As I mentioned in a previous post, this is the day after try-outs in my school. There is actually one more building to go, but my own recruiting is done for the year. Right now, I am working on putting kids into the databases that I have to use and I am preparing my end-0f-year report that I need to submit. Actually, these blog entries are pretty much what I will submit, so I am getting double from this work.
We (myself and the other 3 elementary band teachers) saw a TON of kids yesterday. 70 students, in fact. I currently have 109 students on my roster for 09-10, not counting the 3-5 classes that I will teach at another band director’s building. I had 105 at this time last year, and ended up with 83 last month, so I am not really holding my breath on having 109 students this time time next year. On the upside, I am pulling from around 225 this year (smaller classes than last year), so my percentage is higher; getting close to 50%, which is my goal.
4th Grade: 1 oboe, 4 flute, 14 clarinet, 16 alto saxophone, 1 fhorn, 11 trumpet, 2 trombone, 4 baritone and 5 percussion.
5th Grade: 1 oboe, 5 flute, 4 clarinet, 12 alto saxophone, 17 trumpet, 7 trombone, 1 baritone, 5 percussion & 1 keyboard player (covers tuba parts).
I have concerns again about 5th grade beginners, but am sending home a list of private teachers and suggesting that the kids get a few lessons in over the summer.
I am kind of laughing about instrumentation, because I will repeat something like what I said last year: “The instrumentation is not perfect, I know that. I would like to have some more horns.” Last year, I would have liked less percussion and more clarinets. This year, I am starting a ton of clarinets and not many percussion students. Too many trumpets, but hey… maybe they can convert to french horn!
Just like last year (and every year so far in my career), I am perfectly fine with my instrumentation. I have a few theories about recruiting and retaining kids and #1 there is getting the right instrument in the right kid’s hands. I aim to make sure they all get a chance to hear, see and touch each of the instruments and then Let Them Decide.
I have never bought into the idea that I should sit there with a list of perfect instrumentation and put the kids in a place that suits the program. That is backwards to me, and I know that many directors do not believe in that at all. But, I have talked to too many kids (and adults, for that matter) that told me that they were forced into playing an instrument that wasn’t their first choice… and I have yet to find one of those people who played the forced instrument for more than a couple years.
Who cares if I have dream instrumentation if the experience here does not lead to a lifetime of learning and loving in music? What is the point, if they just quit because they do not like the instrument? For the most part, kids have to enjoy playing the instrument to stick with it and to succeed.
Last year, I wrote that I have a Field of Dreams approach to recruitment. If I build a great band, they will come.” Well, my Field of Dreams is working, I think. 59 out of less than 100 upcoming 3rd graders tried a band instrument yesterday. Of course, many of them played a string instrument in 2nd grade, which brings up a few bald spots in the grass of my Field of Dreams. Some kids are conflicted about moving to band and/or are considering playing in both next year. The past few days have been interesting for me; as you might imagine that moving from one ensemble/teacher to is … uh … stressful for some colleagues. It is very strange to walk into a room and see people stop talking when they see you, and to feel a chill. I really do not feel comfortable blogging about this with great detail, but I will say that I find this all to be very stressful for me. We start strings in 3rd grade. We start band in 4th. There are going to be kids who leave strings and I expect some stress. But I did not expect it to be like this.
In any case, I did my best to make sure they kids had an appropriate level of exposure to the instruments. I do things similar to what my colleagues (in band and strings) do in recruiting.
I think the biggest part of recruiting and retaining happens at other times of the school year. Lots of little things along the way are seen by the younger students… things that benefit my students and are for them, but I am aware that they have an effect on the younger ones.
For instance, I like to have my students perform in December; they love playing holiday songs, but the winter concert isn’t until late in January. So, during the last week before winter vacation, I arrange for my students to go caroling in the cafeteria, during lunch groups. Historically, that week is poorly attended and/or challenging to focus kids on regular lesson material. I have found that caroling works really well, in terms of getting them to perform in a small group and to achieve on a number of songs that they love. Of course, the January and May assemblies are also another thing that is really for the current band kids, but I think it has an effect on the younger students.
In March, I (again) held a petting zoo in my classroom, so the 3rd grade general music classes could see and touch the instruments. This is done at around the same time as when they study the instruments in music class, so it suits their curriculum. Last year, the music teachers brought over grades K-3 and I invited the string teacher to bring over her instruments, but that much was pretty disruptive in my classroom. The instruments take up a lot of space and I lost a bunch of instructional time, having so many classes in to visit the “animals”. This year, I opted to keep it simple and in line with general music and band curriculum.
My 3rd Grade instrument demo, last month, was same as last year. I have a PowerPoint presentation about band and had middle school students come over and play each of the instruments. 45 minutes, quick, no Q&A… just a nice class period of listening to instruments and finding out how lessons/band works. Last year, I made trading cards for each instrument, which I did not do this year. I never got around to it, and I didn’t think it really did anything for the program anyhow.
In the past few weeks, we had the parent pemo meeting and try-outs and now that I look back on things, I actually did less this year. Less petting zoo, not as much paperwork, etc. I tried to streamline things and I feel pretty good about how it all went. It has been a great year, I feel like I have grown so much as a teacher and I really can’t wait to start a new crop of students next year!
1 Comment
June 6, 2009 at 9:14 am
Hi Linda,
Good for you for putting so much thought into recruitment. It’s always interesting to read about how other music teachers approach this, and why they make certain decisions.
FYI: Some teachers in my district take your district’s approach with 3rd grade strings. At the teachers’ discretion, 3rd grade students sometimes have the option to join instrumental music, but only with a string instrument. In 4th grade, along with everyone else, they have the option to play a band instrument. Some stick with strings, some make the switch.
Your post here is a good reminder to me about getting 3rd graders even more motivated to enroll in music. I talk about it a lot with them, but didn’t actually bring in any instruments for them to study. They see and hear the instruments in our school-day concerts/assemblies, but that doesn’t make as big an impression. You’ve inspired me to make a calendared reminder to do a better job next year.