Students, Families, and Supporters:
This is your weekly update for 8.29.16! I hope your first week of school has gone well and you are getting excited about the upcoming school year. These weekly updates serve as a reminder about calendar events, tasks that must be completed for student and program success, and insights into the happenings of each student's class. First, a calendar reminder:
MONDAY
Marching Band- 3:30-5:30 (all students in the band program, mandatory graded rehearsal) Open House- 6:30-8:30 parents and families come to meet KHS teachers and visit classes!
TUESDAY
Marching Band- 4:30-6:30 (all students in the band program, mandatory graded rehearsal)
WEDNESDAY
Marching Band and Brigade rehearsal- 4:20-6:30 (all students in the band program, mandatory graded rehearsal)
THURSDAY
Marching Band- 4:30-6:30 (all students in the band program, mandatory graded rehearsal)
FRIDAY
Football game vs. Nimitz- 7pm (detailed itineraries for gameday are posted on calendar events) Mercer STADIUM, Lexington St, Houston, TX 77098, United States
REMINDERS
Each week, this email will contain some reminders about items that are important for our students and families. One important item is that we all use the kempnerband.org website to transmit info as well as post media for our supporters! Please visit this website and visit often. There are instructions on how to subscribe to our calendar http://kempnerband.org/calendar/ as well as other informative materials. Many of the materials our students need for class and assignments are posted on the website under the students tab or the ensembles tab. It is important for students to use the website often to print music, update assignments, and find information they will need regarding performances and practice sessions.
MARCHING REHEARSALS
The syllabus material for each of our classes will be available at open house as well as on our website. Part of being in the high school band program is participating in the marching band. It is state law that students enrolled in high school band participate in marching band and attend all co-curricular rehearsals, as this is part of the graded portion of the class. Please be aware of this when scheduling appointments and events and use our absence request form on our website to let us know if a student needs to miss rehearsal for an extenuating circumstance. http://kempnerband.org/forms/
FOOTBALL GAMES
As we move into our second week of school, we will have our 2nd football game performance at our home stadium. We will be wearing our warm weather uniforms this week again until each student is fitted for their marching uniform and they are altered to fit perfectly. Please see our website for details about uniform, game day schedules, and game day grading procedures. We look forward to seeing you at the games and please consider coming to volunteer for us at a game this season!
MUSICFIRST
Some returning members will remember our use of SmartMusic software last year to help with practice and assessments. We will be using a similar software this year and each student has already had an account created for them! Account information will be distributed this week, and our first assignments will be assigned this week through the software. The use of this software will allow parents to monitor student practice and assessment and will help us communicate the items that each student should be practicing. Detailed MusicFirst grading policies will be posted on the syllabus for the classes using them. We are excited about the use of technology to help keep our students on track and continue to refine our skills in order to be a better band performing band program. The key to our success is practice outside of school and with MusicFirst we can work as a team to ensure each student is improving towards our standards and targets each week!
PRIVATE LESSONS
Students are encouraged each year to enroll in private lessons. Private lessons are statistically linked to accelerated improvement for each student in band programs, as well as better over performing ensembles. Soon, statistics will be provided concerning enrollment and its correlation to rapid advancement of student skill. If you are interested in enrolling in private lessons, please visit the private lessons section of our website and contact us concerning enrollment!
VIDEO BLOGS
I wanted to point your attention to a project that our student media team has been working on and will continue to work on throughout the year. Our students put together a series of video blogs to help our community see what it is like to be a band member! We are unbelievably proud of our students for putting these together in such a creative way: http://kempnerband.org/home1/
Thanks for your continued support and be looking out for more information each week concerning ways we can keep our students climbing toward success!
Sincerely,
I.H. Kempner High School Band Staff
Scott Norman
Director of Bands
I.H. Kempner HS
kempnerband.org
