4 Mickle Band

Welcome to Mickle Middle School. Home of the Missles.

I am teaching at Mickle on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Mickle is located at 2500 N. 67th St.
The school phone is 402-436-1216
Mickle website

Subject: 6th grade band lessons, assisting 7th and 8th grade bands, Jazz band

Room: 140

The head band teacher is Mary Pfoltner: mpfoltn@lps.org She will be a great resource for helping you through the day.

The teacher’s lounge is located adjacent to the main office. Feel free to store your lunch in the fridges.

Grade book: usually in the middle drawer of the desk.

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. Kids will likely be used to the rotation.

Mickle Band
Band Lessons
Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday

How to run lessons

Lesson groups vary in size from 1 – 6 students. My lessons usually happen in the practice room located in the hallway adjacent to the band room. I usually allow students to pick any of the 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.

Music: There should be extra books located on the bookshelf in the practice room. Mary Pfoltner might be able to direct you to other music if you need it.

Cases: Can go under or next to their chairs. They should not use them as foot rests. Some kids also leave their cases in the hallway and that is okay.

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. They are also working on the scales which are on pg. 42 of their book. Percussion students usually warm up with some rudiment exercises.

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. They might have music from the method book or separate sheet music.

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. Students can store their instrument in the band room storage areas. They should be able to walk back to their classroom on their own.

6th grade Full-Band Rehearsal

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

Time: Tuesdays 7:00-7:50am (before school)
or  Wednesdays 3:10 – 4:00pm (after school)

The band practices in 140. The chairs and stands should be set up already. There should be a seating chart located up front near the podium. Mary Pfoltner can assist you.

Entrance/Attendance: Students will enter the main door and Mrs. Pfoltner is the person that lets them in. Once 8:10am hits, the door will not be watched, so any latecomers will have wait for another teacher to let them in. Mrs. Pfoltner usually takes attendance as she lets kids in. There won’t be a ton of kids that come to the early morning practice, unless it is a combined-band practice. We offer and after school practice on Wednesdays and most of the kids choose to go to that rehearsal.

Cases: Students should put their cases under their chair but not as a foot rest. Kids are welcome to warm up on their own, while they are waiting.

What to rehearse

I will try to get a lesson plan to you, in case you do teach the full band rehearsal. Music will be located up front. Mrs. Pfoltner will probably have it ready. *

Warm-ups: You can use the warm up exercises that are in their folder. Students are also working on their scales (Concert Bb) so they can work on that. It is on pg. 42 of their books.

Review: There will probably be a few pieces of sheet music that they are working on. Again, Mrs. Pfoltner can help you out, especially if you are not comfortable subbing in music classes.

Clean up: (Before school practices) Around 7:48am, I start prepping kids to pack up. They should put their instrument in their case store it in the storage room or their band locker. Chairs and stands can stay out in the room. Students should not leave the room until the 7:53am bell. (After school band) Right at 4pm is when we dismiss students to head home.

Jazz Band

Time: Fridays 7:00-7:50am (before school)

Age: Most of the jazz band members are 8th graders but there are a few 7th graders as well. Most of them are very new to jazz music so we take things slowly. We focus a lot on fundamentals including: scales, jazz harmonies, independent playing, listening and basic improvisation skills.

Mrs. Pfoltner will help with getting students into the school, similar to the 6th grade band. Jazz kids will know where to sit but there is probably a seating chart up front.

Warm-ups: I usually have students play through scales as a warm up. Concert Bb, F and Eb are good starters. They also have a blues scale sheet. I pick corresponding Blues scales for them to play.

Review: They will be working out of a method book and separate sheet music. Depending on your level of expertise, you can work on any of the pieces in their folders.

Clean up: Around 7:48am, I start prepping kids to pack up. They should put their instrument in their case store it in the storage room or their band locker. Chairs and stands can stay out in the room. Students should not leave the room until the 7:53am bell!

*in the event you are not confident in teaching music, particularly in the large group setting, Mrs Pfoltner may offer to lead the rehearsals and you can help in other ways. Usually Mrs. Pfoltner assists me with 6th band and Jazz band, and I assist her with 7th and 8th grade bands.

Thank you again for subbing today at Mickle. 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
zbrown@lps.org
402-419-6360