I'd like to hear how you all manage recorders when the kids are NOT playing
them.
Example:
--- while they're in the case and the kids are waiting to play them during
class
--- while they're in the hallway
--- before and after school NOT in the music room
--- on the bus, etc.
--- when someone finds one in the bathroom

Since recorders are present all year long at my school, I finally had to
create some management procedures and while they're not great, at least they
help some. I really would like better ideas from you all.

First of all, you should know that they are required to bring them to class
every time.

My kids use Peripole soprano and the cases have a ring on the zipper which
the kids use to swing the recorder around and around, absentmindedly - I'd
probably do it too - and WHAP ----- someone gets whacked. I had to make a
rule about no carrying the recorder with the ring. I ask them to actually
carry the case. Some kids like to put the neckstrap around their necks and
zip up the recorder still in the case. I've told them not to do this, but
I'm changing my mind on that. As long as it's in the case, they can't
toot. And if it's around their necks, the case is not very likely to swirl
around and whack someone.

They toot all the way to class and back - where IS their teacher's brain?-
so I had to institute a school rule that says you may not play anywhere
anytime at school - that means the whole campus 24-7 - except in the music
room or if you're waaaaay in the back of the playground during supervised
play AND with your teacher's permission.

Any adult that hears you play in the wrong place has the right to confiscate
your recorder and put it in my box or in the see-through box (like a shoe
box) that lives on my piano. All collected recorders live there till they
go back to their rightful owners the next day. This is also where lost and
found recorders live.

I try to tell the bus drivers about the no-playing rule but I can't always
get to them because they are at the wrong end of campus for me to get to
them, but I try.


And how do you persuade kids not to irritate the pure heck out of their
parents when they're just beginning and the sound is absolutely killing the
cats?!?

--
Martha Stanley, NBCT
www.marthabeesmusic.com
The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas first!