musical potential, I will offer as much support as possible, including distributing instrument specific technique building exercises, offering private lessons as availability permits, establishing a peer tutor program, after school sectionals, and so on. I will require that students set personal goals for their playing, and I believe that with their dedicated action, and my personal support (as well as the support of their peers), that every student can reach their musical goals. It is my belief that music is just as conducive to diverse, student centered teaching methods as is any other subject, so part of how I will help them to achieve those goals is through diverse, differentiated teaching methods to address not only the various learning styles (such as auditory, visual and kinesthetic), but diverse intelligences as well.

A band can be many things, but it is certainly a team. Like any team, for the band to be successful the students must cultivate certain character traits and life skills, including: teamwork, commitment, responsibility, leadership, time management, goal setting (both in playing and personal growth), self-discipline, hard work, excellence, dependability, respect (for each other, for equipment), and more. Additionally, to make music requires that the members of the ensemble let down their walls and come together, despite the often diverse make up of its personnel. The success of the ensemble requires that I work to instill these traits into the students. As a consequence, band members become positive role models for their peers and agents of social change. If the diverse students in a band can grow as individuals, hold themselves to higher standards, and come together as a group working toward a common goal, then they can serve as a model for the rest of the school to follow.

In that same spirit, I will work to unite with my peers on the faculty towards the common goal of creating a safe and united school environment that fosters a sense of community and belonging. I will model the ideas of personal growth and cooperation as I collaborate, assist, and learn from fellow faculty members. A master teacher always seeks to learn and improve themselves as people and as teachers, and I must follow this path as well. The end result, I hope, will not only be my own improvement, but the improvement of the school, to the benefit of my students.

Also of great importance is the involvement of the parents and community. Through the use of phone calls, take home communications, and digital outlets, I hope to build good working partnerships with the parents of my students. Parental support in the form of booster activities is crucial for a program's success. While not necessarily mandatory, parental support can make a large impact on an individual student's success as well. Participation in the band often requires a financial commitment, as well as transportation, but also a good time and place to practice. Listening to a student practice is not typically pleasant on the ears, so when parents permit and encourage their children to practice at home, the likelihood that the student will practice increases significantly, and thus the student's success increases. Additionally, my band program will foster a number of universally valued character traits, which will also be most successful when the parent(s) reinforces these at home through encouraging their child to practice, or ensures that they’re at rehearsals and performances at the specified times. I feel I must also do my best to garner community support, because when students feel that their contributions are valued by the community, the sense that they are part of something larger than themselves, even that they are representatives of the community, is increased, and motivation rises.

None of this is original, but is rather based on what leading instrumental music educators recommend. As John Dewey, the progressivist might agree, reading about music is no substitute for the learning that occurs by playing it. While some teachers merely focus on selecting great music, the leaders of the best programs select the best music ever written with an eye toward advancing student's abilities based on what playing and musical challenges each work contains. The El Sistema movement, which began in Venezuela thirty years ago, also proves that using music education as a means of social reconstruction, an educational school founded by George Counts, can have a profound impact on the students and society. Masterworks often have great messages, sometimes universal, and I've found that it is only when these students understand that message that they can effectively communicate it through the music, which results in passionate performances. It is the music, not necessarily me, that will challenge the students to grow intellectually. And so these are ideas I have incorporated into my philosophy, again, not because they are strictly my ideas or philosophies, but because they are proven and sometimes even required for making music at the highest levels. And achieving this with my students is ultimately my primary goal towards which all other efforts are aimed.