First Date...

with my room!

Today I went in to the district offices to learn about the employee handbook, health benefit options, sign my temporary contract (till I get board approved in 2 weeks), blahblahblah. I was chatting with the other newly hired teachers and they were all talking about how happy they were to be able to get into their rooms to unload their homes of school things.  One of the teachers who is working at my school asked if I had been to the school or able to get into my room yet.  I said no, but I was so excited to even have a room, which confused my new colleagues because they didn't realize how much of a treat it is for a music teacher to have their own space.

After that meeting and grabbing a slice of pizza I went over to my school and got into my room! It's a beaut, if I do say so myself. I have an office with windows that look into the room, there's a practice room that is currently used as a storage room, a sink, an instrument storage room with lockers, a door to the outside world, and the usual chairs, stands, cabinets, bookshelves. There were so many drawers and cabinets to go through that I spent about a half an hour just looking opening and closing things and looking in folders and binders.  It was like Christmas! One thing that was peculiar was the lack of school flutes, clarinets, alto saxes, and trumpets.  I'll have to ask for loaners from the rental stores so I have extras to demo with and for when (not if) a student's instrument breaks. I also wish there was an overhead projector so I could show things on the screen from my computer, but I'll ask for that later. Everything else was well organized but I'm excited to have time to put things where I want them. It'll be fun to organize my own space! Yay!

I had a productive day by meeting with the teacher I'll be working with for the musical. Thank heavens for this woman! She's going to take care of all the fundraising, logistics, paperwork, stage crew, lighting, sets, costumes - literally everything except the music, blocking, and dancing.  She's been doing this part of the production for 6 years and can "do it asleep and with my eyes closed".  I also met with the elementary band director. We looked through what was left by the last teacher and discussed pretty much everything I had questions about...which was pretty much everything. Now I'm really excited to get cracking with reading and playing through the show materials, putting together my syllabus for the general music class, compiling my lists of band and chorus students, and signing my name 500 times on those forms I got today.  Exciteddddd!

PS: I'm noticing that in my tags, I never used positive things. I have "frustration," "difficult students"...all negative things.  I will now tag good things as "happy". :)

The Score After 2 Innings

I'm a little excited for baseball season - can ya tell?!

So I survived the first 2 days at the new job! I love it! Doing rehearsals, small group lessons, lesson plans, etc. has been so intuitive for me.  Being up on the podium (or down off the podium which I did a lot of today) is so easy and planning time has greatly decreased because this is my comfort zone.  I love having an office all to myself. I don't have to go outside the building all day. People know who I am. It's like a whole new world! I also really like how the instrumental music department is set up in this school. The old cafeteria was turned into the band room (we still have the lunch windows behind cabinets to prove it!) so it's large enough for part of the room to be set up for the orchestra and half for the band day.  There are two overhead projectors, 2 computers, 2 whiteboards. The schedule is such that the orchestra has rehearsals when the two band directors are either on prep or have pullout lessons, which occur in the spacious (not being sarcastic, it's huge) instrument storage room. It's nice to always have kids in the room; there are only 20 minutes in the entire day when none of the 3 teachers are scheduled for anything. While the 9th grade band director teaches his band classes, I pull out his brass and percussion kids from rehearsal to do group lessons/percussion ensemble. He teaches his woodwinds by taking them out of their other classes.  The opposite is true for the 8th graders - he takes my woodwinds and percussion and I pull out my 8th grade brass from their classes.  It works nicely and we're very lucky to be able to have it scheduled that way. 

