A process of lowering expectations…

Whoa.

Sorry for the delay in posting here, wanted to make sure it was a day where I was calm and could look at things objectively. This new school has turned out to be the craziest challenge I’ve had so far in my teaching career. To say I got the lowest performing kids in the school was an understatement. More on that later, let me start with a few of the positive things that have gone on so far.

District came through and was able to get the school about 40K of new equipment, since when the music program was shut down there a few years back, all the working equipment was scattered to other schools. New flutes, clarinets, saxes, trumpets, trombones, baritones, tubas, and some percussion equipment. As a bonus, a local in the area just this week donated a bass guitar to the school. Administration is pretty much leaving me to myself to get things up and running as far as the music classes go. The AP even came in one day and said that “things will be a little better” next year as far as the kids I have…that made me feel a little better…

HERDING CATS.

That pretty much sums things up so far. I have a few kids in each class that “get it” and are wanting to work in the class and go where I want to go, but these kids are in the minority in all my classes. I’m finding myself having to come up with new classroom management techniques just about all the time. Some of these kids just cannot sit still, and even worse, they think they can just start walking around the room causing chaos. The guitar classes are okay for the most part, but a lot of the kids just don’t want to do the work that it takes to learn how to play guitar, even after I’ve done my best to simplify things for them as best as I can. At this point, those students will “sink or swim” depending on how much work they do.

The band classes are somewhat better, but one is better than the other. One band, we are able to make some progress, but the progress is almost like pulling teeth: painfully slow! The other class really doesn’t want to function all that much at all. I’m seriously considering reverting that class back to a guitar class and “promoting” one of the other guitar classes to a band class. A lot of the kids in this second class have no respect for the equipment or me, and even WITH PHONE CALLS HOME basically refuse to work. I told them all up front from the start that I knew that a lot of them were tossed into a class that they didn’t want, but that if they worked with me I’d make sure they got out of it with a passing grade. That isn’t working with this one band class. I’m going to keep that group off the instruments for at least a day this week while I decide what I’m going to ultimately do with them.

I went into this gig with the idea of getting the program up and running by the end of the year with a big music festival featuring all the classes, and as the weeks have gone on that idea is getting scaled back a little bit each day it seems. Right now, the “festival” is a “just the bands” concert, and it may be “just the one band” by spring break, and possibly “this year was the building year, next year is the big coming out party” by May.

The truly maddening part of all this is that there is talent all throughout the classes! But for reasons I can’t figure out, these kids just don’t care. I have between the 2 bands about 4 sax players, for example, that could be stars if they just worked and weren’t bouncing off the walls all the time.

Not sure how this is going to end up, but I’m glad I’m still on good terms with PWB’s principal!

That is all…TB

“Hi, I’m Mr. B and I’m just as surprised as you are!”

Let me explain…

Things were going really good at PWB…the advanced band is sounding so good that we’re actually planning a “welcome parents” mini concert for the Open House. The orchestra is a little weird, in that they are totally not used to playing together as a “team” at the same tempo, but we’re making progress. History class is pretty fun, good group of kids. Beginning band is really putting the work in and already starting to make some decent progress. Still don’t have my 5th class yet, but I was told to just be patient, they were working on it.

Hurricane Irma blows through…a little water damage at the school but nothing major. I lost part of my fence at my house, but was expecting that. End up with a week’s extra vacation, but I’m feeling really good about the kids I have to work with. We get back to school and fall right back into the routine we were doing before.

“Mr. B can you come by the office before you leave today?”

Sure, what’s going on?

“We never got the number of students we thought we were getting, and we’re going to have to move you to another school.”

WELL, AIN’T THAT A THING??

On the plus side, my principal said that she was going to try to get me back for the next school year, as she was really happy with what I was doing and what I wanted to do, so we were/are on good terms in that department. Nothing personal, just the f****** numbers game.

SO, I contact my music boss to see what’s available, seeing that it’s almost the end of the 1st 9 weeks, I was figuring there wasn’t going to be much out there, but there were a few options. One of them was down south in Homestead, so I made plans to interview down there. Hit it off well with the administration, and was told I’d likely be hearing from them soon. A few days go by, and I’m back at PWB, keeping to a regular routine, as I didn’t want to unleash chaos by telling the kids that they were getting schedule changes and not having music classes after all. Still really upset about that, it was a really good group of kids…

Finally, I get another “Mr. B can you swing by the office before you leave today?” message on last Friday at 3:45. I get down there about 4pm, and was told I was to report to the Homestead school first thing MONDAY MORNING! All of a sudden, I had to finish packing my stuff up in a hurry! Thankfully, I had been “stealth” packing my stuff up already since I was told I wouldn’t be finishing the year there, but now there was a bit of urgency to it!

