by Troy Strand
I stood facing 47 middle school students. Their eyes were all on me and a hush fell over the gathered audience of families, teachers and community members. For the next eight seconds, they all had one job: wait for my hands to raise. After that, their tasks were vastly different.
Some played complex paradiddles on percussion instruments; some played delicate scale passages on woodwind instruments; others played bombastic fanfares on brass instruments.
We were putting on our spring band concert, the culmination of months of focused rehearsal. We had worked hard to presen…