Teaching Band

Midwest Clinic

So, I am sitting in the airport waiting for my delayed flight to get here so I can go home, and it suddenly looks like a blizzard outside.  Being from Florida, I am not really sure what a blizzard looks like, but it is snowing heavily.  I was originally supposed to go home early tomorrow morning (Sunday), but the weather looked like it was going to be rough.  Not wanted to be stranded, I switched my flight to Saturday late afternoon.  They keep telling me it's coming and it will be not be cancelled, so I will be patient...

I stayed at the Congress Plaza, which is fine.  It is relatively cheap, and pretty convenient.  I get a kick out of the picketers - they were louder than every this year.  They were banging on buckets with sticks.  I like to thing they were playing music for us visitors, but in reality, it was pretty obnoxious.  The people at the Congress were very nice to me today.  My reservation was until tomorrow, and I didn't check out until 3, but they didn't charge me for the last night.  They could have very easily, but they didn't.

Anyway, as usual, I really enjoyed the Midwest Clinic this year.  I started coming with a friend during my third year teaching, and I have been coming ever since.  I go to our state conventions, workshops, and clinics regularly, but there is something about this event that makes it special.  I get to see incredible examples of what bands should sound like, hear great new music, and learn from some of the world's best teachers.  

I am easily distracted, and there is some kid blasting some heavy metal music in the chair behind me, and this has no impact on you as the reader, but I am going to move my seat so I can spare myself a headache.  I just turned my head and it is an adult - which makes it a little more annoying.  

Okay, I moved my seat, all better.  I know you don't need to know every detail, but it helps me to pass the time!!

So when I got here, I took the airport express to the Congress Plaza hotel, which is where I stayed.  The driver asked me why I was in town, and I told him I where I was going.  He seemed to be familiar with the Midwest Clinic, and asked me what my role was with the clinic.  I told him "nothing, I am just a teacher, just coming to watch."  His response was excellent, he said "just a teacher?  you guys make that whole thing possible.  You get the whole thing started."  I thought that was great.  

I always try to miss only two days of school.  If you know how bad the education budget is in Florida, you know that is is hard to get professional leave to attend conferences.  My principal is very supportive, so I don't want to take advantage.  I came up early Thursday, and I can see plenty in that amount of time.

My favorite concerts are always the community bands.  Community bands are full of musicians who play only because they love playing in band, and it shows.  I saw the Minnesota Symphonic Winds yesterday, and they were no exception.  There is an energy these community groups have that others don't.  I saw the Japanese community band that closed the Clinic today.  They were absolutely incredible, and seemed very excited to be here.

I went to a few clinics - including the one with the McCracken Middle School Band this morning. His handout was excellent.  It is probably on his website - www.mccrackenband.com, which is also great.  Plenty of resources...  I also went to a clinic on recording your own band, it covered different devices, microphones, software, etc... It was presented by Avid, which I think owns M-Audio.  I expected them to plug their own stuff, which they did, but it wasn't forceful, and the presenter was very complimentary of other companies.  I plan to purchase some of the materials in January, I'll let you know how it turns out.  

Well, I am still waiting for my flight.  They are saying it will take off at 7:30 - but it is 7:15, and it's not even here yet!  As long as I get off the ground before the weather gets bad, I will be okay.  

Fundraising

Fundraising is probably the part of my job that I like the least - motivating kids to do something that has nothing to do with music, convincing parents to participate, receipting money, handing out orders, etc... All of these things take a significant amount of time away from the classroom.  I remember my first year teaching - the parent group had committed to several fundraisers before I was hired.  Being a new teacher, and not wanting to anger parents, I decided to follow through with the their plans.  What a mistake!

The first fundraiser that year did okay.  We made about $4000 profit.  So, I bought a tuba.  At our next parent meeting I remember a parent asking me, "So, we raised all of that money for an instrument only one kid can use." Now, from a band director's point of view, this is ridiculous, right?  A good tuba makes the band sound better, and helps everyone.  However, this seems like a legitimate concern from a middle school band parent who knows nothing about band.  I continued to run all of these fundraisers, each one did worse and worse, and the last one didn't even break $1000.  Parents were tired of being asked to buy junk and food - wrapping paper, overpriced toys and candles, frozen pizza kits, etc... During all of this, they were also being asked to raise money for other groups - beta club, PTA, etc...

So, after my second year, I decided that I had enough fundraising.  I couldn't take it anymore.  I went to college to teach, not be a fundraiser.  I decided that any fundraiser I did from now on should meet the following criteria:

1.  It should take little or no classroom time.  No more putting charts up in my room, handing out prizes, asking kids what they have sold.  No more, it has to be easier and shouldn't interfere with instruction.

2.  It should involve me as little as possible.  The band program does not serve the director, it serves the kids and families.  I believe very strongly that parents should be actively involved.  If I can't find volunteers to help run fundraising activities, then we won't do them.  This has never been a problem for me - if parents understand why you need the funds, and are given a quality product, they are usually glad to help.  As a parent, I will help with anything that makes my kids happy.

3.  It should raise a significant amount of money.  This is a matter of opinion.  How much is a significant amount?  Is the amount of money worth the time involved.  For example, I will not do a car wash.  Besides the fact that my principal does not like them, you waste an entire day, a dozen or more kids, to make $400. There is also safety and liability concerns here, not worth it.  I do a Pancake Breakfast Concert each year, however, that also takes a Saturday.  The difference is that the kids are performing their fall concert, and we make several thousand dollars.  I plan to blog about that later.

4.  It should be planned well in advance.  This seems like common sense, but I can't tell you the number of times I have seen people, including myself, plan one at the last second to get some money.  This will usually flop.

5. Simpler is better.  Have you ever thought about asking for money?  I have a "Friends of Music" program that raises several thousand dollars each year.  You collect the money, and you are done.  Plus, you are not sending 60% of the money to some fundraising company.  Now - don't just go and say "please send cash!"  There is a right way and wrong way to do this.  I will blog about this later on too.  

6.  Less is more.  A couple of well-planned and well-executed fundraisers are much better than half of a dozen other ones.

I'll be posting good fundraising ideas over the next couple of weeks.  Have one to share? If so, leave it in the comments.

For many reasons I haven't been posting here for a while, I plan to write more regularly now.  If you have suggestions for topics, please let me know!