"You Know What's Easy?"

"Nothing."

It's a saying that my parents lovingly said to each other, and still say, when they are faced with challenges of things going wrong. It makes a lot of sense to me now, as I have tried to establish some things at my middle school band program that have been met with some mixed reviews from students and parents. The main thrust of this post will be about my experiences with my attempts to have high standards and a thorough system of accountability, and kids quitting band because of it.

In order to fully grasp this, you need a little background information to set up the stories about quitting: In college, they taught us all these creative, educationally and pedagogically sound ways to enhance band, to make it more than just deficit style teaching. These methods include things like comprehensive musicianship teaching presentations, student centered questioning, and other activities that help students learn and do music that are a bit more than "no, that's wrong, play it again."

A big component of this new way of thinking about band is assessment. We were taught that it is crucial for music education to show that it is a serious, academic subject just like anything else, in order to appease administrators who are looking for evaluation tools, and to advocate for music programs by showing that we are not just an extracurricular, we are a core subject. Music (or band) is not just an activity where students are just given As if they show up. It's a course that requires lots of hard work that can and should be assessed and evaluated. So we have evaluation tools and assessments such as playing tests and practice reports.

I do believe in that, I really do. And as I sat in my undergraduate desk, I was so excited to get out there and give kids that well-rounded, comprehensive music education. Then I got a job, and now I'm trying to make it work, and it is tough (you know what's easy?)

My students, who have never experienced any sort of accountability, responsibility, or assessment, are suddenly getting smacked in the face with all this stuff that I'm introducing to them that I was taught in college. We're doing daily listening logs, playing tests, fingering worksheets, studying the rhythm tree, and other things that are completely foreign to them. They are used to barely scraping by at a sub-mediocre level, and the director singing their parts at them enough times to essentially memorize the few songs they are working on. They aren't used to being asked to figure things out for themselves, to work hard, and be held accountable for their playing. You've probably read me say that enough times now over the past few months.

The thing that really worked against me was, with all these assessments, some kids' grades suffered, because they turned in hardly any practice reports, if any, put forth no effort on listening log answers, and did not prepare at all for playing tests. But they idea that they are ingrained with is that you just get an A in band, right? That's what my they thought, that's what the parents thought, and that is naively not what I thought. I still believe in a band program based on comprehensive musicianship, assessment, and the like, but I made a big mistake in thinking it would work flawlessly from day one. It's something you have to build up and do piece by piece. I still think it was ok to do for me to start some of these new things, but I shouldn't have made it impact grades so severely from the beginning.

Because I had a bit of a revolution on my hands. Around progress report time, I heard rumblings about students quitting. I talked with some upset parents and some upset 8th graders about why their mid-term grade was what it was and how they can pick it up. Many of them did not make that effort, and when report cards came out, many students had earned Ds and Cs, which was the coup d'grace of their band careers. The best musician in the band quit, the worst behavior problem in the band quit (hallelujah?), and another 8th grader. Morale was low, from both me and the band.

I began to see that I made a real mistake. I still believed in the changes I was making, but I did not implement them in a way that would make the transition feasible for many of my students. After 3 years of a totally different system, they were unable and unwilling to jump into mine, baptism-by-fire style. So I carefully amended many grades, raising Ds to Cs and Cs to Bs, all the while trying to not compromise the solid A that most students earned. But it was too late. How could I slap my kids in the face with this new system, give them Ds and Cs for it, and then expect them to stay in this elective?

As I write this, I realize that the essence of my problem is that I am trying hard to find that balance of fun and high standards/accountability. They can coexist. They should. Some of my students don't know it yet. It's not fun to be lost every time you come to band. But it's also not fun to see a bar set too high for where the students are at this point. They weren't ready, and I just didn't realize it.

How can I create a fun, healthy, safe educational environment where standards are high and there are many systems of accountability without students feeling constantly pressured? I want the best for them. I want them to learn a ton and perform well, all the while having fun. Any teachers or anybody out there, how do you inspire and motivate your students to work hard to meet high standards while making it fun and achievable? This may be a dilemma that is solved with time, as the rebellious 8th graders are phased out, and my own kids are raised up through the program.

That's the perfect plan to turn things around, isn't it? Do as much as you can with the kids you inherited and then grow some super players who love band, love working hard, love music, and don't want to disappoint you. But then again, you know what's easy?

More on the subject of 5th grade band and motivation in the weeks to come!

