Littleton Elementary Band Festival

The Elementary Band Festival was on Wednesday, April 6th.  Students came from six of the elementary schools in the Littleton Public School District.  They had sectionals with Colorado Honor Band Symphony Winds Students, most of whom attend Heritage High School, and one young lady from Arapahoe High School.  The high school students ran sectionals and they did a great job.  Steve Asheim, retired Heritage Band Director was the Director of this group.  The students were all given the music ahead of time, facilitated by the general music teachers at each school.  Kolancy music and Colorado Honor Band was very pleased to support this event.

Centennial Elementary is the only elementary school in the district with a program during the school day.  All of the other instrumental programs are being offered by a variety of groups and teachers before and after school.  Erika Knaub, lead teacher at Centennial Elementary in Littleton, was the teacher who made everything happen.  She did a wonderful job and should be commended.

The musicians did a great job, worked hard all afternoon, performed at 6:00 p.m. and gave a remarkable concert considering the amount of time they had in preparation.  Pizza and all, everyone had a great learning experience and time.

Too bad all the elementary schools in Littleton don’t have Instrumental Music.

CHBA Summer Band Camp 2010

Camp Counselors and Alumni, Sheridan Monroe & Heather Ewer

I have to admit that this year I was a bit distracted getting to camp. Forgot the first aid bag, forgot my suitcase, and on top of it forgot my pajamas. I think I have a reason for the distraction, but I am not big on excuses: my daughter is having a baby in the middle of this week and she was supposed to have it on June 8th. Needless to say she is really pregnant, uncomfortable and anxious. My great husband brought me my suitcase and we purchased some first aid supplies. Good thing he didn’t bring me up to begin with or I would still be wearing and sleeping in what I wore up to camp.

No alarms this year, because I emailed maintenance ahead of time and they took care of it. You all may have wondered why we posted all the room numbers on the windows when we go to great pains to send you all the information and tell you to know your room number for ease of checking in. Friday late afternoon I got an email that tells me they are moving all of the girls and reassigning all the rooms. They would “try really hard to let us have that information by 5:00 p.m.” As I was driving up I-25 towards camp, on Sunday, 11:00 a.m., blissfully thinking about a new grandchild, my pocket is vibrating and dinging. I get the list sent to my phone. Okay, now we are in the “who cares” category. I made a few adjustments to the list when the staff arrived and left it like it was. No one has complained so I guess it is working out fine.

I really wasn’t going to talk about my bed in the dorm, but I can’t let it go. Yes, I have the same blue plastic slippery mattress so I thought, “Okay how do I make this not so slippery?” First the mattress pad (and it is fitted to the mattress), then ah ha, the wool blanket, scratchy and abrasive, this should work, and then the sheets. Now my question is this, “If they give you a fitted mattress why can’t they give you a fitted bottom sheet?” I know, I know, this is not Comfort Inn. So, on went sheet number one, my sheet from home, which I did manage to get packed and then fortunately I have no roommate so I have access to blanket #2. I am happy to announce that the sheets are still on the bed. Who am I kidding it is only Monday. Time to walk to breakfast and yes, it is raining. For those of you who think your kids are making their beds and have spent any time at all with this bed dilemma, think again. They muse over greater issues like, “Don’t you think that full instrumentation in your band makes the band sound better?” The greater issues of life that get discussed and mulled over would be: “Does he/she like me?” or “Did you notice the way I caught that frisbee to win the game?” or “I didn’t have a decent hand of cards the entire time we played!”

Only one boy without his toothbrush, I am surprised he admitted it, must be a short one (aka: one of the younger kids). Guess he will be rinsing out his mouth all day long. We have had a couple of lost keys, but they have been found, no worries so far. (Ooppssss I lied: a couple of lost keys and, yes, if you are the proud parent of a boy, you win the prize for guessing correctly.) I have to tell you that those of you that really thought your son would lose his key, probably are guessing wrong. The key fee this year is $60.00 so think positive thoughts that they keep the key around their neck. We had an oboe instrument melt down, but a very smart Heather Davis via a phone call from Denver told Chris how to fix his instrument. He thanks her very much!

Not a single student has been lost and it has finally stopped raining. I know because my feet are finally dry from walking across the lawn to meals.

To say we haven’t lost a student this week depends on your definition of lost. To me LOST is lost and not found. Standing at the front door of the recreation center and looking across and wondering which brick building is your dorm is CONFUSED not lost. So have we had some that were confused, but found their way from some friendly staff person, on campus or figured it out by themselves. You know if you have seen one brick building you have seen them all. Not keeping up with your group doesn’t happen after Monday.

