Year 8: Week 1 – 8th Grade Band Class 1

We started school today, which means that we had 8th grade band on the first day of school.  I wanted to spend time making music and I also wanted my students to think reflectively to start the process of doing some goal-setting. However, I knew the kids didn’t have instruments, and I didn’t want to give my band students a writing assignment on the first day of class.

First solution was drum circle. I moved our hand drums (tubanos and djembes) to the band room. My plan was to greet each students at the door, have a short, but personal interaction with each student and invite them into the band room to select a drum.

Some of my 8th graders enjoyed my receiving line style of greeting them.  Others were confused, and one students just run past me completely. I don’t think they all understood what I was trying to do but it felt good making eye contact with each one of my kid’s, saying there name and having a short conversation. It’s important that they know above all else that I value them as a person and that they deserve my time and attention.

We drummed and we drummed. We made some great music together. I taught them two songs I learned at a summer workshop. I kept them moving. A lot of the students worked really hard and were very focused. Some weren’t, but the group managed to work through these bumps.

For the reflection piece I adapted the Identity Walk Activity. The original activity is a very powerful way to think about the different facets of identify: gender, sexual orientation, age, etc. by moving through space related to certain prompts. Signs are put around the room with these different identifiers and people walk to them after given prompts (e.g. This it the aspect of my identity that I am most comfortable discussing).

I changed this from identity to these musical factors: tone, reading notes, rhythmic accuracy, note accuracy, attitude, expression, (e.g. dynamics, articulations), and teamwork. The idea is that they hear a prompt and silently walk towards these factors, which were posted at different parts of the room. 

The prompts were:

• This is a musical skill I feel most proud of.
• I know the least about:
• This is our band greatest musical strength.
• This is my instrument sections greatest musical strength.
• I feel most comfortable helping others in the band with their:
• I have most often been evaluated in past music classes in past years by my . 
• I have experienced the most joy around accomplishments in this area of music.

They moved around the room, observing each other as they moved.  They were really honest and it was a great check to see how my perceptions differed from their own views of themselves and the group as a band. There was a good vibe in the room. They kept wanting to talk about where they were going, which I tried to stop, but I kind of let it go, because I could tell they were talking productively for the most part.

We didn’t have a lot of time to discuss the activity, but the comments that were said were positive about the activity and the vibe in the room was good. I told them that I felt more pride than shame in the room and that I was looking forward to a great year.

That was class one.