Well, I am mentally and physically fried! I think the sun has partially melted my brain! But in all seriousness, it has been a truly excellent two weeks! I think I probably touched on this in my last post, but there was definitely something different this year. I don’t know if I can put my finger on it, but I’m going to try.
1. Better Attitudes – I’m not sure why this year is any different than any other…well I think I have an idea, but I’ll get to that later. The kids really worked hard this year, and I was able to do things with them that I haven’t been able to do with any of my groups for the last 4 years. A perfect example of that is in this cheer that I like. It gets the kids pumped and proud of what they’re doing. It goes like this – I yell the words in bold, and the students respond. Feet…”Together!” Shoulders…”Back!” Chest…”Out!” Chin…”Up!” Eyes…“With Pride!” Eyes…”With Pride!” Eyes…”With Pride!” Anyway, when I’ve tried to do this in the past, it just didn’t go over well. The students then would just roll their eyes at me and laugh and think it was silly. This year, the attitudes have been much different, and the students are very enthusiastic about it. They are actually proud of what they are doing, and it is palpable.
2. Better Discipline – I think this probably has more to do with me than with the students, actually. For whatever reason, I was determined to really hold the students accountable for what they were going to be doing. I think I probably set the tone early on in camp. My group has had a chronic problem with starting on time, and I’ll be the first to admit that I became a little too relaxed about it. I have talked the kids’ ears off for the last few years about “to be on time is to be late” etc, etc, but it never really made any difference. So then I used to make them run laps for being late, but most of them were in cross country or track anyway, so it wasn’t really a punishment for them. Well, this year, I started thinking about what I would really hate to do for punishment for starting late….push-ups. I can’t even do probably 8 in a row, and I absolutely hate them. So, I decided that for every minute that rehearsal started late, we would do 10 push-ups. So the first day of band camp came, and we ended up doing 40 push-ups together, as a group. You can’t just make the people that are late do them individually, because this band is a team, and we stand or fall together. So that’s what I did. And it worked! Especially after one of our new officers was late for her meeting the next morning and had to do 140! I think the word spread fast. We maybe only started late 2 more times the whole rest of camp…even after water breaks and whatnot! I also think the kids appreciated seeing me do 20 because I started 2 minutes late one morning!
3. Better musicianship – I think this result may be attributed to my outlook as well. I have a young group this year, and when I started picking out music, it was very difficult, because I was trying to avoid my groups weaknesses: 2 7th grade trombones, 1 alto and 1 tenor sax, 1 tuba who was switched from clarinet, etc. But then, I remembered an experience I had a few years ago with this group. My second year, I tried to pick music like this that wasn’t as difficult. And guess what? The music tanked. The kids didn’t like it, they weren’t challenged, and I was just generally not happy with it at all. You see, I have learned something very important about my students in this program. If I challenge them with music, they will rise to the occasion. They always have, and I have never been disappointed with the results, except in the year that I tried to pick “easy music.” So, I picked probably the hardest music I’ve done in 5 years, not because it was hard, but because it was just the music I wanted to play. I decided I wasn’t going to worry about those trombone parts, etc. I knew that if I had to, I could re-write some things here and there, but for the most part, I banked on the students stepping up and learning the music. I’m glad that I did, because they proved me right!
4. All of “my students” – When we got to about the 4th day of camp, and I was trying to figure out why everyone’s attitudes were so good, I realized something. My seniors this year were in 8th grade my first year. My large group of juniors this year were in 7th grade my first year. None of these students had ever had anyone else as their marching band director. Consequently, they have been used to the way I run the group, etc. for the last 4-5 years. They know what my expectations of them are. They know what to expect from me. I guess I probably know what to expect from them too, and that has made a huge difference in the students’ attitudes this year.
I think really, really exciting things are going to happen for this group this year. I don’t think that I’ve ever looked forward to a marching season with so much anticipation and excitement. And, I think the students are feeling that way too!
When you take over a new job, lots of people in music ed. talk about when the program is going to become “your program.” Usually people say 3 years, but for me, I think it is going to be this 5th year. I am walking away from this camp saying, “Finally, this is my program.” I hope that the students are walking away saying the very same thing, because they are what make this program great! It is very exciting, and I can’t wait to see what happens!!
Confessions of a Band Director 