Mistakes and Other Updates

I know I said that I wanted to keep this blog positive because it's so hard to see past what we perceive as "bad" things in our lives, but I've been saving up these things to post.  Below is my list of mistakes I made so I won't do it again and neither will you!


Make sure you check all of your school-owned instruments before letting kids play them. 

I feel dumb even typing this for public consumption.  I stupidly assumed that instruments were left in working order in the summer before I was hired.  False.  I found a bari sax mouthpiece that looked like this...

I also found a baritone whose valves were so stuck that no amount of my work could get them loose and a different bari sax that was missing a spring and a key guard on the low C key.  

Don't assume that your students know anything in your first year.

...especially the older they are when you start.  I know that the elementary band director who has them for two years before they come to the middle school teaches them appropriate terminology but a lot of 8th graders claim that they have never heard of dynamics, articulation, or the difference between B-flat and B-natural.  If I had a nickle for every time I had either of these two conversations in a band lesson - "What do we call louds and softs in music?" silence... "It rhymes with sch-my-namics?" silence... Or "What note does the E-flat scale start on?" with the response "E?", I would have a lot of nickles.  I just have to keep the faith that the 6th graders who will have me for three years will be brilliant!

Remember that the winter concert comes way too soon, especially due to how many days school is not in session in November.

I thought that December was so far away and that as long as I picked easy-ish music we could do 3 pieces for both the 6th Grade Band and 7th & 8th Grade Band. False.  Each band is doing 2 pieces and I'm on edge that it's not going to sound like anything but a hot mess.  I even had to cut out the B section from one of the 6th Grade Band pieces which makes me sad but was a necessary move.  In my district and many in NJ, the kids get off an entire week in the beginning of November - 2 days for the NJ Educators Association convention, in-services for 2 days, and that Wednesday is off as well because it would be dumb to have one day of school.  We also had 4 half days that make our normal 15 minutes of rehearsal time cut down to approximately 2 (aka I attempt to have the kids come early but they all forget and less than half the band is there).  Then there's Thanksgiving and Black Friday...then December 11th happens.  In comparison, the spring concert will be a breeze in terms of prep time.  Also in my defense, I didn't know the kids and that plus the above assumptions put us behind the 8-ball.

So those are my three big oopsies thus far.  In other world news, my musical went really well! There are many things that I will do differently next year, but for my first time doing a musical (I'm totally not counting the 3-5th grade musical I did last year because there were no scene changes, no blocking, and the dances were confined to stepping in place and moving arms) it went well.  My choreography was surprisingly not bad, the staging worked, and the kids had good diction and sang at a healthy volume.  I'm already looking forward to next year and so are the kids, so that's a sign I did something right! For now, I will enjoy being home at a reasonable hour and not being stressed constantly...that is to say I won't be stressed unless I think about my concert. : )

To close, I want to repost a status I wrote about 2 weeks ago.  

I remember junior year when I thought I was on the struggle bus during student teaching. Then senior year was super stressful and my first year of teaching was so busy and I felt unprepared for life. Comparatively those things seem like nothing to how busy and stressed I have been this year. But through everything, I've survived! It puts things in perspective when you think back on what (at the time) were the "hardest" moments of your life and see that now you're doing way more and kicking butt doing it. Exhausted but grateful.

My Many Hats

Howdy! Sorry - I'm watching The Voice and a country singer just performed. So things have been crazy since day one! I'm working on the musical (Wizard of Oz, Young Performers' Edition) and band and chorus rehearsals started this week.  I'm excited to be out of the logistics phase and into the actually doing phase.  Speaking of logistics, I'm so very thankful for my parents being music teachers because they were able to help me with my rotating lesson schedule.  As I consistently ask my parents and colleagues for advice and help, I'm always thinking back to what my dad told me once - that he probably shouldn't have been paid for his first year of teaching (okay make that first year of full-time, permanent job teaching). I feel like I'm depending on others a lot, but when it really comes down to it, I am the one doing the teaching.  All the good advice in the world might not make an okay teacher a great teacher so it really is up to me, but it's hard to feel like I know what's going on when...well when I don't.  I had my first informal observation yesterday and the post-observation meeting today.  My supervisor only had 2 main critiques for me and neither had to do with my content and rapport so I'm happy! I guess I'm doing okay, but I'll keep worrying anyway. : )

I've been thinking about the roles that a music teacher plays in a school and in my school, I'm the music teacher.  I wear many hats just like the President does (which I learned in 8th grade history). 

I've been working as a salesman trying to sell kids on staying in band which is difficult in middle school for a bunch of reasons.  Based on what my kids have been telling me, issues rise from the fact that they have their first opportunity to do sports, they feel more academic pressure, and they have more freedom to make their own decision (in cases where their parents were encouraging/forcing them to be in band).  Luckily, almost all of the 6th graders have decided to continue so I'll have a core group of kids that will be "mine" for three years.  

As for chorus, I have a lot of recruiting to do; chorus doesn't always have the same loyalty year to year as a band does, so I have to make sure that I am that thing that kids want to come back to year after year.  I've been going into the lunch periods and talking to the kids every few days.  My numbers from the interest meeting for chorus were small but the kids were all excited.  I'm trying a recruiting strategy that I'll report back on next week.  Rather than having a sign up day and capping the roster at whoever came on that one day, I decided to use those interested students as salesmen (peer pressure FTW). At the interest meeting and pitched how chorus would feature a pop song each concert. I announced that the 6th graders are doing "Count on Me" by Bruno Mars and the 7th and 8th graders are doing "Firework" by Katy Perry which went over really well.  We discussed how even though our rehearsals are short (only about 15 minutes once they all come down to the room) we'll be able to have a big reward with the small time commitment. A big selling point is that I have band and chorus rehearsals during the 20 minute homeroom once a week which allows my sports kids and students with PM commitments outside of school to not be conflicted. From my point of view, it's not a selling point but a drawback to have that little time, but to the kids it's great.  So after I hyped up the program, I asked the students that were there to talk about chorus to their friends and classmates. The deal is that the first rehearsal is open to anyone who wants to come. After 10 minutes working with me and playing singing games, I'll ask the students to decide to sign up or not. Not every kid might be sold on doing chorus especially if they were strong-armed into doing it by a friend, but I'm hedging my bet that they'll have fun with me and want to see me again. Cocky? Maybe. But I think I'm fun so hopefully kids who are on the fence about chorus will think so too and stick around! I'm also going to let kids sign up after the Christmas concert once they have a chance to hear the chorus in action. 

We'll see if I'm any good at selling my program and revving up passion for music! As I said, I'll report back about my end chorus numbers, but for now cross your fingers for me!