The Latest Notes
Have you all checked your SCHOOL Email? Our Google Classroom Code has been emailed to you there!
Parents - want to stay in touch with your Childs grades in Google Classroom then you need to connect as well via Google Classroom. CONNECT via - THE BAND APP If you are a current 9th-12th Grade band student or Parent! So much information inside of our Band Group in that app! band.us/n/a6a739s3F6ncv Or scan this QR code with your smartphone PERFORMANCE
What a great week with an amazing group of hard working students! Such a delight to work with all of you! Seeing your smiling faces every morning, hearing the improvements each day, and watching the group grow makes it so much fun! CHECK OUT THE MEDIA PAGE FOR PICTURES FROM CAMP! LOOKING AHEAD - Marching Band minus Football - What does that look like? Well this is exactly what I was talking about today at our Performance! If you have not heard the MHSAA has decided that Football will NOT be held this fall. So the next question is what are we, the Marching Band, going to do now? Simple..... March! We loved making music and learning drill work this week! We have lots to polish up and still learn in that music! So our short term focus is to get The Pirates of the Covid 2k20 Show to be a fully solid show! Then we will hold a performance. Possible performances COULD be at our field and at Clare. I'd love for our two towns to be able to share our shows with each other. Maybe we could go play from the parking lot for a couple of the nursing homes? We're marching for the future! SO.... Tuesday night - 6:30-9:00PM in our Marching Band Practice Lot by the band room. I WILL warn you students - it's going to be kind of dark by 9PM! Hope you have started memorizing your music! BAND CAMP UPDATE - AS OF AUGUST 4th, 2020
Here is the latest important information you need to know about Band Camp! I will highlight some changes here at the top: SCHEDULE: Band Camp will be August 10-14 at Farwell High School. We will be rehearsing every day from 9AM to 4PM On Monday morning we are asking you all to show up in a staggered fashion to help limit the entire crowd being there all at once! Here is the schedule for Monday morning: (A PARENT should check their child in with Band Boosters. STUDENTS should check in at the student table where they will get their temperature taken and fill out a medical form using their smartphone or a band iPad) 7:45AM - Drum Majors 8:00AM - Flutes and Clarinet 8:15AM - Percussion and Tuba 8:30AM - Trombone, Euphonium, and Tuba 8:40AM - Trumpet, French Horn and Color Guard Arrival times for Tuesday through Friday - if you want breakfast be at the school at 8:30. Otherwise be on the field by 9:00 COST: Camp cost this year is $50 If you need marching band shoes then those are $35 For those of you that have already paid more than the needed amount we will be handing you a refund check on Monday Morning HEALTH PROVISIONS: Please read the letter you will find at the bottom of this post about some of the health provisions we will be making for camp this year. We will have Mrs. Frost with us as a health officer for the week of camp. She will be helping all week and will be around throughout rehearsals. Every morning we will be having all students fill out a simple health form asking simple questions relating to Covid issues. It is simple, to the point and will only take a few moments. We will also be taking students temperatures upon arrival. If you want to see the health form questions then please visit the band website. There you will find the health form on the bottom of the menu. Please make sure ALL parents have turned in their students health forms AND have checked in Monday Morning with Mrs. Frost. We MUST be aware of any and ALL medications students might need during the time at band camp! That way we can be well informed in the case of something happening! Of course Students should NOT have medications on THEM during camp. That is one reason we have a health officer. MEALS: The School has arranged to get every student a breakfast and a lunch free of charge! Awesome news! You of course are more than welcome to bring a sack lunch still. Make sure to pack wisely if you do bring your own lunch - please don't pack something that needs to stay refrigerated! Mayo on your sandwich sitting in the bag all morning is not going to be a great lunch! FINAL PERFORMANCE: We will be holding our final performance for parents at 4:00 on Friday afternoon. The only things with the performance is that we do still need to follow state regulations so each student can have TWO guests to watch the performance in person. We will video tape the performance and put it on YouTube as well so others can watch later. UNIFORMS: We will once again be providing every student a Marching Band Show Shirt just like we have done for years. This is part of the camp fee. This year the show shirt will be even more important as we are going to be using THAT along with black pants and our marching shoes for our uniforms! Now let's talk about what we mean when we say black pants. Black pants doesn't mean ripped and holy jeans, it does NOT mean jeans, leggings, or Jeggings! It means black pants that go ALL the way down to your shoes! Oh - and BLACK SOCKS TOO! Long and tall black socks - not ankle high ones! INSTRUMENT BELL COVERS: You gotta love your Band Boosters people! We have several that are hard at work making bell covers for our instruments! This will help mitigate the flow of air and will assist in keeping the aerosols from flying around so much from our playing the instruments! Thank you Band BOOSTERS! SNACKS AND WATER DONATIONS: As you are WELL aware these teenagers will be needing snacks throughout the week. So at the bottom of this post you will find a spot to volunteer to make a donation to help keep the band nourished and watered! Band Boosters already have some donations - Thank you SO MUCH! Students MUST BRING THEIR OWN personalized water bottle! There is also a list of things they should be bringing to camp with them everyday for camp at the bottom of this post! PLEASE CHECK IN ON THE BAND APP If you are a current band student or Parent! So many more piece of information inside that app! band.us/n/a6a739s3F6ncv Or scan this QR code with your smartphone Please answer this survey if your students is going to be in 9th-12th grade this school year! We are trying to decide if getting meals from the school is something people are interested in for Band Camp Week. So ONLY this years High School Students/Parents need answer this! (ALSO - Get that Band App installed on your phones! All communication will soon be funneled through that app!)
