My most recent post was about my music selection process. For some reason this concert set has taken a lot of time and energy out of me. I have been hard at work on picking music for all three of my concert bands and our Hawaii band for the last week. I have probably spent 2-3+ hours a day on this project. Finally on Friday I got out the post it notes and started putting potential songs up on the wall. Yesterday and today I started to narrow it down and today I have spent most of my time narrowing down the selections. The good news (besides being very close to being done) is that I found a TON of great music to use for other future concerts (including the end of this year). While I still may switch things up, the post it notes have come off the wall in my apartment and will make their way back to work to live on the wall in my office. Tomorrow music will get ordered....so what we are playing you ask....well here it is!
Listed next to each selection is its JW Pepper number if you want to look it up (ok for most of them I got lazy and didn't post the stuff I already own). I have selected multiple numbers for some of the ensembles because I plan on mixing up their set between our Play-A-Thon concert (or in the case of the wind ensemble the Chabot Band Festival) and our CMEA performance at the end of the month.
Concert Band:
Where the Sun Breaks Through the Mist, Michael Sweeney 10015777
April, Aaron Perrine 10052173
Urban Scenes, Andrew Boysen 2382992
**An American Fanfare** (not sure when I will use it for sure) Rick Kirby 10072345
Symphonic Band
Joie De Vivre, Gary Gilroy 10276523
Expression, Craig Andrew Fitzpatrick 10279436
Motion, Brian Balmages 10008950
**Nevermore, Brian Balmages (don't know if I am going to use this for SB or CB and where I'll use it in the set and when we will perform but I'm buying it for sure) 10279442
Wind Ensemble
Shine Mike Markowski 10191910
Elegy, James Barnes Chance AND/OR Silence Overwhelmed Brian Balmages
Symphony No. 4 Andy Boysen
Always With Grace Gary Gilroy 10276499 (again don't know where this is going in the set)
Hawaii Band 2012 (I won't know how much of this we are doing until I time the pieces and also start rehearsing the group but here's what's on the list right now. You will see some cross over from the above list AND we are bringing back a few things from earlier this year from different ensembles)
An American Fanfare
Jungle Dance, Brian Blamages
Joie De Vivre
Temple of the Murals, Brian Balmages
The Beatles Love, arr. Bocook 10052948 (music from the Cirque du Solei show)
Always with Grace
Trombone Tiger Rag, arr. Chris Sharp 10279423
And a slow piece to be determine....
So there's my week's work summed up in a blog. I still need to tweak the Hawaii set list. Next up ordering some music for Jazz Band 3 & 2, picking clarinet choir and flute choir music and trying to make a dent in my to do list before returning back to work on Tuesday....and trying to enjoy the end of my vacation still a little. This little band director is going to get back to reading my book now "The Girl Who Played with Fire" :)
PS Stay tuned more often this year as one of my New Year's Resolutions is to blog more :)
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Sunday, January 1, 2012
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
The To-Do List of Vacation...The Quest for 5 Star Music
The life of a band director is full of....music. To me music selection is one of the most important parts of my job as a band director. It is what we are going to playing every single day. Its what people are going to come and see us do at the concert. Its a lot of what the kids look forward to every day and what they will remember about band. Its how we get them to buy into what we are doing and it dictates a lot of what we can actually teach them from music history to theory to fundamentals. It all lives in the music.
If you are friends with me on facebook you will have seen that nearly every day I am...listening to band music. There is a A LOT of music to listen through or to depending on how you look at it and I have a lot of music to program.
I have a love/hate relationship with band music. There is some great stuff out there and there is some crap. Most band directors will agree but there really is some great stuff if we know where to find it. A few summers ago I took a great class with Ryan T. Nelson from Northwestern University as part of my summer masters degree there and we started using a "5 star rating" (modeled after the itunes rating system) to rate our music. Anything below three stars should not be considered and really we determined whenever possible we should be putting 5 star music in front of our students....because they deserve it and it does exist, it just can be a pain to find it.
But music teachers all know when you find that 5 star piece boy does it work. You actually want to rehearse the music, the kids want to play it, and the parents actually enjoy the concert. Its a win win situation. I try to even go as far as have loose concert themes or connections between the pieces and even between the pieces of all of my ensembles but the most important thing for me is that the music is quality.
And when I can get all the music picked it does make my life easier. It really allows me to be more organized and focused on what is happening for the rest of the year. My most successful years have been when I have had the time in the summer to plan my music for all my ensembles for the entire year (ok that has happened twice in 9 years).
