Anonymous wrote:He sounds passive agressive.

Anonymous wrote:Given the unsupportive responses on this thread, I can see why he got fired. A strict teacher? How mean!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately, we can only hear this guy’s version as the school is not able to share about personnel matters. Teachers are really difficult to hire right now, and there’s a lot that mediocre teachers can get away with simply because there are so few qualified candidates to replace them. In other words, he really had to be awful for administrators to go through this process. My educated guess is that the decision to non-renew was not done lightly and without specific evidence.

High School band positions are coveted in FCPS. There are many elementary and middle school teachers who have aspirations to teach at the HS level. I disagree in this case that there are few qualified candidates.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There has to be more to this story. It's not ok to scream and yell, but being strict with a large group of kids is not a bad thing and probably needed. We've had lots of activities, including music and you need strict and structured, especially for music but one issue we see in MS/HS band is the lack of teaching and kids need to know the instrument or be in private music lessons to be successful as in ES they teach individual instruments but not in MS/HS so many kids struggle.

For a band director, yes, it's ok. Otherwise chaos and mediocrity.

There is a difference between speaking loudly and forcefully vs. targeting and embarrassing students. A band director has to have a loud voice in order to be heard over the sounds of instruments. But, a band director does not have to be mean or demeaning to students. I don't know if this guy was harmful to the kids or incompetent.

I have a hard time believing he was targeted for removal just b/c he's AA.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There has to be more to this story. It's not ok to scream and yell, but being strict with a large group of kids is not a bad thing and probably needed. We've had lots of activities, including music and you need strict and structured, especially for music but one issue we see in MS/HS band is the lack of teaching and kids need to know the instrument or be in private music lessons to be successful as in ES they teach individual instruments but not in MS/HS so many kids struggle.

For a band director, yes, it's ok. Otherwise chaos and mediocrity.

Anonymous wrote:As a former marching band kid (high school and four years of college), I'll say that it's not uncommon for the director to yell. It's a competitive thing, people put in a lot of time and honestly, the kids don't pay attention all the time and are annoying. I'm sure I was annoying. If you want to be competitive, you need discipline and marching band isn't for everyone.

I don't understand the commenters who were talking about having their marching band kids sit on the sideline and watch because the director didn't like them or something. It doesn't work like that. Bands have a tightly choreographed show that requires people to be exactly where they're supposed to be. You might have a few kids serve as extras who can pop into someone's spot if they got sick or broke something before a competition, but our band usually had some extra color guard types who'd just pretend to play an instrument.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There has to be more to this story. It's not ok to scream and yell, but being strict with a large group of kids is not a bad thing and probably needed. We've had lots of activities, including music and you need strict and structured, especially for music but one issue we see in MS/HS band is the lack of teaching and kids need to know the instrument or be in private music lessons to be successful as in ES they teach individual instruments but not in MS/HS so many kids struggle.

For a band director, yes, it's ok. Otherwise chaos and mediocrity.

My child is in private orchestra and there is no yelling or screaming. It's not ok. He's to focused on being a digital content creator and its not ok to be filming his classes and broadcasting them. He's not screaming in what I saw but he's pretty flat and bland and putting on a show for the camera. He's not making the classes fun or engaging. And, not much instruction, a few comments and that's it.

Well, orchestra is inside while marching band is outside with literal moving pieces/students and isn’t marching band twice as big as orchestra.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There has to be more to this story. It's not ok to scream and yell, but being strict with a large group of kids is not a bad thing and probably needed. We've had lots of activities, including music and you need strict and structured, especially for music but one issue we see in MS/HS band is the lack of teaching and kids need to know the instrument or be in private music lessons to be successful as in ES they teach individual instruments but not in MS/HS so many kids struggle.

For a band director, yes, it's ok. Otherwise chaos and mediocrity.

My child is in private orchestra and there is no yelling or screaming. It's not ok. He's to focused on being a digital content creator and its not ok to be filming his classes and broadcasting them. He's not screaming in what I saw but he's pretty flat and bland and putting on a show for the camera. He's not making the classes fun or engaging. And, not much instruction, a few comments and that's it.

Anonymous wrote:

The guy posted a lot of very narcissistic stuff on Instagram, and he has made a bunch of heavy-handed comments about how white parents at Annandale (how many are even left there) are out to get him, but I do feel sorry for teachers who get solid ratings one year only to see their ratings tank the next year when there’s a change in supervisors (Annandale had appointed a new head of student activities). I thought Shawn DeRose was one of those principals who walked on water - which is why Ricardy Anderson and Fabio Zuluaga made sure he was appointed principal of AHS - but he doesn’t seem to have mediated this situated well at all. And now the usual folks such as Sujatha Hampton of the NAACP are demanding an investigation by FCPS.

Was he making comments like these before he was fired?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There has to be more to this story. It's not ok to scream and yell, but being strict with a large group of kids is not a bad thing and probably needed. We've had lots of activities, including music and you need strict and structured, especially for music but one issue we see in MS/HS band is the lack of teaching and kids need to know the instrument or be in private music lessons to be successful as in ES they teach individual instruments but not in MS/HS so many kids struggle.

For a band director, yes, it's ok. Otherwise chaos and mediocrity.

Anonymous wrote:There has to be more to this story. It's not ok to scream and yell, but being strict with a large group of kids is not a bad thing and probably needed. We've had lots of activities, including music and you need strict and structured, especially for music but one issue we see in MS/HS band is the lack of teaching and kids need to know the instrument or be in private music lessons to be successful as in ES they teach individual instruments but not in MS/HS so many kids struggle.