band camp meals Well as good 'ol Benjamin Franklin said... “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!” Then there is this famous line from the poem "To A Mouse" by Robert Burns... No matter how carefully a project is planned, something may still go wrong with it We have been making plans for the 2020 Band Camp since last band camp ended in 2019. Then Covid 19 hit to throw the world into a tail spin. We held our breath and started to alter our 2020 band camp plans hoping for the best considering the current situation we find ourselves in. We have done all the research we could do, carefully read all the executive orders from Governor Whitmer and have listened to the MHSAA/MSBOA/NFHS along with studies coming out of the University of Colorado and a few other places as well. We thought it was all going to work out to continue with Plan A for our 2020 Band Camp. But today we got thrown a curveball. Of course we are a Marching Band and so when the world zigs we zag. So now we will be going to Plan B for Band Camp. Here is what I know as of tonight July 27, 2020:
Several things to be aware of that are great news:
Things we will still need:
I will give you more information as I finalize plans with our administration. Now.... One Last Thing....We have been using the Remind app for a few years now in order to stay in touch with parents and students.
This fall we are going to be changing all communication that would normally have gone through Remind and sending it out via the Band App. Go to band.us to read more about this app. You could even sign up for an account at the website. Better yet though simply use your smartphone and scan the QR code you see below. The Band App is going to give us the ability to get more information out to people in a more efficient manner. I will still be posting information to the Band website (especially the Blog Page - which is what you are reading currently) and also to the Facebook Farwell Area Bands Public Group. Only current students and parents will be allowed access to our bands information inside the Band App. General public should still check the Band Website and Facebook Group. To kick things off in the Band App I have posted our show music. Go to the app, find our Band and then download that PDF (there are three of them) then print your one page with your part on it. Or put it on your smartphone. AND you just might find some great pictures there as well! UPDATED AUGUST 4, 2020 - ALL OF THIS INFO IS OUTDATED INFORMATION
CHECK THE MORE CURRENT BAND CMAP UPDATES FOR THE CORRECT INFORMATION Here is the news about Band Camp 2020: What we know so far:
So with this thoughts in mind I reached out to The Springs Camp, where we hold Band Camp, and they are currently running summer overnight camping sessions. So they have been given permissions by the state camping organization to run camps in July and August. They are ready to host Farwell again. The next step I have taken is to get the permission of our Superintendent, Mr. Scoville and the Board of Education. They all voted in favor of allowing Band Camp and the Football team to hold overnight camps in August. This of course is barring unforeseen complications and change of policy from the State Governors Office. Of course we could never hold Band Camp if it were not for our amazing Band Boosters. So this past Tuesday night they discussed the possibility of holding a Band Camp as traditional at The Springs. The conclusion from that meeting was that they do feel we can successfully run a safe Band Camp for our band. There will obviously need to be some changes in the ways that we have done certain things in the past at camp in order for this to happen though. Here are some for sure changes that would happen:
Here are a few things we are working out:
So now we are putting this into parents courts to give us feedback as to your thoughts about Band Camp this year. I have heard plenty of parents/students say they are ready to get back at it but we need the vast majority in order for this to work well. Some of you are already paid in full and some of you still need to pay. That is understandable given the circumstances this year. But now we need to make the decisions and get things paid. I DO HAVE BUCCILLI'S CARDS available if you want to sell some of those to help raise the money! I, Mr. Shimmons, will be in contact with each family soon to get your feedback and to answer any questions you may have. I also look forward to getting feedback and ideas from all of you as well! Here is an outstanding article based on facts, surveys, medical studies and research about this subject....
Read the Article Here
Source: @farwellbands June 04, 2020 at 09:57PM More info Your Website/Page Anchor Text Here
Source: @farwellbands June 04, 2020 at 09:57PM More info Your Website/Page Anchor Text Here |
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