Posted by Building a Program on 2/11/2021, 9:36 pm
What is your best advice to do with young students who are very vocal about quitting band in the upcoming year? Band is required in 6th grade but students have the option to get out in 7th. I'm fine with students leaving band at the end of the year. (Most of them are discipline problems anyway) But with it being said in class may influence others to quit as well, especially the ones who really enjoy it but follow the crowd. We have about 50 in the HS band but we are looking to grow with our recent success.
Re: Retention
Posted by fumw on 2/13/2021, 8:49 am, in reply to "Retention"
I explain to all what 'rationalization' is and how people that are insecure and/or insecure about their decisions try to get others to follow them to make them feel better about themselves. Generally I try to find an opportunity to do this before the look to next year begins so that it just takes a subtle reminder when the chirping starts. It is usually enough to stiffle this somewhat - at least around the band hall - and definitely blunts the ability of the loud quitters to draw followers.
Re: Retention
Posted by Dean Winchester on 2/12/2021, 11:51 pm, in reply to "Retention"
Wow...you guys are nice. When they say that to me, I tell them to not wait and get out now.
Re: Retention
Posted by DesertJazz on 2/12/2021, 8:42 am, in reply to "Retention"
Middle school kids are always going to want to follow the crowd, so I've seen this happen a few times. I've yet to figure out how to completely mitigate those kids, but making the students understand our complete program, that you can do sports and band, you can do dual credit and band, and that having a well-rounded time in school can help them get scholarships helps. I usually tell them specifically about how I wasn't intending to major in music in college, but how music was part of the puzzle that landed me my 2/3rds scholarship.
It's not really something I would do this year, but I think it was Kathy Johnson (when she was still at Argyle) a few years back had this really incredible presentation about matching up 8th graders with 6th graders to be mentors at the beginning of the year. It helped them have a much better retention going into high school - probably helped some in this case too.
I still remember though like my second or third year in my current district we had these two sixth graders who actively tried to get kids to quit band going into seventh grade. Worst retention probably ever that year since they were popular. They got to watch us go to State though before they graduated, and they certainly didn't do so with their teams!
Re: Retention
Posted by Dennis Syring on 2/13/2021, 10:52 am, in reply to "Re: Retention"
You have many good ideas! Older directors who have stayed with one district for most of their careers have a big advantage over young directors. I had the advantage of band not being required of all beginning students. I would visit with 5th graders and show them all the instruments and give them the opportunity to tryout every instrument I could disinfect. I would keep scores 1-5 on every instrument so I could help them choose what I thought they would be successful playing. A few students would not choose band so I seldom had the "I want to quit" attitude with those that elected to take band. In my last few years I had many classes of 100% retention from 6th to 12 grade. Success of the older classes also helps retention. (A couple of Honor Bands were helpful.)
Re: Retention
Posted by BobsYourUncle on 2/12/2021, 5:49 pm, in reply to "Re: Retention"
I always had a conference with every student by the last grading term. Most importantly it was an opportunity to tell them how valuable they were to the group, how much I enjoyed them in my class, what potentials and goals that I thought that they could accomplish.
It was an opportunity to point out how they could participate in multiple activities, especially in Middle School.