Updates

Hey everyone! It has been a while since I have posted. Part of the reason was that LOTS of stuff has been happening, thus I have a lot to write about, and trouble deciding what to write. This isn't very cerebral or thought out, but maybe by spinning a general summary I'll be able to articulate deeper thoughts...

Marching band ended, and I was grateful for that. Successes on the season: Generally good musical execution throughout, especially given our size and instrumentation issues. Also, changes I made to the gametime routine (new pregame formations, placement in the stands, level of involvement in games) went over well. By the last two games, the kids were having a ton of fun, even paining their faces school colors! (Thank goodness none of it got on the uniforms!) Areas for improvement are mainly visual execution, discpline with posture and horn angles, and rehearsal etiquette. I think much of that will be improved with me simply being more demanding. This summer I think I will try my hand at writing drill, so I can have something that is really appropriate for who we are and what we're trying to do.

We're getting ready for our winter concert, and I think the kids like the music I've picked out, which is reassuring. I ordered a medley from the Nutcracker for the top band, which they actually really enjoy. It's playable enough where we can work on ensemble concepts (blend, intonation, dynamics, stylistic nuance) without being bogged down with technique. Hopefully this gets them to buy in to my rehearsal style and what I want them to accomplish musically. Then in the spring I think I'll ramp it up a bit to see if we can reach the same integrity of performance with a greater technical challenge.

The freshmen band is going well also, most of the time. We are reading out of Frank Erickson's "Technique Through Melody". We sight read one or two of the etudes, spend a day or two on each, and move on. They are actually reading them quite well. I think some of the rhythmic training and scale exercises I'm also having them do is paying off. Then again, we have yet to venture outside of B-flat, E-flat, and F in the etudes, so we'll see what happens. However they are already halfway around the major scale sheet and doing C-flat major pretty well, which is exciting. A few of the students in there are way behind, just from a recognizing notes and their fingerings standpoint. I'd hate to blame my feeders here, but I'm going to go ahead and blame my feeders. That's a whole other discussion/rant. But anyway, giving them the help they NEED and DESERVE without boring the rest of the ensemble is the biggest challenge in there. Still stumped.

Next concept to teach that group is every single chromatic concert pitch relationship for their instrument. When I ask for things other than concert Bb, Eb, F, or A, things can get pretty hairy, especially for the saxes. I'll take any suggestions for how to teach the class this, please!

Freshman percussion ensemble is going okay. Those kids can be a lot of fun but also extremely unfocused. So trying to keep it fun and positive while still making progress is always a hard balance to find. They have good fundamental snare chops (most of them have better buzz rolls than me, which we joke about) but next to no mallet experience. I'm struggling a lot with how to develop this, and getting them to actually read instead of just memorizing it by rote. We've done note flash cards and note naming games, started off with simple C major songs, done different scales to get them used to using the accidental bars, but learning anything new, regardless of the complexity, is a huge challenge. If anyone has any tips on this area of percussion instruction, please please share!!!

Choir is great when its working. Really great. But it really sucks when it isn't working. I wish I knew more. I'm trying to minimize and make fun the tedious but necessary aspects (note names, scales, basic rhythm, etc) and spending plenty of time emphasizing the simpler, more rewarding aspects like good vocal production, blend, and phrasing. Right now we are sight-singing simple melodies, and I'm having them label the appropriate scale degree numbers above the notes. They still need a guide with the notes and their equivalent numbers (I put that up on the SmartBoard) but I hope to wean them off that sometime next semester. They are starting to recognize key signatures, and understand the relationships between 1 and 5, and so on. To recap, it is fun when it is working well. However, I really hope my school is able to have a full time choir teacher next year, not because I don't like it, but because that is simply what these students deserve. End of story.

Trying to keep busy and have a life outside of work. I have been playing my horn around town quite a bit the past few weeks, which was very rewarding and fun. Exercise regimen is going well, and I'm trying lots of new recipes and stuff. Sometimes getting up and going in the morning is very rough, but overall, the good parts still outweigh the bad.

I'll try to keep my contributions more frequent and more succinct. Class is about to start, so I'm signing off!

The Power of ETM

ETM. It stands for "Education Through Music." It's difficult to explain, but simple to experience. On the most basic level, it is a philosohpy (i guess) of teaching music that suggests that children must EXPERIENCE a concept before they can EXPLAIN it. It also emphasizes the necessity of meaningful play. Children learn through playing! They are supposed to play! Meaningful play helps children of all ages develop intellectually, emotionally, socially, and even cognitively! ETM provides resources for music teachers to provide students with meaningful music games to help students learn how to sing, keep a beat, interpret lyrics, understand rhythm, and much more while also teaching them how to be confident and caring individuals. It's amazing.

