January 10/11

Please read very carefully in preparation for class on Monday or Tuesday

The Division has declared Thursday and Friday, January 6+7  as Professional Learning Days for staff. 

Online (Remote) classes resume  Monday , January 10

CLASS SCHEDULE AND CHANGES FOR BAND:

There have been some slight adjustments to class times for Westwood to simplify the schedule. The new times are as follows. 

ALL JAZZ BANDS WILL SWITCH FROM 7:20AM TO 3:00PM DURING REMOTE LEARNING

Period 1 - 9:00 a.m. to 9:55 a.m. 

Period 2 - 10:00 a.m. to 10:55 a.m. 

Period 3 - 11:00 a.m. to 11:55 a.m. 

Period 4 - 12 Noon to 12:55 p.m. 

Period 5 - 1:00 p.m. to 1:55 p.m. 

Period 6 - 2:00 p.m. to 2:55 p.m. 

Extra Help time 3:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. [JAZZ CLASSES WILL MEET DURING THIS TIME]

CLASSES ON THE 1OTH AND 11TH ARE ON TEAMS.

Monday the 10th is a Day 6 - so.....  

Rouge Road Renegades will switch out of its morning slot and meet at 3:00PM, Symphonic Band - Period 1 at 9:00AM and 10 Concert Band -  Period 2 at 10:00AM

Tuesday the 11th - Day 1 so...  Warrior Jazz will move from 7:20AM and meet at 3:00PM.  9 Concert Band will meet Period 2 at 10:00AM.

All of your meeting times are set up in your TEAMS calendar already.

Students will be expected to join daily at the start of class to take part in the virtual class learning.  Classes should be no longer than 30 minutes in length and Mr. Edwards will stay online to answer any specific questions for the remainder of any class time. 

A NOTE ABOUT PLYING AT HOME ONLINE:

With classes really only being about 30 minutes, class begins quickly with little to no warmup, so you will need to have your instrument and music ready to play. Begin with your camera on and your mic off (default in ZOOM).  

Some students have found that their computer or phones speakers are inadequate when you try to play along.  For this reason you may find it easier to hook the audio to separate bluetooth speaker so you can hear yourself easier.

If you do not turn on your camera, you will be removed from class. 

The format is familiar to most of you where we will be playing along with sections of the recordings and submitting, via YouTube, your recordings roughly every 2 weeks.

A recording schedule has been posted on the RECORDING DATES Master List menu on the website.

As you begin to play at home, brass players may find it frustrating to find their pitch without the help of their teammates.  Brass players having a hard time pitching should look at using the TINY PIANO APP - free on iOS and Android devices.  Student may need to transpose the notes to find the right pitch.  You will find it super easy by using THIS FORM to help find the pitches to our melodies. 


TEAMS FOR THE FIRST CLASS THEN WE WILL SWITCH TO ZOOM:

As I mentioned above, for the very first class (either Monday or Tuesday) you will meet on TEAMS and go over the plan for class.  After that initial meeting we will switch over to ZOOM for all of our meetings. 

As a method of gaining better connectivity in our band program, we will be continuing with the use of ZOOM as our main video communication and performance platform.

We ARE NOT getting rid of TEAMS!  We are only using ZOOM to accentuate our learning experience by shifting our conference capabilities to a format that can accommodate our larger class sizes and better audio ...... in other words a place where we can all see each other and interact more effectively together.

All ZOOM meeting times and links will be posted to each band's TEAMS page.

Some basic Rules of ZOOM use in Band:

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY

1. When you create an account you must use your real name or you will not be admitted from the waiting room.

2. Please do not bog down our time with constantly changing backgrounds and insta-messaging gifs.

3. Listening and playing along with the recording is the key to your success.

Need to download Zoom for your desktop click here - ZOOM DESKTOP

Zoom is available on Mobile and Tablet.
Download in App StoreDownload in Google Play

Need to create and account click here - ZOOM

What to know more about the functionality of ZOOM and how to use its many features?  You can access all of their mini VIDEO TUTORIALS

Need to figure out how to record on the Zoom APP...  check this out




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