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To the
graduating seniors, thank you for being such a great bunch this year! I know
it's hard to have new band directors your last year of high school but you
have really been a fantastic help to both of us this year as we got adjusted.
I want to take some time to discuss some things I learned at both Missouri
Music Educator Association (MMEA) conferences I've been to this year. Mr.
Morris and I got the privilege of being a part of their new first
year teacher conference. Here, a group of about 60 first year teachers got to
meet with several veteran music teachers from around the state. We learned a
lot about how to manage a program, how to deal with classroom management, and
rehearsal techniques to use in our classrooms. It was refreshing to hear from
others about the struggles of being a first year music teacher.
The main focus of one of the clinics was how to arrange your beginning band
in your room. Before the clinic I had my brass class set up like a typical
full band, with trombones and tubas in the back and trumpets in the front.
After going to MMEA, I moved my trombones to the front so I could pay more
attention to if the students were playing with the correct slide positions.
This was a big help and my trombone students have progressed quite a bit
since then.
There were a few discussions on how to occupy students while working with
other sections. We developed a list of things students could do while Mr.
Morris or myself was working with another section in the band. This helped
cut down on extra noise during class time. The list was then posted on our
side board so students could be reminded.
We've developed plans for the 2016-2017 school year based on some ideas from
the conference. We are having a marching band leadership camp in July to
train our student leaders and also a freshmen marching camp to
help acclimate incoming band members into the program.
We are very excited for the upcoming school year and have already started
working on the marching show! Thank you all for your continued support!
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