With my jr high, I have not been using ETM as much as I would have liked these past few weeks (my co-op would be ashamed...) I've been so focused on doing other things that i've let it slide a little bit. Well, today, my 6th graders did a LOT of ETM, and it was BEAUTIFUL!!!! I have never seen either group of 6th graders smile so much, work together so well, or sing so loudly. One eleven year old (going on about 35...) was so happy to be the Farmer in "Farmer in the Dell!" I got picked as the "cheese" so she got to be the teacher for a little bit and "turn me into the farmer"... It was the first time that she let me see her softer side. I almost cried.

Anyway, if you have experienced ETM, you can imagine the beauty and the learning that occurred in my classroom today. If you have not, I high recommend looking up ETM online (http://richardsinstitute.org). Check out the video!


What a great experience for me kids today... and the best part was that they were CHOOSING to play this way. ETM was their reward for working hard on our Christmas program song. I gave THEM control over which games we played - and it worked out splendidly.

Break Time

Nothing in this blog post is really very substantial....

Some days never end. I'm taking about ten minutes here to actually do something OTHER than school work for the first time since waking up in the morning.

For those of you who have never put on a Christmas Program/Spring Musical/All School program of any sorts: It is harder than it seems. I have made so many mistakes already and the program is still a month and a week away! It is so nerve-wrecking to try and prepare the kids while only seeing them twice a week... Oh, and let's try and keep a curriculum, too, please!

Overall the two hardest parts have been the logistics of planning it/running the Christmas committee and giving the right song to each grade level. It's so great that I have help so I don't have to do it all myself, but sometimes I don't even know what I need, so that's a problem! I've discovered that a couple of the songs I have chosen for the grades are too hard... It's a little too late to go back now (they are actually making remarkable progress), but it's still frustrating. Honestly though, i think it's one of those things I have to learn from experience.

Any suggestions on how to get middle elementary (grades 4-6) boys match pitch??


Another huge undertaking: Our christmas program is a small easy play + each grade level singing a song. The small easy play needs only 2 people. I can't just pick two people out of over 300, so we're having auditions. (This will also prepare ME for when I have to do bigger auditions for the spring musical). I'm totally making the audition process up as i'm going along, so hopefully tomorrow (the auditions) won't be a train wreck. At least I have a plan period tomorrow to prepare! (Oh, wait... I only get those on tuesdays and thursdays)... Ok, so at least I have 5 minutes between classes to catch my breath (Oh wait.... not on wednesdays...)


Okay, I'm sorry that this post was sarcastic and negative... just had to get it out somehow!

Arranging for Band

I had the unique privilege of having an arranging junkie as a high school band director. (Although I'm sure that my extremely mild-mannered, staunchly anti-drug, and lovably nerdy Mr. B. would not appreciate being dubbed a "junkie.") Through the years he arranged our entire pep band book and all of our marching band shows. We did not play a SINGLE canned arrangement in all four of my years there. He even wrote an original "senior composition" for the jazz band every year to feature the graduating seniors. When I was in high school, that was just the norm. I never realized how special it was that he arranged all that music just for us.

Fast forward to present-day Emma. Five years past high school teaching all aspects of a 5th-12th grade band program in Smalltown, America. I enjoy arranging a lot, and I had no qualms about putting in the work because my high school band director utilized home-brewed arrangements to such great success. At this point, my motivation for arranging for band has been twofold: 1. to create literature that suits the level and instrumentation of my groups and 2. to help students "buy in" to what I'm trying to sell.

My first arranging foray for my groups was at the end of marching band season. The pep band library is a mess: there are no complete "master sets" for any of the tunes, and there is only a handful of tunes where every book has the printed parts. Plus, the tunes we do have are pretty old and stale. So, I arranged--WAIT FOR IT-- Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance," Usher's "OMG," Benny Benassi's "Satisfaction," and Taio Cruz's "Break Your Heart" all for pep band. I went on a mad arranging spree because I want to develop a more solid pep band repertoire and create tunes that will be playable by my developing high school band and the middle school band when they join in the pep band fun. You would not believe the response that these tunes got. It was like band Christmas for these kids to play pop music. I got a "you're the best band director ever!" We even played our new "Bad Romance" arrangement for a Halloween parade competition and placed second, our highest ranking in any event all year! (Which is ironic because we scrapped our old parade tune in favor of this one just three days before the competition, hmmmm). Of course, I do feel a little bit coercive and backward buying these kids' approval with junky pop music... but that's another post!

