Rochester High School

When our Into to Music Education class visited Rochester High School on April 11th, I didn't know what to expect. My high school band program was very big having 2 freshman bands, 3 upperclassmen bands, 3 jazz bands, and a marching band. Walking into the Rochester band, it was easy to tell that there was a very big mix of talent within the group. There were a few students that were very engaged with everything that the band director was saying, but it was apparent that some students were distracted by their phones or the homework on their stands. The students did not even try to hide their distractions and it was apparent that the band director was okay with them. After the rehearsal, Mr. Jones said that he knew about all of the distractions but did not do anything about them because he realized that there was no point taking the students away from their priorities when it wasn't for the good of the class.
Another thing I observed was the fact that Mr. Jones is a very hands off teacher. The entire saxophone section was reading a repeated rhythm wrong and he didn't do anything to change it. There was no real teaching involved because there was no whiteboard or visual aid for the students to learn from. The class seemed like more of a rehearsal more than an actual class for learning. It would be understandable if it were close to the concert, but there was no concert near.
This was kind of disheartening to see because there was so much potential in the room if only the kids had the motivation to apply themselves. Without having the motivation of learning and getting better, they found their distractions more appealing.
Mr. Jones revealed to us that the percussion section is very elite and hard to get into. Most of the time, there were one to two players that were sitting on chairs in the back doing nothing. The talents of the students were not being used to their full extent and instead they were forced to sit there and do nothing for most of the rehearsal. So the kids that are having difficulties are not being worked with and the kids that are talented are not being used to the best of their ability. It was a very strange sight to see when the class was only dedicated to rehearsing and not teaching.