...And we're back!

So, I haven't been very good at updating. I blame maternity leave. And summer. :-)

This year is starting off great. A few things here and there, but for the most part, it's going to be a great year. Here are a few highlights...

1. High School Band is growing! Marching 28 this year, which is double what I had two years ago. Whee! New this year: We're wearing uniforms. Yes, bona fide uniforms. Not windbreakers that make us look like hobos. Real, genuine uniforms. With hats! And plumes! It's amazing how much better they sound and look and present themselves when in uniform. (Pyschological? Probably, but I'll take it!). Concert band will be 33 people. Yes!

2. JH Band. Holy crap. Where did the talent in this group come from?! We're planning on auditioning for a band director's conference in May (well, the audition is in January, the conference is in May). Do we have a shot? Probably not, but what the hell? You don't know unless you try!

3. 6th Grade Band. When they're on and cooking, they sound amazing. And they're a lot more mature.

4. 5th Grade Band. 22 starting. Probably will be the bane of my existence for awhile, until they learn that I don't put up with crap. They're starting to figure it out, but it's been a lot of me pushing and a lot of them pushing back. If they could settle down and keep quiet, they'd be a really good, musical group.

5. The director. It's amazing how much easier this gets year after year. I'm not saying I know it all...far from it! But I feel like I've got a much better handle on things this year. Maybe it's a change in attitude, maybe it's the kids getting to know me. At any rate, we're taking things to the next level, and that's the best feeling in the world.

I unfortunately cannot post pictures on here. I'm trying to keep this as anonymous as possible so you don't know who I'm talking about, who is in this band or that, etc. It's a safety thing. Let me know if you want to see any pics of what I do...I can send them to you via e-mail.

Until next time! :-)

Accountability

I've discovered the best thing you can do as a teacher is set your kids up for success. Failure isn't necessarily a bad thing. In fact, sometimes it's a good motivator. But the more you can do to help your kids be successful, the smoother and more cohesive your classroom will be. Classrooms should be designed so that if a student fails, it's all on them. You have done everything in your power to give that kid a chance to succeed. Whatever is left is their fault.

This was brought on by an e-mail we received on Friday from our secondary principal. Basically, he was concerned that the D/F 3rd qtr. midterm list was so long. And it was. Ridiculously long. Some kids are failing 5 out of their 8 classes. And one comment that he made kinda bugged me. He said (paraphrased): "If you're saying, 'I'm doing all I can-it's the kid's fault,' then you're not doing enough and should reconsider being in your profession." I understand where he's coming from. We have some teachers in this district who couldn't care any less about how their kids are doing. But, this can't all be on us. Some of us really are doing all we can. I, personally, see to it that every kid who has to do a make-up lesson gets at least one of them made up during the course of the semester. However, I can't play the concert for them. I can't learn the fingerings. I can't practice their part for them so that it sounds better in band. At some point, we have to hold students accountable for their decisions and their actions (or lack thereof). Along with that, there are plenty of parents out there who are disengaged from their kid's progress in school. I think many parents operate under the philosophy, "No news is good news," but that's not always the case. It could be that the parents don't care or just don't choose to check on their kid's progress. And some parents also model this awful behavior for their child. For instance: I had a student (my ONLY alto sax player in the high school band) whose mother told her she had to drop band at semester because she needed a study hall (she was failing math). Then, Mom pulls her out of school for a week to take her on a family vacation to Puerto Rico. Now (possibly as a result of this, possibly not), she's failing FOUR classes, including mine! I begged and pleaded with her mother for her to stay in band-I even offered to tutor her! Mom relented, but now we're in a bigger mess than before.

Think about what kind of behavior you want your students/children to have, what kind of citizens you want them to be. If you don't want them to develop a certain behavior or action, don't model it for them. If you don't want them to gossip, don't gossip. If you don't want them to swear, don't swear. I'm not saying slip-ups won't happen; we are human, after all. However, if we're going to hold our children accountable for their actions, we need to hold ourselves accountable, too.

End rant.