My second arranging project has been creating a version of "the 12 Days of Christmas" for my sixth graders to play on our holiday concert. Of course, with this being band, it is subtitled "On the twelfth day of Christmas, Ms. B. gave to me..." I altered the lyrics to the following scheme:

On the twelfth day of Christmas, Ms. B. gave to me,

12 drummers drumming (drummers play only)

11 woodwinds playing (ww's only)

10 brass a-buzzing (brass on mouthpieces)

9 ladies playing (girls only)

8 boys a-blowing (boys only)

7 bones a-sliding (trombones play a lick with a juicy glissando)

6 kids a-counting (1, 2+ 3+!)

5 SLIDE TROMBONES! (harmonized brass)

4 saxophones (sax soli)

3 broken reeds (squeaky squawky clarinets and alto saxophone+ ratchet in percussion)

2 clarinets (clarinet soli)

and a flute in the key of C! (harmonized tutti refrain)

At first, I passed out an arrangement that only included the introduction, all twelve days, and the coda. That way, they could learn the technical aspect of their part without adding the hullaballoo of playing the whole thing. I framed it like a video game. "Okay guys," I said, "imagine this is Level 1. For Level 1, we have to get all the notes and rhythms right and count entrances correctly. If you pass level 1, it will prove to me that you are ready for level 2 where you get to play the whole song in order with all the different days."

After they passed "Level 1," I passed out the full arrangement, and we played it through with good counting and correct entrances (Level 2). To spice it up, we added one more element of humor (Level 3!). At the end of the eleventh day, I would cut them off and bow as though it were the end of the piece. When I turn around to acknowledge the band, they all have their hands raised, and I say "What is it, band?" To which they respond (their words), "Yo, Ms. B! What's the dealio?! There are TWELVE days of Christmas!!" At which point I appear horrified by my mistake, jump back on the podium, and count them off at a fast clip and we play through all twelve days at lightning speed. We are still working on Level 3 (playing the entire sequence fast with controlled technique, solid counting, and good sounds), but they LOVE IT! They are so excited to get through the entire song, and they are counting rests, watching me, and having an absolute blast with all the silly elements of the arrangement. To top it off, I plan to create a slide show with the lyrics and photos of the kids to go along with our performance.

As a new teacher with a developing program, arranging has been worth the work (and I'm getting pretty fast at it!). My groups get to play music that is written with their success in mind. It works for our instrumentation and for our ability level. They also get to be on the front line of my creative process. I will ask for feedback and let them know that "this is a rough draft, I am working to make it better." Perhaps the most exciting part though, is that this is a very tangible way for my students to see the hard work and effort I put into them because I care. On all of my arrangements, I have started to write "Arranged for the 2010-2011 Smalltown High School Marching Band" or "Arranged for the 2010-2011 Smalltown Middle School 6th Grade Band." One of my sixth graders said, "You put in all those notes?? This piece is 130 measures long!! That must have taken forever! You're AWESOME!" "No, you're awesome!!" ::high five::

So. Worth. It.

Radiohead's National Anthem Project/Performance for Jazz Band

Two weeks ago from last Thursday, I had my first concert as a professional music educator. It was a chorus/jazz band concert, and our jazz band played a couple of tunes. They are pretty young, and if you'll recall, the group has a really odd instrumentation, including tenor sax, bari sax, flute, two guitars, one of whom has never really played a guitar before, two drummers who don't/can't read music, three trumpets, and one valve trombone. Yes, my school owns a valve trombone. No, I don't know why, but I'll take it!

Anyway, we played a very straightforward, fun arrangement of James Bond, even though we were missing a few parts. The other song that we played was an arrangement that I wrote of Radiohead's The National Anthem, from their landmark album Kid A. I introduced this song to the students on "National Anthem Day," which was September 14. My 7th grade bass player's mouth was agape when he heard the killer ostinato bassline, the drummers were excited about playing some rock 'n' roll, and kids just mostly all around dug it. So I thought I would write an arrangement that would play to our strengths and maybe even convince some students that improvisation, although dangerous and perhaps nausea inducing, can be an incredible experience.

Anyway, the arrangement was only part of the project. Also included was a recording session, CD releases, improvisation strategies, playing tests, rehearsals, and then the performance.

