Finding the pearl

Amidst the constant and unexpected challenges and surprises of the first year of music teaching (a recurring theme here, no need to really elaborate!) I am trying to remind myself of one adage. I have heard this several times over the course of my training, and I cannot place where I heard it initially. The advice is to find a "pearl", or a single good moment in any rehearsal or class period. At times it has been hard to find these pearls but when I do, it is immensely refreshing.

I am still in the phase where I feel that I am reacting to situations with the program, instead of proactively preparing for them. I am learning way more each day than my students are, and that makes me anxious! There are instances daily where I feel unprepared, ineffective, and amazed how anyone anywhere could believe that I have some sort of skill at teaching music. At the end of a long week, I was working with my freshmen band. I am training them daily to listen for intonation; what it sounds and feels like to play flat or sharp relative to something else, and ways to adjust. I am hoping that stressing this starting day one of high school will pay off for them. Anyway, I had my flute section play a unison A against the tuner's pitch, and I simply corrected one student, improving the section's intonation. Another student's reaction was "HOW did you KNOW that??". This made me smile, and was definitely my pearl for that class. It was just a slight affirmation that I can make a difference in how these students learn and perform, and that perhaps they are starting to trust me and buy into what I am saying!

I played my trumpet this weekend for a while, and that was immensely refreshing as well. Another pearl, not from a class, but a pearl all the same.

Two delicious dinners this weekend with fellow teachers; one with my department colleagues and another with other bloggers from here! I am immensely thankful for mentors and for friends. I feel much less alone because of them, and I hope very much that we keep sharing our stories; the good and the bad.