Who’s Who

A letter arrived in the mail from WHO’S WHO AMONG STUDENTS IN AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES & COLLEGES which states I have been nominated to be included in the 2010 edition. It came unexpectedly, and is a great honor.

I’ve got a bio page to fill out to be included in the book. The choice that troubles me most is to get the book as it is quite pricey or just pay for the bio to be placed in it.

There is also the potential of winning a scholarship, yet the numbers would be such that I would be incredibly fortunate to be given one of them.

This is happy news.

CROWD CONTROL

Just before fall break, one of my education classes was talking about classroom management, and I was again nervous as I do not have any specific plans for managing a band classroom.   With a moment, I quickly ordered the book CROWD CONTROL: CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT AND EFFECTIVE TEACHING FOR CHORUS, BAND AND ORCHESTRA by Susan L. Haugland. She has done an excellent job at making a novice ready for day one after reading her first chapter. The later chapters and appendixes add further understanding to the basic concepts of the first chapter.

After reading her book, I have a checklist of what to do before day one in  my classroom.  More specifically, it is what to do for day one of a junior high classtroom as the management techniques may need to be altered for a high school classroom.  I’m of the opinion, I’ll be starting in a junior high, so this is sufficient for now.

Why starting at a junior high? It is my uneducated opinion on this particular subject, that many first year bandteachers are junior high teachers as the experienced junior high teachers are hired on to the high school level when the high school looks for a replacement, but I digress.

Crowd Control is a book I am adding to my collection and plan to wear out with use the first few years of teaching as it will aid me in my management of the classroom.

NAME CARDS

I have a hard time learning names, so I must work hard to learn them. I read in How to Win Friends and Influence People that it is often not because learning the name is so difficult but that we don’t apply ourselves into the learning of the name.  I agree, that when I put some effort into learning the name, I am able to eventually learn the name of a person. OR if I’ve had enough life experience with the person I can bring their name to recall. Regardless, as a teacher, I will be required to remember a lot of names, so I am thinking of ways to remember the names of my students.

In my tudying, I have learned the value of flash cards. I often pull out a flash card and write a definition I do no yet know and then drill myself later to learn the new word or concept.  The other day as I was practicing with my flash cards the idea came to me to use flash cards to remember the names of my students.

Great idea, but hard to apply because I’d have to write out the names of all my students. Then the idea came to require my students to make the flash cards. The first day of class I can pass out flash cards and the students will write their name on the front, and on the back a description of them a. For me, it would read: TONY  brown-haired boy playing tbone in jazz ensemble.  This way I can review the names of my students and also see how they view themselves. the process should take about 5 minutes of class time, and each day I can review the names until i have them all memorized. The students should be fine with this method as they want me to learn their names and it’s unique, and a simple way to get all their names the first day (no need to take roll…).

4s on 5s

Something to say has come to me:  “THIS RHYTHM DIFFICULT, IS NOT.”  It’s got a bit of star wars in it with the phrasing in “YODA SPEAK.”

In review:

3s on 5s: “PLAY THIS RHYTHM REALLY FAST. ” or “M-I-S-S–P-P-I”

4s on 5s: “THIS RHYTHM DIFFICULT IS NOT”

5s on 6s: “THIS RHYTHM 6 5 IS 5 6 RHYTHM.”

Quintuplets

I had a previous post about tuplets being played at the same time as eight notes and my piano teacher taught me to think “not difficult” to get the rhythm. Following that, I came up with how to do tuplets and 16th notes by thinking “I can play this rhythm.” These two will cover most triplet arrangements as sextuplet on 16th notes is the same as two sets of “not difficult” in one beat.

I have now begun working on quintuplets; that is to say, 5s. I have come up with what to say for a tuplet and quintuplet and 16th notes: M-I-S-S–P-P-I. The last S and the first P are done on the same hand (when playing the rhythm on a piano). The double hyphen (–) is a small space that actually happens almost naturally when saying M-I-S-S-P-P-I, but I’ve found there is the need for that extra little space when I take it slow. Now I’m struggling with what to say for 16ths on quintuplets (4s on 5s), so I am open for any feedback from expert musicians.

But I have come up with what to say for 5s on 6s: “This rhythm, 6 5, is 5, 6, rhythm.”  The phrase helps because it is a reflection of itself, is not a tongue twister, and the 6s are said on the sextuplet and the 5s of the quintuplet.

