Hey guys. I'm just sitting at home after another good (but long long long) day at work, and I just want to rave a bit out my life (which IS my work I suppose, but I am paid to do what I love!). Some of you will relate to this-- others of you will just be bored with it, and still others will just think I'm bragging. I probably am a little-- but I'm just so damn proud of what's going on around here.
I'm in my 3rd year of teaching 5th - 12th grade band. I walked into the school three years ago with a band department that was failing in every where. Morale was terrible, and the HS Band was down to 6 kids the term before I came in. The HS had not sent a band to the yearly ISSMA Contest in 6 years. That contest is a yearly contest that most schools in Indiana with any kind of band program send their kids to. Marching Band was gone, and had been for 5 years. There was no Jazz Band anymore. Pep band was something parents put up with. I was my senior students' 5th band director.
Today things are different, and this week is a special week for the band. We have 35 students in band this term-- still small, but growing, with 42 expected next year. The MS band is growing, and we're recruiting 60 kids each year into beginning band (out of total class sizes of 110 - 120). We have two Jazz Bands, a Pep Band that people love, and Marching Band made it through Districts to Regionals this last fall in their first season back.
This is all great, but on Friday we do something special. Last year we went to that ISSMA Contest, and this Friday we go again. You enter this contest and play three pieces. You choose the difficulty you enter, from Group I (the hardest) to Group 5 (the easiest). Group I is extremely difficult, playing music that many college bands play. You cannot qualify for State unless you go Group I.
Because of the difficulty of Group I, most small schools like mine (we have a HS enrollment of 477 this year) simply never go. They just don't have the talent pool necessary to give it a shot. The top level and state contest is simply dominated by large schools. This year, for the first time in the contest or our high school's history, we will be attempting Group I at contest. The next smallest school at our performance site is twice our size, and then everything after that is over 1000 students in enrollment. It's a David vs. Goliath feel, but my kids are simply loving it. While most bands will have 75+ students, many in a situation where they tried out just to get in, we will be coming in with 35 students all of which made it into the band the moment they signed up. If one or two trumpets can't play their part in a large band, no one knows because the other 9 pick up the slack. In ours, we have just one kid playing each part. There is no room for error.
Even before this contest though, the morale and feel of the band room has changed drasticly over the last three years. I've never been with a group of students so excited about working hard to excel. It's completely different than even my own HS band when I was a kid. If I talk too much at the beginning of class, they get mad because they want to rehearse. If I'm a little late for class, they start rehearsal on their own. How many classes can you imagine would do this? They volunteer to stay after school to practice. They tutor each other. 15-20 kids are in my room at 6:30 - 7:00 am to start practicing (school starts at
-- not because I told them to, but because they know I come to do paperwork and they just want to get working. They eat lunch in the room. They come down during study halls and help teach the MS students. They want to be in the room, whenever they can. Kids get sick, stay home from school, but show up at 2:00 pm for band to suffer through it so they can keep up with the work. Every day, some of them stay to practice and hang out until 5 pm. Last year, the HS band in all its iterations performed 36 times over the course of the year and this year they are begging for more.
I can be in a bad mood, but the last class of the day-- this HS band, always brings me out of it. It brings me hope for our future-- these kids are motivated out of a sense of excellence that you sometimes don't see in teenagers. They simply won't settle for "mostly good." I tend to be a guy that is easily moved, so their efforts at excellence often bring tears to my eyes. I cannot imagine being anywhere else from 2:00 - 3:15 pm but in my band room with these kids. I think at least some of them feel the same way. The difficulty of our literature has improved dramatically, to the point where parents and community members are saying they don't remember the band ever being at this level, and I can only attribute that to the incredible discipline of the band members.
Even if we get last place this Friday, I will still be incredibly proud. It is unrealistic to expect us to qualify for state (although I would never say that to my students), but just to be there trying to qualify is a huge first for our school that they will remember for a long time. If somehow we are in the top 16 and go to State (out of 60-80 bands playing the Group 1 literature), it will be an achievement they will remember for the rest of their lives. Indiana band is a very competitive "sport," much more than it is in many other states.
Ok I'm done. I'm so proud I can't take it. I'm so excited about this Friday. When I took this job, I never expected our band to ever reach this kind of level due to the small size, let alone reach it in just three years. And finally, to top it off, I found out last week that I have been nominated for Teacher of the Year in northern Indiana. This has been a good week.
I hope you guys don't take me too seriously as someone who is just bragging. I am just so damn proud, and I needed to let it out.
