I just got back from a band camp that I was instructing at. I played mellophone (the big trumpet/instrument you march with if you play french horn) in high school, haven’t played/marched in two years, but I really wanted to instruct this summer. The section I worked with was amazing. Really good kids, really strong players too. What was even cooler was the entire band was so driven. Almost every single rehearsal was extremely productive, and if it wasn’t it was because of a stupid drill writer who obviously wasn’t doing the job he had been paid to do. Yeah, I got really really frustrated a couple of times…or an entire day, take your pick. But my section was awesome and they really pushed their way through it all. Seriously, they had really hard drill. The entire opener was a bunch of boxes and straight lines and diagonal pushes across the field, and for those that didn’t do marching band…those sets are really hard. Everyone in the stands knows it’s supposed to be a straight line, and if it isn’t…they know it’s wrong. The curves are a lot easier to set, because as long as you are in a curve…you’re okay. Yeah, follow the leader moves in a diamond shape going backwards…..follow the leader moves going at 136 bpm (which is relatively fast for a high school group, which was made up mostly freshman and sophomores). And that was just the opener. The closer, which they haven’t learned yet, goes up to 160 I’m pretty sure. And in the ballad, they are double timing (two steps per beat) at 80 and 90 bpm (you do the math). So yeah, it was really hard, but I didn’t really hear anyone say they couldn’t do it. To be honest, I’m not sure these kids realized how hard some of their moves actually were, which is awesome! I don’t know, building years can be really difficult, but this band is starting strong and is only going to get better and better!!!

There were a couple days were I just didn’t feel like I was doing anything to help or teach these kids anything. I actually felt like I was causing more problems than anything else. Last night as they were doing their run-throughs of the opener, the mellos were nailing their sets and playing really well, too. I definitely teared up, because I realized that it wasn’t about me pushing them or putting them in a spot, it was about me teaching them and helping them so that they could push themselves. It’s never going to be me marching on that field, it’s going to be them. When I saw what they accomplished, I wasn’t thinking, “look what I did!” I’m not even sure what I was thinking, but it was still really amazing to see my influence in these kids pay off, and I’m confident that they will finish their season really well and feel a lot of pride in all their work.

So, that was my amazing teaching story. I think I learned a lot about teaching, mainly that I have a lot more to learn about teaching, but still…..it’s really cool. Definitely a great way to start off this semester when I’m taking a bunch of instrumental tech classes that would be pointless to take unless I wanted to teach at all. 18 credit hours, 9 classes….I wouldn’t put myself through that kind of stress unless I was sure that teaching was something God was putting in my heart.