Monday night at the NEW recreation center gave us all a reason to cheer the new facility. They have a climbing wall and all the kids have to do is pass a test of rope tying and belaying. They have instructors who stay right with you and the walls are great, (from what the kids tell me). Pictures will be posted following camp.

Everyone is getting into the swing of the expectation level and the drill of the schedule. Ahhhhh, so much concentration, focus, responsibility, and muscle building.

The concert will be proof of their hard work and dedication to doing well.

Boy, do I wish for the good ole’ days when I could sleep through a tornado and it took a bomb going off at the foot of my bed to wake me up. Speaking of boys (girls don’t do this): two of the young ones decided to sleep in. I think actually they didn’t decide to sleep in; their bodies just gave up. They weren’t in band rehearsal, so we knocked on their door, hollered their names, banged some more and you guessed it, no answer. Front desk has a master key and I used it. There they were, bright sunshine streaming in on their facing, not just snoozing away, but deep in slumber like it was 2:00 a.m. I have no idea what time their bodies finally told them to give up, but they were out cold. Calling their names standing next to the bed, finally shaking them woke them up. They both woke and had no idea where they were. I gave them 10 minutes to get to band and they were there in less than 5. Bet that won’t happen to them the rest of the week. I am sure lunch will taste great.

This brings me to the end of my post because the baby is coming, no choice of its own. We are growing a new low brass player, or french horn player, or bassoon player. She’ll have to play hockey, soccer, lacrosse, and softball in her spare time.

Next camp I will list what is considered an emergency.

As always the kids have been a joy to have in camp. We laugh a lot, listen a lot, watch a lot, and teach a lot, cry a little bit, but enjoy each kid for who they are. Thank you for sharing them with us.

Susie’s Camp Blog, Part II: Is It Wednesday Already?

To-Do:

1. Take misplaced Frisbee back to the recreation center.   (Rescued it from the roof of Edwards Dormitory.)
2. Give back missing keys to a tall person.
3. Replace meal card for a short person.

Nothing changes, it is camp.  Does anyone get excited?  Nope.  All in a four day span.

Ahhh, everyone slept great last night. That’s how we know it is Wednesday today.  Plus, now the counselors are scrambling to make sure every one of the Summer Winds students are ready to perform their small ensemble music tomorrow in front of the whole group. 

The students whine, “We seriously have to perform this tomorrow?  But we’re still working on parts of the music.”  Despite the students’ skepticism, the counselors make sure they’re all ready.   Truly, a good staff makes all the difference.  We couldn’t do what we do without their dedication to the students.

For those of you who are waiting with bated breath to know if the sheets stayed on my bed last night, the answer would be: not so much.  But I am really over it.

Remember when I mentioned that no one under 30 cares about a bed being made?  Especially if it’s a boy?  I was wrong.  The girls don’t care either!  I have witnessed it firsthand.  (I won’t mention any names.  Not because I don’t want to single anyone out, but because there are too many to list here.)

Things I know the students will remember from camp:  getting to leave rehearsal early to play Blob Tag, bringing ice cream sundaes to Mr. Martin and Mrs. Starbuck during meal times, swimming at the Moby pool, jumping around at the dance (I personally recognized about three songs total, one of them being “YMCA”),  and losing a basketball game to girls (“Of course we let them win”).    Oh, and let’s not forget pranking Mrs. Smith.   

I know what you’re thinking:  “I paid money for this?  I’d better not have to pay for any lost room keys…”

Parents always come up on Thursday and want to know how their student was during the week?  I think secretly they are hoping that the kid gave us as much trouble as they give them at home, or maybe thinking that the values they have been trying to instill have taken hold outside the house, (more likely the case).

The answer will always be from 100% of us that your student was great!  If we needed to tell you about something you would already know it. Growth and Development are dependent on trust, curiosity, and being held accountable. The students work hard, play hard, and learn a few lessons along the way.  Whether or not they choose to share those lessons with you is their choice.  But you can bet that they’ll continue to benefit from them for a long time to come.

Susie’s Camp Blog: This One Time at Band Camp From an Adult’s Point of View

As the door alarm sounded and continued to sound for the next 30 minutes I thought, “Yep I am back at band camp for the 41st year. Equipment to unload, setting off the alarm, hauling in all my electronic equipment to communicate with the world, and counselors diving in and going to work for little or no remuneration except for the joy of working with 10-18 year olds for 4 days, 24 hours a day.” Counselors have the wide-eye enthusiastic look, thinking, “I can help them just like one of the counselors helped me.” Little did they know exactly what that task would entail.

