Elementary School Band.

Jennifer Murphy has been a mentor of mine since I was assigned to her class as a Para-teacher for my General Music Methods class, and continues to be a great friend and professional contact as I venture further into my teaching career. Upon one of my many visits to Irving School to say hello and pick up my daughter, Mrs. Murphy spoke to me about her contact with Dr. Stark and the future arrangements that were being made for us to observe the beginning band and orchestra. This information excited me, as I had so enjoyed working with her students the previous semester, and wanted another opportunity to help her as much as possible. Jennifer has often entreated me to come to her classroom whenever is convenient for me, and she would utilize me in her instruction. I highly admire Mrs. Murphy as a teacher of general music, and the feeling is no different as one of beginning band. While there were some aspects of her teaching that I would change, were it my job, I feel she was very successful in running through the assigned pieces with the students, especially considering the upcoming district festival. However, there could have been more attention given to basics with the students. The saxophone players were playing with broken and chipped reeds, and the resulting squeals were unpleasant, to say the least. This could have been easily fixed by asking the students if they had cracked reeds or, even better, taking 30 seconds at the beginning of class to have students check their instruments. Overall, the students did play pretty well for being in fifth grade. I would enjoy having an opportunity to teach a beginning band, however, so that I might see, more in-depthly, the problems of instruction that arise.