 The work to figure out easy was to remember rhythms continues!

Arrangements to go to Conference

Monday, one of my teachers mentioned a teacher conference this Friday and suggested we might go as a class to participate. I objected because I have a class right before with a quiz and I have made a commitment to a project right after. I disregarded it, even though I really wanted to go.

Why did I want to go? My first reason is so I can network with local music teachers. This conference, called Idaho Orff-Schulwerk Association 2009 Fall Mini-Conference, is being held at a local elementary school on in-service days. There will be many local teachers and music performers. I saw this as a chance to learn some great things AND to get to know some of the best music teachers in the area. These teachers are having to pay for the workshops they will attend, butit will be free for me as a COI student. The low fee (aka FREE) was my second reason for wanting to go.

So I forgot about it until Monday’s class returned on Wednesday. This time, my teacher said we would get extra credit and he plans to NOT have class as he had something conflicting which was scheduled prior to me convincing the class to change times. Oh, that’s somethign I probably haven’t mentioned yet: I convinced my fellow students in band instruments class to change the time from 2:30-3:30 to 10:20-11:20am. This way we all have classes back to back for 3 hours, but we get the class done earlier. This allows me to sleep, and everyone else to have an earlier weekend on fridays!

This Friday is a now part of the weekend for me because I am going to the workshop. I spoke with my teacher of the class with the quiz, and she said I could take the quiz today (thursday), and miss class on Friday. She had to make up the quiz a day early and set aside office time for me to come in, but she was very accomodating. I am so impressed with my teacher’s (and fellow student’s) flexibility in allowing me to go to this conference.

Now, what am I going to learn? Since I know nothing off Orff, I’m giogn to the Intro. to Orff workshop taught by Dr. Andy Goodman first thing in the morning.  I hope to get a general idea of what it is and how I can learn more to apply this in my music teaching.  Second will be Muisc and the teaching of reading which looks like it will focus on fun activities that aid in learning how to read music. This will be awesome not just for me to be a better teacher, but to be a better player and student. 

There is then an hour lunch break. If I can endure, I will have lunch there and go to one more workshop: Improvisation: Jazzin’ up the Joint. I have heard rave reviews about the presenter: Chuck Smith. Apparently, he is  an accomplished pianist, and those who have heard he is there and presenting have wanted to go.  Even if I am drop dead tired, I hope to attend his workshop and, with permission, record an audio file of his presentation so I can re-listen to it later with a more alert mind.

In all, I am amazed that this opportunity has come available to me because my teachers made me aware, encouraged me to go, and made accomodations for me to make it. This is going to be one fo the highlights of my schooling!

The “R” word

A friend on facebook shared a comment about how something was “retarded.” I’ve made this mistake before as well, and though I knew it wasn’t nice to say around people who are intellectually disabled, I didn’t realize until recently how I need to completely remove the “R” word from my vocabulary.  This has been a challenged, and I have slipped a couple times, but I am getting to the point that I am saying it fewer and fewer times.

I prepped my friend with a lengthy paragraph which I will not include on this blog about the characteristics that I found good in him and how he has made an innocent mistake that I have made before. This truly is something many people DON”T know about, but if I were he and he were me, I would want to know that I had made this mistake. I also invited him to give me similar observations. The following is the conclusion of my message to him (again, personal message and NOT posted where all his other friends could read; i’m trying to be diplomatic about the whole thing):

I work with people who have Intellectual Disabilities, and I have learned that the “R” word is closely related to the “N” word and should NOT be used to describe ANYTHING. The people that are intellectually challenged, are highly insulted by the use of this term to describe themselves, others OR things. It is an insult. Quoting from Wikipedia: “The term “mental retardation” has itself now acquired some pejorative and shameful connotations over the last few decades due to the use of “retarded” as an insult.”
I’m currently in a class talking about exceptional students (I’m working to be a school teacher), and next week I am going to give a presentation on this very topic. i’ll be committing my classmembers to say the following: I WILL NOT USE THE “R” WORD. Will you join my cause, which is, to remove “retarded” from my vocabulary and inform others of its insultive nature?
Again, if I were you, I wouldn’t have been aware of this, but as your friend and as an advocate for the disabled, I am asking you to never use this word again in written or verbal form.

For any of you following my blog, please join me in this cause to remove “retarded” from our vocabulary and inform others of its insultive nature.