THE WHIRLWIND BEGINS AGAIN

Monday I show up, and it turns out that they had a sub for me, as they didn’t know if I was going to be there that day or not. Turns out they were expecting me on Friday, but didn’t realize I wasn’t told till the end of the day. So I took advantage of the sub to go ahead and start unpacking and setting up and seeing what I have to work with. At this school, I’m going to be basically bringing the music program back from the dead, as they haven’t had a band/music program there in at least 3-4 years. On top of that, all of the working instruments were shipped out to other schools when the program was shut down. That’s going to be an issue for a couple weeks! On the plus side, there was a TON of nylon string guitars there, most of them in very good shape. My first thought: I can run guitar classes as well as band classes, which is what I was hoping for. The school is on a 4X4 block, so I have 6 classes, right now they are all labeled “Band” in the electronic grade book, but I think 6 bands is way too many, and will put unnecessary wear and tear on whatever instruments I end up getting. I was also told that I would be getting some of the lower performing kids into my classes, and I should be ready for that. Challenge accepted.

Tuesday I meet the kids. To say that they are a bunch of characters is an understatement. Challenge accepted indeed. I had to revert to “evil Mr. B” from the first class. I think I’ll be able to work with most of them and hopefully weed out the kids who really don’t want to be there. This is going to be one of those years where you go at the end “What a great amount of progress I’ve made” or “What did I get myself into?” at the end of it. To top it off, the first day with the kids is also the night of open house, so I get to meet a few of the parents too. The title of this entry was my opening line to each group of parents. Apparently the kids didn’t know till Monday or that Tuesday that they were going to be in an music class. Not sure that’s the best way to get things going, but I’m gonna take the ball I was handed off and run with it. Hopefully. the school will get some instruments sooner rather than later, as I think that will help with getting things going the way I want  them to go.

To be continued…

That is all…TB

Been a while, eh?

Wow, I’ve really neglected this site. Time to rectify that.

So, you’re probably wondering what I’ve been up to since my last posting almost 2 years ago? Well, it’s been an adventure, hence the new name of the site here. Let’s see, where to start? I guess the end of the year ’15-’16…

Got to the end of the year with the administrator that I didn’t care for (to put it mildly), and the school got a new principal. He seemed pretty cool, was a musician too, so I thought that would change things up a bit. The school year was pretty okay for the most part, with talk going around of actually spinning the music tech part of MIX off into it’s own strand in the magnet. I was really up for that challenge, as the cooperation between the music and graphic side of the magnet had fallen off, and I was feeling frustrated by that fact. There were other things frustrating me during the year as well. The recruiting situation that I had been lamenting over never really got settled, and the overall number of kids coming into the school was going down. I even made an impassioned speech (in front of administration no less) to the new lead teacher (who was totally CLUELESS as to what he was supposed to do) to adopt the things I did when I was recruiting. Needless to say, he didn’t. Add in the students who were in the magnet, the 8th graders especially, were unusually apathetic, and it made for a rough year in that class. On the band side, it was a case of a very promising start, but it fizzled out by the final concert. Not sure what happened, it was like the band just  “ran out of gas” the last few weeks. The guitar/keyboard class was transformed into a performing group, and showed some promise, and I was looking forward to seeing what the new year would bring. The rock band was the big highlight of the school year for me. I had a group who had incredible chemistry and what they didn’t have in the talent department (3 of the 4 were stone cold beginners) they made up with their energy. The drummer we had in particular as a 6th grader I kid you not was good enough that I could have had him sit in with my bands I play professionally with. I actually took them to a music competition at the Miami-Dade County Youth Fair (which was a fiasco in itself!) and they earned a blue ribbon for their performance!

I did have one big stumbling block with the new principal during the year. Every teacher’s nightmare: they get observed, and manage to not have your lesson plans with you. I have 2 rooms in the school, and I left them in the other room that day. Was in the doghouse for a few weeks, and then things seemed to get back on track. He put me on the “Support Dialogue” protocol, but all the things he said he was gonna do to help me he never did, my friend who was dept. chair did more than he did. Took a few good verbal beatdowns, but I didn’t complain, as I had put myself in that spot, so what could I do? I had to take it and feel like an knucklehead. Lesson learned though, that won’t happen again!

