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Band assignment while at TMEA

Posted by Almost convention time! on 2/3/2023, 4:21 pm

Hi Yellow Board,

What are you having your band students do while you're at TMEA? I need some ideas! Unfortunately my kids can't handle rehearsing with a student conductor-- we tried it one year and it was a disaster.

Thanks in advance!

Re: Band assignment while at TMEA

Posted by Recordings on 2/6/2023, 10:25 am, in reply to "Band assignment while at TMEA"

My kids will all have recording assignments due on their Solo and Ensemble music. They can do them in the band hall all together. I expect and anticipate that they will have a lot of background noise, and I'm OK with that. I'm not going to give them any detailed critique on this one. As long as I can tell they've put in some effort, it's a 100.

As others have said, if you don't have this as part of your routine already, it's not going to work. We've been doing in-class S&E days once or twice a week since we came back from winter break, with a recording due at the end of the class period.

Re: Band assignment while at TMEA

Posted by 1A Dude on 2/5/2023, 9:28 pm, in reply to "Band assignment while at TMEA"

I'll only miss class on Friday but I'm going to have my student leadership warmup the band and run through the UIL program twice. This will be good for their endurance. Students also have playing pass-offs that I've assigned. For students that have not recorded their tests, this will be a great opportunity to get that taken care of.

Re: Band assignment while at TMEA

Posted by DesertJazz on 2/5/2023, 8:51 am, in reply to "Band assignment while at TMEA"

JH students will do a video with a fill-in-the-blank worksheet usually. Sometimes we'll leave a worksheet packet... Depends on how much on a given year we feel they can handle the other. Top JH band may have a day they rehearse sometimes. If we didn't have an edict against students using tech when teachers aren't there, I would probably use this http://www.brianwis.com/notenames/ You can set it up to record their scores, and I have a competition I'm trying to get going with the kids on it at this point.

HS top band will do sectionals the first day, and Friday is probably going to be homework/S&E practice. My assistant isn't coming up until after Wednesday so I'm not having to come up with Wednesday, sometimes I've done a full band rehearsal with drum majors leading it.

Re: Band assignment while at TMEA

Posted by dosed on 2/4/2023, 10:28 pm, in reply to "Band assignment while at TMEA"

Practice/Study Hall Wed/Thurs
Movie Fri

Re: Band assignment while at TMEA

Posted by Sectional Assignments on 2/4/2023, 10:19 pm, in reply to "Band assignment while at TMEA"

They may not be able to do the full band with a student, but maybe this will work.

Split the band intro groups. Upper ww, sax/low reed, high brass, low brass, for example. Give them a selection of music to work on each day. Have them send you a video of their performance for each assignment. You can even incentivize it and have a prize for the best section.

Re: Band assignment while at TMEA

Posted by VC on 2/5/2023, 7:23 am, in reply to "Re: Band assignment while at TMEA"

Would that get crazy with multiple groups in multiple areas and only one sub, who is probably not a band person?

Re: Band assignment while at TMEA

Posted by BDSO on 2/5/2023, 12:42 pm, in reply to "Re: Band assignment while at TMEA"

I did this several times before. It worked out fine. The subs (there are two directors, so two subs) just wandered around and checked on the kids to make sure they were on task. In fact, we split the group by sections and still made it work. I'm doing something different this year (my post below) because we haven't had time to do "pass off" with bad weather days, surprise benchmark testing days, etc. We are using TMEA as a time to get caught up on this. Sometimes you just need to trust the kids to work on their own. If you've laid do the expectations from the start and trained them on what to listen for it will work. And I do this with middle school kids (just not beginners. They aren't ready for that and the classes are WAY to big).

Re: Band assignment while at TMEA

Posted by small school guy on 2/4/2023, 1:39 pm, in reply to "Band assignment while at TMEA"

Fortunately we are 1 on 1 chromebooks for the entire district.

We vary our assignments based on the class. High School and 7th grade band will submit assignments through flipgrid daily. Excerpts from our UIL program for all three pieces and solos recorded and submitted.

Our beginner band would struggle with anything instrument related so I set up links on our band website that shows music available on jwpepper. Each link is specific to each grade that we assign. Students listen and find 5 pieces they would be interested in playing in the spring. We evaluate the results and if something seems like a good fit we give it a go with the group.

Students send an email daily with the name of the piece and composer/arranger. State something they liked about the piece and why they feel it would be a good fit for their class. Etc.

I've also had assignments where students look up the invention of their instrument and write a paragraph and send via email or create a slideshow and share.

The other poster has it right. Students need to understand the routine and comfortable doing it without you in class.

We use flipgrid for all playing assignments and students have zero issues using it since last semester.

Re: Band assignment while at TMEA

Posted by BDSO on 2/4/2023, 11:46 am, in reply to "Band assignment while at TMEA"

Marsalis on Music vids with worksheets. The UIL groups have assignments on SmartMusic and structured group work with specific things to work on.

Re: Band assignment while at TMEA

Posted by Respectfully on 2/4/2023, 8:15 am, in reply to "Band assignment while at TMEA"

You won't have a music/band sub. Your real non-playing options are busywork (read: theory worksheets) or study hall.

And if you leave busywork, it either will get done badly or won't get done at all.

Personally, I'd just put a couple assignments on your LMS (Google Classroom, Blackboard, etc) for online playoffs and say "These are due February 13 by the end of the class period." (Yes, the day you come back). If you use FlipGrid it's even easier.

If you haven't been making these a part of your daily rehearsal process since we went back to in-person learning, do your choice of busywork or study hall. Don't expect your kids to know how to use programs that you haven't used in years.

Re: Band assignment while at TMEA

Posted by Yall on 2/4/2023, 9:24 pm, in reply to "Re: Band assignment while at TMEA"

And if you leave busywork, it either will get done badly or won't get done at all.

Why is this acceptable?

Re: Band assignment while at TMEA

Posted by Respectfully on 2/5/2023, 10:37 am, in reply to "Re: Band assignment while at TMEA"

Because that’s how it is. Kids won’t do work that they see no value in.

Re: Band assignment while at TMEA

Posted by To be fair on 2/7/2023, 4:18 pm, in reply to "Re: Band assignment while at TMEA"

As an adult, I wouldn't either. All work should have value and meaning. Otherwise, it IS just busywork.

Re: Band assignment while at TMEA

Posted by Big Jim on 2/6/2023, 12:26 pm, in reply to "Re: Band assignment while at TMEA"

Truth! That's how it has always been.

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