similarities and differences

I realized that it's almost 1 year to the day since I started student teaching. When you student teach, it's important to establish a good rapport with the kids. You should try to become a part of the program yet still make your own decisions and make your own personal statement.  Because I am coming into this job after the students have already established a routine with their other director, I feel almost like I did when I was student teaching...except now I get the whole 40 minutes to myself and don't have to share with my cooperating teacher! Haha.  I'm still trying to get to know the kids - by name and attitude equally. 8th grade is rough. So far, my take on it is that they act like kingergarteners most of the time but view themselves as hot stuff.  I had a discussion with one of my bands yesterday that ended in me calling them "boys and girls" and saying that I hoped I wouldn't have to treat them like the little kids I used to teach.  That class was great today, but the class that gave me no management issues (well few issues) was super chatty.  I mean it's probably because this is the week before spring break and I'm new and they're moody, but I need to figure out a way to get them to respect me a little more and act a little less like children. An obvious difference between student teaching and real life right now is that it's all me in front of the class. Logistics for the concert, getting info to the kids, making sure that everything is set for my ensemble, parent emails/interaction? Me. Thankfully I can ask lots of questions of my colleagues and the fact we share the room is great.  It's still daunting though that I have to write an email to a parent tomorrow. Also attendance and grading are things that have a new level of protocol that I have never dealt with; kids don't cut kindergarten general music like they might do in band and I only did 1 report card for the little ones. 

checking in on real life

Full-time pay checks are great and my bank account and I are looking forward to the first one. My sleeping, gym-ing, and eating schedules are all wonky now - partially because my job report time is now 7:15 when before it was noon (lol), and partially because I'm just beginning the 4th of 5 musicals I'm playing this musical season and that makes me sleepy. But as I mentioned in a status last week, I really can't complain about being tired when I spend all day doing what I love (aka music and eating). Oh and my wedding is in 4 months and my man and I are looking for places to live starting in June. WOAH. Look forward to more posts more frequently since I'm really into what I'm doing now!

Endings and Beginnings

In my last post, I mentioned that I had some good news to share, so here it is - I will be starting a new job on Monday! My part-time elementary general music job was only a year long leave replacement, so when I saw there was a maternity leave position posted for one of the band directors at the junior high school in my district, I applied. I ran it past my supervisor first, because I knew that it would create a problem if I got the job and he had to hire for my position.  He okayed it, I interviewed and got the job! I'm super excited because band is what I've always wanted to do.  Also, my resume looks sweet because I have K-1 general music experience and 8th grade band experience (not to mention that my position has me teaching brass and percussion lessons and not woodwinds which looks great for me as a flute player).  The other great thing about working in my district is that it has a great reputation in the state for academics, athletics, and the arts so administrators have heard of it when they see it on a resume.  Alsoooooo, the full-time pay for the last few months of the school year makes my bank account smile. 

end

It was bitter-sweet to have my last day at the elementaries today.  I've been prepping my kids for the last day since last week when it was all official that the new job was going through, but I don't think it really hit them that I wasn't coming back until today.  One class gave me an adorable card. 

I hope the kids are good for the new teacher and they don't think I did a bad job with them... Eh, but I know that I taught them well, so it's fine. 

Looking back over my first teaching job (woah), I learned a lot. I thought I'd have more things to post about with more lessons I've learned along the way to document and share.  Clearly that wasn't the case, but nevertheless I learned a lot of tips I want to share, as evidenced by the series of bullet points below:

•  it's okay to feel like you have no idea what's going on because once the kids come in the room, your planning kicks into gear and it works itself out
• you have to stick up for yourself and your classes, especially when you don't have your own teaching space
• be proactive and work to find available spaces in the building where you can teach
• always present a problem and a possible solution at the same time to an administrator
• "I know that it's difficult to find space for all the traveling teachers, but I noticed that this room is open during 2nd period. Can I use it to teach my music class on Mondays?"
• it takes WAY longer to write general music plans (okay maybe this is just me personally) than to plan for a band rehearsal or group lesson
• in the beginning of the year, familiarize yourself with delayed opening, half-day, early dismissal schedules
• aka make sure you have one that matches across multiple schools if you travel
• ask all of the questions, even if you think it's dumb
• ex: How do you draw a quarter rest and time signatures in elementary general?

beginning

I have two concerts coming up shortly after I start my new junior high  job - one the week after spring break and one the week after that. I'm excited to jump right in and go! I spent the day at the school yesterday so I could see the whole day of classes, lessons, duties, and the after school jazz band rehearsal.  I also was able to hear 3 out of the 4 pieces that the 8th grade band will be performing on their concert so I can plan what I'm doing next week.  The schedule is such that I will see the students every day for band - split into 2 sections of 8th grade band - so it will give me a good amount of time to continue to work on the circle of 5ths, rep, technique, etc. 

future

I already got a call for an interview for a permanent position for next September. Things are going well. I foresee having more to blog about from now on! Woo!