First, we did a lot of listening to the original and discussed what made the song "work" - lots of tension and release, as well as some insane soloing, including group improv. We then got the bare bones of the tune working so we could play it with reasonable facility, which in and of itself was an enormous challenge. Neither guitar player can read music, and the drummers don't care to. Also this is was challenging because classroom management is an enormous struggle in this class, but that's another post.

At that point, I brought in my Blue Yeti USB microphone and did a quick 'n' dirty recording session. We recorded the bass line and a drum beat so that every kid could take a CD home and practice improvising with it. This part of the whole project was really rushed and not well planned on my part. The recording was of poor quality and it didn't come together incredibly well, but it worked.

Anyway, I handed out the CD to all my kids and set a date for a playing test. The playing test had a very simple rubric - TRY hard, be a little creative, go for it and improvise, and you get a perfect score. Sit there and mope and you don't. Playing tests were to be administered in my office with our recording and were video taped.

In order to facilitate improvisation, I added in a new scale to our warm up regimen. I arranged the tune in Eb, so we had an "Eb Funky Scale," which was the Eb major scale with a flat 6 and 7, which has a very hip, eastern-y sound.

Play with it, and you'll see how well it lends itself to playing around and improvising. We memorized the scale, did lots of call and response, and encouraged a spirit of playfulness using this scale and the groove from National Anthem.

We rehearsed the tune a good deal (fighting behavior and focus issues the whole way - this is my first year, after all!). We played a lot with our Eb funky scale and talked about different improvisation strategies. I had students identify notes that had a lot of tension and notes that offered resolution. One strategy we used was to pick a few notes that felt tense and a few that felt relaxed, and make a melody that plays off of that tension-release. Another strategy was just to simply use the scale running up and down. Yet another approach we attempted was to play what you feel - I have a quote on the wall that says “music is what feelings sound like.” And for sections in the tune where there was a crescendo of multiple soloists going bonkers at the same time, we even worked on soloing by play random notes and sounds, which I believe has its place.

So there’s the narrative form of the lesson plan. Phew. It sounds great, doesn’t it? Heck, how many national standards did we address with this project? How much more did we do than just deficit style teaching? Even though the concert went well, the overall project had some very mixed results. Besides a few students, most were still mortified of improvising and I felt like I was pulling teeth. And I’m pretty certain that NOBODY took home their CD and actually played around with it to try and feel out some cool improv ideas. That’s what hurt the most - I tried to provide an extremely safe way for them to experiment with improvising to develop some self-confidence and nurture a healthy spirit of musical play. And that was a huge swingandamiss

This project mostly underscored for me the difference between a lesson plan on paper and the execution of a lesson plan. Sure, this lesson plan sounds glorious, like you might have read it out of Teaching Music or something, but in reality it was extremely messy and somewhat of a belly flop. My kids still have not bought into me at all, and it’s tough. To be fair, some kids really did well with the improv and you’ll see that on the recording. For now, though, I’m going to keep trying to do as much as I can to give these students great musical and personal experiences, with the idea that this will lead them to buy into what I’m selling.

Hello There!

Well, it's been awhile since I've posted! Prepare yourself, this is a long one.


It seems like each day holds enough exciting things to fill about a week. I am really starting to settle in to teaching. I just love it so much! Life is still extremely hard, though. I hit a major low point this week: I ate fast food TWICE and went to petsmart to pet the cats...and almost bought a fish. And no, Emma did not give me the petsmart idea.. I had already sat in the parking lot a couple weeks ago after running other errands debating going in... Kvetching... it's going around. :)

I thought I would share a few of the best moments of the past few weeks with you. Here's a huge one: Someone donated the money a Promethean board to me. Pretty much out of the blue. I feel so blessed to be a part of a community that is such huge supporters of the program I am trying to build. If I ever needed a sign that this is where I am supposed to stay for awhile, that was it! The board should be in anytime. I'm about going CRAZY waiting!

I have been doing a Listening Log every day with my jr. high students. This week, I hit a goldmine with the 8th grade and it sparked some AMAZING discussion. I played the song "Gravity" by Sara Bareilles. They listened to it once and then wrote and discussed the message of the song. For those who haven't heard it, you could look pretty deep into it! At the most basic level, it's about having something in your life that holds you back and ties you down. We talked about relationships, additions, bad habits, etc.. it also could mean something in your life that keeps you grounded, helps your stay on the right path. We talked about God, parents, friends, etc. It was awesome. They were so interested that it's going to lead to a cross-curricular activity (sort of) with the focus of dance as an art form and how dance and music complement each other. (There is a beautiful dance to this song). Sometimes, it's really cool to take a step back and see what the kids are taking from the music... to not be so caught up in what I want them to learn and let them learn what they are interested in learning!

