Episode 4 is about assessment — not the high-stakes kind, but the everyday formative checkpoints that tell a teacher whether the concepts are landing. Dan Harrison, longtime director at Thompson Middle School in Oswego, Illinois, joins along with Steve Smith for a deep look at how to use the EE quizzes, the EEi resource library, and the four-week summer pre-band program that has powered Oswego’s beginning band program for decades.
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Inside this episode
Steve Smith brings news of a robust new help center coming to EEi, then re-frames the in-book quizzes as flexible checkpoints rather than graded assessments — useful for teachers under pressure to assign grades AND for teachers who want a low-stakes way to give kids a goal each week. He walks through the “secret weapon” of EEi: 350 downloadable resources including a full 16-worksheet music-theory curriculum, 15 rhythm studies, note-naming and fingering sheets per instrument.
The anchor is Dan Harrison, a West Aurora High School and NIU graduate whose graduate-school mentors at Eastern Illinois were Tom Brauner (later director of bands at Kentucky) and Bruce Moss. Dan walks through Oswego’s sixth-grade start with a four-week summer pre-band program (16 hours of instruction before school even begins, day-after-day reinforcement of foot tap, posture, embouchure, and hand position), and the Midwest Clinic appearance four years back with Jason Casler’s “Spontaneous Factory” concept — instantaneous music creation that pushed every player past note-reading and rhythmic restraints.
Dan closes with his EEi wish list — submission timestamps for distance-learning accountability, and email notifications that ping a student when an assignment is graded so they don’t have to dig through EEi to find feedback. Steve confirms both are on the roadmap, with student-privacy compliance the trickiest part.
Read the full transcript
Welcome and quick framing
[00:01:48] Charlie: Welcome to our fourth podcast — we’re getting a loyal following now. Today we’ll be joined by Dan Harrison, Director of Bands at Thompson Middle School in Oswego, Illinois. Tim: We hear with our eyes — verbal is only a little bit of communication. Amen to what you’re both saying times a thousand.
Steve Smith on the EEi help center and quizzes
[00:16:02] Steve: We’re adding a robust help center to EEi. I remember my days teaching when we had technology out there — the last thing a teacher wants to be is a customer service representative. EEi is as simple OR as robust as teachers want to make it. The help center is going to have tutorials, Q&As, ways for kids and teachers to ask questions and get answers immediately.
[00:17:38] Steve: When I taught we did use the quizzes in the book as checkpoints. The quizzes are paced well and do a good catch-all. I’d suggest for teachers: still do that assessment, but maybe not as a grade — as a checkpoint. The more encouragement teachers can give through EEi submissions and feedback, the better. Think more in terms of goals rather than grades: “here’s your goal for the week — play this exercise and submit it to me.”
The 350 worksheets in the EEi resource library
[00:19:46] Charlie: Talk just a little bit about the worksheets. Steve: One of the secret weapons of EEi. We have an entire music-theory curriculum: 16 worksheets you can work through, taken from other Hal Leonard publications — not just “check the box” but the explanation of the concepts in Book 1. We also have 15 rhythm-counting studies, note-naming worksheets, fingering worksheets per instrument. About 350 additional resources on the band side.
[00:21:28] Paul: It’s our chance to brag a little. With paper format you had a 48-page book and we felt we did a good job. With the website now we can keep adding and broadening and deepening. The real experts are in that resource section. It’s deep. And the best part is it’s all part of the free add-on to the book.
[00:22:47] Charlie: If I’m a teacher using these downloadable forms during distance learning, what’s the best way for a student to return them? Steve: Take a picture and email it back. We could probably build a more direct return path into EEi — something we can work on.
Video recording update
[00:24:18] Charlie: The new feature of being able to submit videos — where are we on that highway? Steve: Our dev team is working on it. Target is early in the school year. When it ships it’ll function almost identically to recording assignments: a kid records a video, it lands in the student-recording grid, the teacher pops it open, watches it, sends written or audio feedback. We’re keeping the seamless response design we have for recordings.
Dan Harrison on standing on the shoulders of giants
[00:28:06] Charlie: We’ve got a very special guest. Dan Harrison — Thompson Middle School in Oswego, Illinois. Dan: Thank you very much for having me. Tim: One person makes a difference. Charlie: An effective teacher can make an incredible difference.