Ok so how do I do it. Well first I have to figure out what I am programming for: so here's the laundry list right now:
Concert Band, Symphonic Band, Wind Ensemble-CMEA Band Festival (March)
Jazz Band I-festival music
Jazz Band 3-any music ( a whole folder full, swing tunes, ballads you name it)
Hawaii Band (we are going to Hawaii for 3 non competitive performances with a band combined of students from all three of my concert bands)
Indigo Band (my beginning band that is playing their first concert in January & our ST Play-A-Thon)
The First Annual ST Play-a-Thon-**more on this fundraiser to follow** but the gist is that every ensemble will be performing for an hour. This is going to be combinations of stuff we have already played this year, stuff we are doing for CMEA & other "fun stuff" (stuff from past years, movie music etc).
So yeah...there can be overlap but that's a pretty tall order of stuff.
So how do I do it....listen and listen and list and list. I have a huge folder of notes. I keep all of my lists that I ever make. That way I can see what things I have liked during other "listening" sessions. I just start listening to teaching music cds, JW pepper, (sometimes I even read through the paper catalog to get ideas), I ask friends, I download state lists, I look back at reading session lists from old years. I take suggestions from friends and WRITE IT DOWN. I have been reading the Band Directors facebook group a lot lately and have gotten some great ideas. I also try to stay friends on facebook with young composers like John Mackey, Brian Balmages, and Steven Bryant to try to stay current with what they are doing. All of that kind of stuff is in this special folder. I put stars next to each tune and what ensemble I think it might be good for. Then when I really start feeling sold on something I put it on a post it note and hang it on the wall under the ensembles name and then I start adding other pieces around it. Its a visual way for me to "see" the concert as its coming together. I also ALWAYS go shopping in my own library. I am always forgetting what I have already purchased that is 5 stars.
Its a labor intensive process I won't lie. But it does allow me to have some pretty exhaustive lists of things that I have liked and for me to really find some great music.
Once I feel like I have a concert put together then I put those tunes in order in place list on itunes and listen to it for a few days to make sure that I'm committed to it.
Stuff I'm into right now (no commitments have been made yet):
Song of the Blacksmith arr. Loest (I love anything that is old and rescored to make accessible to younger groups)
Nevermore Brian Balmages (I am a huge fan of his music & anything written having to do with Poe. I own just about enough Poe inspired band music to do a concert)
An America Spectacular arr. Chris Sharp (something classy & patriotic for our Hawaii trip)
Jungle Dance-Brian Balmages, (for the Hawaii band)
Symphony No. 4 Andrew Boysen
Moon By Night-Jonathan Newman
Fantasy on Prospect, David Gorham (Symphonic Band)
Joie De Vivre-Gary Gilroy
Always with Grace-Gary Gilroy
Sedentary Motion-Tom Garling (for jazz band)
So that's my short list right now....there will be more to follow as I narrow this down. I thought some of you might enjoy the process!
If you are friends with me on facebook you will have seen that nearly every day I am...listening to band music. There is a A LOT of music to listen through or to depending on how you look at it and I have a lot of music to program.
I have a love/hate relationship with band music. There is some great stuff out there and there is some crap. Most band directors will agree but there really is some great stuff if we know where to find it. A few summers ago I took a great class with Ryan T. Nelson from Northwestern University as part of my summer masters degree there and we started using a "5 star rating" (modeled after the itunes rating system) to rate our music. Anything below three stars should not be considered and really we determined whenever possible we should be putting 5 star music in front of our students....because they deserve it and it does exist, it just can be a pain to find it.
But music teachers all know when you find that 5 star piece boy does it work. You actually want to rehearse the music, the kids want to play it, and the parents actually enjoy the concert. Its a win win situation. I try to even go as far as have loose concert themes or connections between the pieces and even between the pieces of all of my ensembles but the most important thing for me is that the music is quality.
And when I can get all the music picked it does make my life easier. It really allows me to be more organized and focused on what is happening for the rest of the year. My most successful years have been when I have had the time in the summer to plan my music for all my ensembles for the entire year (ok that has happened twice in 9 years).
Ok so how do I do it. Well first I have to figure out what I am programming for: so here's the laundry list right now:
Concert Band, Symphonic Band, Wind Ensemble-CMEA Band Festival (March)
Jazz Band I-festival music
Jazz Band 3-any music ( a whole folder full, swing tunes, ballads you name it)
Hawaii Band (we are going to Hawaii for 3 non competitive performances with a band combined of students from all three of my concert bands)
Indigo Band (my beginning band that is playing their first concert in January & our ST Play-A-Thon)
The First Annual ST Play-a-Thon-**more on this fundraiser to follow** but the gist is that every ensemble will be performing for an hour. This is going to be combinations of stuff we have already played this year, stuff we are doing for CMEA & other "fun stuff" (stuff from past years, movie music etc).
So yeah...there can be overlap but that's a pretty tall order of stuff.
