3 Robinson Band

Welcome to Robinson Elementary! Home of the Raptors.

On Mondays, I am teaching at Robinson for the entire day. Robinson is located at 1350 N. 102nd St. The school phone is 402-436-1187
Robinson website

Subject: 5th grade band
Room: 503

The teacher’s lounge connected to the main office. Feel free to store your lunch in the fridges. The closest bathroom, to the band room is right next to the room.

Grade book: usually in the top right hand 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.

Pyrtle Band
Band Lessons
Monday

*I have been getting students from their rooms and walking them down to the band room – thus the 5 minute transition time between lessons.

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 3-4 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.

Music: There should be extra books located in the cupboards or on the counters of the band room. Feel free to use what you can find.

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.

Full-Band Rehearsal

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

Time: 3:00-3:50pm (after school)

The band usually practices in the same room as lesson. I set up the chairs and music stands prior to the start. There should be a seating chart in the top right-hand drawer of my desk. If you cannot find the seating chart, feel free to ask the kids to help you figure out who goes where. Most kids will be good about going to the correct spot but a few might try to sneak into a different spot.

Entrance/Attendance: Students should enter the room quietly and calmly. Take note of anyone that was not at the rehearsal.

Cases: Students should put their cases under their chair but not as a foot rest. I tend to not allow them to warm up on their own. Most of the time the kids just enjoy talking to each other while getting ready.

What to practice

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 3:45am, I start prepping kids to pack up. You can dismiss the students as you see fit. They should put their instrument in their case and take it with them. Students should take time to put their own stand away and stack their chair on another. Let me know if they were helpful or not with this process.

Kids that attend YMCA  – should head to that after band
Kids that head home – should find their ride out at the front of the building or walk home immediately

Thank you again for subbing today at Robinson. 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