Check out my TPT Store for tons of resources and templates!
The new quiz is 'subject-neutral' to work with non-music students.
Whether you already tried the original quiz or not, please consider taking the new one and helping us ensure it works with a wider audience!
I have lots of resources available. Check them out!
Check out how easy it could be for you to sort your students!
During the summer of 2024, while scrolling through the Band Director side of Facebook (yes, it’s real and it’s amazing!), I stumbled upon lively discussions about gamifying the band classroom. Directors shared ideas about sorting students into houses, Harry Potter-style, for competitions, point systems, and team-building. Some used instrument sections as houses, others grouped students by composers or musical styles.
Wanting to take it a little further, I followed a nuggets of an idea, ultimately creating four houses (Impact, Serenade, Spark, & Bravura) with unique personalities based on the four articulations (Accent, Legato, Staccato, & Marcato), complete with house banners, fictional histories and founders, and a Google form Personality Quiz to sort students. This Personality Quiz I believe was the key to getting student buy-in. Instead of randomly assigning them to a house, the quiz helped them find a house where they could truly feel like they belong; as if the Hogwart’s sorting hat had put them there!
After refining the details and testing the system with friends and colleagues, the project was ready to launch—all that remained was the courage to begin.
The week before school started, we hung vibrant house banners in the band hall and sent families an information packet with a Sorting Quiz link, introducing the House Sorting Project as an exciting new chapter for our band program.
Students were encouraged to complete the quiz at back-to-school registration, two weeks before classes began, with reminder emails sent during the first week to those who hadn’t yet participated.
By the second week, we finalized house placements and announced them via individual emails sent automatically by the Sorting Quiz sorting sheet. We kicked off the house system with simple house-based activities in rehearsals, like having each house perform a technique study, rhythm exercise, or repertoire excerpt, with the winning house earning 5–10 points. The houses then became our go-to for grouping students in various class activities.
To track our house system, I built a custom House Points App using a Google Sheets add-on called AppSheet, transforming how we awarded and monitored points. Students earned points for pass-offs, sectional attendance, skill checks, all-region participation, class participation, binder checks, and more.
While these points boosted their house totals, we also tied them directly to grades, populating a google sheet I could export weekly as a CSV file to then import to Skyward, allowing me to update every student’s grades at once. The app became our central hub for tracking both academic progress and house competition.
Since we used the app to take every student’s picture on the first day of school, anytime I pulled up the class list in the app, I would see their face, making learning everyone’s name a breeze!
We even integrated a karate-belt-style spreadsheet view within the app to track scale pass-offs, with students earning stars next to their names for each milestone.
Using a Google Sheet backend, we published an anonymized version (with student initials) on our band website and displayed it as embedded HTML on our classroom Smartboard.
A daily House leaderboard showcased overall house point standings, fueling excitement as the lead shifted throughout the year.
This leaderboard, also shared on our website and smartboard, kept students eagerly engaged in the competition.
In mid-September, with All-Region tryouts looming, we launched the Battle for Resonance Castle to spark more pass-off completions. A Battle Board, printed with a poster maker, laminated, stapled to a corkboard, and displayed prominently in the band hall, became the centerpiece of this game.
Each student earning a skill pass-off (scoring 90 or above) placed a color-coded pin on the board for their house. Exceptional pass-offs (97 or above) earned two pins, amplifying their house’s claim. The board featured a grid of squares representing Resonance Castle, with houses competing to claim the most territory through strategic pin placement, fostering teamwork and friendly rivalry.
At the end of the first nine-week grading period, we tallied the squares each house controlled.
Spark clinched victory, though Impact nearly staged an upset in a thrilling final week when every student placed their pass-off pins in the castle’s central square.
The fierce, close battle electrified the band hall, setting the stage for future showdowns.
If you have more questions about how this worked or how you can do something similar with your band, feel free to reach out!
(The Battle boards are also now available on TPT. Get your copy today!)
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Battle-for-Resonance-Castle-Game-Board-14066855)
A big part of any house system is using social activities to strengthen house bonds and boost excitement through team building and friendly competition. Our plan to host these in the first semester hit a roadblock though due to unexpected challenges in our band program.
Just before school started, our beloved head director, a 25-year district veteran, suffered a medical emergency requiring double knee surgery. Unable to walk for several weeks, he needed a long-term substitute. As the assistant director of 17 years, I stepped up to lead our 240+ student program solo until help arrived.
This is where the House system and its custom AppSheet app, which I had just happened to design and build over the summer, became lifelines for our band program and for me. They provided an emotional distraction for students worried about the head director and kept morale high, while the point earning ensured skill development stayed on track. The app, linked to our Skyward rosters with student photos, simplified tracking points, grades, and sectional attendance, easing the burden on me while also helping the long-term sub (he was also a lifeline for us, a true God-send and a fantastic mentor for me during this transition) fully participate in the grading and evaluation process.