Analog Girl in a Digital World

The title of today's post comes from a RX Bandits song. The real lyrics are "Analog boy in a digital world" but I'm not a boy...so sorry Bandits for taking artistic liberty. 

smart boards

I teach in a well-funded district that is lucky enough to have Smart Boards in almost every (if not all) classrooms.  Some rooms have Promethean Boards, but regardless, every room in which I teach has a Smart Board.  My wonderful alma mater JUST got Smart Boards and students there are now learning how to use them. A lot of good that does me now, amIright?! Most of the other teachers in the district have embraced their Smart Boards and do super cool stuff with them. This is where the title of this blog comes in - I felt kind of out of the loop technology wise, which is weird because as a "digital native" this should be second nature to me.  Luckily I attended one session at New York's music teacher convention where the presenter showed a lot of really cool activities to promote note reading, recognition of musical symbols, and even how to do a full-class dictation using this fun bit of technology.  I remembered key phrases (because I have a memory that likes to retain useless tidbits like what I did at my kindergarten placement test) such as the "move to back" function, how to lock things in place, and that there is a way to make an endlessly replicating object (which is called infinite cloning).  Those few things plus the fact that the Smart Board interface is very user friendly made it possible for me to make a classroom management tool on the Smart Board.  I'll post a picture of it in my next blog.  I was, as my colleagues can attest, a little too excited about what I made considering it's not fancy, but I hope it does the trick.  

It was important to me to tailor my classroom management to align with what my students have in their classrooms.  There isn't much of a difference between what the kindergarten and first grade teachers do in their rooms which was great for me.  Almost all of the teachers have some sort of system where the students get downgraded on a chart - such as moving from the green section of the chart to the yellow if they are on a first warning.  I decided to adopt this idea into my Smart management thing.  Fundamentally, I have an issue with the growing trend that we positively reinforce everything that a child does: "Great job, Jimmy! Thanks for blowing your nose in a tissue and not into Jane's hair! Here's a sticker." I'm sorry, but I don't think that kids should get in the habit of expecting a reward for everything he/she does.  Rewarding good behavior for a full class period is great because especially with the little ones to teach them that they need to sit and listen.  But, when I have a kid come up to me and say - and this has happened - "I just helped John tie his shoe! Can I have a sticker now?", well that's where I draw the line. Helping someone tie a shoe is something that a nice human does. While it is a wonderful thing to show kindness, kids shouldn't expect a reward each time they do anything. So, that's why I don't have a prize box (also because I'm not lugging a box of chotchkies between 4 schools) and instead have a compliment jar on my Smart Board.  I used the infinite clone feature to make a star that can be moved from the treasure box into the jar.  It works similarly to House Points in Harry Potter - if a student earns a compliment from me, like "Jenny, thank you so much for sitting with good posture during class today and singing more confidently than ever before", Jenny gets to add a compliment star to the compliment jar. Or, if the whole class is improving their steady beat keeping, I can compliment them as a whole and add a compliment star on behalf of all of the students.  When the class reaches the magic number (TBD) of compliments, they get a round of a game (probably Freeze Dance, because who doesn't love that?!)  Like I said, I haven't implemented this yet, but I have explained that it will be happening to the kids and they seem down with it.

r-e-s-p-e-c-t

Your welcome for giving you an excuse to belt some Aretha Franklin.  
As basic as this might sound, respect is something that we as teachers have to be cognizant of.  Teachers are usually pretty decent at being respectful and empathetic toward each other but we all, myself definitely included, need to remember that we have to respect our students and remember that they are still growing and learning.  When a kindergartener is being a pain, it's easy to think "what's wrong with this kid?!" (I know I do that about 10 times every class) but this student may have a rough time at home or something.  I have been constantly reminding myself that we need to respect our students and keep in mind that we need to guide them in the right direction.  Especially with the little ones, treating them kindly even when they're being irrational and "annoying" sets a good example that they should do the same when encountered with a similar situation.  

