Otis

Who needs an elf on a shelf when you could have a character in your band room that represents an old man, sitting in the back of an auditorium, with hearing aids, that is an attentive critical listener of the band? In this blog, I am introducing, Otis!

To me, the images and thoughts I have in my mind at this moment are from memories that are only a couple of years old. Fresh, vibrant, and relative to life.

In actuality, the images and thoughts in my mind are approximately 26 years old. I am quite sure if my students were to see my current memories as a movie, they would expect to see them as flickering black-and-white silent movies that have no impact on their lives or anyone’s lives for that matter. You know, because I am so old.

I have implemented a couple of my memories and thoughts into the classroom and it appears the students have accepted them and do not see them as the antiquated ideas of an old man. They really are great kids and I am enjoying taking them on a journey of musical learning.

When I accepted the position of Middle School Band Director this year, my first thought was, “What do I need to change about the way I taught, before I quit teaching and became a firefighter, that was ineffective and just plain bad classroom technique. I mentally made a list and decided to no longer implement sarcasm, no longer wait for a student to stop talking so I could give an answer to a question I think they were asking, and not hold them to non-obtainable standards.

Instead, I incorporate a few bad dad jokes that illicit groans and the rolling of the eyes, I listen to the student and allow them to finish before answering (I have found out that many times, they didn’t have a question, they just wanted to be heard), and I decided to work with the students step by step toward a goal or goals instead of a generalized standard of expectation.

They are good kids and they are excited about learning. In my opinion, too many teachers, admin, and parents forget that they are middle school kids. The operative word here is kids. They…are…kids!

During my initial introduction of myself to my classes I told them, “There will be many times that I will call you kids. There is no need to be offended because, number one, you are kids and number two, I do not mean it in a derogatory way. However, since you are in middle school, you are not children. You are a mixture of kids and young adults, and some of you have adult tendencies. You are in a time of your life where your body and mind have all of these new chemicals being released in order to help you reach adulthood. It is a chaotic time, so, welcome to band class where you can forget about the outside world. Once you pass through the doors you are welcomed to only think about being a kid that is growing up to be an adult. I am here to teach you music, which can help you learn, mature, and forget about life for a while.”

Some of the students accepted my welcome speech and began to enter the band room and allow the weight of the world to fall off of their shoulders. Other students are still skeptical and will need some time in order for them to trust the process. It is not up to me to force them to be in the band, make music a career, or enjoy the band room as a comfortable hobbit hole, but it is my job to give them every opportunity to succeed.

By the way, I also believe that the kids are a lot smarter than some teachers, admin, and parents believe. Don’t get me wrong, there are still a lot of turd-heads in school that couldn’t care less about learning or being nice. But, the students who have not decided to be defiant, hateful, and mean bullies to others, are students who are willing to try something new and expand their experiences in school as long as they know they can be heard.

It has been quite a few years since the music program at my school has played a concert. Think about that for a second, fellow musicians. Imagine playing an instrument and not getting the opportunity to play for people. We, as musicians, gain pleasure and peace of mind for ourselves when we play music. We also enjoy sharing our pleasure and peace of mind with others by playing music for them.

Personally, I enjoy performing for people. I never learned how to dance and have no desire to dance. However, I absolutely love to be on stage, play my trumpet, and watch people dance, sing, gyrate, and flail their limbs to the music I am playing. It satisfying to know that I am able to help them forget about life for a while and enjoy being alive. What a great escape from the pressures of work, relationships, and decisions. Plus, I hear that dancing is pretty good exercise too.

While I was playing in the band, Henle and the Loops www.henleandtheloops.com , I watched a lot of people dance to the music we played. By the way, I will tell you this, We never made fun of the way people danced. Honestly, we loved seeing people out on the dance floor and it made us want to be better performers for the dancers.

A lady attended quite a few of our gigs and she was on the dance floor for the majority of the tunes in all three sets we played. She would not be able to make it past the initial audition for a dance competition. There were times when her moves would be considered erratic or nonsensical to those who knew how to dance. But, she loved dancing and she was always surrounded by other dancers because they saw that she was having a good time.

One of the members of the band explained to us that he knew her and he knew the reason why she loved to dance. He worked with her and said that she told him one time that she would come to every show of ours that she could attend. He said he thanked her but knew she wanted to say more. So, he waited until she was ready to speak. (You see, he didn’t wait for her to finish talking so he could give an answer or make another statement, he let her talk so she could be heard). She told him that she was the oldest child in her family and they were very poor. Her home life was terrible but she was the oldest and wanted to make sure her younger brothers and sisters were given happy moments to remember. She continued with a story of how she would take a small radio, place it on the kitchen window sill, and aim the speaker so it faced the yard. She would then gather her siblings and they would have a dance party. Some of the music Henle and the Loops played were tunes they danced to and it reminded her of happy times.