The other big thing that was aggravating was I ended up having to change dates for both my winter and spring concerts at the last minute for no real apparent reason. As the winter concert approached, all of a sudden administration was asking if they could see a dress rehearsal of the show. something that we’d never done before, as the show had so many moving parts. The dance teacher and I had always put the show together in a way that we didn’t need to do a run through, as the 7th and 8th graders were also experienced in how the shows were done. Actually had to explain that doing a run through really wasn’t feasible, especially since this was sprung on me I kid you not 2 days before the show was supposed to happen. I was close to canceling the show all together. Then in the spring, again a few days before the show, I was told to move the date due to a superintendents open house meeting at another school. Apparently he was holding open houses to talk about funding from Tallahassee and was asking schools to postpone events on the nights he was speaking to get as many people as he could out to hear him. It gave the band an extra week to rehearse, but I think it also contributed to them “running out of gas,” as it turned out. The concert wasn’t terrible, but it was one of those cases where the kids had played the songs so much better in rehearsals, and when the show happened, there were things happening that had never happened in the songs before. I still can’t explain it…

2 weeks before school’s out, the concerts are finally out of the way, and I’m winding things down, and had also put together a huge draft of how I was going to have the new MIX Music strand work. I had  the progression of classes, the material I was going to cover, I was going to integrate the band into he magnet, was planning on getting them to the district festivals (something that my predecessor had stopped doing eons ago), I had a new name for the strand, shirt designs, the whole 9 yards. I meed with the principal in his office for my end of year evaluation, all these things in my head, the draft on my computer waiting to be emailed to him that afternoon to get things moving, and I hear this:

“You had a good year and a good evaluation, but due to the number of new students and returning students, we have to surplus you.”

For those who don’t know what that means, basically my time at RMS was finished at the end of the year. Thanks for playing, please clear out all your stuff at the end of the year.  I asked what the future of the magnet was, and didn’t get a clear answer. More on that later. Basically it’s like being laid off, but I wasn’t unemployed. I would (likely) be placed at another school at the beginning of the next school year. I just didn’t know when I’d be placed, or more importantly WHERE I’d be placed.

W.T.F.

All my planning for a new strand, for the jazz band, the guitar class, the rock band, for nothing.

Made for a sorta stressful summer!

Now you know why the name of the blog changed, I’m no longer mixguy!

I Spent the summer working my usual summer gig, doing music technology classes for a summer camp at a community center, and then I was able to be an “artist in residence” for an arts festival for high school kids. I was helping a recording artist coach 2 rock bands, and I had the BEST time! It was nice to get complimented on my teaching after getting beat up (verbally) for part of the last year.

As summer went by, though, I wasn’t hearing anything about where I was going to end up. I was starting to get a little worried, but I had teacher friends who had gone through this situation before telling me to not worry, I’d be placed. I started sending out resumes here and there, and then 4 weeks before school was to start I started getting calls for interviews. Then I had what I call “Whirlwind Tuesday.” 3 weeks before school was to start, I had a day where I had 2 interviews, one at a school that was fairly close to my house, and another one that was basically in downtown Miami. Both went pretty good, and when the interviews were done I went to work at the camp in the afternoon. My phone rang at one point, and it was another school wanting to set up an interview! I’m thinking “Whoohoo!” I may get to choose where I go. Then I get another call, that I had to let go to voicemail. When I heard the message, I was floored. It was the principal of a school calling me to inform me that I HAD BEEN PLACED at her school, and she wanted me to come meet with her asap. Um, WHAT?? I wasn’t sure exactly what to do, but after a few phone calls and some quick research of the school, I informed the schools that I had interviewed with that I was placed and therefore ineligible for their positions. From what I understand how the surplus thing works, it’s a good idea to take what is offered, or your name goes to the bottom of the list, which means it takes longer for you to get placed, and the chances of NOT getting placed is real.

