But Wait, That Wasn't In My Job Description
Take a moment to read it. It's definitely worth it.
We are often told that, as beginning teachers, we have to take what we can get, as far as positions are concerned. The more well-prepared you are, the better, sure, but even the most talented, well-educated, inspired teacher can get stuck in a less than ideal situation.
This article responds to an email from a "First year who was hired as a part-time choral director" who "really didn't want to start out in inner-city education, but it was all that was available." Again, less than ideal. The author of the blog, Joel (a band teacher) offers insightful and useful advice. He doesn't say that working in that situation will be easy, because it's not. But he does offer constructive ways to move the students and the program forward. The most important theme seems to be remembering to take baby steps, and to respect your students' abilities as well as your own.
This is a resource I would use as a first year teacher. I'm interested in reading more of this blog.
This blog seems to offer some down to Earth advice on the darker side of teaching. I haven't had a chance yet to poke around more to see what sort of ideas the author provides, but the premise of this blog certainly catches one's attention. I would guess that there are very few music educators who look back at their first year of teaching and feel that their performance was stellar. It's important to know that there are others out there facing the same challenges as you every day.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely an interesting read. There are some dangerous philosophical tendencies in the way that music education and education are viewed by the world at large, and this at least loosely ties into one of them.
ReplyDeleteI find often that there is a problem with not viewing music educators as valid musicians. There is this idea out there that music educators are simply the people who lacked the talent and skill to become "actual musicians"(performers) and lacked the intelligence to pursue a "real" academic field(like musicology, or engineering or something). In high school, my band director told me that his father took years to accept his choice to become a music educator. His father used to tell all the family acquainances that he was actually an engineer, so as not to be an embarassment to the family.
This whole thing trickles down: administrations don't expect much from music educators, educators become discouraged and stop expecting much from themselves, and thus set low expectations for their students. And low expectations basically set the students up to underachieve. The fact that the administrator was unforthcoming in the job interview confirms this to me: it seems likely that he cared mainly for the appearance of the program, if the school was willing to just dump kids in the class and have them go at it.
The blog author throws out some good tips, but I think that he misses one crucial idea: the educator can take a huge step by giving reason for the students and staff to acknowledge her as a skilled musician.
We can say all we want about how chorus is fun, have recruiting sessions, etc, but the best recruiting tool is having an environment where students believe they are succeeding. As one educator I met said, "No one wants to be a part of [a program] that sucks."
Obviously, in this case, the teacher has a lot of work in front of her to build up the program, but showing her own validity(performing for the students might be a good way to do this) as a musician is an important first step. It is a way to show the kids that she knows what she's doing, and that since everyone starts out life without extensive musical skills, that this is something that can be attained through work and study. It gives those who are interested but discouraged a tangible goal.
Long winded, I know, but one more thing before I wrap this up. The other day, Dr. Ceipluch made a comment about music education that I found striking: "You become the best musician you can, and then maybe you can teach." This is incredibly true.
Why should anyone reasonably expect me to be able to teach them to be a musician if I can't show that I myself am an exemplary musician? Likewise, if I demonstrate elite musical skill, it has the power to model a goal for students and inspire confidence that they can achieve success in music and that I can help guide them.