The Future of Education...and it's only my first year.

Snow Day Number 2... I think I have some catching up to do to you southern Illinois folk. Even though there is barely snow on the ground, I think they canceled school because of the freezing rain? Even then I am not sure of the reason, regardless, I will use this time to do another post.

A lot has happened since my last post. For those of you that are not aware of what is happening in Wisconsin, I would like to first offer a bit of a summary before I offer my thoughts:

This year, Wisconsin has elected a Republican Governor, and the most recent election has created a massive Republican majority in the State Senate. This being said, a lot of the teachers in my district and state were fearful of what might happen once they heard the results of the election. Fast forward to Friday February 11th. The new Governor submits his plan for the Budget fix (Wisconsin is supposedly in a little debt) which he hopes to be voted on by the following Thursday. This document was 144 pages long, and given that length, was not allowed a sufficient amount of time for reviewal before voting. Within the budget fix bill, the Governor called for many cuts in spending including having teachers and state employees pay more into their retirement and health care funds. Furthermore, if this was not enough, the Governor wants to strip all state employees of their collective bargaining rights. (collective bargaining is what allows teachers and unions to "bargain" with their employers and allows teachers to have input on the education of their students. It deals with such things as work day hours, teacher pay, amount of sick days, amount of prep time, amount of personal days, amount of school days, etc).

Well as you could imagine, this did not sit well with many people. In essence, the Governor's Budget fix bill could lead to a busting of all Unions. There was immediate protest to the bill in Madison on the first day of 10,000 teachers and sate employees. On the second day, the number tripled. By the third day the Numbers tripled again, and the Senate Democrats, fearing they did not have enough time to review the bill and that the Governor was trying to Push this bill through without discussion or amendments, fled the state in hopes to postpone a vote.

On the fourth day of rallies in madison, the numbers were up to 130,000 people. Madison area schools have been closed (including today) for four days due to teacher's calling in sick in support of the rallies. Many more schools across the state closed for similar reasons. By last Friday, this was getting national attention.

And then this happened: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPuqW3BaZRc . The Wisconsin Assembly met Friday to discuss and vote on amendments to the bill that will then be brought in front of the Senate for final votes. The Assembly was scheduled to start at 5:00pm, but the Republican members decided to start early (with quorum) in an effort to vote on the bill without discussing two crucial amendments that the Democratic minority had on the table. They succeeded, just when the Democrats stormed into the room screaming in protest. (honestly something out of a movie).

So here is where we are at: The Assembly Democrats forced them to repeal the vote due to its immorality and going against the rules, and have adjourned until Tuesday when they will vote again on amendments to the budget fix bill, which will then be brought in front of the Senate.

ALL THE WHILE, I have been thrust in to the middle of this craziness. My fellow first year teachers are very frightened by this situation, especially when they see veteran teachers (who we thought could never be phased) shaken up by what might happen. Furthermore, we are all expected to put all of this aside and continue teaching.

No matter how good of a preparation we had, this is yet another thing that you can not train for during college. At the end of last week, I called one of my college professors for some advice, and, in his infinite wisdom, calmed me down with these words: "The only thing you can do in times like this is worry about what is most important; your students... There is nothing you can do to prevent what is about to happen, but what you can do is be the best teacher you can be."

I have a concert coming up Thursday, Solo and Ensemble in two weeks, and a music boosters fundraiser Tuesday. Seems like a lot to worry about on top of all of this political messiness, but if all that matters is my students, then that is all that matters. I trust my professor because he has never led me astray. I just hope that the future of education, and the future of my students is not in jeopardy with the storm that is about to sweep across this nation.

7 Quick Takes Friday!!

~1~

Don't Smile 'Til...Spring Break??

The jr high has been AWFUL this week for all their teacher. I guess we've all gotten a little slack...combine that with the fact that the 8th graders think they rule the world, and there were major problems this week. Why can't kids just get along with each other? The Middle School department has really decided to crack down on behavior (which is a really good thing!) and now we're all on the same page. (which is also good!) But, this week we've been forced to go back to a very strict management style for awhile. Once we whip these kids into shape and they can handle it I'm already looking forward to being able to relax a little bit.