I head to the school the next day, and meet my new principal. She was a friend of the principal that hired me at RMS and was shocked to find that I was available to be at her school. We hit it off well, and during our conversations, found out the administrators at RMS kind of bad mouthed me to her, although I didn’t ask what they said. Those people are kind of irrelevant to me at this point. So I ask what classes I’ll be teaching, and I have a beginning band, and advanced band (something new!), an orchestra (What?), one class of US History (getting that on my teaching cert still being a good thing), and a class that will be almost identical the the Sound Production class I did with MIX. I was a little unsure about the orchestra, but she said she could phase it out as it’s a small group, and then replace it with something I’m more experienced with. For example, there is a piano lab at the school that hasn’t been used in a long time, and most of the pianos still work!

I got a tour of the facilities, and my reactions to what was there was cracking up the AP who was giving me the tour. For example…”A carpeted band room? …Instruments that actually work? …a properly acoustically treated auditorium? …real stage lights? …a music library with music from the last 20 years?” I also met the teacher I was replacing, who gave me a lot of good intel on the school, the kids, and the overall vibe and culture of the place. I was feeling more confident by the minute. The school works on a rotating block schedule, so that will be just about the biggest adjustment so far.

First day of school arrives, and I get the ultimate test: I meet the kids. I get the expected questions of where the other teacher went, but the kids are pretty receptive to me right off the bat. I spend the first day with the advanced band and orchestra just talking to them, getting a feel for what they did in years past, and what they liked doing. I also explained to them what I was hoping to do with them over the course of the year, and they were excited. They kind of did like Riviera did, in that they only played on campus, and definitely wanted to do more performing. I said I’d see what we can do once I heard them play, starting the next day I saw them.

Second day with the bands (I have all the bands on the same day, which is pretty cool), I finally get to hear the advanced band play…

HOLY COW! BEST GROUP I’VE EVER HAD IN FRONT OF ME! FEELING LIKE I JUST HIT THE LOTTERY!

There are things I can work on with them, but all of the things that seemed to hold back the bands at RMS aren’t here. I spent the next few days going through their method book, looking for their “ceiling,” the point where they’re stumped by something in the book, and I haven’t found it yet. F***ing thrilled! All sorts of opportunities are in front of the band, I can’t wait! First thing we’re going to do, I spoke to my new administration, and I got permission to have the band do a mini concert at our open house night in September. The kids are already excited to get things going for it.

The orchestra is small, only 10 kids. 6 violins, 1 viola, 2 cellos, and one bass. I can handle that. they are pretty good, their basic technique (from what I remember from strings classes back at WIU) is pretty good. I’m going to have some help from downtown with them too, so that’s a good thing. Their biggest weakness that I’m seeing right now is they tend to play in their own little bubbles, oblivious to the other players around them. We were working on “Ode to Joy” in class, and one of the times we played it I kid you not there were 4 different pockets of these 10 kids playing 4 different tempos! My brain was having a serious “does not compute” moment there. So, the last 2 classes I have been drilling them with little activities to get them to get in sync with each other and to listen to each other as well.

The beginning band is full of kids who are chomping at the bit to get started. We just did the instrument fittings this last Friday, and hopefully we’ll have our first rehearsal this coming week. The history class is going well too. The music tech class isn’t set up just yet, so on one of the block days, I actually at the moment have 2 planning periods. Weird having a planning period I have to say. Only ever had one once at RMS, and that was my first year there.

The school is a little smaller than RMS, but the vibe around the school is vastly different. Much more calm, relaxed. The principal is all about setting me up with stuff I’m more comfortable doing, so I’m hopeful that I can get the piano class up and running for next year, as well as starting up a new rock band program. Eventually, I’d like to try to use some of the things I planned for the MIX music strand here as well. Especially since I feel that MIX itself (Just my opinion, I don’t know/care what happens over there at this point) will likely be gone at some point.

I did have one more interaction with the admins over at RMS. I asked to try to take some of the used midi controllers that were in the old second mix room for the music tech class I will have. It was amazing that me and the old magnet secretary had to explain what the keyboards were and what they were used for. Long story short, they said they had to ask downtown if they could give us the gear…I have a feeling I shouldn’t hold my breath…but it is what it is…

On another good note, the school is roughly the same distance from my house. A little further north, but closer east/west than RMS, so my drive time is roughly the same as it was, another plus.

I have to say, with all of the places and situations I could have ended up in, I really think I managed to be put into a place where I can be successful, and have a good time with the students as well. I feel something that I realize I haven’t felt in at least 3 years…I’m excited. I’m excited to go to school again. I’m excited to work with the kids again. I’m excited to interact with other teachers again. I’m just F***ING excited!