Frustration

I posted this on a friend's blog the other day. She teaches grade school in Omaha and is struggling with the famed "I don't want to be a teacher"-itis. She has an incredible amount of guilt building up because of all of the things she feels she SHOULD be doing, but doesn't seem to get to them. This was my comment on her post.

"Holy crap…did I just read my own blog? I’m in the same boat, kiddo. Mine isn’t so much guilt, as it is frustration for a lack of passion. I see all of these band directors out there who are amazing at what they do, and the kids are eating it out of their hands. Me…I struggle every day just to get out of bed and go to work. My students don’t really try; they do the bare minimum. They all expect that someone else will pick up the slack for them. Band isn’t a fun, inspiring activity to them. It’s a chore. It’s something they have to do. There’s no passion for it, no sense of fulfillment after a great rehearsal or performance. Instead, I get, “Do we really HAVE to do this?” “But it’s cold outside!” “Can we have study hall instead?” My coworkers are just as bad. Where do the kids get this behavior, they ask? Well, it doesn’t help that you’re modeling it for them! The lack of passion frustrates me to no end. I can’t keep doing this, maintain sanity, and care for a baby."

My color guard didn't show up for their practice Tuesday morning, and now they're whining about how I'm making them twirl Friday night and they don't know the routine.

I'm going to say this once:

CERTAIN ACTIONS HAVE CERTAIN CONSEQUENCES.

That is all.

Keep on keeping on

Well, we're chugging along here. Nothing much to report. Yesterday was a piece of work, though. We had a 1:00 dismissal due to teacher inservice. Now, normally I don't mind inservices, especially the ones where we get to stay in our rooms and get work done. But the schedule totally throws the kids off. Everything is crunched for time, teachers are grumpy, and it's just not a happy environment to be in. As I was walking the 5th grade back to their classrooms, I got my ass chewed by one of the fifth grade teachers for not sending the kids back in a straight line. She apologized today, but it still made me a little upset. This group of fifth graders is a real piece of work. I have two kids that still don't have instruments. One isn't even supposed to be in band, per his mom's instructions, and the other submitted a rental form, but hasn't heard anything from the rental company yet. So, they keep asking ME what's going on, and I keep giving them the same anwers. Apparently they just don't listen really well.

High school band is coming together well. We had a "come to Jesus" day last week, in which I basically reamed them for putting on the worst performance I'd ever heard in my life the week before. Seriously, I have never been so humiliated as an instructor. Things are getting better. They're starting to take it a little more seriously, and they're giving me more of a chance, which makes me feel good. Hopefully in two years, our numbers will really start to climb. :-)

So remember that whole anxiety about starting the new school year?

Yeah, I'm totally over it. I somehow managed to grow a spine in the first few days of school.

Things have started off A LOT smoother than I hoped. There were a couple of rough spots, but we're chugging along. Remember "Guard Girl" who I mentioned in quite a few of my posts last year? Yeah, she's gone. Quit. Got fed up with seniors trying to boss her around. She's a sophomore and the most clumsy, awkward, uncoordinated kid I've ever met. I was a little sad to lose her, but if she's going to cop an attitude every time I ask her to do something, forget it. I now have five girls who are twirling their little hearts out. The guard now has two-a-week morning practices, and they almost have both routines memorized for the first show. Junior high band has the Star Spangled Banner learned and almost the majority of the school song. I'm going to have them play at the homecoming pep rally. There will be 60 (!) kids in the pep band loft. It's going to be loud and crazy!!!

Jazz band will be starting in about two weeks. Yikes! Time to start picking out some good tunes. I have a crap-ton of kids interested...but I'm sure part of the enticement was telling them I'd buy dinner. :-)

It's amazing how much better I feel about Year 2 vs. Year 1. It feels good to know the lay of the land and the kids a little better. I still don't like coming to work on some days, but hey...who doesn't?

Resolutions for the new school year

Recently I've felt the need to make some resolutions for the new school year. These are things for me to keep in mind with my day-to-day interactions with students.

1. I will continue to run my classroom effectively, regardless of my students' negative attitudes and/or opinions.

2. I will take a positive attitude into rehearsal. I tell my kids to leave it at the door; I need to do the same.

3. I will not take my students' opinions about band and equate them with how they feel about me.

4. I will leave work AT WORK. My home and my time with my husband are my sanctuaries, though I reserve the right to stay at work a little late to keep it that way.

