2 Norwood Park Band

Welcome to Norwood Park Elementary! Home of the Roadrunners.

On Wednesdays, I am teaching at Norwood Park for the first part of the day. Norwood Park is located at 4710 N. 72 St.
The school phone is 402-436-1155
Norwood Park website

Subject: 5th grade band
Room: the general music room

The teacher’s lounge is located down the main hallway. The secretaries should point you in the correct direction. The music room is on the opposite side of the school. Feel free to store your lunch in the fridges.

Grade book: usually in the 3rd drawer of the gray file cabinet in the back of the room

Schedule: I am including an outline of the daily band schedule below. You can also find a link to the daily band schedule HERE via Google Docs. *Note* you must use your LPS email account to access this Google Doc.
That Google Doc will provide more details on each lesson (time and student names). I typically rotate the lesson times each week so the kids will not have the same lesson time each week.

Norwood Park
Band Lessons
Wednesdays

*Any moments where there is a break in the lessons, I take time to tidy up the room. The general music teacher uses the room during the 2nd half of the day. So, as lessons finish, I try to straighten up the rows and put away any music stands that I am finished with.

Full-Band Rehearsal

In the event you are asked to teach the full-band….

Time: 8:00-8:45am (before school)

The band usually practices in the same room as where lessons happen. In the case of Norwood Park, that is the general music room. Secretaries tend to arrive by 7:30am, so do not plan to get to the school before that time. Chairs are set out already but you’ll want to arrange them with music stands. There should be a seating chart in the 3rd drawer of the gray file cabinet, in the back of the room. If you cannot find the seating chart, feel free to ask the kids to help you set out the correct number of chairs.

Entrance/Attendance: Students will enter a door close to the gym (SW side of the school). The YMCA staff will let students in. I typically am in the room supervising kids entering and getting ready. Please mark down what students came to the rehearsal. Don’t be too alarmed if there are a lot of absences or tardies. Some students are limited through circumstances outside of their control.

What to practice in full-band

I will try to get a lesson plan to you, in case you do teach the full band rehearsal. 

Warm-ups: Use the warm-up sheets that are in the folders. The students will know which ones they can do successfully. Don’t worry about trying to learn any new ones, especially if you are not comfortable with teaching band.

Review: Take a look a students practice record – there should be a list of songs that they have been working on in their lesson groups. It will be okay to go back a couple pages and review some “old favorites”.

*If the rehearsal is close to a concert date (December or April), students might have a very specific list of songs to work on.

Clean up: Around at 8:45am. You can dismiss the students as you see fit but keep in mind that almost all of them will need to eat breakfast, which ends around 8:55am. They should put their instrument on their chair, set up and ready for their lesson. Students will come back down for a lesson later in the day.

Kids that eat breakfast at school – should walk directly out the room and into the cafeteria line
Kids that do not eat breakfast – should exit door that leads to the playground. They should know which door that is. It is also the same door you would use for evacuations. If the weather is bad, kids can go to the gym to stay warm.

How to run lessons

Lesson groups vary in size from 1 – 4 students. I usually set out that many chairs and stands in the band room, usually in a straight line, facing the white board. You can space the chairs and stands 5-6 feet apart. This helps them to maintain personal space. I usually allow students to pick any of those chairs to sit in and we spend every lesson sitting while playing. The exception to this would be percussion students as they usually stand when they play.

Cases: Can go under or next to their chairs. They should not use them as foot rests.

Practice cards: There will be some sort of practice record in the folders. You should collect them and mark down any practice times or achievements they made. You can write that in the grade book or just on a separate piece of paper. Somewhere on the practice card will be a list of things they should have practiced over the past week. Use this to help you with what material to work on.

Warm-Ups: The students will have a warm-up sheet in their folder. They should be able to tell you which ones they have worked on so far. Pick 1 or 2 warm ups to do and then move on to other music.

Review: A couple options exist – if students want to review (old) songs from the book, you can have them pick 1 of their favorites. OR, you can go with the list of songs that are listed in the “review” box on their practice record. Chances are they might still struggle with those songs so it is okay to spend time work on them some more.

New material: Students are usually given new song(s) to practice when they are at home. Take time to go over as much of those songs as you can.

Assignment for next week

When there are just a couple minutes left of the lesson time, have student write down the assignment for next week’s lesson.

Warm-ups: Probably write down the same ones they know.

Review: If there are songs that they have down pretty well, from last weeks assignment, then those can be review.

New: Put down songs that they still need to work on. If they really have them all down, put down 1 or 2 more songs that are next in the book.

Example:

Clean up: Once students have written down their assignment, they can pack up their instrument in their case and get ready to head back to their classroom. Once you see everyone is ready, walk back together to their homerooms. Students should take their instrument and music with them.

Thank you again for subbing today at Holmes. I hope you enjoyed your time and that the students met your expectations. Please take a few minutes to let me know how things went as I do like to know what did or did not go well.

~Zach Brown