Conference day always makes me glad to be a music teacher. All of the other teachers have to stay in their dusty old building and be lectured to about the new "Reading Program" they have to follow (how many of those have you seen come and go?) or the new "policies on reporting absences" or whatever, while we all get to go to some state of the art facility and chose from an interesting array of professional development opportunities (like real professionals).
One thing I've noticed over the years: the "experts" who present at these events often seem to have jobs in the rarefied world of either college-level teaching positions or very upscale suburban school districts. I'm not being critical, really; I always come back from these sessions with new ideas that I can put into action right away. The fellow who I listened to yesterday described how their "model" music program was run. It sounded excellent: they start the kids playing during a five-week summer program before they enter fourth grade. The program is state-funded so they have a large cohort of music teachers there to teach each instrument, as well as teaching assistants drawn from secondary schools. They work very hard to minimize attrition from the program from fourth grade through high school, and to provide playing opportunities even after high school graduation. Sounds perfect. However, there was no guidance on how this model could be used by other districts (especially the "less affluent districts", which have hosts of other issues to deal with . . .).
I'm getting to a point where I'm starting to think "how can I get a job like this guy has", instead of "how can I institute this type of program for my kids". It's too much work trying to constantly fight against a system with limited resources and support for the services you're supposed to be providing.
At any rate, the point of the presenter's spiel was well-taken, and I agreed with him: we should be focused on encouraging our students to be life-long learners. They should be playing year-round, and not just for nine months per year. We should do everything we can to look at our programs as a whole, from kindergarten through post-high school. And we should find ways that we can be of real benefit to the community (outside the school) over the long term.
The question is: where should a teacher go to be allowed to do these things?
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
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2 comments:
Hey Stan,
Hope all is well. The one thing that I have set out to do this year with my groups is to provide Chamber Music/Small Ensemble music for the students. I am getting ready to pass out some Holiday quartets and trios that they can use in December at a variety of functions.
I am fortunate that there is a community band in the town that I teach. I do encourage the upper classmen to play in the summer in that group. I try and find at least one time during the summer that I can also play in the group (leadership by example).
The limited resources is always a problem. The only advice I can offer is to plant seeds in the students so that the desire to play more grows. over time, hopefully their parents become more critically aware of the level of support and begin to help you make a change by pushing the board of directors and administration to assist you in your position. The students are the most receptive, and the one thing that you can impact the most. Keep on keeping on Stan!
Sincerely,
Travis J. Weller
Travis -
Thanks you very much for the positive comments. My particular problems don't have anything to do with student motivation, however - they have to do with a lack of time and space. We rehearse in all-purpose rooms which others in the school (read: administrators) will occasionally decide to use for something else on a whim (let's show all the first graders a movie, because their teachers need to to be trained on the "new reading program", for instance; benchmark tests keep the students in their room for increasing numbers of minutes per month; last Tuesday the custodian ran an incredibly loud floor waxer in the all-purpose room during the entire rehearsal! The list goes on; a fifth grade teacher who has about half of my orchestra in her class decides to schedule a kickball game during rehearsal, so I have kids crying because they can't go play kickball, the list goes on . . .)
Thanks for stoping in, and I always welcome advice, Travis.
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