Communication

BYODT or How Much Tape Does It Take to Stick a Director to the Wall?

Leave a Comment / Assistant Directing, Fundraising, High Schools, Music Department, Personal experience, Social Media, Teaching, Throw Back Thursday /

There was a fun “Prize Program” that went with our Candle Sale for the band. Yes, it was one of MY (Priority Fund Raising) sales. Here was the prize description at the bottom of the letter (highlight added).

AT THE ICE CREAM PARTY

CA$H BA$H

Tape the Directors to the Wall (BYODT)

Ice Cream – All You Can Eat

Variety of Door Prizes

Pig Races (Names drawn)

FUN…FUN…FUN

 ICE CREAM PARTY for ALL who sell $100+

The Ice Cream Party was for all who sold over $100. There were about 50 people who qualified. The challenge was to eat all the ice cream, with the guarantee that if all the ice cream was gone, we would reschedule and do it again. NOTE: They didn’t eat all the ice cream. 

BUT there would be other fun that only those at the party would experience.

  • CA$H BA$H was a cash give away. Students would draw tickets for amounts of cash ranging from $1 to $50. 
  • DOOR PRIZES were random prize items I brought from my warehouse.
  • PIG RACES will need to be another story, but they were battery operated pigs that wriggled and grunted, or walked forward. There was zero control. Names were drawn for participants. Winners got cash or door prizes.
  • BYODT (Bring Your Own Duck Tape) was to be a highlight. Here’s how that went down…….

The students placed two chairs against the back wall in the band room; for Mr. Campbell and myself. And then, they had plenty of time to tape us to the wall with what they brought for the occasion

Obviously, I would require more tape. 

When they finished, they gently removed Mr. Campbell’s chair from under him. He slowly slid down to the floor. So they all went about adding more tape to me.

Then….

…instead of gradually pulling out the chair, it was kicked out from under me, the way you might do if you were hanging someone…. 

It was such a violent (relatively speaking) maneuver that it pulled me away from the wall and I went crashing to the floor. I landed hard and, yes, it hurt……but the kids were laughing so hard I covered it up and laughed along with them. 

And yes, they did help remove the tape from me and the wall. 

BYODT or How Much Tape Does It Take to Stick a Director to the Wall? Read More »

Told to lie to parents

Communication, News and Happenings, Public Schools, Social Media, Teaching /
Showed up on my Igram today. She was a teacher, a Christian, fired by her district…..but in the end, she won. Teachers should listen. PARENTS…. listen to her tell of direct instruction to lie to parents. Scary.
California’s Jurupa Unified School District has agreed to pay $360,000 to settle a wrongful termination lawsuit after public school teacher Jessica Tapia claimed the district violated her First Amendment rights when it fired her for not adhering to gender-affirming school policies. May 20, 2024

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Two stories about small schools with larger bands

High Schools, Marching Band, Personal experience, Respect, Teaching, Teaching Music, Throw Back Thursday /

Joan suggested I respond to a post with a similar story… (shortened for this post). MY experience follows.

From David Bloss, Level 3 contributor in “Band” group.

“My small town HS in northern Oklahoma had a combined middle & high school band. I estimate the student population was around 300. We had 84 in the band (drum major and 2 twirlers for marching … ”

MY EXPERIENCE

Four days before graduation from the University of Kentucky, I was hired for my first teaching job. I went from a community of nearly 100K (Covington, KY) and an inner-city jr/sr high school (Holmes) of 2000+ — to a community of about 1000 (Pekin, IN) and a jr/sr high school (Eastern) population of under 400….. and no football team.

I somehow survived the culture shock and am grateful to have learned so much from that community. When I got stuck in the snow, no one drove past without getting out to help. When I drove a bandster home from rehearsal, I was expected to accept eggs from their chicken house. But, I also learned those teens were hard-working, talented, committed, and thrived at an opportunity to prove themselves to other communities….to me…..and to themselves.

I was befriended and mentored by an amazing artist (Richard Trueblood) who was my only outside staffer, although I don’t think we ever paid him — my ignorance. He did amazing things with our guard and together we created and taught winning choreography.

I was only there four years. Band grew from 39 (with 8th graders) to 93 with only grades 9-12, including 18 flags and 6 rifles….

In KY, we competed in “Band Size” competitions, which put us against large schools. When we could compete in “School Size” competitions, our band was normally 2-3x the size of our competitors.

We had a good run, receiving lots of guard, other caption and top placement awards. At the State Level, we were in Class C (there was no Class D at the time) and ranked 4th twice. Last year, that same school won 1st place in the small division in Scholastic Class, which also did not exist during my tenure.

