The First Month

    I've been teaching at my job for about a month now and there's been ups and downs all over the place, but I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of things. Here are some things that I think other people that are thinking of teaching music in a public school system might want to know.

1.    I think the one thing I have learned that I cannot recommend more is to always ask the other music teachers in the district first. 

    This rule of thumb pertains to just about any question that you might be able to think of including: 

• What is the curriculum? 
• What do you mean there's no curriculum? 
• What do I do about instrument repairs? 
• What do I do about scheduling performances? 
• What about healthcare? 

    All these questions might seem best answered by specialists in the district, but ten out of ten times, I would bet that the other music teachers in your district have found more effective and efficient ways of accomplishing same things. Let's take the curriculum example first. When I started my job, I wanted to know what my curriculum was going to be before I started teaching (seems sensible right?) so I asked the district and was told that there was no curriculum. What?! That's about the equivalent of a quarter-back trying to call plays from a playbook that doesn't exist. In a panic I contacted my principals to see if there was some sort of curriculum left by my predecessor that they might have gotten a copy of, but was often left with a blank stare and questions like "Does music even need a curriculum?" 

    Don't get me wrong I love my administrators. They've been nothing but supportive of the music programs and welcoming to me as a new teacher. It scares me a bit how little they know about the program though and I just hope that I will be able to talk to them a little more so that they know a little more about what it is I'm doing. 

    Anyways, I'm getting off topic. I finally came to my senses and called one of the other music teachers to try to figure out what I was supposed to teach. 

    Boom. 

    He guided me through everything I needed to know in a single conversation and even offered to talk me through it more over coffee. Bless his soul.

    

    The other teachers are also great at getting around district procedures that just take a while by nature. The second week of teaching, my bass clarinet broke. It wasn't that big of a problem so I took it down to the district office where they take care of it for me without anything coming out of my budget (which is awesome). Unfortunately, that fix ended up taking almost three weeks to get resolved. THREE WEEKS. My poor bass clarinetist had to sit through class for almost three weeks playing bass clarinet parts on a soprano. When I told another music teacher about this, he lent me one of his bass clarinets and taught me a faster way of getting things while still paying nothing out of pocket. The student had his instrument back in two days!! 

    Always ask your fellow music teachers. They will be your biggest allies. 

2.    Students are people, and so are you. 

    I think this will be more relatable to any musician.

    My middle school classes are usually at the end of the day so when my students get to me they are already carrying that day's load of drama that has already happened at school. I don't know if any of you remember from middle school, but the drama game is strong and what's happened that day has a huge impact on your mood and pretty much your entire world. It gets really hard at times to read your students' mood from day to day and it gets even harder to predict how they will act the next day. This is a bit problematic when you're trying to conduct a rehearsal and James won't play anymore because Olivia told Austin that he smells bad, and Austin told Alan, who told James about what Austin said about what Olivia said about him. It gets messy and sometimes you might blame yourself for not being able to change the outcome of the situation. The reality of it all, however, is that everybody has their days and that isn't necessarily a reflection of you or your teaching but rather it is just a part of everybody's lives that you can't do anything about. You can't let it get to you and you can't let it affect your teaching no matter how much you might want to get up and yell at your students about it. 

The first month was nice and crazy, but now this is where the real fun begins! My jazz band is starting up and I'm going to have a bunch of performances coming up including the big parade this coming weekend! If you're in the LA Foothills area come check out the Buckboard Days Parade on October 17th on Colima Street in Rowland Heights and if you can't be there check your local news stations because we're apparently going to get some media coverage!