So how do I do it....listen and listen and list and list. I have a huge folder of notes. I keep all of my lists that I ever make. That way I can see what things I have liked during other "listening" sessions. I just start listening to teaching music cds, JW pepper, (sometimes I even read through the paper catalog to get ideas), I ask friends, I download state lists, I look back at reading session lists from old years. I take suggestions from friends and WRITE IT DOWN. I have been reading the Band Directors facebook group a lot lately and have gotten some great ideas. I also try to stay friends on facebook with young composers like John Mackey, Brian Balmages, and Steven Bryant to try to stay current with what they are doing. All of that kind of stuff is in this special folder. I put stars next to each tune and what ensemble I think it might be good for. Then when I really start feeling sold on something I put it on a post it note and hang it on the wall under the ensembles name and then I start adding other pieces around it. Its a visual way for me to "see" the concert as its coming together. I also ALWAYS go shopping in my own library. I am always forgetting what I have already purchased that is 5 stars.
Its a labor intensive process I won't lie. But it does allow me to have some pretty exhaustive lists of things that I have liked and for me to really find some great music.
Once I feel like I have a concert put together then I put those tunes in order in place list on itunes and listen to it for a few days to make sure that I'm committed to it.
Stuff I'm into right now (no commitments have been made yet):
Song of the Blacksmith arr. Loest (I love anything that is old and rescored to make accessible to younger groups)
Nevermore Brian Balmages (I am a huge fan of his music & anything written having to do with Poe. I own just about enough Poe inspired band music to do a concert)
An America Spectacular arr. Chris Sharp (something classy & patriotic for our Hawaii trip)
Jungle Dance-Brian Balmages, (for the Hawaii band)
Symphony No. 4 Andrew Boysen
Moon By Night-Jonathan Newman
Fantasy on Prospect, David Gorham (Symphonic Band)
Joie De Vivre-Gary Gilroy
Always with Grace-Gary Gilroy
Sedentary Motion-Tom Garling (for jazz band)
So that's my short list right now....there will be more to follow as I narrow this down. I thought some of you might enjoy the process!
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Fundraiser Review-Apple Gift Card Drawing/Pasta Dinner/Jazz Concert
I have been working with my good friend Kerry, who has been involved in fundraising for my band program for the entire time (all nine years) even after her daughter graduated over 5 years ago. We wanted to do an event with food that could make us some money.
After several years here's what we have come up with....
Its a three part event PASTA DINNER-JAZZ CONCERT-APPLE GIFT CARD DRAWING
Let's start first with Pasta Dinner. Here's the run down....
-We set up tables on an outdoor area of our campus. Tables for folks to sit at and tables to serve. We cover the serving tables with tents. Those are all things that we already own at school and are free! (We do cover the tables with our rolls of plastic tables clothes that we cut and tape on the tables). (No facility rental)
-We do not prepare the food ourselves but purchase it from a local Italian Restaurant. They gave us a great deal on the entire meal for $5 per person. That's two kinds of pasta to choose from, salad, and bread. We purchased cakes from Costco for dessert. We got ice donated for the drinks. We purchased the drinks/had families donate them. We did get some donations of paper products and drinks from some of our band families which did we reduce some our costs.
-We had volunteers from within our organization (parents & students) who set the event up, served etc.
The dinner starts at 5:30pm and lasts until 6:45pm. Towards the end of the evening we start selling seconds for a $1
JAZZ CONCERT
We hold a concert at 7:30pm that opens with our top jazz band and then follow that up with a guest artist. Sometimes we have local groups that volunteer and some that charge. The guest artists works with our jazz band and does perform with them so it is really an educational experience for the students as well. We have parents and students that do everything for that concert: sound, lights, ushering, ticket sales.
This year we had the pleasure of having the Kristen Strom Trio perform. Kris came out and worked with our jazz band and sat in a few tunes for the concert that were outstanding. Her trio was amazing and well received by the audience.
So for those two events you can purchase a concert ticket or a dinner ticket for $10. You can purchase a combo ticket (dinner & the show) for $15 or you can purchase a 4 pack (4 concert tickets/4 dinner tickets) for $50.
We give each student in the Jazz Band to comp tickets to the show. Any volunteer (parent, student, Jazz Band member) a discounted dinner ticket at the rate of $7 (so we cover our costs). We also provide free dinners to our guest artists.
The event falls under some guidelines that I like to consider when planning a fundraiser:
-How much effort/planning/man power goes into the event?
-Based on the work put into the event is the profit worth it?
-Is there an educational component for the students?
-Is it provide a service of any kind to our community?
-Are the students able to perform music as part of the event?
If I can answer yes to many of the above questions than I typically will give the event ***** (that's 5 stars). In this case this event fulfills this!
And our event has LOTS of room to grow....advertising is the big thing that will expand our event. With more effort into the advertising we could easily expand our size of the event as its not at capacity. We also have been doing it outdoors because we have no on campus space to host one (we have no cafeteria) and we did NOT want to pay/could not make money on the event if we were paying for the venue.
I'm not sure we will stick with pasta but the infrastructure for the event is really great, adaptable to many different organizations. You can pair this style of event with other activities going on on your school campus or add a dinner element to an event your group is already doing.