5. I will stand my ground and follow through with everything.

6. I will stand by the decisions that I have made. Once a decision has been made, it's done!

7. I will do my best to be professional and objective at all times.

I'm feeling very anxious about the upcoming school year. And not the good kind of anxious. This is more the nervous, upset, can't sleep cuz I'm so worried anxious. I just would like everything to get going so that I'm done with this weird limbo period. Some of the source of my anxiety comes from the high school band. I started a Facebook page for the band. I've found it's a really quick, easy way to disseminate information to students and parents. It's not without its pitfalls, though. Such as, students postingthings, good and bad, that I can read. Lately, I've been using this tokeep in touch with my color guard girls (the words "color guard"should inspire a ton of drama alone).

Last year I had a squad of four. This year, two incoming freshmenapproached me saying they also wanted to be on the squad. I said yes.Told the other girls about it, and they were worried about money forequipment, etc. Fair enough. So I tell them I will check into themoney situation. Turns out, hey! We're fine! So I decide over the summer to go ahead and let these girls on the squad. But, it was already in the thick of summer, so I didn't get the chance to tell my vets. So, I send them a note asking when could we get together. THEN they all notice who the note is addressed to, and THEN they all start getting hissy-fitty. So I have these poor freshmen who are totally innocent in this whole thing, and four vets who are mad andor frustrated. They're mad about me rescheduling meetings (I have people out of town and want the whole squad there as much as possible), ordering shirts without their knowledge (when they gave me approval for the artwork at the end of the school year), the fact that the shirts are so expensive (when I told them they would be $10-$15, and the shirts are $15.49), and that I didn't tell them about the new girls on guard (when they knew at the end of the school year that these girls were interested). Good. grief. So, I took the Facebook page down because I figured that if I can't handle reading the drama, I just can't do it.

I think part of my problem is that I hate it when people are mad at me. I want to be liked (who doesn't?) I had an extremely shitty high school experience in this regard, and now I'm in a situation remarkably similar to that. The biggest difference is that I'm in charge. My husband and I were talking about this today over lunch. He has a way of putting things so that they make total sense. Basically, he says that I have to stick to my guns on this one. Does the volleyball coach care that you don't like to run? No! Does he care that you don't like all of the people on the team? No! So, how is this situation any different? Making it an analogy like that makes the whole situation make more sense. I think I'm looking for a "quick fix" to all of this--something that will make it all better instantly. Well, unfortunately, nothing will do that and allow for a quality band program to build. These girls want to feel special. That's why they started a flag squad. They want to feel like they're better than everyone else, and that's why they don't want these other two girls on the squad. So, what I have to do is...keep going. When one balks, deal and move on. This isn't a democracy. I'll compromise on some things, but the minute I start handing over control is the minute I lose control.

So...for now, I shall enjoy my afternoon. I won't think about work or bitchy high school girls. I will sit, crochet, and watch Dr. Phil and remind myself, as all grandmothers have told us from the dawn of time, THIS TOO, SHALL PASS.

And we're back!

For better or for worse, summer is pretty much over. Now it's back to work, back to school, and probably a little stress. I've had a very relaxing summer, though I've been a bit bored the last few weeks. It will be nice to get back into a routine. I've got big dreams for the upcoming school year. I have the feeling most of them will be dashed within the first few weeks, but I have to keep hoping.

We've had quite a few faculty shake-ups here at school. Lots of people quitting or retiring. I've noticed that many of the teachers here are very clique-y. You have the young popular teachers, and the older established teachers, and then the athletic coaches. Very weird. As one teacher left at the end of the school year, she warned me to be careful of who I made friends with, for fear that I would be the next fly in their spider's web. While I appreciate that she was trying to look out for me, I can take care of myself. I have, however, decided that the best thing for me to do this year is my job. If that means secluding myself in my office, so be it. At least then, no one can say that I did or said something to offend anyone, or cost me my job. This may change as the year goes on, but for now, we'll see what happens.