We have been learning about the National Anthem in all grade levels. I was hurting for something to do with 5th grade, so I just made up a random assignment, and it was a HUGE HIT! I had parents coming up to me and talking to me about it... and all it is is for the kids to pick an event in their lives or something that has happened in America recently and write the lyrics to a song about it. (just like the national anthem started as a poem about the attack on baltimore during the war of 1812). They also had to answer a few questions like "What instruments would you use?" "Would it be major or minor?" etc.. Anyway, i'm pretty proud that i came up with that assignment all on my own. It doesn't happen often.

I'm not quite sure how to put this one into words....It's kinda more about my development as a person... I guess I could say that through conversations with students and other teachers, my students are showing me my character. Even though I find the balance between "close enough to make a difference and be an effective teacher" and "friend" a little on the difficult side sometimes, over the past few weeks, my students have shown me that I am the person that I have been striving to be - and they notice. They show it in funny ways, but I can tell that they KNOW that I love teaching and care about them as people... and that's a really good feeling... I'm not a master teacher by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm on the right path.... and even if my kids don't remember a lick of music, if they leave my care as better people, i've done my job.


Okay, funny story since we're on the topic of my relationships with kids... There's this 7th grader. We'll call her suzy. She's got kind of a rough home life, but she's a really good kid. She stops in my room in the morning to say hi, If we are in the hallway at the same time she'll stop to talk to me, you get the picture. I was walking down the hallways with her and another student today, when he friend turned me and said "Suzy said she wants you to be her big sister" (Say WHAT?!) Suzy proceeds adamantly to deny the comment, turn BRIGHT red, and shove her friend. The whole situation was just ridiculous... and funny. I have no doubt that she said it. We both know that I can't be her sister, and she doesn't expect me to be, so as long as things stay the same as they are now, we're fine, but man... it was funny. bright red. I love that girl.

Who knows how long it will be until I post again. I'm in the thick of preparing for the Christmas Program, so if no one hears from me until after Dec. 16th, that's why.

Evaluations

Well I'm sure this is a topic that all of the bloggers here will be experiencing sometime if they haven't already. Evaluations. I have my first evaluation by my principal tomorrow. I'm not terribly concerned because he has been dropping in to the classroom already and watching a few minutes of class here and there, and I can usually keep focused without getting too nervous that he's watching me teach. But there is that little part of me that, well, goes back to college and student teaching when I think about getting evaluated tomorrow. I get nervous and start thinking of how disappointing or just plain terrible I might come across to my principal, just like I felt when I used to get evaluated by my professors or cooperating teachers.

I find it difficult to teach when people are just sitting there watching me (I cannot understand how some teachers can handle student teachers just watching and critiquing all the time!!). I start to question everything I'm about to say and it really gets me unfocused and not myself.

To prepare for the evaluation, I had to fill out some paperwork about my lesson objectives, strategies, and plans. Then I had to meet with my principal to discuss them. As frustrated as I felt preparing to fill out those papers, I actually felt a sense of confidence when I was done filling them out. It made me think more about the big picture - the main objectives and goals I need to keep in mind for my band. And it made me feel like a competent teacher when I was writing things like "I will be using informal assessment during this class period by observing and listening to the students," or, "Students will improve their abilities to recognize and perform various rhythmic patterns through the use of rhythm flashcards," or, "Students will develop a better understanding of the importance of having good posture to create a quality tone."

Tomorrow, I'm hoping to just go for it. To act normally (...forget that he's there watching me) and just be the somewhat good teacher I think I can be. I'll let you know how it goes!

---UPDATE---

I just tried to pretend like he wasn't there, haha. I think I did okay. Nothing terrible happened. I'll update you after we meet to discuss the evaluation.

The only time I was really thinking about the fact that he was there was when a student walked up to me right in front of him right at the beginning of band and said "I forgot my snare drum again." (2nd day in a row) And i KNEW my principal would be looking for my response. How was I going to handle the situation??? So I was definitely on the spot. Well, I just went over to my gradebook across the room and said "Look, Billy Bob, this is the 2nd time in two days. And the 5th time this year already. What do you need to do to remind yourself? This is unacceptable so you need to do something to improve it!" I hope that was the right response......