We did expand the event in other ways. Last year my mom (maker of Nifty Handbags) sent us a few handbags to have drawing for. We sold tickets for a $1 and actually made a few hundred dollars off the bags.
This year we did something else and paired it with the event (brace yourself because this is a good one). Its the APPLE GIFT CARD DRAWING.
We were selling $10 drawing tickets with the prize being a $500 Apple Gift Card. We also decided that for every 250 tickets we sold we would purchase a gift card. This year we sold enough drawing tickets to purchase 3 Apple Gift Cards for the drawing prizes.
Now here's what you do:
-First check your state's fundraising guidelines because in California you can not have a raffle. We are not having a raffle. We are having a drawing. Everything we publish, everything we say, everything we are doing is a drawing, drawing, drawing....
-We purchased ticket printing using ticketprinter.com (that meant we had really snazzy tickets to sell folks)
-We passed out an informational form to the students. They could only check out ticket books if they had parent permission. On that form we gave families the options of donating $25 if they would like to instead of participating (I always like to provide that option, some will, some won't but its always the gesture and effort that do go along way).
-I had then had a parent volunteer assist me in checking out the ticket books to students and parents using the online system from the company we ordered the tickets from www.ticketprinting.com
-We would check out one ticket book of 10 tickets at a time to each seller.
- We asked that each ticket book be completely sold (ie you can't return just one ticket). At the very bitter end of the sale we allowed people to turn in half sold books. Most everyone did comply, especially because they signed a form saying they understood what they were being asked to do.
Incentive for sellers: for every 10 tickets sold the seller received a ticket to be put in a special "seller's drawing" for one $500 Apple Gift Card.
Our drawing ended up being for 3 Apple Gifts cards for the public drawing and 1 gift card for the sellers. It was really great to see people we all knew winning.
Without the drawing the pasta dinner and jazz concert was not as successful as I would have liked to see it (from a financial perspective). However, paired with the gift card drawing all three events made about $4500 profit which is great. We are planning on making some modifications for next year. I want to see an improved venue (we are going to move our event into our new multipurpose room). I want to see increased promotion and get more people in our program involved in selling tickets to the event (perhaps by having more incentives for the students to participate). I also want to see us sell even more tickets for the drawing.
After several years here's what we have come up with....
Its a three part event PASTA DINNER-JAZZ CONCERT-APPLE GIFT CARD DRAWING
Let's start first with Pasta Dinner. Here's the run down....
-We set up tables on an outdoor area of our campus. Tables for folks to sit at and tables to serve. We cover the serving tables with tents. Those are all things that we already own at school and are free! (We do cover the tables with our rolls of plastic tables clothes that we cut and tape on the tables). (No facility rental)
-We do not prepare the food ourselves but purchase it from a local Italian Restaurant. They gave us a great deal on the entire meal for $5 per person. That's two kinds of pasta to choose from, salad, and bread. We purchased cakes from Costco for dessert. We got ice donated for the drinks. We purchased the drinks/had families donate them. We did get some donations of paper products and drinks from some of our band families which did we reduce some our costs.
-We had volunteers from within our organization (parents & students) who set the event up, served etc.
The dinner starts at 5:30pm and lasts until 6:45pm. Towards the end of the evening we start selling seconds for a $1
JAZZ CONCERT
We hold a concert at 7:30pm that opens with our top jazz band and then follow that up with a guest artist. Sometimes we have local groups that volunteer and some that charge. The guest artists works with our jazz band and does perform with them so it is really an educational experience for the students as well. We have parents and students that do everything for that concert: sound, lights, ushering, ticket sales.
This year we had the pleasure of having the Kristen Strom Trio perform. Kris came out and worked with our jazz band and sat in a few tunes for the concert that were outstanding. Her trio was amazing and well received by the audience.
So for those two events you can purchase a concert ticket or a dinner ticket for $10. You can purchase a combo ticket (dinner & the show) for $15 or you can purchase a 4 pack (4 concert tickets/4 dinner tickets) for $50.
We give each student in the Jazz Band to comp tickets to the show. Any volunteer (parent, student, Jazz Band member) a discounted dinner ticket at the rate of $7 (so we cover our costs). We also provide free dinners to our guest artists.
The event falls under some guidelines that I like to consider when planning a fundraiser:
-How much effort/planning/man power goes into the event?
-Based on the work put into the event is the profit worth it?
-Is there an educational component for the students?
-Is it provide a service of any kind to our community?
-Are the students able to perform music as part of the event?
If I can answer yes to many of the above questions than I typically will give the event ***** (that's 5 stars). In this case this event fulfills this!
And our event has LOTS of room to grow....advertising is the big thing that will expand our event. With more effort into the advertising we could easily expand our size of the event as its not at capacity. We also have been doing it outdoors because we have no on campus space to host one (we have no cafeteria) and we did NOT want to pay/could not make money on the event if we were paying for the venue.