Who knew?

Like Sheryl Crow said, “A change can do you good!”

Let’s rock this!

More updates sooner…

That is a lot…

That is all…TB

Home Stretch last few days…

Got though testing in one piece, although the block schedule really threw a wrench into a lot of what I wanted to do. I will say though, I may have pulled the band off the concert anyway with the way the schedule worked out. There were a couple weeks where I only saw them once, so the spring concert they were supposed to put on may have been doomed from the start. Hopefully a better schedule and a better group for next year. I did put an exclamation point to the band on how I felt about their progress at the end of year award ceremonies. Except for 3 academic awards that I HAD to give, not one person got a trophy. As an added bonus, it worked out since I had to run sound for the 3 award ceremonies, the band was there to see me not give a single band trophy out. I felt a little bad, but at the same time I also felt that no one had earned a trophy.

The civics class survived the EOC test, although we don’t know what their scores were at this point. I feel I did my best to get them ready to take the test, and hopefully they were able to do their best. I had a few really cool joint review sessions with the department chair, which was cool for me to see how he ran his class, which was good for me. I have a feeling that I’ll get stuck teaching social studies classes again next year, but I think I’ll be better prepared now. The history class has been more fun, but then again history is a little more fun to study than civics, so there you go…

Guitar class is what it is, but nothing to crazy or bad at least. Things are winding down, and I’m just trying to make it as fun as I can for the last few days.

Due to a scheduling mixup with the magnet lead teacher, I ended up having to cancel the New Music Night show altogether this year. We were going to make it a total MIX event, but the lead scheduled a magnet open house that started right around the same time as NMN, so I ended up having to cancel. Granted, my event had been on the school calendar since AUGUST…

The Ramstock show (a return after a year off “in protest”) was a big success, even though I found out the next day that there was some behind the scenes shenanigans with a couple of adults (co workers no less) trying to start trouble with me and our interim principal. Was a minor issue, and I had the whole thing taken care of before the show was over. I just look at it this way: There are now 2 more people that I don’t need to go out of my way for anymore! I’m going to be going through the footage of the show tonight so I can see how things looked. The Rock Band did okay, they could have been better I think, but hopefully the show will inspire some of the kids who didn’t try out this year to do so next year.

So, now we wait to see who will be appointed new principal for the school, since the one we had for the last 5 years is retired. The interim guy seems pretty cool, but I’m getting to comfy with him just yet. Once I know who it is, I’m going to make sure to have a good conversation with him about the MIX program, since I just got confirmation that the previous guy TRULY TRIED TO KILL THE PROGRAM! Boy, there is going to be a blog entry about that later…

That is all…TB

 

Fourth Nine Weeks…The Good, Bad, and the Ugly…

Been a while since last post, so how to summarize the last 9 weeks in a few words?

FUN, with a healthy dose of FRUSTRATION.

I guess the rundown would go like this:

Rock Band: Going okay, haven’t found a suitable candidate to be new drummer, so I’m still on the stool for the group. Didn’t get a lot of rehearsal in over the quarter, but things are picking up as preparations for the Ramstock show are getting into full gear.

History and Civics classes: Both classes are moving along, although the History class is doing a little bit better as far as keeping up with work, and getting things turned in on time. The Civics class is still pretty apathetic, but hopefully they pull themselves together over the next couple weeks as their End Of Course exam is finally coming up. We started our State Testing schedule this week, and the way the schedule worked out the my civics class will have like 4 days of review before the test. That should make things interesting…

Over in MIX Land, things are getting a little better. Students are starting to get a little better with turning in their work, and the last 2 projects have had more quality work being turned in compared to the first 2 9 week sessions, so that’s a good thing. Shooting to have the kids do 2-3 more projects, as well as try going through a book I came across this last fall.

Guitar class is chugging along, really nothing to report on that front, although the behavior in there has gotten better for the most part.

Band…

This is where the “frustration” part comes in…

I have always believed that the natural progression of a musical group is to go from at first a “group of people playing notes on a page” eventually evolving into a “band playing music.” In past years, the way it usually happens with my bands is they get through the first concert, and the kids have the realization of “wow we did it…if we practice we’ll be even better next time” and enough kids will put the work in to make the group make the switch from group of random people to a band.

Didn’t happen this year.