Two stories about small schools with larger bands Read More »

Whether greed or politics, it is expensive

Communication, News and Happenings, Personal experience /

Bank withdrawalI’m not saying a thing about POLITICS. I’m just talking about some local observations and ending with a quote from the CEO of Kroger. Some say it is greed. Others claim politics. I don’t care so long as someone can make it stop.

Recently, I was criticised for posting price changes that were higher than the “averages”….. Some I included, from local findings and things that affected me personally, included:

  •  $1 Sausage Muffin is now $1.89. $1 drinks are now $1.39.
  • Local car wash increased price from $7.50 to $10 for cars — and more for SUV’s and trucks.
  • My favorite meal at Casa has increased from @$12 to @$20.
  • Local specialty steak in restaurant is up $4.
  • $5-7 combo meals are now $11-12
  • My homeowner’s insurance is up $100’s and the insurance on my aging car just (yesterday) increased another $30…. up $64 in last two years. I thought insuring aging cars always DEcreased.
  • Private Selection bread at local Kroger has DOUBLED. Items where price has remained close are now in SMALLER packages….so same thing.
  • Oil change on my car has gone up +$30
  • And streaming services; Netflix, Prime, Paramount, PBS…. yeah, you know.
  • Amazon Prime — wow…..what is it now?
  • Treats like DQ shakes & Blizzards, Wendy’s Frosty…. up $2-3

    In the time that most things I spend money on have increased +40%, my Social Security has gone up about 3%.

    Feel free to add your examples.

    Below is a quote from the Kroger CEO. We’ve always been in the “budget conscious” group, but he mentions “other customer segments”. Are you in any of those?

“The reduction of excess savings built up during the pandemic, higher interest rates and the effect of inflation are pressuring customers’ ability to spend,” Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen stated on the company’s quarterly earnings call. “This is especially true for our most budget conscious customers, as we’ve been seeing for a while now, but we’re now seeing other customer segments beginning to make changes as well. Customers are purchasing lower-price cuts of meat, buying less, and focusing on essentials.”

https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-3rd-largest-grocery-chain-food-inflation-even-hitting-people-who-arent-budget-conscious?fbclid=IwY2xjawFSjd9leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHfuXfgWlLbUgwKBQ6z09UJ7TBuHfbvVxutv9JP8qw8f-rRzPjgHbq-PEnQ_aem_sG_3-2QUvVhQqG4yZbp5dA

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Color coded clarinet

Assistant Directing, Classroom Teacher, Communication, High Schools, Music Department, Personal experience, Public Schools, Respect, Teaching, Teaching Music /
She was a new student who transferred in. I needed to listen to her so I could place her. I had never seen color-coded keys and it gave a good reason to have a nice get-to-know-you conversation. She said her band teacher labeled all their clarinetists’ keys like this. It was a nice horn.
Wow! I’ve spent my whole teaching career explaining the fingerings and expecting students to get it.
I HAVE had students label all their music notes. I didn’t allow it if I knew about it…..explaining that they were going to encounter more notes than they were going to be able to label.
btw I wonder if that teacher labeled trumpets or trombones.

 

Color coded clarinet Read More »

Floppy Installation

Personal experience, Sales and Marketing, Small Business, Social Media, Throw Back Thursday /

Joan and I are going to a place that sells both music instrument stuff and Apple tech. While she gets her bassoon reeds, should take this disk tray in and ask for recommendations on computer to utilize these. WhatDaYaThink? Would they even know what these are?

Note: This was from our business’ first computer software installation (early 80’s). I remember liking Word Perfect better than Word. Software was on 20+ disks, plus …. well you can see the 4th disk for printer installation. #floppydisks

I’m gonna impress some people today, ya think?

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Why is Tulsi Gabbard on a terror watchlist?

Communication, News and Happenings, Respect, Social Media /

 

In April 2003, while serving in the Hawaii State Legislature, Gabbard ENLISTED in the Hawaii Army National Guard. In July 2004, she was deployed for a 12-month tour in Iraq, serving as a specialist with the Medical Company, 29th Support Battalion, 29th Infantry Brigade Combat Team.

She served in the US Congress from 2013-21 and believes her criticism of VP Harris caused her placement on a TSA’s watchlist. She is NOT a conservative and NOT (yet) a republican. She has endorsed President Trump.

For every flight, because her boarding passes have an “SSSS” designation, she is followed by (according to Air Marshalls):

2 explosive detection K9 teams
1 explosives specialist
1 plain clothes TSA officer
3 Federal Air Marshals

Every flight is preceded by a “very in-depth screening” lasting 30-45 minutes

If you have a non-political reason why she was placed on a terror watchlist, please share. This is shameful.