In late October, the head director announced his early retirement at semester’s end, citing months of ongoing rehab and our sub’s limited availability to stay after December. Breaking the news to the students was tough—many were heartbroken, grappling with the loss of a mentor they adored. While we hadn’t fully developed the social side of the house system, its structure helped us navigate this challenging first semester, keeping the program steady through emotional and logistical turbulence.
In January, I officially stepped into the head director role, welcoming an exceptional new assistant director who hit the ground running, mastering student names before the first day back thanks to an advance copy of the House Points App. This was a game-changer! We leaned heavily into the house system, using it for class groupings, sectionals, and pass-offs while seamlessly integrating new student move-ins with the Sorting Quiz, ensuring everyone was plugged into a house.
Even the house banners, tied to the four articulation styles—Accent, Legato, Staccato, and Marcato—sparked engagement during class. During lessons on articulation, students often glanced back at the banners, reinforcing their understanding of playing styles and bringing the music to life with deeper expression.
Our beginners surged in skill pass-offs as well, earning stars on the app’s scale charts, with many practicing before and after school. Upperclassmen began coming in to mentor the younger students, fostering a collaborative spirit as everyone prepped for pass-offs and skill checks.
Students clamored to complete more pass-offs to boost their house’s standing, sparking lively house pride conversations. Some even brought non-band friends to practice sessions, proudly showing off the banners and pitching band as a way to join a house—hoping they’d land in the same one. This camaraderie and competition transformed our band hall into a thriving hub of music and connection.
In short, the house system changed the culture of our band hall for the better, at a time when it was truly needed the most. It helped our new director get plugged in, with the houses providing a tool for engaging with the students and the points app helping us easily identify areas where students needed to improve.
As the year progressed, we enhanced the app with new features, including concert attendance tracking. On bus trips to concerts, contests, or festivals, the app streamlined absence reporting to our front office, ensuring accountability.
Then, after UIL Contest was over, we really took the house system into high gear, building excitement for the year-end house parties and the crowning of this year’s champion. I sourced a grand House Cup trophy and collaborated with vendors, parents, and teacher volunteers to plan an epic house social, complete with fun group games, competitions, and of course a catered banquet in the great hall, all to celebrate the students’ hard-earned achievements and the completion of truly crazy year.
In late April, a week before our end-of-year concerts and two weeks before our annual Dallas overnight trip (a beloved, if wild, tradition!), we hosted our first House Championship Social on the Wednesday after STAAR testing. Despite the busy season and creeping school-year fatigue, over 160 students—roughly 40 per house—attended the after-school event, showcasing their commitment to the band and their house.
We kicked off in the auxiliary gym, waiting for car and bus riders to clear out, with parent volunteers helping me lead large-group games while we worked to get every student a color-coded bandana to represent their house. Then, once every kid could be easily identified by their bandana, we did a massive Rock-Paper-Scissors EXTREME Tournament before heading down to the great hall.
The cafeteria, now transformed into a Hogwarts-inspired Great Hall with hanging candles and balloon towers in house colors, hosted our opening ceremonies. There, students met their Heads of House—teachers who had taken the Sorting Quiz and sported house-themed stickers and posters all year. Each house then retreated to their Common Room (e.g., Bravura’s in the dark downstairs theater room, Serenade in the kitchen classroom, Spark in the library, Impact in the upstairs science room) for snacks, banner-making, house pride chant creation, and puzzles featuring their house founder.
Each house was also tasked with a special job: split your house into three categories: The Quickest, The Cleverest, and The Strongest. What category the students were in would determine what game they competed in next.
After common room time, everyone gathered back together in the main gym, which buzzed louder than I had ever heard it as the students participated in three competitive rounds: four-way Capture the Flag (for the Cleverest), Obstacle Course Relay (for the Quickest), and Tug of War (for the Strongest), with each house dividing members accordingly and tying bandanas to signal their role. Winners earned substantial House Cup points. A chant competition followed, with houses showcasing banners and chants, judged by parent volunteers.
The night finally concluded in the cafeteria with food, fellowship, group photos, and the crowning of the House Cup winner, capping a memorable celebration of camaraderie and competition that many of the students are still talking about today.
The pictures from the night speak for themselves.
At the year’s start, part of me was unsure whether students would embrace the house system. Despite all the banners and signage, the in-class point tracking, and the leaderboard updates on the smartboard, some students in January still didn’t know their house. The House Social changed everything—post-event, every student, even non-attendees, proudly identified with their house and the buzz spread across the school.
Teachers serving as Heads of House were equally invested, raving about the experience for weeks.
On the last day of school, we hosted an ice cream party for the winning house as promised, complete with HEB Creamy Creations, bowls, cones, and toppings. Watching students from all sections, grades, and backgrounds laugh, share memories, and bond—many who wouldn’t typically connect—was profoundly rewarding.
Students thanked me for creating and sustaining the house system, acknowledging the effort through a challenging year marked by director changes and a particularly …spirited… sixth-grade class.