Just think - with every student you encounter you're looking into the face of a person who is just learning what it is to be a person, to be in school, to be a kindergartener, or even to be an 11th grader.  I hope that when people look at me, they respect my situation and realize that they're looking into the face of a girl who is still trying to figure out this adult world, and who has no more of an idea of what it means to be an adult than a 5 year old knows what it means to be a kindergartener.  We're all just passengers on this crazy ride called life and every single soul, young or old, is trying to discover themselves.

Think about it next time you want to snap at a kid. I know I will.  

Processing Time

long time no blog

I've been trying to think of what profound pieces of information to impart upon the world of the interwebs over the last two-ish weeks.  All I keep thinking is that I am just pushing forward and that I haven't really had time to process what is important to take note of.  Despite this, I'm going to put some of my thoughts down on paper laptop.

opinions of the faculty room

I'm sure we all, as current/potential music educators have heard to stay away from the faculty room! All those teachers do is complain about their kids, about administration, it's crowded, you don't know anyone, yadda yadda yadda. During student teaching, I never set foot in the faculty room (mostly because we ate pie during lunch in the middle school band room and I'm not one to miss out on a baked good) but I did when I substitute taught during semester breaks.  That was a little bit of a different experience because almost everyone in the faculty room was a parent of a friend or was my teacher when I was in school, so it was more of a "How are you?!" type situation than a listening to complaining situation. I don't have a classroom or space to call my own in any of my four schools and since I travel so often and that means I spend a lot of my prep times in the faculty room.  I have found that it is very important for me to have face time in the faculty room because no one really knows me anywhere. I think that for any new teacher, especially music teachers who touch so many students, it is important for you to get a sense of the school community, chat with other teachers, and let them know that you exist when you're in the faculty room.  Yes, sometimes I do overhear a lot of jibberjabbercomplaincomplain, but also sometimes there are cookies and bread with spinach artichoke dip. You take the bad with the good.

observation

I was observed for the first time. It was fine. Real people observations are different than student teaching observations.  When we got observed for student teaching during undergrad, we got instant feedback; our junior year student teaching supervisors gave us written sheets along with the discussions we had in the car on the way to/from the school and senior year, our supervisors met with us as soon as we were done teaching to give feedback.  With this observation of a kindergarten class, my supervisor left as soon as I was done teaching and that was it! I know that I will have a post-observation meeting with him, but hey, I think it went well!

based on our old data...

Okay, that was a very brainy heading. I'll explain. When my two research buddies and I coded our data from our junior student teaching, one thing we discovered was that at one point or another we all felt like we had no idea what we were doing.  To some extent, I still feel like I don't know what I'm doing.  The one thing that I have to keep reminding myself of is that my kindergarteners and first graders have never had music in the public schools before, so sticking with the basics for a while is just fine for them...and me! Some of the other teachers in my district are very well versed in Kodály and that's how they work their lesson plans.  I, on the other hand, had an overview of different methods that included Kodály but that wasn't the main focus.  I'm very happy that I've had a big overview of methods because it's helped my bag of tricks, but I still feel a little like my skill set isn't up to par.  One other thing that has made me feel a little like I don't know what I'm doing is the fact that there are a lot of general music teachers in the 8 district elementary schools, but we aren't covering concepts at the same times. For example, I've already started with rhythm sticks, jingle bells, and tambourines with all of my students but other teachers save that for later.  I talked to my mentor teacher about this and she said to just try it and if it fails, then I know for next time.  It's nice to hear that there is some leniency and that me wanting to try things is okay.  I like that I still feel a little like student teaching, that I can learn about what works as I go and I don't need all the answers.

My dad once told me that he feels like he shouldn't have gotten paid for his first few years of teaching because he didn't know what he was doing.  I thought he was joking, but now I know it's not an exaggeration because I feel the same way! For some reason, I thought that having a job would mean that I felt super confident about everything I was doing - like a job gave me this treasure chest of knowledge that I was unaware of until then.  Nope. 

last but certainly not least, lesson planning

Writing plans for general music is way different than lesson planning for beginning band lessons or high school band. I can very easily open up Essential Elements 2000, turn to the next page, know what will be difficult, and say SWBAT within two seconds, or even open up a score and know what passages you'll have to work.  While the general music teacher editions are full of tons of information and well laid out ideas to teach the kiddies, I don't want to do everything in the same order as the textbook editors want to.  I mean, yeah, we all start with steady beat and high and low, but I've been taking time to get songs from different kindergarten and first grade books across publishers. It also takes a lot of time to tailor the lessons to the short attention span of 5-7 year olds.  The lessons are so full of different activities that it inherently takes longer.  In any lesson planning situation, it behooves you to plan extra just in case but with the little ones, it's especially true.  I'm starting to get more in the flow as get to I know my students, their interests and abilities, but lesson planning for general music is a different beast. 

