Middle School Schedules that are conducive for band programs

[king2ba]

I've seen a number of schedules that work, but before anyone can help, we need to know what your school considers "core curriculum". What does your boss want kids to take?

[dfear]

Good luck with your quest and I would also like to see what the community comes up with.

My schedule would not be helpful to you. I am half-day at two schools. I teach three classes of strings in the morning, change schools and teach three classes of band in the afternoon. I am constantly battling recruiting and retention especially for English Learners and "additional reading classes."

[king2ba]

Math
Science
History
Grammar

Also:
-Health (1 quarter) PE classes are overloaded so students are pulled from PE for Health
-Careers (1 quarter)
-PE
-Reading (1 Semester)
-Art (1 quarter)
-Advisory (daily 15 minutes)
-Enhanced learning (study hall)
-Technology Lab (1 quarter)
-Music Class (7th grade only and for 1 quarter)

Ok....I need a little more clarification....so if I see this right, your school wants kids to take:

Math
Science
History
Grammar
PE/Health

each as full year long classes lasting 40 min each?

Then, you have:

-Careers (1 quarter)
-Reading (1 Semester)
-Art (1 quarter)
-Technology Lab (1 quarter)
-Music Class (7th grade only and for 1 quarter)

That all use the same block of time? For example, kids schedule has Period 2 that says Reading for half the year, then moves to Art, then 4th quarter, they are in Careers. Is this right?

Then, where do Study Hall and Advisory fit in?

I think I my school's schedule would be right for you, but I want to make sure we're comparing Apples to Apples before I open my big mouth!

[tbn.al]

I went through this same exercise in 1969 in my first post, a small rural school in North Arkansas. After doing all the research, creating a workable schedule and submitting it the superintendent, he gave me the following directive. Get your bus driver's license. All band rehearsals will be after school during the normal bus runs. When the buses return you will use one to run all 3 routes to return your students to their homes. I got home by 10PM most nights. That job didn't last long. Good luck!

[king2ba]

Oy! Band is during study hall? Yikes!

I got your PM....I'll send some info soon....I'm going to school now so I give you correct times...plus I need to hang a shelf in my office!

Last question.....how big is your school?

The report card issue is going to be a problem....I'm at a private school. However the college entrance stats from our high school might be enough for your administration.

More soon!

[Bill Troiano]

Where I taught on LI for 27 years (until I retired), we had our music ensemble rehearsals (band, orch. and chorus) before school during a 0 period. This is the case in most middle schools on LI. We went to the before school program in the mid 80's, probably before most other LI schools chose to do so. We fought it, as we had a good thing going with 3 bands rehearsing every day during the school day. I'm sure with careful planning, they could have kept , at least, 2 bands during the school day, but with new NY State mandates in shop (technology), careers (home ec.) and foreign language, our school district chose to squeeze out music ensemble classes. We were given a choice of going before or after school. We unanimously chose before school, knowing that after school, we would be competing with sports. So, we started with a 0 period at 7:05am, five days a week. It was tough for a few years, as we lost kids. In time, it became acceptable, expected and anticipated by the parents knowing their kids were going to middle school. The biggest problem was attendance, as there is a bus run for 0 period and another run for the rest of the school population for period 1. It was a daily chore tracking down kids who missed rehearsal, but ended up being in school. We had a penalty system, which affected their grade (probably illegal, but I managed to get around it.) And sometimes, we would have to dismiss a student from the program based on poor attendance. We also had rotating group lessons that met once a week, where the students would be pulled from class. All in all, it maybe wasn't the best system, but we made it work. I had a fine band, and jazz band (which met after school, and sometimes conflicted with sports.)

And now, at 56 and retired, I don't have to think about it anymore. Now that I have more time, maybe I can become the "Next "Hot" Player." Yeah, sure! And, the Beatles are reuniting!

[sffz]

I don't have answers for you but I can send you in some good directions (after all isn't that what you wanted). I imagine your admin. will want some resources/documentation, too.

1. http://www.menc.org/search/swish-cgi.pl (type in scheduling - you'll see about 70 articles and links) Check out MENC. I know they have resources on scheduling. Also see their Opportunity to Learn literature. It lists what they consider minimum standards for facilities, schedules and equipment.

2. http://www.cobbk12.org/~tapp/band.htm Tapp Middle School Band is excellent. Their director Erin Cole seems to know her stuff. She may be of some help.

