My years spent teaching in a Title I school district were the most rewarding of my K-12 career. While I cherish and have wonderful memories of former students at my other schools, my mission as an orchestra teacher in a Title I School went beyond teaching music.
Music education has changed dramatically over the last few months. It seems that everyone has a different situation regarding how they are teaching their students this school year.
Music is an essential part of every child’s education. Truthfully, it’s a fundamental part of the human experience. Scholars, poets, and philosophers throughout history have praised music as being one of the highest forms of art.
Learning to play a musical instrument is hard. However, my experience as a middle school orchestra teacher led me to discover that most adolescent musicians believe that learning to play an instrument is easy.
Every music teacher I’ve ever met has had a horrible-day experience where they thought something like: I love my career but I hate my job.
Last July, as I was preparing to present to the NAfME Southwest Division Collegiate Summit, I decided to do a quick poll in one of the big music teacher groups.
My parents have had the same hairstyles for over 50 years. They’re incredibly immune to cultural pressure to change and phenomenal at ignoring (or diplomatically refusing) public and personal requests.
When you wake up in the morning, do you look forward to your day of teaching music with excitement and anticipation?
My experience with suicide began in 1988 with the loss of one of my students who was suffering from depression and anorexia, and continued with the loss of another student in 1997 whose family life had taken a jolting turn for him earlier that year.
In small schools, you may start your band students in the fifth grade and work with them through their senior year.