I’m now closer to 100 than I am to 1. I can remember the days when teachers were respected almost 100% of the time. Parents always had a teacher’s back. Admin always supported the teacher. It was a trinity of leadership to support making the young person a better human being. Although we no longer have that level of support, you can still instill high standards.
I’ve been a teacher for over 27 years. I find myself facing more and more resistance from parents. Parents are worried about their kids’ feelings. Too many people’s feelings get hurt. It’s often easier to just back off, but that’s not the right thing to do. You didn’t get into teaching to do the easy thing. You got into this field because you’re going to do the right thing and hold students to high standards.
One marching season, we were really pushing the physical standard. We kept getting responses from judges saying, “You came out with lots of energy, but you didn’t finish with it.” Many had suggested implementing a fitness program. We instituted one. Many of the upperclassmen stated, “This is stupid, nobody’s going to stay in the marching band”. If I had listened to them, we would have backed off on the standards. I didn’t listen to them. There were a couple of people who did drop marching band. Most of the students understood what we were doing and bought into it.
My first teaching position was 4th-12th grade band at a small private school. Often when students reached 6th grade – their third year with me – they’d say, “Mr. Divine, you’ve changed.” I would answer them. “No, you’re the one who’s changed”. “Everyone’s quitting band, because they don’t like you anymore”. Everyone meant that student + one friend. I occasionally had students quit. They didn’t want to face the higher standard of middle school band versus what it was for them in elementary school.
Here are some things you can do to instill high standards in your group…
Watch and Listen To Other Bands Often just seeing what other bands can do will inspire students to do well. Have them write a reflection paragraph. That way you can incorporate the standards of reading and writing across the curriculum. As you watch and listen to great bands, have them list the things that the bands do well, have them analyze and compare their playing to what they’re seeing. I have an enlarged, laminated wall chart in my band room of the large group rubric. I can write on it with a dry erase marker. We listen to our own performances, or maybe even a group that we admire. Then we rate them. This gives the students a better ear for their own performances.
Focus On The Good – Not Just What Needs Improvement When they do something great, focus on that, encourage them and say, “Hey, we’ve really improved. Now we need to do more”. The students have to be the ones who want and demand excellence. I had a marching band that was resistant to improving, at least when that improvement and desire for improvement came from me and the marching band leaders. Once they began to desire it for themselves, I started seeing huge improvement in what the marching band was doing. Success breeds success, but it doesn’t happen overnight.
I once taught at a school where I was the 8th director in 7 years. My first year there, I brought my band to a regional large group festival. They had never been – at least not in recent memory. They scored a IV. I had prepared them for this, because I knew they wouldn’t do well. We got on stage and everything we had rehearsed – dynamics, tempo changes, balance, blend, musicality – none of that happened that day. I could have just started them and left the stage. They didn’t follow a single conductor cue. They were like deer in the headlights! They understood where we were coming from, where the program was at that point in time, and that this was feedback we were receiving. We went back the next year and scored a III. After that we consistently scored Is and IIs.
That was my “advanced” band. I had about 20 students in it and another 28 in intermediate band. After several years of holding students to high performance standards, we ended up with three leveled bands. There were about 40 in the top group, 55 in the middle group, and 30 in the lowest group. The top band that first year was not as good as the bottom band in my 13th year. It all started with that bottom group, really building that. Not everybody was enthusiastic. About 80% of the students came along and 20% were very resistant and they remained in the bottom band or ended up dropping band.
Uphold and maintain high standards and you will see positive results.
James is the author of Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band. He has served private, suburban, and Title 1 schools and now teaches at a charter school. Find out more about James at www.jamesdivine.net Subscribe to his podcast Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band.