3. http://www.mccrackenband.com/ McKracken MS Band in Skokie, IL. SOme good resources as well. Another Midwest performer. Chip De Stefano looks like a top notch musician and has some excellent helps on his site.

4. http://hcms.eanes.k12.tx.us/ Hill Country MS, Cheryl Floyd, Director. Good program, experienced and connected director.

5. http://www.duncanville.k12.tx.us/band/ (links are included to all their MS programs) Middle schools in the Duncanville School District, TX. Their programs seem otherworldly, but there is a wealth of info in those teachers. They have a great system to model. Try and get a hold of Tom Shine. He may not have all the answers, but he can point you to who does.

I hope these links are helpful and your kids get the kind of schedule they need.

Good luck,

Randy

[tbn.al]

I can't believe you guys are still fighting the same battles. Don't these administrative people read. This music enhances learning thing has been around a while.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 093024.htm

[king2ba]

OK....we're very similar schools...our population is between 450 and 500. Here's what we do:

Every kid is required to take:

English
Social Studies
Math
Science
Foreign Language (though some kids take reading for the full year instead of the FL)
PE
Elective

So, that's 7 classes but the kids only go to 6 per day. We run on a 7 day rotation.

On an "A" day, the kids go to periods 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
On a "B" day - 7, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
On a "C" day - 6, 7, 1, 2, 3, 4
On a "D" day - 5, 6, 7, 1, 2, 3

and so on until they come back around to their first period class falling during the first block of time in the day. So we deal with periods and blocks.

A period is when an individual kid has a given class. For example they always have math period 2 and science period 3, or for a teacher, I always teach Jazz Band during period 1.

Blocks are the block of time that a period falls into. Our blocks are like this:

Block 1 8:20 to 9:17
Block 2 9:21 to 10:18
Advisory/Break 10:22 to 10:42
Block 3 10:46 to 11:43
Lunch 11:47 to 12:22
Block 4 12:22 to 1:19
Block 5 1:23 to 2:20
Block 6 2:24 to 3:10

So, Period 1 (my Jazz Band class) will fall during each block of time at some point during our rotation.

Notice we have a time for advisory....we do it after second block because if we started with it, kids would show up late everyday....skipping advisory. We also only meet in advisory once per week, the rest of the week is for the administration to meet with the kids grouped by grade. When the kids don't have advisory or a meeting, they have break....just time to hang out and be kids.

We also have three lunch periods....I only showed you the schedule 8th graders follow up above. 6th graders eat lunch in the middle of 4th block, and 7th graders eat after 4th block.

We have a ton of electives:

Band
Chorus
Strings
Guitar
Media Productions
Art
Forensics
Yearbook
Newspaper
Latin
Project peace (like full year guidance)
and the wheel (4 nine week classes - art, computers, music, health, guidance, etc)

I think we have too many options, but I still have 45 6th graders so I'm not complaining. But, the kids can only pick one of these. That's our drawback. Band, and chorus don't conflict, but for the most part, kids can't do both.

Jazz Band is an exception to this rule. Our PE classes were too big, too, so we pull the Jazz Band kids out of PE. The PE teachers see a huge class on their roster, but they very rarely see all the kids there at the same time. This has taken some fancy communication to get to work, but it's been working so well, that I'll have to have a two more Jazz Band's next year. (This is a good incentive for kids to join band...they get put in the "special" PE class with their friends!

A few other things:

My bands are split between two periods....so my classes are smaller. This makes preparing for a concert a pain because the entire group isn't in the same room at the same time, but it does work out since I was able to put a balance of instrumentation in each class. Plus my administration is supportive of pulling the kids out of class a few times before a concert for a rehearsal....another thing I use to recruit!

I only have a beginning band (6th grade) and a concert band (7th and 8th). (Well, and Jazz Band, but I told you about that before.) I'm in the process of trying to get a band in the middle for next year....but that shouldn't make a bit of difference to scheduling people.

I think that's all I've got for now. Fire back with whatever questions you have. I'll send you an e-mail with my school's website and stuff.

Take care!

mike russo

[sffz]

Greg, I think the link I gave you stinks.

Try this, follow the link, then click on search in the tool bar just below the MENC banner. Then enter your search query. I just tried it and it worked.

The toolbar should have the following links HOME INDEX SEARCH ABOUT MENC CONTACT US

Sorry for sending you on a goose chase.

Randy