I'm not sure we will stick with pasta but the infrastructure for the event is really great, adaptable to many different organizations. You can pair this style of event with other activities going on on your school campus or add a dinner element to an event your group is already doing.
We did expand the event in other ways. Last year my mom (maker of Nifty Handbags) sent us a few handbags to have drawing for. We sold tickets for a $1 and actually made a few hundred dollars off the bags.
This year we did something else and paired it with the event (brace yourself because this is a good one). Its the APPLE GIFT CARD DRAWING.
We were selling $10 drawing tickets with the prize being a $500 Apple Gift Card. We also decided that for every 250 tickets we sold we would purchase a gift card. This year we sold enough drawing tickets to purchase 3 Apple Gift Cards for the drawing prizes.
Now here's what you do:
-First check your state's fundraising guidelines because in California you can not have a raffle. We are not having a raffle. We are having a drawing. Everything we publish, everything we say, everything we are doing is a drawing, drawing, drawing....
-We purchased ticket printing using ticketprinter.com (that meant we had really snazzy tickets to sell folks)
-We passed out an informational form to the students. They could only check out ticket books if they had parent permission. On that form we gave families the options of donating $25 if they would like to instead of participating (I always like to provide that option, some will, some won't but its always the gesture and effort that do go along way).
-I had then had a parent volunteer assist me in checking out the ticket books to students and parents using the online system from the company we ordered the tickets from www.ticketprinting.com
-We would check out one ticket book of 10 tickets at a time to each seller.
- We asked that each ticket book be completely sold (ie you can't return just one ticket). At the very bitter end of the sale we allowed people to turn in half sold books. Most everyone did comply, especially because they signed a form saying they understood what they were being asked to do.
Incentive for sellers: for every 10 tickets sold the seller received a ticket to be put in a special "seller's drawing" for one $500 Apple Gift Card.
Our drawing ended up being for 3 Apple Gifts cards for the public drawing and 1 gift card for the sellers. It was really great to see people we all knew winning.
Without the drawing the pasta dinner and jazz concert was not as successful as I would have liked to see it (from a financial perspective). However, paired with the gift card drawing all three events made about $4500 profit which is great. We are planning on making some modifications for next year. I want to see an improved venue (we are going to move our event into our new multipurpose room). I want to see increased promotion and get more people in our program involved in selling tickets to the event (perhaps by having more incentives for the students to participate). I also want to see us sell even more tickets for the drawing.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Thrifty Find of the Day-Band Shoppe
Sometimes you just have to be in the right place at the right time. I needed to order one drum major jacket. We have been using the "in stock" Insignia Marching band Jacket as our drum major uniform for several years now from the Band Shoppe. This year, as I will be profiling soon, we have made new sashes and gauntlets to add some "spice" our rather outdated uniforms. As you may remember, if you are following the blog, we purchased this material with two awesome coupons from Jo-Ann fabrics and saved $750 on the fabric for these uniform alterations.
Today is a lesson in READING when you go on a website. I needed to purchase one jacket and they are $99.95. Monday night I was going to order the jacket online. I didn't even read the main page I just typed in the info for the jacket in the search feature and it popped up. It was the same price as last year "$99.95" I ended up NOT ordering it that night because I realized I needed buttons for them as well and didn't know exactly which ones to order without looking at the jackets I had. So I waited until this morning.
This morning I was much more rested. I go on their website and actually READ the gigantic box in the middle of the home page that says "Up to 90% off Blow Out Prices at the Outlet Store". Well in the picture on the main page I see the jacket I need so I think "hey maybe the jacket I need is onsale". So I click on the box and am taken to the outlet store. Low and behold our jacket is there (and they site actually tells me there are only 6 left at the outlet price). So I purchase it because its "$29.95".
Now that is thrifty....so I double check something. I go up to the top of the screen and I search for the jacket on the website. Up its still listed at $99.95. In order to get the outlet deal you have to click on the main page of the website!
Sometimes reading the fine print, or in this case the GIGANTIC RED LETTERING on the main page helps!
Thrifty find of the day saved $73.96.
Now that is thrifty!
Today is a lesson in READING when you go on a website. I needed to purchase one jacket and they are $99.95. Monday night I was going to order the jacket online. I didn't even read the main page I just typed in the info for the jacket in the search feature and it popped up. It was the same price as last year "$99.95" I ended up NOT ordering it that night because I realized I needed buttons for them as well and didn't know exactly which ones to order without looking at the jackets I had. So I waited until this morning.
This morning I was much more rested. I go on their website and actually READ the gigantic box in the middle of the home page that says "Up to 90% off Blow Out Prices at the Outlet Store". Well in the picture on the main page I see the jacket I need so I think "hey maybe the jacket I need is onsale". So I click on the box and am taken to the outlet store. Low and behold our jacket is there (and they site actually tells me there are only 6 left at the outlet price). So I purchase it because its "$29.95".
