Just last week we had band camp and I was talking to the accordion player Lee. I asked him what year he was and he said "I'm a senior." It hit me...the students I had as freshmen four years ago are now seniors. I am very proud of this group of students as they have stuck with band through the thick and thin. We've made many positive changes in the program and it is thanks to this group of seniors and the group that graduated last year. This year is all about refining, refining, and refining. My goal is to accomplish more in the school year with a higher level of efficiency. I think the biggest change for me will be having the high school students using binders. Each student will receive two copies of music, one that stays home and one that stays in the binder. Too much rehearsal time is lost when trying to hunt down music that a student lost. Hopefully this will help them keep organized more. We piloted it at the middle school last year and it was highly suc...
.....musings of a music educator.