Web Spotlight: Dan F. Long Middle School Falcon Band

The next time you take a trip with your school music group for more than two days, consider posting the highlights of each day’s activities on your Web site, with photos and quotes from students, teachers and chaperones. What a great way to connect with the parents, students and administration at home.

In SBO‘s March Internet Sitings column, I read about the Fannin County (Georgia) Band and its recent trip to London. I was impressed with how the band directors set up daily Web updates during their trip that instantly communicated every aspect of their travles with the folks back home. There were also journal entries for all six days in England plus “hot” links to pertinent Web sites about the trip. You can check it out for yourself at www.fannincountyband.org/London.2002.htm.

How difficult was it to do this Web posting while in England? It was surprisingly simple. The band director’s daughter, a band alumna, was inspired to design a band Web site with its own domain name. Parents, friends and administrators welcomed the daily Web postings and the chance to send messages to students via the band’s Web site. You can find more information about this innovative endeavor on the SBO Web site at: www.sbomagazine.com/sbomag/mar02/webspot.aspx. The single-most important ingredient is to find an interested person to handle the daily chores of posting to the Web while on a trip. It could be a parent chaperone, a member of the faculty traveling with the music group or even a student who is savvy about Web page construction.