Not. Even. Close.

The only sections that have managed to improve are the piano section and the sax section. Brass players still can’t hit the right pitches on a consistent basis (I don’t think my trombones could hit an accurate note if their lives depended on it), guitar and bass players are (for lack of a better way of saying it) lost, and my percussion section either can’t or won’t count and play their parts correctly.

Spent 3 months writing 6 new pieces for the band’s spring concert, they couldn’t get 1/4 way through the EASIEST one.

Apathy. Flat out refusals to practice.

Oh, and I still have the discipline issues I mentioned last time. Actually had to give a detention to one of them…first time I’ve EVER had to give a detention.

So, for the second time in 11 years, I’m pulling the band off a concert. The New Music Night will now be handled by MIX, with the students doing videos to my songs as well as the student songs that would have been played by the band.

Taking the band back to basics, starting over.

Waiting for this year to be done with as far as this class.

Frustrating.

That is all…TB

Winter Break Update…

Finally, 2 weeks off…time to recharge, time to plan ahead…

Managed to make it to winter break in one piece, so that’s a good thing. Let’s get caught up with where my classes are at this point…

BAND: Well, we managed to get through our Winter Concert with only a few missteps. 7 people didn’t perform, and because of that I had to play bass during their part of the program on top of conducting. Other than that, the band had a fairly “typical” first show of the year. My horn section overall is still pretty weak, but I think I can get them into shape by the time the next show comes up. My guitar section was plagued by equipment issues, so my new project when we get back is going through the guitars one by one to see about making sure the electronics all work. My biggest issue with the band though going forward is specifically 3 students in my percussion section. Total  disrespect is all I’ve been getting from them (one of them I kicked out of the rock band), and I’ve been trying all my discipline tricks to get them in line, and they haven’t been working. My new thing, though, is I’ve decided to just go ahead and use the discipline plan that my school already has in place. It will mean detentions, referrals, and possible suspensions, but at this point I’m done having them be a disruption to the rest of the band. I figure that I’ll be having one of them doing detentions by the end of the first week we’re back…yeah, they’re that rude…

On to happier things…

The guitar class is settling down into a nice routine. There are still a few knuckleheads there, but they’re starting to get the hint. I’m dangling the prospect of converting the group into a band type situation to get them to put more effort in, and for a good section of the group that is turning out to be a nice incentive.

The rock band returned to action at the Winter Concert, with me filling in on drums until I can find/train a suitable replacement. Had a mic malfunction during the performance, but the band was able to turn it into probably the best performance of the concert that night.

The Civics class, well, they’re there…the apathy in the 7th graders at my school is kinda shocking…not sure where that came from…

The American History class I have to say is pretty fun. 98% of the kids in that class are really into the subject, and we’re having fun as we’re going.

Since it’s break time, it’s the time of the year where I start composing the songs for the band’s spring concert as well as the pre-production work for the “Ramstock” talent show. Yes, I did decide to bring the show back after not doing it last year. I have a pretty cool idea for the spring concert that will allow me to integrate the magnet classes more into the production. I’m thinking some kind of fictional TV station theme, but not trying to have the videos sync with the band, as that was almost a near disaster. The “Ramstock” show will be a little bigger than I initially was going to do, in that it will also function as a fundraiser for a student from my homeroom class who is battling illness. I have a few ideas, and I hope to have some of them fleshed out by the time school starts back up in a week and a half…

anyway, merry xmas…

more later…

That is all…TB

Second 9 Weeks…so far…

Been a while since I’ve been able to make a post…between playing some shows, and more importantly moving into and setting up a new house, I’ve been busier than I have been in a long LONG time! Finally have a chance to sit down and collect some thoughts and observations.

First 9 weeks ended up being okay for the most part. The guitar class is going to be okay, even with a couple of really defiant knuckleheads. Always funny dealing with kids who think that they’ll come out on the winning side of a battle of wills with me…lol. Except for that, the rest of the class is pretty good for the most part.

The “regular” band is gonna be a struggle this year. Between equipment issues, knuckleheads, and the usual first few weeks of playing struggles, it’s been a challenge so far this year. Not giving up though, not by a long shot. Although I may have to scale back a few plans that I have for the spring shows…

Got the rock band program started back up. Gonna be a slow process to get it back to where it was, but I have a core group of good kids to restart this with. I did kick the drummer out of the band for a bit (one of the knuckleheads from above), and I’m hoping that he will get the message that if a person is a pain in the a**, no one will want to work with him, regardless of talent. Stay tuned…

The Magnet classes are running pretty smoothly for the most part, and I really have no complaints about them at this point. One of the classes is still overcrowded, but apparently I’m just going to have to deal with it for now.