Safety in the Band room

There are certain precautions to be taken in a band room to keep the players safe, but I’ve never taken the time to think of the dangers and how I will instruct my students in such a way that they will be safe.  This is the time to prepare for potential hazards in my workplace and how I will put in precautions. My general rule will be to have respect for the instruments and every individual in the band room, but I will try now to find some specific dangers and what I will do and instruct my students to do to be safe.

The band room has the dangers that any classroom has, and I assume the school will have sufficient measures in place for me to follow which will keep the dangers at a minimum. I can, however, think of a few regular dangers that are augmented in a classroom. For example, the kids rising up in retaliation against me as their teacher and wanting to break out in a mass riot will be all the more dangerous in the band room, for the instruments can be used as weapons.  Now that all band teachers reading this are fearing for their lives, I say it gets back to the basics of instructing the students to have respect. Hopefully they will respect the instruments enough that if they want to riot they’ll not use their precious sound making instruments as swords, battering rams, or branding irons. Though it would make for interesting entertainment as a movie, I’m 95% certain I’ll never have to handle said situation.

Another danger of a regular classroom that may be augmented in a band room is the spread of disease. Sharing a close proximity is standard, but being required to use some of the same instruments in the percussion section and forcing bodily fluids around for the winds will make the band room a breading ground for infections diseases. Not to mention the fact that the music may inspire feelings of enfactuation among the students and possibly lead to the spread of STDs. Again, every school should have in place precautions to prevent the spread of disease, and in my band room I will enforce those and make sure that undesirable sharing of germs is not happening.  A specific idea that has come to me now is to have the percussion students sanitize their hands after use of  shared instruments.

The band room comes with some specific dangers.  Many of them are the result of spacing.  In a cramped band room, the placement of the students and their equipment could be a cause of collisions.  There are those students who will not notice the trombone case lying on the floor and trip over it landing on a chair and bruising, if not opening, the head. There are those trombonists who will sit too closely to the players in front of them and when going to play will smack their fellow student causing a minor head concussion.  There are those trombonists who will be yanking really hard on their mouth piece to put away their trombone and the piece will fly and imbed itself in the eye socket of another trombonist. My specific solution is to not have a trombone section, and that all sections will respect the space of others by making sure there is space to use their instrument, respect the instrument itself by caring for the case and it’s placement, and by respecting their instrument by never using force.

My main solution to preventing classroom dangers is to instruct my students to have respect for each other and for their instruments.

