C14T03 - Part 3 - Conversation (Educational)

Lizzie: So how are you getting on with your teaching practice at the High School, Joe?

Joe: Well I’ve been put in charge of the school marching band, and it’s quite a responsibility. I’d like to talk it over with you.

Lizzie: Go ahead. You’d better start by giving me a bit of background.

Joe: OK. Well the band has students in it from all years, so they’re aged 11 to 18, and there are about 50 of them altogether. It’s quite a popular activity within the school. I’ve never worked with a band of more than 20 before, and this is very different.

Lizzie: I can imagine.

Joe: They aren’t really good enough to enter national band competitions, but they’re in a *regional* one later in the term. Even if they don’t win, and I don’t expect them to, hopefully it’ll be an incentive for them to try and improve.

Lizzie: Yes, hopefully.

Joe: Well, now the town council’s organising a *carnival* in the summer, and the band has been asked to perform. If you ask me, they aren’t really up to it yet, and I need to get them functioning better as a band, and in a very short time.

Lizzie: Have you been doing anything with them? Apart from practising the music, I mean.

Joe: I played a recording I came across, of a *drummer* talking about how playing in a band had changed his life. I think it was an after-dinner speech. I thought it was pretty inspiring, because being in the band had stopped him from getting involved in crime. The students seemed to find it interesting, too.

Lizzie: That’s good.

Joe: I’m planning to show them that old *film* from the 1940s ‘Strike Up the Band’, and talk about it with the students. What do you think?

Lizzie: Good idea. As it’s about a school band, it might make the students realise how much they can achieve if they work together.

Joe: That’s what I’ve got in mind. I’m hoping I can take some of the band to a *parade* that’s going to take place next month. A couple of marching bands will be performing, and the atmosphere should be quite exciting. It depends on whether I can persuade the school to hire a coach or two to take us there.

Lizzie: Mmm. They sound like good ideas to me.

Joe: Thanks.

Joe: Can I tell you about a few people in the band who I’m finding it quite difficult to cope with? I’m sure you’ll have some ideas about what I can do.

Lizzie: Go ahead.

Joe: There’s a flautist who says she loves playing in the band. We rehearse twice a week after school, but *she’s hardly ever there*. Then she looks for me the next day and gives me a very plausible reason – she says she had to help her mother, or she’s been ill, but to be honest, I don’t believe her.

Lizzie: Oh dear! Any more students with difficulties?

Joe: Plenty! There’s a trumpeter who thinks she’s the best musician in the band, though she certainly isn’t. *She’s always saying what she thinks other people should do*, which makes my job pretty difficult.

Lizzie: She sounds a bit of a nightmare!

Joe: You can say that again. One of the trombonists has got an impressive sense of rhythm, and could be an excellent musician – except that he has *breathing difficulties* and *he doesn’t really have enough breath for the trombone*. He’d be much better off playing percussion, for instance, but he refuses to give up. So he ends up only playing half the notes.

Lizzie: I suppose you have to admire his determination.

Joe: Maybe. One of the percussionists isn’t too bad, but *he never seems to interact with other people, and he always rushes off as soon as the rehearsal ends*. I don’t know if there are family reasons, or what. But it isn’t good in a band, where people really need to feel they’re part of a group.

Lizzie: Hmm.

Joe: There are others too, but at least that gives you an idea of what I’m up against. Do you have any thoughts about what I can do, Lizzie?