“O’Fallon Band Together Project”

Description

Being separate districts, we constantly develop new ideas for all our O’Fallon bands to come together. We are in contact with all our middle school directors daily, and we visit their classrooms weekly. We meet at the end of the school year and start the new to evaluate what is best for all students and how we can use our resources to benefit each other. We have multiple opportunities for all our programs to come together in rehearsal or performance. Some of these are long-standing traditions, and some are new creations.

Objectives

Engaging kids in O’Fallon Bands!

Objectives:

Focus on the individual student within the program
Adapting our programs to meet the needs of the student for that particular year
Sharing our resources between bands (ex. sharing a clinician or a concert experience)
Making sure we are all in constant communication (including in person visits to each other’s rehearsals and performances)
Always supporting each other!
Create opportunities through performance for experience and collaboration
All programs connecting with the community (the art of giving back!)
All programs promoting continuous music learning through the high school level and beyond
Celebrating each other’s successes
Promoting each other’s programs through school, parent, and community support

Target Audience

All band students in the O’Fallon area – As band teachers in O’Fallon, we are responsible for serving our students at the high school and supporting and serving ALL band students in our area. We are also responsible for supporting our local schools and their music teachers as they promote music education to the highest degree.

Timeline

Everything listed above is ongoing. The high school program leads the initiative of connection through music with our feeder programs. We hope to collaborate with our elementary general music programs soon.

Order:

Meetings/collaboration – setting up a schedule so we can communicate and visit each other throughout the year
Establishing joint opportunities through performance and rehearsal for our high school students to support our younger students
Set schedule to share resources as available
The high school website and facebook page serve as a promotion tool for all programs

Overview of Planning and Execution

All OTHS Band Directors and District 90 Band Directors are involved. The time commitment is a lot extra at times, but worth it!

Tools and Resources

Personal creativity and passion, along with parent support!

Marketing and Promotion

We have used our band Facebook site which is a great marketing tool for our program. We promote not only the OTHS program but our local area programs as well.

Costs

Really none to count for – everything accounted to more professional time spent out of our personal time.

Challenges/Obstacles

The only time that we have challenges is when we see the goals through different perspectives. It doesn’t happen often, and we are able to work things out through compromise. As the person with the longevity in the career, I lead and am there for all of us as much as possible.

Success/Effectiveness Measurement

We each have an increase in our enrollment by over 20% across all programs (as an average). One middle school has noted over a 100% increase!

Community Impact

All in all, it gives our students collectively a better overall experience since we are supporting each other and sharing in the overall cause of music education across all levels and schools. Our community is fully aware of the support and care that we give to each other and all students. Our community is a “band community” and is supportive of our drive and passion for music education.

Advice for others?

It is a must! It takes ALL to provide the very best for our thriving students. High School directors should be there at all times to assist and support all feeder directors and students. In turn, this works out the best for everyone involved.