Now it's time for one more small tidbit of information.  If you don't have time to work out in the morning before school, do an activity with your students that incorporates a workout. For example, the song "I'm Tall, I'm Small", I had students squat down when they sing about being small and then jump up when they're tall.  After doing that approximately 50 times on Monday and 50 times on Tuesday, my legs were KILLING me yesterday. Win.

The First Full Week

Where to begin, where to begin...

I think I'll start with my favorite story from teaching thus far.  A teacher dropped off a class to my room and didn't tell my why this kid was crying bawling out loud.  Apparently, he missed his mom.  Then about 15 minutes into the class, one other girl goes "I miss my mom, too!" and also starts bawling. Then 5 minutes after that, a third child goes "They're crying and it's making me think about my parents and I want to see them, too!" and so now I have 3 children crying out loud. I decide to do the Hokey Pokey as a review (because it was too ironic to sing "If You're Happy and You Know It") from last week and while all the kids are having fun, between versus all you hear is "WAAAAAAHHHHHHH".
I try to find one thing to make me laugh in every day so I don't go nuts and this incident has provided me with a good chuckle each time I think about it (but obviously I didn't laugh at the little ones). 

What I learned this week...

dealing with difficult students

I have a student who has been having a lot of issues in school - this student is disrespectful, destructive, won't listen to anyone, shows no real emotion/remorse when they do something wrong.  I was speaking to my mentor teacher about it and she said that I should write everything down that this child does during my class that is inappropriate so that if Special Services needs facts from each teacher, I have written documentation.  

when you have a problem, provide a solution

Okay, that's super vague so I'll explain. I teach in four schools, as I have mentioned before.  In 2 schools I teach the students in their classrooms, in one school I teach in the general music classroom while the full-time teacher is on prep time, and in the fourth school I teach some classes in the general music class while the full-time teacher is on prep and in the instrumental music room while the string and instrumental teachers are not in the building.  In this fourth school, we discovered that there is a scheduling issue - the full-time general music teacher, string teacher, and I all have classes at the same time but only two rooms in which to teach. It doesn't take a math major to realize this is an issue. Since, as I said, I spend a lot of time teaching in not-a-music room, I went to the principal and asked if I could teach the two conflicting classes in the classrooms to clear up the space issues. The principal said "Sure! It's very easy when you come in here with the solution to the issue you are bringing up." My supervisor had the same attitude when I brought it up to him. So, if you have a problem, don't go to your supervisor/principal and complain without first thinking through the options. 

Tales of a travelor

I have to be on top of the procedures for 4 schools, which can be confusing sometimes.  For example, on Tuesday, I accidentally ended a class 10 minutes early because their "bell schedule" is different than the other schools.  By the time I realized it, the teacher had already moved on to the next activity so it's not like I could have run in and said "Time for more music!!" I just chilled in the hallway until the art teacher was done with my next assigned class. I felt kind of dumb, but now I'm sure I won't forget the time again!  My name still hasn't been on any of the 4 lists typed correctly (in some places not typed at all).  All issues aside, I like my travel time because I can get some fresh air, eat my "lunch" (food bar), and listen to the classical radio station.  It keeps me on my toes. I think the second week will be a little easier (especially because it's only a 3 day week)!

 

Gettin' paaaaaid

My school districts split up each person's salary into 20 equal paychecks, received every two weeks. It works out well; some weeks you get "overpaid", some "underpaid" but at least it's a reliable check each payday.  Today's check was definitely one of those overpaid checks because we've only had 7 school days instead of 10 in this pay period. But hey, I liked the number I saw! Getting that check made it all real. Today was especially real because as soon as I celebrated my paycheck, my dad brought up the things I need to start paying for, being a salaried woman and whatnot. Kind of a buzzkill for my big moment, but whatever.