I am beyond proud of these kids for sticking with us on this; for their resilience, fortitude, and their sheer passion for learning. Again, our success with this system belongs to them. They are proof of the house system’s transformative impact.
Unlike other schools’ random house assignments, our Sorting Quiz at Smithson Valley grouped students by personality, fostering unique dynamics that revealed insights about our students throughout the year and at the House Social. While random sorting ensures inclusivity, our approach—tying houses to the student’s personalities—created distinct group identities that deepened our understanding of student needs and behaviors.
Impact House students and teachers tended to be athletic, proactive leaders, often stepping up in competitions. Notably, our principal and assistant principals, all Impact members, joined the House Social, where Impact dominated four-way Tug of War and Capture the Flag. Highly competitive, they trailed just behind Spark in total points all year.
Serenade House led in character points, earned through teamwork and attendance, showcasing the best team spirit and chant at the Social despite fewer game wins. They also had the cleanest Common room after the social. Other houses left trash behind that we had to clean up but the Serenade Common room? Spotless. Even the chairs were stacked back on the tables and the trash was taken out before we got there. 😀
Spark House topped skill points, securing the House Cup with consistent before- and after-school pass-offs. Home to many robotics team members and A-honor-roll students, they excelled in the Founder’s Puzzle and Obstacle Course Relay at the Social. Their house pride even shone through a student-donated falcon statue for their mascot that wlll now live in the trophy case next to the House Cup.
Bravura House blended high achievers, including several region band members, with students who tended to question authority and needed clear expectations before they would participate more fully in class. Their drive for perfection (e.g., upset over not getting first chair or getting a score less than 100) contrasted with occasional resistance to directives, which required us to approach the students from Bravura with more tailored behavior reinforcements than in the other houses.
Of course, no student can be 100% described as one type. We are all of us a collection of different personalities. But seeing the patterns of student behavior, drive, and teamwork in the light of the four houses helped us better understand what individual students needed from us as directors.
A student in Serenade might be more likely to respond to a kind word and an effort at building rapport while a student in Bravura might react better to clear, distinct expectations and an opportunity for them to show that they are the best.
A student in Spark might want all the details of an assignment ahead of time so they can map out their own road to success while a student in Impact might rather have a physical task to complete or a chance to lead their peers instead of being relegated to the background of the band.
Each child is unique and each one deserves a personal approach from us in ensuring their educational needs are met and in providing opportunities for success. This house system might just be a grand new tool that can help us foster a more supportive and dynamic band community.
What’s next for our band’s House System?
We’re doubling down, with more activities planned for 2025-2026 to keep the momentum alive. An opening House Social in early October will kick off the year while the end-of-year social and ice cream party for the House Cup winner will complete it again. We will incorporate new small rewards throughout the year that will incentivize skill development and team building, keeping students engaged with new contests and goals each nine-weeks. More importantly, our 7th and 8th graders will stay in their houses from last year, mentoring incoming 6th graders to foster continuity and build lasting bonds year after year.
The House Cup, now engraved with Spark as the 2024-2025 champion, stands proudly in the cafeteria’s trophy case alongside four miniature house banners, signed by last year’s founding members, and the student-donated Falcon statue. This display symbolizes our program’s legacy and sets the stage for the 2025-2026 champion to claim the next plaque on the trophy.
While the point system will be much simpler than the one we used with the band, the idea behind it is the same:
Build camaraderie across the school.
Encourage students to be a part of something bigger than themselves.
Incentivize good behavior in and out of class.
Utilize friendly competition to push every student to embody the four house mottos:
act bravely,
speak with integrity,
think creatively,
and work diligently
Just as one of the biggest parts of music education is teaching students to be better humans, so it is with every school subject. Ultimately, I feel it is our most important job as teachers to live out our version of the boy scout motto: Leave things better than we found them. Our students deserve that from us. Whatever tools we can find to help us educate, inspire, and guide the next generation, let us take up those tools now, and get to work.
If you want to give this project a try with your program, you can find the original Google Form Sorting Quiz, the Info packet we sent to our parents, and the House Banners on my Teachers Pay Teachers page linked below.
I am still working to port the custom House Points App I built into a format that can be easily shared with others. As soon as it is available, that will also be posted to my TPT store and every Band Director Group on Facebook i can find. 😀I know several of you have already asked about it. It is in the works. (Lots of moving pieces but its coming along.)
Cheers and best of luck with the new school year!
https://forms.gle/BPtodLSZaRmRjRGR8
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/james-hargreaves
#MusicEducation #HouseSortingProject #GoogleSheets #ClassroomManagement #TPT #MusicTeacher #EducationalTechnology #HogwartsHouses #ClassroomCulture #StudentEngagement
The new quiz is 'subject-neutral' to work with non-music students.
Whether you already tried the original quiz or not, please consider taking the new one and helping us ensure it works with a wider audience!