MY EDUCATIONAL BIOGRAPHY

On April 8th, 1982, Colleen Bradshaw went under the blade for her second cesarean section, and at 08:17 I was born. While growing up, I allowed my brother to speak for me, so I didn’t really start talking until I was nearly 3 years old and making many errors such as not saying my Rs. My parents found it so cute that at times they did not correct me, so during kindergarten I was receiving speech therapy. The city of Beaver, Utah with a population just over 2,000 did not have enough staff on board at Belknap Elementary to have a speech and language pathologist, so I went to receive speech therapy with three to four other special education students in a room that felt like an adapted office. I remember one special education instructor, and the small city irony came to play in that one of the students was his daughter.
By first grade, I was no longer receiving speech therapy, but my teacher still rotated attention as our class was so large we had 2.5 classes and I was in the .5 that was combined with second graders. My teacher was Mrs. Crook, and I remember wanting to pay attention to her even when I was supposed to be working on the first grader’s desk work and she was teaching something to the second graders. I can remember a few times she asked me to stop paying attention to her and do my work, but I guess even then I was paying attention to what my teachers were doing.
Candace Bradshaw, my first cousin, lived next door and we had kindergarten and first grade together, but finding herself in a different class than me the first day of second grade really upset her. I remember that first recess I got a punch in the arm because I was in a different class then her. Ever other year of elementary school we were in the same classroom, and she wished we weren’t. Candace and I were but two of the 12 Bradshaws in my class of about 90 students, so I had a lot of second and third cousins that I attended school with. I recall my mother saying I was related to about 85% of the town, so even those with different last names were extended family of some sort.
Between 6th and 7th grades, I had the opportunity to get a couple one-on-one lessons with Mr. Hink, the band teacher, on my brand new trombone. The Junior high school was combined in the same building as the senior high school, and the building was about 70 years old with parts of it condemned. As the gym was a restricted area, a new gym had been built with a band room on the second story, so the band students had a few more minutes to walk to and from band as it was technically off campus. Ground breaking was occurring for a new high school, but since there was already a music room in the new gym none was planned in the new high school.
All of my eighth grade, the new high school rose from the ground while the town speculated about what would happen to the old high school building. The historic building was set to be demolished, but there were those who wished it would be turned into a museum. In the end, the demolish crew got their payment to destroy the old high school, and between 8th and 9th grades I made sure to set aside the time to watch the old building get knocked into nothingness. Along with the students who cheered and saw this as entertaining, I noticed older citizens in tears and bearing flowers to commemorate the destruction of a beloved building.
Freshman year of high school was one of my busiest and most memorable school years. My extra curricular activities increased as I participated in football, wrestling, and the after school play along with still being in band and scouting. In the spring, I opted to work more hours at my job instead of doing baseball for the school, and I also found more time to develop friendships. Freshman year was the year the students from a neighboring town started to be bused in as their town only had primary school with classes K-8. In this new set of students were two new friends for me: Tyler and Craig. The new school building had a photography lab, and a local photographer was willing to teach one class a day on photography, and I decided to take it. I was the only freshman in a class mostly filled by seniors who were just trying to get an easy A, but I loved learning a new skill and a new way to look at the world.
We lived so close to home that my brother would drive the two of us home to eat lunch during our lunch hour. On Friday, May 16th,1997, my mom told my brother we would be moving to California. My brother had discussed this previously with my parents and was excited to go, but I had no clue. I walked in during the jubilation and asked what was happening. My mom had planned to tell us after school, but she had to tell me then. I went back to school a heartsick fool. Because my younger sisters didn’t know, I was asked not to tell anyone especially because my closest sister was in 7th grade and attending the same school. I saw my cousin Candace, and couldn’t tell her. I saw Tyler and Craig, and I couldn’t tell them. I went on an outing into the community to take pictures, and everything was becoming paste tense because in two weeks we’d leave.
Thursday, May 29th, we left town having sold many of our possessions and loading what we could in our 24-foot trailer, van, car and truck. June 1st, 1997 we drove into San Jose and began a new life. The city was HUGE having over 800,000 people. We spent six weeks living out of our trailer until we found a home that would have my brother and I attending Santa Teresa High School. I missed my friends and being able to go to the scout jamboree, but I met some new friends through church that made me aware of freshman band camp which I attended early in the summer. The week before school started, we had a busy schedule with marching band meeting daily to practice and get our show together.
Santa Teresa High School had more students than the population of Beaver, Utah. The school is campus style with multiple buildings and I heard rumor that the place was originally going to be a junior college. When I began attending, I was placed in one freshman class so I could get introduced to the school and later in the year complete my driver’s training since Beaver High School did its driver’s training quarterly such that students attended the class the quarter before turning 16. Two middle schools dumped into Santa Teresa High School, so many thought I was a freshman and came from the other middle school. I found it ironic to think this was my fourth year attending school in a high school building and people treated me like a freshman. Santa Teresa High school afforded me new opportunities. French, AP Calculus, Marching Band, Jazz Band, and a concert band that traveled to Hawaii were just a few of those offered that I fit into my schedule.
To attend college was expected of me by both of my parents. My parents had met in college and decided to quite school in order to settle down in a community with family close by and to start a family of their own. Their greatest desire for their kids when it came to education was that we would complete college and possibly continue on to receive even higher degrees than a bachelor’s degree. When it came time for me to decide where to go to school, I decided to stay at home to save on housing and go to a local university. My junior year, I had my choices narrowed down to two: Stanford University or San Jose State University. My sophomore year, we did a band day with SJSU, and I loved their band. My junior year, we did a band day with Stanford, and I was turned off by the craziness of the students. I decided not to apply to Stanford. I applied to SJSU, was accepted, and began attending the fall after I graduated from high school.
I began college as an undeclared major and taking two music classes: marching band and music appreciation. The band went to Hawaii that year when the college football team played there, and it was a lot of fun, but I did not continue playing in the marching band after my freshman year. My sophomore year I declared business accounting and mathematics as my double major. My thought process was that I would love to teach, so degrees in these two areas could lead to just such a career OR some other business adventure that might come my way. After a semester of business and accounting classes, I knew business accounting was NOT for me, so I dropped that major and was left with math. Well, math is a very narrow field of study where one can be an actuary or a teacher. I wasn’t too excited about teaching math for the rest of my life, so I began to re-evaluate what I was going to do with my schooling.
My life changed for the best when I married Emily, and I continued evaluating who I was and who I wanted to be. She helped me to keep my dream of teaching alive while encouraging other endeavors that might be more lucrative. We had made a decision that I would change my major. One day, while traveling through the social science building, I noticed a flier stating what classes were needed to get a degree in economics. I had taken two economic classes, and I really enjoyed them both. I noticed that my business accounting and mathematic classes would apply to a bachelor of science’s degree in econ, after discussing it with an advisor, I found I could be done with school a year earlier and have many more employment opportunities available to me with a degree in econ than a degree in math. Emily was also in favor of the decision, so by May of 2006 I was wearing a cap and gown holding our two week old daughter and celebrating a successful four years at university, but listening to the commencement addresses I didn’t sense that my life was commencing but that a long drug out process was concluding.
To put me through school, we both worked. I worked for a company that provided life skills training to individuals with developmental disabilities. Upon graduation, I continued to work at the same place doing nearly the same job and getting paid the same amount as before I had my degree. After a year, the company downsized, and I was given a wonderful severance package and warm wishes to a bright future. Emily and I had been discussing moving to a place where we could own a home, so we got serious about searching for a new place. After very little deliberation, we took up residence in the Treasure Valley in Idaho where I got a job continuing to work with the developmentally disabled, and after six months I found myself on night shift. Working at night, things are quieter and there is more time for reflection and personal evaluation, and I began to realize that though my work was rewarding, it was not what I was passionate about. I had a passion to teach, but not mathematics, economics and certainly not business accounting. My passion is to be a band teacher.
A book called The Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die by John Izzo helped me to realize that I must be true to myself and do what is my life long passion. By doing so, I would be happier. There I was, 26 years old and finally deciding to do with my life what I wanted to do, and even though the thought of having to go back to school for 4 more years was daunting, I was willing to make the sacrifice in order to do what I love. I set a goal to be teaching music by the fall of 2014.
With some quick research, I found that the College of Idaho was in the very city I was living in. From the beginning, I fell in love with the College of Idaho, and though I started the application process in late November, the first week of January 2009 I began classes to get my certificate in music education. If all goes as currently planned, I will achieve my goal of teaching music a year early, and it will be at the age of 30 with approximately 20 years attending school that I will commence my life long career of being a band teacher.