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Are America’s Classrooms profit centers for the Mental Health Industry?

Classroom Teacher, Communication, News and Happenings, Parenting, Social Media, Social Media, Teaching /
author of “Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren’t Growing Up”

I periodically listen to interviews conducted by Marissa Streit, a former classroom teacher. The title of this one caught my eye so I listened. As I did, I noted down some near quotes that I hear. These are not polished…. but give you an idea of the discussion. I didn’t agree with everything said, in particular, the parts about allowing children to walk home alone from school (or have I been affected by the hype?)…. But she kinda answers a thought I’ve had….. Why did we not have these problems, at least as pronounced, when we were kids? I don’t ever remember ‘mental health, PTSD and therapy being nearly as prominent as they seem today. I don’t intend to read the book, but parents of young children my gain from hearing this interview.Before you attack one of the comment/notes, listen to that part of the podcast and think critically about why you want to say what you want to say….and thank you for that.

from the podcast….. Listen/watch the podcast HERE

Have America’s Classrooms Become Profit Centers for the Mental Health Industry?

Why does every child talk about having anxiety?

Why are our children swimming in mental health therapy?

1 in 4 young people identifying as trans. (Girls 7th grade).

Everybody needs therapy.

Everyone is broken.

A generation that is in profound distress.

The largest patient pool for mental health therapy are from the public schools. (CA)

Trams-informed care.

Every child has emotional damaged.

Instead of sending kids to the principal, they are now sent to the counselor.

Schools as a mental health ward.

SEL Social Emotional Learning  Trojan house.  Teachers are not therapists.

How are you feeling? Think of a time when (pain).

Trauma informed care.

Being born black means you’ve been traumatized.

Break the family

Over medicate children

If you wanted to break them down, there would be no better way than what is currently being taught in schools under the heading of mental health.

But… we have to keep them from suicide. How to find the line.

…the child who has never thought about it is forced to think about it.

…the child who HAS thought about it….

Does your child have a serious problem you cannot fix by changing their environment? If you cannot stabilize them that way, then yes. Therapist….but research the therapist the way you would research a surgeon.

Reset the default. Step 1 should not always be therapy and medication.

Some will need it and they should get it, but we are overreacting every child  creating mental disorder.

Hardship can be good for you. Certain kinds of adversity is really good for kids. Tell them the truth…that resilience is the story of the human condition. Most kids will emerge resilient. Tell them their parents went through hard things. Their grandparents went through hard things. Most will recover….a small percentage will really need professional help.

We don’t teach history so much as we’re teaching victim-hood. We don’t even teach them their own history. We need to connect them to their grandparents…what they went through. What their family, their ancestors went through.

You can get through it…because the vast majority will.

Feelings are always front and center. Being crushed under the weight of their own feelings.

PTSD traumatizing.

There are people who need help.

Kids need authority, community, independence. I can walk home from school… or to the store…or cook dinner.

I’m not shy. I have social depravity.

I’m not worried….i have anxiety.

Once you have anxiety, you need an expert to help you and you need a drug.

“You can’t say that. “

Disagreeable personality.

Don’t let someone diagnose them unless they really have a problem.

Terminology

SEL (Social Emotional Learning). Everything is a psychological program and requires  group (classroom) therapy.

Memory poker (as in the game). Group setting, kids trying to “1 up” each other. Exaggerating and talking yourself into the idea that you have been traumatized.

And all this is happening instead of academics.

Parentify. Parental abuse. Why do immigrant kids do so much better? Strong parenting. Chores and helping family and community are expected. Immigrant kids running toward adulthood and American kids staying home on mamas couch because they’ve been traumatized. The world is against them.

Trauma. There are traumatized kids, but we apply it to everyone.

There is a reason why we didn’t hear these terms as children.

Trust “Parenting expert”….only if he/she raised good kids to adulthood. Not a book learned only. Books by parenting experts who have never had children. (I remember thinking this way about the college professors in the Education School who had never been away from the college campus telling us how to teach.

…and more.

Are America’s Classrooms profit centers for the Mental Health Industry? Read More »

Commitment: Cheerleader to Percussion and back

Assistant Directing, High Schools, Marching Band, News and Happenings, Personal experience, Repost, Respect, Throw Back Thursday /
Cheer for first half, band for halftime, back to cheer for 2nd half

One of my all time favorites because it shows commitment and dedication. This girl is a cheerleader during the first half of the game, then, while the other cheerleaders have a break, she runs to the band, grabs her drum and marches halftime…..and then back to cheer for the rest of the game.

Commitment: Cheerleader to Percussion and back Read More »