Now that is thrifty....so I double check something. I go up to the top of the screen and I search for the jacket on the website. Up its still listed at $99.95. In order to get the outlet deal you have to click on the main page of the website!
Sometimes reading the fine print, or in this case the GIGANTIC RED LETTERING on the main page helps!
Thrifty find of the day saved $73.96.
Now that is thrifty!
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Thrifty Finds of The Week/Upcoming Events!
Its the beginning of the school year which means that its time for Back to School shopping. While I might not be buying back packs, note book paper, or markers the band does need a good amount of supplies to get the school year off to a good start. Here's all the things I can remember I did last week that were thrifty:
-Music Folder Assembly: The folders are free because we get them from a local music store that we work with Bronstein Music. We also have stopped using a warm-up book and some of my staff members (Erik and Reno) have written a warm-up packet for the program that includes lip slurs, scale exercises, and percussion exercises to accompany the wind warm-ups that develop technique that is appropriate for where they are right now as players (ie we can change them as the players develop)...easily and for free. I also have materials that I received from other teaches (worksheets, scale sheets) that I use and none of which I ever purchased. (And these materials were generated by the teachers so its not like I am breaking copyright and photocopying published materials). Finally all the paper that was used to photocopy these materials was donated to our programs (thanks parents!!!)
-The mellophones: We ordered mellophone mouthpieces. Then we ended up finding some mellophones to borrow (we traded Evergreen Valley a trombone and some books and they lent us two mellophones). Unfortunately we got the horns yesterday and found they came with brand new mouthpieces (after we had just ordered new ones) but I checked and Woodwind & Brasswind provided free shipping and has a great return policy so in the end everything worked out!
-We got a guitar amp donated thanks to a former band parent spotting an ad on Craigs List from King Amplification. They are a Fender warranty center and often end up with a surplus of amps. So they wanted to donate one to a local music program. So we got a sweet small guitar amp that will work perfect for our jazz combo program! Free!
-The band program has several awesome upcoming fundraisers that we are trying out. I will be profiling these this week as we launch our first official fundraiser this week. (Its a Apple Gift Card Drawing. We are selling $10 drawing tickets to win a $500 Apple Gift Card. We will purchase multiple gift cards depending on how many tickets we sell so the odds are actually really good!). I would love to see us make $18,000 on this fundraiser!
-You might remember all that fabric that I got on sale at Jo Ann Fabrics (we saved around $750 using coupons a few weeks ago). We are making bands that go around the hat and the waist of the jacket to "spice" up our marching band uniforms. One of our awesome parent volunteers, Gina is making the bands for the hats as we speak. I'm going to learn how to attach them and then we are going to start assembling them on Wednesday! There will be pics to follow for sure.
-And all music teachers, don't forget. See if your local music stores have some kind of rewards program. Our local music store, Music Village has a program where students can turn in receipts from their purchases at the store to me. I turn them into the music store and then the music stores gives me a 5% reward back. That's not half bad if your students are purchasing stuff regularly and also purchasing large stuff (like instruments). So last year I turned in a ton of receipts and got a $552 gift card. I have been purchasing mostly mouthpieces and music with it and this week I purchased a mouthpiece and some ligatures.
-Music Folder Assembly: The folders are free because we get them from a local music store that we work with Bronstein Music. We also have stopped using a warm-up book and some of my staff members (Erik and Reno) have written a warm-up packet for the program that includes lip slurs, scale exercises, and percussion exercises to accompany the wind warm-ups that develop technique that is appropriate for where they are right now as players (ie we can change them as the players develop)...easily and for free. I also have materials that I received from other teaches (worksheets, scale sheets) that I use and none of which I ever purchased. (And these materials were generated by the teachers so its not like I am breaking copyright and photocopying published materials). Finally all the paper that was used to photocopy these materials was donated to our programs (thanks parents!!!)
-The mellophones: We ordered mellophone mouthpieces. Then we ended up finding some mellophones to borrow (we traded Evergreen Valley a trombone and some books and they lent us two mellophones). Unfortunately we got the horns yesterday and found they came with brand new mouthpieces (after we had just ordered new ones) but I checked and Woodwind & Brasswind provided free shipping and has a great return policy so in the end everything worked out!
-We got a guitar amp donated thanks to a former band parent spotting an ad on Craigs List from King Amplification. They are a Fender warranty center and often end up with a surplus of amps. So they wanted to donate one to a local music program. So we got a sweet small guitar amp that will work perfect for our jazz combo program! Free!
-The band program has several awesome upcoming fundraisers that we are trying out. I will be profiling these this week as we launch our first official fundraiser this week. (Its a Apple Gift Card Drawing. We are selling $10 drawing tickets to win a $500 Apple Gift Card. We will purchase multiple gift cards depending on how many tickets we sell so the odds are actually really good!). I would love to see us make $18,000 on this fundraiser!