Onward and upward!

Ta Ta Ti Ti Ta

Hello again, world! So. A lot has happened since my last post.  I'll try to break it down.

You Bettah Werk.

I've always been goal-oriented and have accomplished almost everything I've set my mind to.  I worked incredibly hard during my undergrad to prepare myself to be the best music teacher I could be when I was let into the real world.  Also, in general, I like to be in control (or at least feel like I'm in control) of my situations.  So I thought that I was setting myself up for success and putting myself somewhat in control of my job search with my hard work. Nope.  By the time September rolled around, I still had no job.  I kept not getting jobs for reasons I never really considered - I wasn't a percussionist, I wasn't a vocalist, I wasn't a brass player, I didn't have experience.  I have always considered myself a well-rounded musician - I have decent piano chops (although I'm not as good as I was when I was 14...), I have a pretty extensive choral music performance background having sung in choirs since I was in 4th grade, I have solo singing experience as a cantor, I'm a good doubler, and I'm really modest.  I'm a good young teacher and, minus the phase in my life when I wanted to be a comedian, teaching is all I've wanted to do.  So when I had no job for legitimate but hard to swallow reasons, it was crushing and made me question pretty much all of my musical life.  It was horrible and I felt really down and out. I know I know, I've heard it a million times and I really do believe it, but when you're in a bad place, it's hard to keep your mind on the idea that everything happens for a reason. 

A New Job (or is it pronounced yob...maybe it's a soft J), A New Identity.

One of the districts where I interviewed had a maternity leave position and since the supervisor was impressed with my teaching and interview the first time, he interviewed me for this position.  It's a part-time (noon - 3:15 every day!) kindergarten and first grade general music job across 4 elementary schools.  I was hired on Tuesday, went to a department-wide in-service day on Wednesday, and taught on Thursday.  It was a really fast turn-around which meant I missed the new teacher orientation day. I didn't know in which rooms I was teaching until I got to each school the day of my classes because I didn't have time in the preceding days to visit each building. I still don't have access to my school email, the online district resources, the class lists, the grading system, haven't signed my contract, or been board approved.

All things considered, the first two days are all I've done so far and I think I'm doing okay! I like the little ones, but I've never taught them music, having not student taught with that age group.  You can't bargain with them; saying "Boys and girls, we have to be able to accomplish this task and listen to our directions or else we can't have fun with the next music game" doesn't go over as well with them as it does with middle/high school kids.  But laying down the rules - using ta ta ti ti ta to get attention, being quiet before entering the room, using a quiet raised hand, etc. seems to have worked so far.  Things that are making me feel better when I start to worry that college has not prepared me for this? Remembering that this is the first year this district is having full day kindergarten means that NONE of my students (K or 1st) have had any in-school music class.  It makes for easier lesson planning thus far because the K and 1st have the same objectives.  One thing that is less in my control is my teaching space.  I was unaware, because of the aforementioned reasons, that I was teaching some kindergartens in their rooms, some in the instrumental music room, some in the general music room. However, I made sure to cover my bases and I planned for the whole first lesson to be a cappella so that I could accomplish my objectives regardless of a CD player, piano, board, or Orff instruments.  I'm looking forward to collaborating more with my mentor teacher and the other K and 1 teachers in the schools I'm at.  I know that even though I only had my one general music methods course, my musical sense will guide me through this phase of my teaching life.  I feel like I'm going to learn more about general music and teaching in general from doing it even part-time then I would have from student teaching for 7 weeks.  I'll check back in with you, my adoring public, after my first full week.  

As for my identity, a funny anecdote.  My fiance and I joined the church choir at the parish we now belong to and Thursday was our first rehearsal.  I asked the choir director what he wanted me to sing because I could do church soprano (aka not super high) or alto (or honestly church tenor because it's not super low and practically alto II range but I didn't mention that because this choir actually has men).  He said soprano because this group has a lot of altos. Thursday was also the first day of school, so in one day, I became 2 things that I pretty much didn't think I'd be at this point in my life - a general music teacher and a soprano.