5 Ideas to Help Middle School Band and Orchestra Teachers Prepare for the First Days of School
July 22, 2022
Early Ensembles by Taylor Weimer
Instrument tryouts, parent communication, rosters, lesson planning, music selections, chair auditions, assessments, concerts, and on and on and on!
Thinking about preparing for your year as a band/orchestra teacher can be overwhelming to say the least. We have a lot to think about, and the stress can set on quickly. But there are a few simple things you can do to prepare for the school year, to put your mind at ease, and feel prepared for the students. Here are five helpful ideas to start your school year off right.
Number 1 – Create Email Groups
One of the first things I do before the school year starts is create email groups of my students and parents for the coming school year. This way, communication is easy, and I can stay organized with the information I present to them. Make sure to create separate lists of contacts for each grade level. I teach middle school band and orchestra, so for me, I create a group of 6th grade, 7th grade, 8th grade band, and the same for orchestra. This saves me time for the entire school year, and makes communication easy, which is so important!
Number 2 — Send Clear Communication
Sending a newsletter with clear information is the best way to go! A consistent newsletter can help keep things clear for parents and students to understand, and it is a great way to get important information out to your parents and students. In this newsletter, include things like:
-An introduction for yourself (especially if you are a first year director)
-Important dates (concerts, tryouts, honor groups, auditions, etc.)
-Instrument rental information
-What books and supplies to buy
-Other important information
Here are some helpful and professional newsletter templates for emailing your parents and students, or communicating with the larger community:
Band Newsletters and Concert Fliers
Orchestra Newsletters and Concert Fliers
Number 3 — Set Beginner Instrumental Tryout Dates
This is a huge one, and getting this accomplished can really set you up for a successful year with your beginning instrumentalists. I always email my beginning band/orchestra parents and students a few weeks before the school year begins to come in for instrument tryout and rental days. I have a local music store who loves to work with me on this (and I am sure you do too, even if you haven’t met them yet!)
Simply reach out to your local instrumental music store, ask the representative to help you run one or two instrument tryout/audition days for your beginning students, and invite your parents and students. I guarantee there will be someone at your local music store who wants to work with you on this, because they will make money! And having extra support from another professional to help you get those beginning students an instrument can be a life-saver.
Number 4 — Build Your Instrumentation Intentionally
It is so important to make sure students are placed on the right instrument, and that you build the instrumentation that fits best for your ensemble. For me, I use Google Forms to keep track of all the students names, which instrument they select, how they will acquire that instrument, and it makes a graph for me to see my instrumentation. This way, I stay organized, and keep a good ratio of instrumentation.
Here are some helpful resources to keep track of instrumentation, and make beginning instrument tryouts/selections easy! These tools do it all for you. All you have to do is enter the information, and the Google Forms will auto-graph it all for you!
Orchestra Instrument Tryout Form
Number 5 — Use Method Books
Decide on the method books you will use for your daily instruction. The books make lesson-planing easy, and progressing through the books with your students makes them better musicians. There are so many great options out there like the Tradition of Excellence, or Essential Elements to name a couple of them. The books plan your lessons for you, and give the students something to practice at home before you even give them their first concert pieces. I’ll say it again… Stick with the book!
I write my own curriculum for my beginning band and orchestra students. Here are some helpful, very affordable resources for beginning band and beginning orchestra curriculum. These are useful because they’re all digital PDFs, and they come with play-along tracks onYouTube for easy at-home practice.
Full Semester of Beginning String Orchestra
Full Quarter of Beginning Concert Band
It all may seem like a lot now, and it is! But breaking it down into a few bite-sized pieces can make it all seem doable. And staying organized will make your life so much easier. I hope these five tips were helpful. We’re all in this together! Stay strong; you can do it!
Musically,
Taylor