I have no idea how recruiting is going, and I’m a little worried to hear that our new Lead teacher is saying that our in open house event that we’re doing tomorrow is his last recruiting event of the year.But then again, I’m not involved, so I can’t do anything about it, just sit back and see what happens…hopefully better than my first replacement…

The social studies classes that I have couldn’t be more different. One of them, while a little noisy, are really on the ball about getting work done and understanding things that we’re doing. The other class, well, here’s how to best describe them: Gave them an OPEN BOOK test on a chapter a few weeks ago…ONLY ONE KID PASSED IT. AN OPEN BOOK TEST.  I’ll just leave that comment there.

Anyway, coming up on Thanksgiving break and the Winter Concert, so there will be some new updates coming here a little more frequently, so stay tuned…

That is all…TB

A Frustrating Week

Not in the class, outside of class…

The way the district works down here, after the school year starts, downtown will randomly set dates for schools to hold their open houses. Usually not a big deal, but this time around I ended up having a conflict. As some of you may know, on top of being a teacher I’m also a professional (gigging) musician in town as well. Back in July, one of the two bands I play in got booked to play a venue down here in September. Turns out, when open house dates are set, I find out that my school’s open house is on the same day as my gig. “No big thing,” I say to myself. I had this happen before about 5-6 years ago with another band. My administration back then? “No problem, this happens, just put a note on your door with some contact information.” So needless to say, I expected the same reaction from my current administration. I spoke to my AP, and we started coming up with some ideas for what I could do. I was even going to make a video that could be played in my room.

Then I got a call to head to my principal’s office…

He’s decided that attendance at open house is mandatory, he can do this for 2 nights every year as per our teachers contract (yet another reason I’m not in the union). He won’t let me not be at school. Even though my PAYING gig was booked 2 months ago, well before the date of the open house.

So there was frustration #1…nothing I can do, it’s in the contract…

Frustration #2…

So, on 9/2, an email goes out that there is a magnet event going on September 12, and the wording was “it would be great if you could be there” as well as giving the new lead (different one from last year) information on the programs. So I gave him all the stuff I had, info on the program, as well as explaining him how I was able to go and average about 100 students a year when I was lead. I had no intention of going to the event, as I’m not in charge of recruiting.

Friday morning, I walk in and the lead comes up to me and asks me if saw the schedule that was made for Saturday. I was like “What schedule?” “What are you talking about?” WELL, turns out he went and scheduled all the magnet teachers to work shifts at the booth that the school has at this event. I told him that I was hearing about this for the first time right there, realizing that I had obviously been volunteered for this thing. His story was that he did send info out but since he didn’t put a subject title in the subject the emails didn’t go through. RRRRIIIIIIGGGGGHHHHHTTTTT…………..

Needless to say, there I was in the middle of the afternoon Saturday working the schools’ booth at this thing. Another day where I had to shift around my schedule for school.

Frustration #2…nothing I can do, it’s in the contract…

It’s also the second of two times that this can happen to me…I get to pick and choose what I do now…

On the plus side, the classes are going pretty well for the most part, and I’m actually having some fun with the Civics and History classes. The band had it’s first playing day, and we actually have everyone on an instrument. I still have the one overcrowded class, and I’m going to keep working on it this week…maybe mention to parents to call and complain…?

If I’m already frustrated only 3 weeks in, wonder what the rest of the year is gonna look like…?

Fasten your seat belts kiddos, gonna be a wild ride…

That is all…TB

Week 1…

Well, I survived!