-You might remember all that fabric that I got on sale at Jo Ann Fabrics (we saved around $750 using coupons a few weeks ago). We are making bands that go around the hat and the waist of the jacket to "spice" up our marching band uniforms. One of our awesome parent volunteers, Gina is making the bands for the hats as we speak. I'm going to learn how to attach them and then we are going to start assembling them on Wednesday! There will be pics to follow for sure.
-And all music teachers, don't forget. See if your local music stores have some kind of rewards program. Our local music store, Music Village has a program where students can turn in receipts from their purchases at the store to me. I turn them into the music store and then the music stores gives me a 5% reward back. That's not half bad if your students are purchasing stuff regularly and also purchasing large stuff (like instruments). So last year I turned in a ton of receipts and got a $552 gift card. I have been purchasing mostly mouthpieces and music with it and this week I purchased a mouthpiece and some ligatures.
Friday, August 5, 2011
Thrifty Find of the Day-Use those coupons!
The thrifty band director is back! Its been a nice long summer vacation but its band camp time which means its time to start being thrifty again in the classroom. I will be doing my best to blog about how we run our season from the budget process to creative meals through the marching band season that are very inexpensive to how to save money within your budget.
Today's thrifty find is going to save us about $800!!! What the heck are we doing?
Well....it all started with our marching band uniforms. They are old. They need updating and we just aren't there financially yet to replace them. So our show designer came up with some "alternations" to the uniforms (basically making a waistband, gauntlets, and band for the hat) that is white and gold. It is going to look awesome and we plan on using these "uniform alterations" until we purchase new uniforms (hopefully in a few years).
We can't purchase these items previously made due to the construction of our current uniform. So we convinced a guard parent (Gina) who is an awesome and super crafty lady (as well as thrifty) design the pattern and figure out what fabric we needed etc. You can check out some of Gina's creations on her site http://www.ginabahrens.com
We figured out we needed two different fabrics and we needed 60 yards of it. Gina also brought me two coupons to use from Joann Fabrics We went to the fabric store and found out two very important things: yes we can pre-order the fabric & use we can use our 40% and 50% off coupons!
What does this mean. Total savings on $713.73. Now that's thrifty....
A special shout out today goes to my trusty band camp office assistant Spencer for coming up with the first thrifty find of the day (the moral of this story is look in your storage bins occasionally to see what you've got in there). Spencer noticed that we had stored white gloves in there (the last time we wore them was his freshman year which was 2003).....the same white gloves that we are switching to for this year. Meaning we might not have to buy very many gloves this year (saving us another couple hundred bucks).
Today's thrifty find is going to save us about $800!!! What the heck are we doing?
Well....it all started with our marching band uniforms. They are old. They need updating and we just aren't there financially yet to replace them. So our show designer came up with some "alternations" to the uniforms (basically making a waistband, gauntlets, and band for the hat) that is white and gold. It is going to look awesome and we plan on using these "uniform alterations" until we purchase new uniforms (hopefully in a few years).
We can't purchase these items previously made due to the construction of our current uniform. So we convinced a guard parent (Gina) who is an awesome and super crafty lady (as well as thrifty) design the pattern and figure out what fabric we needed etc. You can check out some of Gina's creations on her site http://www.ginabahrens.com
We figured out we needed two different fabrics and we needed 60 yards of it. Gina also brought me two coupons to use from Joann Fabrics We went to the fabric store and found out two very important things: yes we can pre-order the fabric & use we can use our 40% and 50% off coupons!
What does this mean. Total savings on $713.73. Now that's thrifty....
A special shout out today goes to my trusty band camp office assistant Spencer for coming up with the first thrifty find of the day (the moral of this story is look in your storage bins occasionally to see what you've got in there). Spencer noticed that we had stored white gloves in there (the last time we wore them was his freshman year which was 2003).....the same white gloves that we are switching to for this year. Meaning we might not have to buy very many gloves this year (saving us another couple hundred bucks).
Saturday, May 14, 2011
California could cut school year by several weeks - San Jose Mercury News
California could cut school year by several weeks - San Jose Mercury News
This would would be an absolute tragedy. I'm all for a little longer summer but this would just be a disaster. First off, we would once again be punishing the students who leave in the less affluent parts of the state, in the district that are struggling the most, since they would have to probably cut the most days. Our students would be at a greater disadvantage at simply knowing content for their subject areas. They simply would have learned less than other students putting them potentially behind students in other states and other parts of the state (depending on where they lived) when they apply and enter college and even enter the work force. If we were done with schools 3-5 weeks earlier our school year would be out before the nationwide AP testing (for those of you that don't know AP testing dates are not set by the district or school site but are the same nation wide).
