F.E. C.J. Primary Observation

On February 3rd, I observed Sallee Nelson's seventh grade band program at Chief Joseph elementary school. They worked on just a couple of pieces while we were there, those being "Her Majesty's Brigade" and "Slavonic Legend". Mrs. Nelson uses a microphone hooked around her neck to project her voice throughout the whole class, which enables the class to constantly be playing but also being able to hear her. She would be conducting, then telling one group to fix a problem with notation or rhythms, and then jump to the other side of the ensemble to fix other problems, all while the band kept rehearsing. She never missed a beat, as they say.. ;D Classroom Management seemed to be in the vane of keeping the band so busy they didn't have time to misbehave. They were almost constantly playing, and when there were small breaks, to work with individual sections, the rest of the sections were allowed to talk quietly amongst themselves, as long as they weren't a distraction, and also knew where they were starting when it was their turn to play again.