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Well, if your pit is anything like mine(I'm not actually the instructor, but I get treated like one when I'm there, since half of them call me "MOM") I would give them lots of exercises, and let them joke around and stuff when they have all of there work done.
Also, another trick that last years instructor did was to have "Speed Competitions" We'd play an excercise, or an excerpt of an exercise(usually an easy one) and we would start out slow, and slowly speed it up and once you messed up, you were out and had to sit down, it's a good way to figure out who has the best hands for placement, and it's a good "chop-buster" that will strengthen the hands of everyone, and if you have one or two particularly good people that good easily beat everyone(that was ME!) you take part too because it will make sure that everyone is challenged.
I'll stop rambling now sweatdrop
I hope that helped! biggrin

This was a while ago, but my tip would be to actually sound interested in what you're doing. And be intense. o_o Our instructor sounds bored all the time, and none of us really like that. Plus she completely changed our way of doing everything for the past three years. She wants us to lift instead of just dropping, and it's confusing a lot of the vets.

As for keeping them entertained... xD My old winter percussion instructor threw mallets at this one guy who was always fooling around.

That almost happened to me. I still go out and help, but the band director wouldn't give me a job because they "couldn't afford it" (and then went and hired 2 people on the spot, that made me really MAD twisted ).
BUt you've got an advantage because they know you. You already have there respect, and so you don't have to earn it. The best option to keep them entertained is to give them things to do that are engaging(like the competition I talked about earlier) and they don't always have to be based solely on PLAYING music. My old instructor would sit us down and work with us on theory and ear training when we didn't have anything important to work on. It would keep us thinking, keep us entertained(and if you can, try to use songs they'll recognize for ear training, my instructor was a master on the piano and had perfect pitch so he would play a variety of popular songs we knew, and classical ones that we didn't) and this is also a good way of teaching them with/without there knowledge. And you can use it as a way to introduce something that you need to work on in your peice. Phrasing and dynamics are good examples of that.
Once again, hope I helped!

In my pit.. I only have 2 vets and 6 newbies... not all of them are freshmen so I can't call them that. I threw a mallat at one of my pit members and then they all did as I told them to for the rest of the day.. that was today. Oh, do you have any suggestions about those who miss rehearsals, esspecially the two rehearsals befors a compitition (that's when we work the most)? What kind of disiplinary things do you use?? "Big Daddy C" (band director) wants me to keep them out of the compition, but I have only a few pit members and each of them is doing something. You guys are a big help.. just to let you know. I've tried a couple of things each of you said and it's helped.

How come they're missing rehearsal? You shouldn't keep them out of the competition because they will be needed, but at the same time, they need the practice. If it's something they absolutely can't miss such as a SAT test, religious holiday, etc, I guess there's not much you can do about it. If it's a doctor appointment or something, ask if they can reschedule it? Get it through to them that each rehearsal is extremely important and if even one member is missing during rehearsal, it's that much less productive.

One option, although I'm not sure it's wise to do because of your schedule, is work with them outside rehearsal. That shows dedication on your part and will definitely help your pit members respect you more. You could also ask whoever's section leader to do that so the missing members will still get in extra practice, section leader gets to work with the members without an instructor so said members can also gain respect for SL, all is good.

Hope this is helpful oO' I don't want to accidentally alienate you from your section.

well the reason why I need to entertain my pit is that they have nothing to do while the rest of the band is learning charting stare , if I take them through music while the band is charting I get in trouble stare , but if they're not doing anything they get mad at me crying , and if I take them away from the rest of the band the band falls apart cool . heart I love my pit heart .... they know their music front to back, but not all of them show up to rehearsals mad because they get bored cry . Does that make sence?? sweatdrop

Maybe you could ask your band director if the pit could move elsewhere while the band learned their drill. Then you could help them focus on technique and whatnot, maybe even give them new exercises x]