Welcome to the Jaguar Band family!  In band class students will learn how to read and perform music both independently and as a collaborative group.  Please be aware that band is a year long course so students will not be able to swap encore classes in the spring semester.  

Band is one of the most collaborative classes a student can take.  Each student has an important part that ultimately creates a unified piece of music.  In a high quality ensemble everybody is heard, everybody is important, and everybody strives to be the best they can be!  Students will need to put in practice time on their instruments outside of the classroom in order to be successful inside the classroom.  Once students have a general grasp of how their instrument works, class time is for rehearsing, not practicing.  Rehearsing as an ensemble means that everyone has prepared their individual parts and we use the time to put all those parts together in the correct way.  Practicing is an individual activity that must be done in order to have a successful rehearsal.  If a student is unable to practice outside of school for whatever reason please let me know and I will do my best to work out a time for them to practice during the school day or come up with another solution.  The more you practice; the better you get; the more fun you have!

Students will need all of the required materials in class with them every day.  Instruments should be treated as though they are made of glass!  Small parts can be damaged easily, any damages that have happened should be checked by myself to see if it needs to be sent in for repair.  Please do not try to fix an instrument at home, this may result in further damage!  

Thank you for becoming a member of our band family!  I look forward to getting to know everyone and watch you grow as musicians and as people!

Joyfully yours,

Matt Locklin

Bathroom Policy

Students will have a designated time to use the restroom. You must take advantage of this time so you do not loose valuable rehearsal time. If you need to go during class, do not ask to go when the full band is playing or when I am working with your section. There will be many times in class when I need to work with a specific section or person. During these times the rest of the class is expected to pay attention because most advice will transfer to all instruments, however if I am not working with you that would be the best time to go.

I grade based off of a point system. Each type of assignment will be worth a set amount of points and all points are added up at the end of the semester to produce a percentage grade. The different grades will come from class participation, practice journals, recorded assignments and after-school rehearsals/concerts

Participation

• Students will start each week with 10 participation points. They will lose points throughout the week for the following

• -1.5 points–

  • • Tardy

    • Missing Materials

      • • Music folder, Method book, Pencil

    • Breaking Classroom expectation (1st offense)

      • • Ex. messy area, disruptive behavior

• -2.5 points– 

  • • Missing Instrument

    • Eating/Drinking anything except water

    • Breaking Classroom expectation (2nd offense/severe offense)

Playing Tests/Practice Clips

• There will be a recorded assignment due every week.  

• Playing tests are summative assessments. Students will be given the playing test information well in advance so they have ample time to prepare.  These are graded on performance and will be worth 20 points.  Students may submit as early as they like.

• Practice clips are formative assessments and will be due weekly. These will be short videos showing a snapshot of a practice session followed by a 2-3 sentence summary/reflection of the practice session.  These will be worth 10 points and students will receive full credit for submitting a clip.  These may be submitted any day within the week it is due.  At the end of each quarter 3 practice clip grades will be dropped.  This is built in for weeks when students may be sick or have a lot going on outside of school.  Because of the built in dropped grades students will not be allowed to submit late or make up these assignments.

Rehearsals and Performances

• Students will receive participation credit for simply showing up and participating in rehearsals and performances. I need a note from a guardian with a valid reason why their student was not able to attend rehearsal in order for it to be excused. Rehearsals will be worth 50 points each.

• No students will be exempt from concerts. The concert will act as your final exam for band class so if you are not able to attend for ANY reason you will need to do a make-up assignment or you will receive zero credit for the concert. The concert will be worth 25% of the semester grade.  I will calculate the exact amount of points that will be at the end of each semester.

Late Work

• I do accept late work for anything except practice clips. All assignments will lose 2 points for every day it is late until it is down to 50%. Once enough time has passed the grade will not be reduced any more to encourage students to complete their work no matter how late it is. For example; if a student turns in a playing test one day late they will lose 2 points off their 10 they receive for turning their work in and be able to receive a highest score of 18 points. If a student turns their test in 5 days late they can receive a maximum of 10/20 points. If a student turns their test in 4 weeks late they can still receive a maximum of 10/20 points.

Extra Credit

• Students will have opportunities to earn extra credit by attending any Foard High School Band event or performance or any musical performance that involves an instrument seen in our band class (excluding drum kit!). Amount of extra credit given will be determined based on the event (usually 10 points).