Now that I have had some time to reflect on the conference and state of my own program, it seems that getting back to work can’t come soon enough! I found myself wanting to leave each session early to get started on all of the ideas I had while sitting there. Here are some of the things that I have started already:
1. Written warm ups and tuning exercises that help the students not only tune, but play intervals in tune (tuning by interval numbers – more on this later)
2. Putting together an “Activity Packet” to send the kids during the school year, consisting of warm ups, rhythmic activities, composition lessons, and other things they will need to have on the first day of school next year;
3. Revising the Band Handbook to reflect changes in grading policies and expectations;
4. Coming up with a plan for recruiting at the middles school
Fortunately for me, I have a week off to try and get this all done. Some of you had to go back to work today or maybe tomorrow! I assure you that there will not be much time for me to just sit around. I also plan to get back to school a day early to re-inventory all of my instruments…e still my beating heart!
I will hopefully see more activity on this page. We told a bunch of people about it at the conference, and they all seemed pretty pumped. We are also learning more about what kind of formats will best serve our collaboration needs. One note on the name of the blog: Bandguys refers to Mike and I, as we are the moderators of the blog page. This is not an attempt to alienate female band directors! All directors are welcome!!!!