MY MOM SENT POINTERS

My mom sent me an email detailing how her band teacher, Mr. Pritchard, took control of the classroom. I’m going to put an excerpt from her email here and some of my comments to follow:

 

I remembered a couple things about his technique.  The main one was when we were learning a piece, he always tapped the upbeat with his foot.  Sometimes a lot harder if we were supposed to be playing on the upbeat.  Just out of habit the rest of the time, I think, but it happened a lot during stage band where there is a lot of movement going on. 

He had presence in the room.  He demanded respect with his presence but was fun to work with.  We could be talking, playing chords, practicing, whatever but at the beginning of class when he stepped onto the podium, all was expected to be silent and eyes were supposed to be on him “Not because I’m pretty” he would say. 

“Watch!” was something he yelled over the music when he really needed us to because of tempo changes, etc.  He never yelled over us if the group was being loud though.  He would sit on his chair on the podium and stare us down with his beady eyes and sometimes raise one eyebrow until all was still again.  He was a little man, but powerful.

I’ve gained from this email a couple of wonderful insights. First, that when I am setting out into the world to do what I really want, others will aid me in my journey. The advice that comes in this email is filled with a desire to pass on wisdom from experience of another, who just happens to be my mother. Second, I learn that I need to practice conducting while beating my foot on the upbeat! that is a great idea for aiding the student to hear the upbeat. It can be done.

The other items mentioned are about classroom management. I don’t know what it is about classroom management that has me both intimidated andthinking “I can totally do it!” There’s something I lack. I think it’s my lack of wanting to discipline a child because I go through life trying to be very understanding and considerate of others and never want to injure anyone or cause them harm. BUT there will be times when, for the greater good, I must discipline. Some skills like being able to use “beady eyes” and to never yell over my students but expect them to listen are things I want to work at so that I can command the respect of my students and be able to rein in the crowd without loosing respect from having to discipline my students.

All in all, I’m glad my mom has sent me pointers and I look forward to other pointers that will come along as I continue my quest to become a band teacher.