Recruiting, and the retention of those recruits, is a primary issue that band directors address on a yearly basis. Band directors across the nation spend countless hours and resources developing the beginners of their programs. These efforts however are met with numerous challenges that originate from a multitude of sources in terms of retention. Would a district-mandated piano class at the elementary level improve retention of beginning band? Researchers have found that beginners quit band after their first year of instruction for a variety of reasons including scheduling conflicts, cost of instrument, and the time commitment. Hartley (1966) and Gamin (2005) found that these factors, as well as difficulty of instrument and academic
Band teaches life skills. Where independent thinking is the model in most academic classrooms, teamwork is essential in band. Band students learn to work with and for each other. The three R’s in band include Respect, Responsibility, & Reliability. Our students learn to appreciate one another for their individual talents and their contributions to the organization as a whole. They learn positive social skills –the most important factor in our program –where we teach such qualities as confidence, pride, and self esteem; all values that will serve these young people well throughout the course of their life. Citizenship, team motivational skills/leadership skills, time management, organization skills, dependability, and honesty are instilled into band members. Band teaches students to face challenges and strive to reach higher and higher goals.
Payne, B. (1997). A review of research on band competition. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 33(1), 1-21.
Companies used various methods for recruitment, such as online job search engines, job data bases, in house advertising, billboards, employee referrals, and word of mouth. These methods have both caused company growth and company regression. Some methods hinder certain groups from completing an application and others promote an equal playing field for potential recruits. Company’s typically use various metrics to consider employment for available positions. An initial method used by companies is cost-per-hire which contributes to the money spent on recruiting, training, developing, travel costs, and company equipment cost. Staffing efficiency ratio is also a major metric which is the firms recruiting cost divided by the total starting compensation of new
The program ran this year at the New Smyrna Beach High School Barracuda Band this year could be summarized by one word: sound. The sounds produced by our ensemble during marching season had crowds across the state cheering us on, and earned an overall superior at our Marching Music Performance Assessment. The sounds during our concert season have been even more impressive, earning a straight superior at our District Six Concert Music Performance Assessment and sent thirteen performances to our state level Solo and Ensemble. This year the program was also sound, in the sense of it settling down. A previous year of bumpy roads and crash landings finally came to a smooth journey, and this was caused by many factors. Some of our more negative members left our ensemble, either via graduation or variance, other members came to terms with our situation and decided to battle for the band and no longer against it, and our leadership team for the 2013-2014 school year was much improved in comparison to our previous team.
I have played an intrinsic role in my school’s band and orchestra department through helping organizing performances, teaching classes, and tutoring individuals. On a regular basis, I am responsible for directing and teaching classes including beginning band, with grades ranging from fourth to twelfth, and more advanced ensembles like concert band and marching band. I also play an important role in their performances sometimes by directing and other times by contacting venues to organize dates and times for the shows. I also dedicate time during the week to help beginning players
Madsen, Clifford K., David S. Plack, and D. Patrick Dunnigan. “Marching Band As A Recruiting Organization for the University: A Case Study.” Journal of Band Research 43.1 (2007): 54-62. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.
Whenever kids join band, they typically have their mind set on the instrument they want to play, and for me, this was percussion. In sixth grade we had the opportunity to join band, and become part of prestigious and successful group at our school. I dreamt of being the lead percussionist and leading the band by keeping the beat and making sure everyone was always together. I had my heart set on percussion ever since I was little, seeing my uncle play drums, banging his head around wildly, hitting drumsticks so hard they broke, and having so much fun with it; I wanted to have that much fun, too.
Music education has always been an underappreciated concept, but as a future teacher it terrifies me to know that there are children that be...
In years present and past North Atlanta’s marching band has been high achieving and highly valued. It is a program that is under the leadership of Adam Brooks. Brooks is the heart and soul of the band program at North Atlanta. His passion for music began much in the same way that his students’ did. In addition to band teacher, Brooks is also the teacher of the year for 2012-2013. In regards to his musical talent A French horn player by trade, Mr. Brooks has studied with multiple esteemed professors including Donovan Wells, Director of Bands at Bethune-Cookman, James Poitier, Associate Director of Bands at Bethune-Cookman, and Dr. William Rogan, world renowned Horn performer and instructor. He is very passionate about his program and loves teaching “I vividly remember the Middle School Band and Orchestra visiting my middle school. I’ve been hooked ever since.” Said Brooks
In order to help spark that passion inside of others I must accomplish my first goal of obtaining my bachelor 's degree in music education and gaining my teaching endorsement for K-12. I intend on accomplishing this goal by attending the University of Nebraska at Omaha starting the fall semester of 2016. After attending UNO for 4 to 5 years I will begin my search for a high school instrumental music employment opportunity. Once I am employed I will be able to begin fueling the fire of passion in some students.
Sheftel, B. (2002). Music Education Curriculum in Public Schools. PageWise, Inc, Retrieved August 6, 2003
The Derby High School jazz band was observed as a social group throughout the course of a month. This group consisted of just under 30 people, and all students were chosen to enroll the class upon request of the instructor. A majority of the students were musically advanced and had already been playing for several years. This group was picked to be observed due to the constant stress that students go through and the variety of tasks that were asked of the students.
Step one to take an assessment of your situation is an extremely important step that is often disregarded. Organizations often look at the challenges they face but they don’t necessary identify membership opportunities. While working for AmeriCorps I was a part of the team that worked with state commissions to help their state nonprofit programs run well. This position also required that I participate in the yearly grant review process. Basically we would read through all the applications and pick chose the “best of the best” based on things such as the needs in the state, if they were focusing on a presidential initiative, how they have done in the past and what they plan to do. This process only weeds out a few and than we look at their potential for success. This always goes to recruitment and retention. If you can’t recruit and retain your program will have little to no success. For those who were unsuccessful during the grant review, were encouraged to work with their programs at the beginning of the year to identify their shortfalls and later this assessment process became mandatory. An important point that Levin made was that an organization needs a historical perspective, meaning it is helpful to be aware of their successes and failures and to learn from them (364).
“Recent studies show that being involved in music classes makes it easier to learn other subjects and improve skills in other classrooms” (Brown, “The Benefits of Music Education”). A lot of people tend to overlook how much music education has an impact on the success of a student. Because of this, schools should be required to offer fine arts and music classes as electives for the students. Not only will this improve the students test scores, but it will also give the students a broader imagination and more creativity in and out of the classroom. In a lot of schools, fine arts and musical classes are the first to go when there are budget cuts. “Seventy-one percent of the nation’s fifteen thousand school districts have cut instructional hours spent on music and other subjects” (“State of the arts: should music and art classes be brushed aside”). Not only is it affecting the teachers who have specialized in the study of fine arts, it is affecting all of the students and parents who are actively involved in these programs. “Johnson, professor of music education and music therapy and associate dean of the School of Fine Arts at KU, found jumps of twenty-two percent in English test scores and twenty percent in math scores at elementary schools with superior music education” (Lynch “Music Boosts Test Scores”). With that being said, schools should be required to offer music and fine arts classes as an elective for their students.
...formations of the American band movement, both inside and outside of the public school setting, and its implications on the field of education. Having now established my topic, I should ask myself the following questions: when did the idea of having a concert band in the public schools begin to take shape? What was the instrumentation of these bands? How many students were in these groups, and how did that compare with the population of the school on the whole? Was the size of these bands equivalent to those employed by institutions such as the military? What was the purpose of these bands – were they valued as a means of entertainment or were they viewed as a curricular group? Was this perspective in any way similar to how we view today’s public school concert band? These question will serve as my initial catalyst into research on this meaningful, enriching topic.