changed the dry-erase calendar to “august”

There are a few days left in July.  However, due to a refridgerator-water-splashing accident (don’t ask), I had to re-do my dry-erase calendar.  Which meant that it was time to put August on it.  Which meant that the first day of In-service is now on it.  I will miss being home with my children every [...]

brad schoener

A few days ago, I received an email from Mrs. Jennifer Schoener; she was replying to a question that I sent to her husband last month.  In her email, I learned that Mr. Schoener passed away on March 19, after a lengthy battle with cancer.  She is a band director as well, and from her [...]

what’s going on next year

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 [...]

looking at last year’s june entry

It’s the day after instrument try-outs, and I have taken some time to look over next year’s numbers.  I also read through the post that I made at this same time last year.
At that point, I had 105 students on my list and walked into school in August 2009 with 105 students on my roster.  [...]

spring concert program notes

Beginning Band
The first band to perform is the 4th grade Beginning Band, our first song is Bugler’s Dream, arranged by Paul Lavender.  The original melody was written by French composer Leo Arnaud.  It was later arranged by famed American composer John Williams, as a theme song for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.   Our [...]

who wants to teach elementary band?

During my junior year of college, I took an Elementary Methods class at IUP, taught by Dr. John Kuehn.  I absolutely loved the class.  Dr. Kuehn had many years of experience with beginners, and he had the best stories about them.  I was inspired by how excited he was about the adventure of teaching beginning band and I thoroughly [...]

whoo, ensembles scheduled

I attended that PSSA meeting this morning, and it wasn’t painful!  I think I may survive.  I will be working with a small group of students who have the accomodation that their math tests will be read to them.  Bummer!  I was so hoping for the “extra time” group, as reading those tests is rather [...]

tis the season for testing

Tomorrow morning, I am to attend a meeting to discuss accommodations and testing guidelines for PSSA testing.  I will be honest and say that I am not enthusiastic about No Child Left Behind or its Pennsylvania spawn, the PSSA tests.
I need to give myself an attitude adjustment before the meeting and keep the frown off of [...]

“i think there should be more listening in band”

That’s what my student teacher said to me yesterday.  Darn these student teachers for stepping into my classroom and making me actually reflect a little on my teaching.  I have been becoming quite comfortable with my “fsharpbflat” teaching lately.  Schedule students.  Teach them where to put their fingers.  Give them a few pages of band [...]

“program notes” – january ‘09 concert

Just like my previous “program notes” entries, these aren’t really program  notes.  They are student announcements.  They could easily be rephrased and reworked to be printed in a program, but I like having students announce the pieces that we perform.
 
Beginning Band 
Pour It On
Our first full band number is a song called Pour It On.  It [...]