When I read this article I did notice that someone posted that the government is only worried about the budget and that the teachers are only worried about their salary. I'm not only worried about my salary, I'm first worried about the kids, but for the first time in my career I have been forced to actually worry about myself. I'm never one who ends up doing the "work to rule" events that our teachers union puts on. I think they serve a potentially great point, to teach others how much work we do for our job that is outside of what we get paid. I personally run an entire weekly summer program in which I do not get paid at all.
But I am worried about my salary. I'm very worried about what will happen to me if we loose 3-5 weeks of school. With this job market and the loss of district summer school (which I could not have taught anyway since I'm a music teacher and we never had music in summer school) how the heck am I going to find a part time job for the summer when so many people can't find even full time work? How will I, like so many of my colleagues continue to do the same job for less pay? Heck, I already do have a summer job but I doubt I can ask for a raise, afterall its another public institution who is basically broke (San Jose State University). I know there are many people out there who are not in education who face this, but there are plenty of people outside education that would start looking for a new company to work for if that continued for years. How many people want to do the same job or more work for less pay? How many people want to do that for multiple years in a row? For the first time in my entire career, I'm honestly scared of that and it actually gets me down and makes me stressed. I wonder about my personal economic stability. How will I ever get out of this pile of student loan debt that I took out to further my career? How will I ever finish off paying off the credit card debt I got myself into when I first moved to the Silicon Valley and could not afford to live here? Screw home owner ship, that's the least of my concerns/interests at this point. Staying afloat is my biggest fear.
It makes me angry because I can't look at my students and say: If you work really hard in school and go to college and do really well, when you get into the work place you will be well taken care of. But I can't live in the doom and gloom all the time. What I can say with a smile though, is that I still believe education to be a noble profession, one in which I never ever regret entering and despite the budget issues and my personal concern about my own financial well being and future, I do my best to remain optimistic because ultimately this massive budget crisis is not my fault and its certainly not my students fault so I simply have to make the best of the time I am with them for the days that I am given with them each year.
I am I scared about the state of education in California? Absolutely. But as someone who is a 'fixer' of problems, I have zero idea of where to start. What I do know is we can not take away our students' education like this.
This would would be an absolute tragedy. I'm all for a little longer summer but this would just be a disaster. First off, we would once again be punishing the students who leave in the less affluent parts of the state, in the district that are struggling the most, since they would have to probably cut the most days. Our students would be at a greater disadvantage at simply knowing content for their subject areas. They simply would have learned less than other students putting them potentially behind students in other states and other parts of the state (depending on where they lived) when they apply and enter college and even enter the work force. If we were done with schools 3-5 weeks earlier our school year would be out before the nationwide AP testing (for those of you that don't know AP testing dates are not set by the district or school site but are the same nation wide).
When I read this article I did notice that someone posted that the government is only worried about the budget and that the teachers are only worried about their salary. I'm not only worried about my salary, I'm first worried about the kids, but for the first time in my career I have been forced to actually worry about myself. I'm never one who ends up doing the "work to rule" events that our teachers union puts on. I think they serve a potentially great point, to teach others how much work we do for our job that is outside of what we get paid. I personally run an entire weekly summer program in which I do not get paid at all.
But I am worried about my salary. I'm very worried about what will happen to me if we loose 3-5 weeks of school. With this job market and the loss of district summer school (which I could not have taught anyway since I'm a music teacher and we never had music in summer school) how the heck am I going to find a part time job for the summer when so many people can't find even full time work? How will I, like so many of my colleagues continue to do the same job for less pay? Heck, I already do have a summer job but I doubt I can ask for a raise, afterall its another public institution who is basically broke (San Jose State University). I know there are many people out there who are not in education who face this, but there are plenty of people outside education that would start looking for a new company to work for if that continued for years. How many people want to do the same job or more work for less pay? How many people want to do that for multiple years in a row? For the first time in my entire career, I'm honestly scared of that and it actually gets me down and makes me stressed. I wonder about my personal economic stability. How will I ever get out of this pile of student loan debt that I took out to further my career? How will I ever finish off paying off the credit card debt I got myself into when I first moved to the Silicon Valley and could not afford to live here? Screw home owner ship, that's the least of my concerns/interests at this point. Staying afloat is my biggest fear.
It makes me angry because I can't look at my students and say: If you work really hard in school and go to college and do really well, when you get into the work place you will be well taken care of. But I can't live in the doom and gloom all the time. What I can say with a smile though, is that I still believe education to be a noble profession, one in which I never ever regret entering and despite the budget issues and my personal concern about my own financial well being and future, I do my best to remain optimistic because ultimately this massive budget crisis is not my fault and its certainly not my students fault so I simply have to make the best of the time I am with them for the days that I am given with them each year.
I am I scared about the state of education in California? Absolutely. But as someone who is a 'fixer' of problems, I have zero idea of where to start. What I do know is we can not take away our students' education like this.
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