1. All the Jazz ensembles have successfully gone through their playing tests this week and I was suitably impressed with all of their efforts. All marks have been imported into Power School and all of their mark breakdowns have been placed into their portfolios in the band room.
2. Speaking of marks, all parents of students with a mark of 60 or lower in either Jazz or Concert Band should have received an email from me. If you ever have any questions about your son's or daughter's standing in Band or Jazz her are some simple steps to follow:
Before you contact me, have a conversation with your son or daughter about their grade and ask them about it. They should be able to specifically tell you why it is the way it is and what they need to do to fix it. Before you have this conversation, you may want to take a look on Power School [our on-line grade book - https://ps.sjsd.net/public/] and see what assignment(s) are missing at this point. If you do not know your Power School log in, please contact the school and they will let you know your login. In addition, you may want to visit our web site - www.bandatwestwood.com and sign up via email on the right hand side of the page to get the up-dates. As you can see when you visit the page, every assignment we have done is listed on the blog and on our dates page.
Missing assignments can be submitted without late marks for this first report and, as always, performance based marks can be re-tested at any time until mark cut off.
I am available for help most days after school until 4:00.
If you have any questions, after completing the steps above, please feel free to contact me in at your earliest convenience.
3. All ensembles both Jazz and Concert Band are approaching mark cut off on the 2nd of November. By this time students must complete 4 sectionals and must submit their first self-asessment.
4. Self assessments are to be completed following the guidelines laid out in the self-assessment documents located on the right hand side of this blog. In addition to the guidelines, you can also find a marking rubric.
5. The 4 sectionals are to be completed on the students own time and must last a minimum of 30 minutes. For this first set of sectionals, I have allowed concert band students to work with members other than their section, if they wish. However, after these are completed, sectionals must be with members of their own section. In addition, for any sectionals to count towards the students grade, they must be recorded in the the sectional book located at the front of the band room by my office.
6. The Gr. 9 Concert Band is well on it's way to completing the 90's test. We were hoping to go today; however, with both boys and girls V-Ball tourney's on, we will most likely not have quorum. Consequently, we will have our first round on Tuesday.
6. Recently, I have noticed that some of our students have been mistreating the equipment in the band room. All classes have discussed the reality that we need to make sure that the instruments and the equipment that we have needs to be here in excellent condition for their children's children. We have all vowed to step up to the challenge and to be more vigilant.
7. We have discussed the course outline and the marking scheme. You can find all of this in the course outlines located to the right of this blog. Besides the marking scheme, we discussed at length the uniform for band and concert requirements. One of the big ones, is that students are not permitted to be absent the final rehearsal before a concert. This includes doctor, orthodontic and dentist appointments. Obviously exceptions can be made; however these conversations must take place ahead of time. If a student misses the rehearsal before a concert, they will not be permitted to play.
The uniform is the same for Band and Jazz.
Here is the information we discussed about uniform:
Concerts and Uniform:
Concerts are a very formal event for everyone involved. These
events are the band equivalent of your mid-term and final exam and we treat
them very seriously. As part of their assessment, all students must be present at the final
rehearsal before a concert. If a student has an unexcused absence before a
concert they will not be allowed to perform at the event in question and
forfeit any evaluative mark associated with the performance.
We take great care to plan our concert dates in advance. You will
be told the Winter Concert and the Final Concert Dates during the first few
weeks of class along with all other performance dates and times. These
dates will be posted on the band website for your convenience. Attendance is mandatory at concerts. In
the extreme circumstance that a student cannot attend a concert, Mr. Edwards must
be notified and an alternate test date may be arranged where the student will
be asked to play all of their performance pieces in front of Mr. Edwards.
Concert uniform:
Men are to wear a dark suit or dark sports jacket and dark pants, tie,
matching dark socks and dress shoes.
Ladies are to wear a dress [leaning towards the summer dress style and
not the formal ball gown type], and matching dress shoes. Please keep in mind that a “Dress” is a
one-piece ensemble and not a skirt and a blouse.
Please be forewarned that we take our uniform VERY SERIOUSLY at Westwood, and any student that shows up to
a concert without the above mentioned uniform will not be permitted to play
until they are dressed appropriately. In addition, if the student fails
to change into the proper uniform, they will not be permitted to play and
forfeit any evaluative mark associated with the performance.