First week done and in the books, and so far it’s a pretty easy ride. My final schedule ended up being 2 band classes, 2 Magnet classes, a 7th Grade Civics class and an 8th Grade Advanced US History class. Um, what? When I initially passed the social studies class, I was told that I was going to get likely 2 6th Grade World History classes, so I spent time getting into that mindset, so needless to say I was shocked when I saw my schedule. Went so far to ask administration if they had made a typo! Apparently, with the numbers situation, they needed a “warm body” for those classes, and the schedule that they had created left me as the only SS teacher that could do those classes, so there you go…

The department chair for social studies has been pretty helpful so far, and after one week I think I have a handle on how to do these classes. Interesting to be on a pacing guide, never had to deal with one of those before! As the year goes on, I think I’ll be able to do some cool stuff with these kids. Thankfully, they gave me a (so far) good bunch of kids, so that will make this transition into a new subject pretty smooth…

The 2 band classes should be interesting. The one that I will be converting into the guitar/keyboard class is actually pretty small, so I have some pretty high hopes that we can do some cool stuff with it by the end of the year. The other band class is actually pretty big right now, which has me a little excited. More people more instruments, more sonic possibilities for later in the year! I know it’s still early in the year, and I’m pretty sure I’ll end up losing a few kids to schedule changes, but it’s still a good start. I start placing kids on instruments this coming week. I still plan on changing method books, although the one I want to use isn’t going to be the be all end all solution I was looking for, I think I’m still gonna go for it with it. I have to make that call this week, as I have to order the books!

The Magnet classes, well, they will be okay. A lot of the small group of new students are in the art and graphic classes at the moment, and one of my classes has 20 kids and the other one has 39…in a room with only 30 computers. The nutty thing is that they may not be able to balance out the classes…I already told my kids to have their parents call and make mention of that to administration. Hopefully that can get squared away sooner rather than later.

I will be starting the rock band program back up this year. I was going to do the tryouts this last Friday, but since we had to do some prep for Tropical Storm Erica (which petered out before it could get here thankfully) I had to move the tryouts back one week. It will be interesting to see what kind of turnout I get, especially after not doing it for a year.

I met the new Lead Teacher finally, and he seems nice. I’m going to help him out a little (fix press releases, new designs etc.) but I’m leaning towards not doing any recruiting at this point. Let him go and see what happens. I did explain to him very explicitly what I did that worked and compared it with what went on last year. Hopefully he does what I used to do and not what the person who was LT did last year!

Got the faculty meeting schedule…kind of nice to not be on leadership team…the number of meetings that I have to go to have been cut in half!! I could get used to that!

Let’s see what the year brings now…

That is all…TB

Here we go…the ’15-’16 roller coaster is about to begin…

Holy cow…

So I passed my Social Studies exam and I’m now certified to teach Social Studies to 5-9th graders. So to start me out easy, it looks like I’m going to have a 7th grade Civics class and an 8th grade Advanced US History course. Call me crazy, but that seems a bit nutty to have a person who basically took a test to get the certification to start off with those classes, especially when he was told that he’d be getting a couple 6th grade classes to ease into doing this new subject.

So far, my schedule is a 6th grade homeroom (I did take myself off the leadership team btw), 2 band classes, 2 magnet classes (one very overcrowded), the 7th grade Civics, and the US History class. At one point it was looking like I was going to have a planning period for the last class of the day, and then when I logged into the teacher portal I found the new class today. Apparently everything is still in “flux,” so I’m convinced that my schedule will change at least twice before classes start next week…

As far as what I know I have…

I think I’m gonna experiment with a new band book this year. I’ve been looking at Sound Innovations, and I think I’m gonna give it a try this year. I have some funds that were left over from last year, and I may be able to buy a set of them to start the year with. I’m also going to change some other things around for the beginning of the year with the band as well. I’m not gonna start them on the instruments for a couple weeks. I’m not gonna do it until I’m positive that at least most of the kids can read music. It will mean more work for me at the front end, but I’m hoping that it will pay off on the tail end of the year. I’m going to do a similar thing with the band class that will be converted into a guitar/keyboard class as well. Too many kids relying on shortcuts and not even bothering to put the work in on their own.

I’ll be doing a similar thing in the magnet classes as well. doing some more with theory on the front end of the year, just to see how it goes for doing the compositions later in the year.

As for right now, I’m going to try to revive the rock band program, and put the Ramstock concert back on the calendar as well. At least that is the plan…

We have a 6th grade orientation that happens tomorrow morning. I have to go in for that to represent the manget (since I’m just about the only one left), then I hope to find more about these crazy classes, and then I’ll be looking at houses in the afternoon (yes kiddies, in the middle of all this me and my family are moving!). The official “opt” days are Tuesday and Wednesday, and then the “real” work days are Thursday and Friday. If anything wild happens tomorrow, I’ll make a post here tomorrow night…

That is all…TB