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.
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