[00:28:45] Dan: I grew up in Aurora, Illinois — a western suburb of Chicago. Started French horn in fifth grade. My dad was one of my high school band directors at West Aurora. West Aurora just celebrated their hundredth year of bands. Little-known fact — Paul Yoder was one of the first band directors at West Aurora, followed by Harry Nigro, then Warren Phelps for over 40 years. We stand on the shoulders of giants.
[00:30:46] Dan: After West, NIU for bachelor’s. Then straight through to a master’s in conducting at Eastern Illinois — didn’t teach in between, kind of different. Tom Brauner was the director of bands at Eastern that first year (he then left for Kentucky). Some other guy came in — you might know his name — Bruce Moss. I was his graduate assistant for my second year. What could have been a bad thing turned into an amazing thing: I got to study with two phenomenal music educators.
[00:31:43] Dan: Out of college I got my first job in southeastern Illinois — four years. Moved back to the suburbs, taught at West Chicago High School, with the other half of the job at West Chicago Junior High. Endured that because I was a high school band director after all — then realized junior high band is fun. Two years later Oswego opened up.
Spontaneous Factory at Midwest
[00:32:36] Charlie: Was it last year or the year before you were the clinic band at the Midwest Clinic? Dan: About four or five years ago. We were asked by Jason Casler (now Director of Bands at Arizona State University) who was doing a clinic session called “Spontaneous Factory” — instantaneous creation of music within a band rehearsal, taking away the restraints of note reading and rhythm and just being expressive. A lot of improvisation. That was a really interesting semester preparing for Midwest — it took me out of my comfort zone. Just allowing students to play Mary Had a Little Lamb however fast they wanted, starting when they wanted, holding a note as long as they wanted. A bridge to 20th-century performance technique.
Oswego’s four-week summer pre-band
[00:34:23] Charlie: What grade does Oswego start? Dan: Sixth grade. The summer prior to sixth grade we have a four-week beginning-band program. Margine Pappas established the band program in Oswego — she changed things around in the mid ’90s, away from a traditional fifth-grade start with pullout lessons. We have grade-level bands rather than ability-based: sixth grade band as beginners, then seventh, then eighth.
[00:34:53] Dan: In a typical year (this is anything but typical) I see students about 16 hours of instruction before school starts — foot tap, posture, embouchure, hand position. Just being able to reinforce those basics day after day, allowing students to have success from the start. (Note: machine transcript looped from 37:44 to 39:58 — conversation resumes below.)
Dan’s wish list for EEi
[00:48:10] Paul: The technology part of all this is a challenge with any software — so many variables about people’s devices and how they connect. But it gets a little better each time. Steve’s been huge on what we call the user interface.
[00:49:33] Dan: I do use Google Classroom and I really like the feature that once a student submits an assignment there’s a timestamp. Within EEi it tells you the day, but it would be helpful if there was a way to timestamp when they actually submitted it. That’s an important thing to teach kids — submit the assignment when the assignment is due.
[00:50:38] Dan: Another thought — students at my school have student emails. Anytime someone creates an assignment in EEi, the student should automatically get an email notification. Kids check their school email more than they check EEi. Same when a teacher grades — the kid should get an email saying “your teacher graded this assignment; please check EEi for comments.” Steve: We’re actually looking at a couple of things with our student email system. Been protective of student privacy. We have to make sure we’re compliant. Both suggestions make a lot of sense.
Signing off
[00:52:38] Charlie: Great to finally meet you, Dan. Even though it’s a podcast and listeners won’t be able to see it, Dan without question wins the best background award — it looks like the Millennium Falcon going into light speed.
[00:53:31] Steve: Dan has one of those qualities you really need in any teacher — persistence to figure things out. The ability to just stick with it and realize there is an answer is a huge thing, just in life but particularly for a great teacher. He has a great sense of humor too — his meme on our teacher group actually got our highest reaction.
[00:55:48] Charlie: On behalf of Dr. Tim Lautzenheiser, Paul Lavender, and Steve Smith, this is your host, Dr. Charlie Mangini, saying thanks for listening.
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