Like I said, she would not have made it past the preliminary audition for a dance competition, but, to me, she was one of the best dancers I have ever watched from my view on the stage.

Music can be a positive escape for people and I am trying to encourage my band students to see band class as a break from any other class in school. I am trying to help them see it as a positive learning experience that they can keep with them through life and use over all disciplines.

In 1997 I created a character that I used in order to teach my middle school band students the importance of using dynamics and critical listening. They needed to listen to one another and to listen from the audience’s point of view.

I would walk to the chalkboard (pre-dry erase) and draw a series of arcs that resembled the back of chairs in an auditorium. In one of the chairs, I would draw the head and shoulders of a person. It represented a little bald man wearing glasses and a cardigan sweater. I told them that his name was Otis and he wore two hearing aids and sat in the very back of the auditorium in which they were performing.

I came up with the name Otis because of an educational packet my brother and I received when we were younger. One of our uncles worked at a printing company and when they threw things away that he thought we would enjoy having, he would give them to us.

One of the information packets he brought us was a pack of transparencies that covered the condition of Otitis Media (I truncated the word Otitis to Otis). We were not given the packet of information because we needed to learn about Otitis Media is an infection of the middle ear that causes inflammation (redness and swelling) and a build-up of fluid behind the eardrum. We were given the packets because we learned that if we were to take acetone (fingernail polish remover) and wipe the transparencies with it using cotton swabs, the pictures would be erased and we could draw on them with markers. We could then project our drawings on the wall with a flashlight or overlay them and make our own cartoons.

By the way, if you are a younger person reading this blog, a transparency is a piece of plastic that has pictures and or writing on it that would be projected on a screen by a projection unit. It was a precursor to a slide show on your computer. Thank you very much for making me feel old.

Anyway, I decided to use the name Otis because it is kinda sorta related to the ear. So, I introduced Otis to the kids back in 1997. This is the first of the 26-year-old memories and thoughts I have resurrected. But, there is a big change to Otis. He is a 3-D character now.

My Alsomely (spelled that way on purpose. See one of my earlier blogs) and brother from another mother, Greg Marine, 3-D printed game pieces for my wife. She used them in her classroom when the students created, designed, and played a game for a project. My wife calls them meeples, I call them Gregles. I decorated one of the leftover Gregles and turned it into a tangible Otis. Otis has a horseshoe haircut, glasses, and a cardigan sweater. He sits on top of the folder cabinet in the front of the band room and listens to the bands play every day.

When I introduced Otis to the bands, I told them about the old Otis and then presented the new version of Otis.

“I would like to introduce you to someone who will help make us a better band,” I began, “This is Otis. He looks a lot like my dad, but one of the big differences is my dad didn’t wear hearing aids. I do, so, I gave Otis hearing aids too. Unlike me, he has the ability to turn his hearing aids up and down. When you play softly (Piano and Pianissimo), I want Otis to turn his hearing aids up and lean forward in his chair to hear you. When you are playing big and full (Forte and Fortissimo), I want Otis to turn his hearing aids down and lean back in his chair.

By the way, when I teach them about Forte and Fortissimo I never use the term “Loud” or “Play Loudly” I like to use “Full”. The term loud is used to describe unwanted or harsh sounds. To me, that promotes blasting and bad sounds erupting from the instruments.

I will say, “We need to play softly here so that Otis needs to turn up his hearing aids.” (Piano) “At this time, Otis should be sitting comfortably in his chair and we need to make the music interesting so that he doesn’t fall asleep. When we play piano, he has to respond one way; when we play forte he has to respond differently. His response shouldn’t be us jarring him awake.”

It is a fun way that I try to help the students understand the importance, the levels of, and the performance of dynamics.

The second of the two-and-a-half-decade-old memories I incorporate in my classroom is what I call, “Love it, It’s okay, Throw it away.” This may come in handy to those teachers in the Facebook group, Middle School Band Directors. I joined the group once I entered the ranks of Middle School Band Directorship once again, and I am enjoying the techniques, conversations, and assistance band directors give to one another.

“Love it, It’s okay, Throw it away” is used at the beginning of each class period. It takes anywhere from 5-7 minutes and the students, in general, enjoy participating. I am planning on explaining it in detail in next month’s blog but for now, I will give a quick synopsis.

I have given each student a two-pocket folder with 5 sheets of paper. They are to listen to the music I am playing over the sound system then when it is over, they write down a 3 if they loved it, a 2 if they thought it was Okay, and a 1 if I should throw it away. Then, they have to write down why they gave it that ranking, using musical terms. They cannot say, “I like it because it was cool.” They have to write down what they thought was cool, such as, “I like how the different singers meshed together.” That gives me the opportunity to explain melody and harmony a little more in-depth.

Next month’s blog will be about, “Love it, It’s okay, Throw it away” and I will discuss how it is helping the students become critical listeners without being hurtful critics.

Until then, Otis will continue to sit upon his perch and be an attentive critical listener.