~2~

The Secret Garden!

We started rehearsals for the spring musical this week! HOLY COW it's a lot of work. Putting on a show is so much more than just the rehearsals. I already knew that, but It's still extremely overwhelming! We've had two rehearsals - a read through and a music rehearsal where we went over 3 songs. I've got some REALLY hard workers in the cast! Our rehearsals have gone very well - one of the songs is almost memorized and ready to perform (i'm telling you, i've got some special kids!). All the other organizational stuff is leaving me with a perpetual headache though! The paperwork to send home! The costumes! The set! The lights! The Schedule!! Any readers ever put on a musical before? What do I need to know??

~3~

Good Teaching Moments

This week I played the song "The Background" by a rapper named Lacrae for my 5th-8th grade Listening Log. It's a deep song that uses the metaphor of being a background singer. For one of my questions, I asked the kids to uncover the metaphor and tell me what the song was actually about. NO ONE GOT IT. They are so used to listening on the surface level! Eventually, they all got it, but we spent waaay too much time on it because I didn't want to just give them the answer. It was neat to see the lightbulbs go off in their heads when they did. We had some good discussion. Later the kids came up to me and told me "I listened to that song all night last night!" or "A bunch of kids had that Listening Log song as their facebook status yesterday!" Those are the simple moments when I know I have them in the palm of my head. They are learning and they don't even know it!

~4~

A Good Quote

"Ms. (Mary)... you're so... YOU!"
Me: "And how exactly is that??"
"You're really deep and you try to get us to think deep, too!"

(in my head: well...duh! that's my job!)

*By the way, When I sat down to write this, I had a couple more quotes to put here, but my brain is full, and I forgot them.*

~5~

Being Mary

This weekend, I'm going to just be Mary, and I'm really excited! I got a gift card to target for my birthday, and I am going on a shopping spree. :) I'm also going to do grown-up things like clean out my car and laundry. (Exciting stuff, huh?) I'm also going to do something just for fun.. I don't know what yet. Maybe I will play the wii... or write a song.. or play a game. I don't know, but it's gonna be epic.

~6~

Tony Chestnut

I did a silly song with my Prek-2nd grade today (and my 6th grade is begging me to do it with them... I told them I didn't think they would like it, but they insist, so I'll let you know how it goes). The kids loved it! It's called Tony Chestnut, and it's an active song with names that are parts of the body for example, the name tony chestnut is Toe/Knee Chest/Head. It has a lot of fun actions and goes really fast. If you teach little ones, I highly recommend it!

~7~

Welcome To Choir!

I decided to do an all choral unit with my 6th-8th graders. They haven't really had any experience with singing in a choir, so I figured it was about time. We are doing a wide variety of songs from Glee to the Samba to Michael Jackson. Most of the kids are doing well, but there are some who want to make my life miserable because they don't like to sing. I need to find a way to motivate them! Getting middle school kids to sing is very difficult, but I'm trying to make it as fun as possible! I have found so far that I am not the best teacher when it comes to rehearsing. I think that's why I went away from band and towards general music.. I'm finding it really difficult to come up with interesting ways to learn the parts! I'll let you know how it goes.

Great New Resource

Leading Notes is a brand new music education online magazine that is organized and run by friend of the blog Nick Jaworski. There are many great contributors for the magazine's maiden voyage, so check it out!

Web Site Up and Running, Trip, Ensembles, etc

I have finally created my teacher website through the utility that our school has... I have no HTML or other web building skills whatsoever, so its pretty convenient for me. If you know who I am, go to my Facebook page and find it on there. Its very much still in progress but I would appreciate any feedback and ideas. I hope to make it a resource that students and parents eventually use a lot, for everything to downloading schedules and permission forms, to looking up repair tips, to discovering a great new artist or piece of music (idealistic, I know!)