A short few hours after we set off the emergency exit alarm by mistake, the microphone stand got knocked into the fire alarm and it proceeded to go off for another thirty minutes, until the poor security guy who was locked out of the building managed to come and turn it off. Meanwhile, the kids didn’t care; they just sat and talked to each other. All the younger students had the usual questions: “Where do I shower?” “Do I have to shower?” and “Why isn’t the band director stopping? The schedule said he should have been done ten minutes ago!” That last question only got asked once and by someone very young.

My work really starts in January when we try to get everyone thinking about camp and the time and place. We want all the new kids to know how great it is. Dispensing the information in tiny little sound bites so they get interested is the first job, and the second is talking to the kids who haven’t signed up and finding out why. The entire process goes on until the end of April, with new kids coming all the time and panicky new parents thinking they have missed the deadline.

The brand new parents are really more panicky than the student they are sending off to camp. Understandably so: they have not had enough experiences with us to know the staff and to know that we take extra special care of our campers and that, most of all, we allow them to think for themselves within a framework of responsibility. Making a bad choice, which usually constitutes drinking too many Rock Stars (translation: “energy drinks”), not sleeping when they have the opportunity, or arriving late to band, sectionals, or recreation time. Life is full of choices and consequences. The worst consequence of all is to have the staff disappointed in you because of a bad choice or because you didn’t work hard enough to get the two measures correct.

New parents think that moving the kids into their dorm room means making the bed. Well, I can tell you right now that bed making is a total waste of time. I have now made my bed three times in two days. The only thing that stays on the slippery mattress (only good for hygiene – not for sleeping) is the paper thin mattress pad, which serves the purpose of holding the bed sheet on the bed. (We will see after day three). I am so smart and have been to camp so many times that I brought a fitted sheet this year—no, not fitted to a college bed, but to a double bed. “Surely it will fit and I’ll be able to just tuck it in, so I won’t be needing the mattress pad…” Did I say I have made the bed now three times in two days? Typically it is very warm at night in Ft. Collins, so I was so prepared, I opened up the window in anticipation to cool down my room in advance. Given the stormy weather all around the state, I probably don’t need to tell you that I froze to death on Sunday and Monday night. That would account for the fact that I awoke at 5:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning thinking that if I would just get up I could get the other blanket and not freeze. This is an adult fighting with the bed and bed sheets. Ahhh, the joys of being under 30 years old: 1. You don’t open your window, because it has a lock on it with a board in the slide to keep people from getting in your room and also to keep you from freezing to death. 2. You don’t bother to make your bed three times in two days, because you don’t care and your Mom isn’t here to make you make the bed. AND 3. You only care that it is a soft, flat surface you can lie down on and, now that it is Tuesday and you have been through a few days of hard work, you do care about sleeping whenever you can. I have now been in enough rooms to know that the nice freshly made bed on Sunday doesn’t exist anymore, especially if you are the proud parent of a boy.

The best part of camp for me is having known students from their first day as a beginner and then watching the growth and development that occurs in them in four days. We love the kids here at camp. They are fun, enthusiastic, and tenacious, and we get to know them as real people, not just a “tuba player” or the student who NEVER remembers to bring his stand. We find out who can shoot a hoop from half-court, who can out-swim the whole bunch, and who can dance us all off the floor. I also enjoy watching them make new friends from all over the city, knowing that these friendships will last a lifetime and that they will share these camp experiences for their whole lives.

The skills they acquire through band also follow them throughout their lives, and when this growing process happens in a focused and fun environment, it all begins to make sense even to the youngest of them.  Band is a social activity as well as a competitive activity, but the band is only as good as the last chair. In and among that competitive spirit it is also important for the best to help the rest to become better because it makes everyone even “GOOD-er.” (Straight from a student’s mouth.) The spirit of band is like no other: no one sits on the bench, and everyone plays—and this week they play to the very best of their ability. Musically, no one can dispute the advantages of concentrated effort all squeezed into four days. The students have to muster a great deal of focus, and the schedule can be grueling for kids who at home have enforced down time. Here they have to recognize that recreation time IS the down time and play basketball with the rest of the crowd.

A few more comments now that I have blogged on and on. I got conjunctivitis and took a trip to the eye doctor a block and a half away, who immediately informed me that I was NOT contagious because I caught it immediately, but that didn’t save me from buying a $70.00 prescription. Better me than one of the kids.

Monday night we had the usual attitude of, “Boy am I tired, and have I really only been here 24 hours? Guess I will sleep tonight…” Then a bad burrito caused a few upset stomachs, but Tuesday is a new day and we have more music to learn, more theory to do, and definitely more basketball and volleyball to play. Oh…and did I mention that we are going to play Polish Horseshoes tonight? I can hardly wait; should make for some great pictures. The verdict is still out on the success of my bed-making.