Our band and orchestra are taking a big spring break trip to a warm location, and that has been a big organizational journey. I believe we are over the hump though, and I am really looking forward to it. I think it will be a great opportunity for bonding with the students. Hopefully, if all goes well (cross your fingers) it will also be a good sign to parents and administrators. They have done a trip like this every other year for many years, so I'm sure it will look good that the tradition is continuing without a hiccup (I hope!). But yeah, it has been a logistical saga that is not over yet...

IMEA and Midwest were a total blast. It was great to catch up with everyone, and of course heard some really great groups, information, new music, etc. It was especially insightful this time to have a program of my own to actually relate to. It made it a completely different experience. The conferences really inspired me, and they also made me feel very insecure! Watching the stellar groups perform, and comparing them to my own, really just made my head swim. The students on those stages all seemed completely dedicated to the entire process. What I deal with each day seems so different from what I saw at these performances. I was struck with all kinds of thoughts of what I could be doing better as a teacher. I know that many of those wonderful qualities are products of time, comfort, repetition, and consistency. I hope it comes eventually. I hope I do everything I can to further that along. This right here is a topic for an entirely different, lengthy post.

With that said, I am enjoying making music with my students most of the time. We are playing a good mix of music now in all the classes, and they seem to be enjoying most of it. Small ensemble contest is coming up, and I am having much more stringent requirements than they are used to having in the past. (I'm making everyone in the band classes participate in a small ensemble, something which hasn't been done before.) Some of the groups are really taking off and enjoying the process, others are really struggling. Having them playing in duets, trios and quartets really illuminates the strengths and weaknesses of each student. It is obvious that several of them have never been challenged like this before. So, although the process is sometimes frustrating, and I have to deal with some complaining and do more rote teaching then I'd like, I am still very glad to be putting them through it. I was worried that the small ensemble repertoire I had selected would turn out terribly; that it would be too hard, or they would hate it, etc. Honestly, I'd say about 80% of it has worked out great. I have only had to make a few adjustments. So that's exciting. I hope to see the benefits of the small ensemble experience pay off in band rehearsals down the line.

The other night at pep band we had some down time while we were waiting for the Varsity basketball game to start. While most of the students were just relaxing and talking, one of the trios in my freshman band immediately cracked out their ensemble piece and began working on it. That about made my weekend.

I recently submitted a proposal for rotating sectional classes, in which students would be pulled out of other classes each week to work in like-instrument sectionals. I would love that so much. I would probably give up my left arm for those. I also just finished a proposal for a $14,000 grant; for upgraded instrument storage (the lockable Wenger cabinets, we don't have any individually locking storage), and a few new instruments. So, wish me luck.

The Curse of the First Year Teacher

If there was one piece of advice about teaching that I shouldn't have ignored but did, it would sound something like this... (not that it would have helped...except for mentally)

"You're a first year teacher? Get ready to be sick. ALL THE TIME."


I am seemingly ALWAYS SICK. In theory, this is not that big of a problem. That's why teachers have sick days, right? WRONG. You see, I am stubborn. There are only two ways that I would consider myself too sick to go to school, and well, lets not get into those. The problem with this is that I can still feel terrible, but am just too stubborn to call in. It's too much work! Gotta make sure the sub plans are ready. Where's the class lists? Does the sub know where everything is? What about everything ELSE I have to do?

If you will notice the time stamp at the bottom of this post, it will read 10:45 PM or so. Exactly 45 minutes past when I am always asleep. Probably more like a hour and a half past when I am usually asleep. You see, after getting over the worst cold/form of the flu/mystery illness I have had in years, I am sick again. and I can't sleep. So between sips of 7up, I am writing to you all, hoping that my stomach settles enough that i can sleep. Not likely anytime soon.

What is the moral of this story, you ask? Good question. I am tired, I am cranky, and I want to get well. I guess you could say the moral is "Sanitize, Sanitize, Sanitize! However, I must say, I do a pretty good job of that and I'm still sick.

Okay, that's about all i've got. I hope you all are sleeping well!

moving forward with music

In case we forgot to mention, a colleague and friend of ours, Nick Jaworski, has a great blog he has put together for music educators. His blog, moving forward with music, focuses on creating a 21st century music classroom that can excite and interest students in a new way. He has lesson plans and more just waiting for you - so go check it out!

7 Quick Takes Friday!!

---1----

It's Friday Already?

These week we had (count 'em!) 4(!!!!!) snow days. FOUR. After a practically record setting snowfall, the city pretty much shut down. There were, of course, many positives to this situation, including some much much much needed free time and rest and having my mom snowed in with me. However, I got sick on Monday night and spent the entirety of my snow days in bed feeling miserable. Now that's it's friday, I'm starting to feel better.

---2---
Yeah Musical Theater!

My jr high kids just finished doing a month long unit on musical theater. They studied two different musical in class - we focused on the elements of musical theater, staging, lighting, acting, etc. To finish it off, we did a group project. It's one of my better ideas, if I do say so myself! I hope to post some video here soon. In groups of 4, each group was assigned a scene from a musical. They had to act out the scene and write a group paper (each person in the group was responsible for one page of the paper), then do a presentation on their report. The kids really got into it! Some groups went above and beyond in creating props and costumes! To top it off, next week we are going to watch the professional version of each scene.

---3----
Kids Cheat.

As I just mentioned, my kids just finished some awesome musical theater projects. However, a RIDICULOUS number of them straight-up copied from Wikipedia. Those kids should be happy that I've had 4 snow days to cool down. How crazy is that?? I can't believe they thought it would be okay to copy and paste.

---4----

Oh my Goodness, IMEA!

IMEA was amazing. I got a ton of great ideas, but also felt a little dispair in my heart. My school is so lacking in resources - especially with instruments! I have all these great ideas for lessons that I can't do yet! I went to two great sessions on world music - one was kinda of an overview, and the other went in depth into Indian music. I want so badly to have World Music be a MAJOR part of my curriculum! It's so interesting for the kids (and me) and helps them learn concepts in a meaningful, hands on way.

---5---
The Woes of Private Schools

This week I was all excited to set up an account on donorschoose.org. It's a fabulous website for teachers that allows you to post what you need funding for (INSTRUMENTS!!) and people can donate to your project. I was all settled in and ready to get set up when the sentence "donorschoose does not support private schools" popped up on my computer. I understand that many private schools get a lot of funding, but many don't! Many private schools receive even LESS funding that public schools. So now I'm back to square one. I applied for a grant through fender... and I guess I'll just have to keep searching...

---6---
Feeling the Blues

It's great to have good friends. I am doing a harmonica unit with 3rd grade and 5th grade. It's a GREAT unit. The kids are so so so excited (i hear harmonica playing coming from the hallways and classrooms after school!) I've tied it together with a short unit on the blues, and it's been going well. THe hardest thing has been teaching an instrument to a whole classroom of kids. I mean, in a band class, it's a little different. This is a general music classroom, and most of these kids have never had any experience with playing an instrument. It's hard to find a balance between letting them play the instrument and practice versus me talking and only letting one or two kids play at a time. I've shared this unit with fellow blogger Sara, and she had some really kind and inspiring words to say about how I was doing! She was able to pull a lot of meaning out of the way I was teaching the unit and show me that what I have been considering "free time" is ACTUALLY well structured independent learning. Thanks, Sara! I'm excited to go back and keep teaching those songs!


---7---

THE. SPRING. MUSICAL.

Never have three words filled my heart with such excitement and dread. This year we are doing "The Secret Garden." I'm pretty pumped, but at the same time, it's a LOT of work and a LOT of planning. I'm not so good at the organizational stuff, so hopefully I'll be able to find a right-hand-man to help me out. Auditions are next week, and soon after that we are going to be knee deep in rehearsals. I have never ever been in charge of a musical before. I have no idea how to schedule rehearsals so that everything will get done and learned. I'm terrified. I just have to trust in my knowledge of and my experience in musical theater and do my best. As long as I keep calm and rational, everything will be fine. It's really going to be a fun experience, and the kids are really excited.


Well, that's what's new with me! Thanks for reading!

Long Time Listener, First Time Caller

Let me start by saying this is my first time posting on this blog, so I have no idea if this will work.

That being said, as my title suggests, I am a long time follower of this blog, but like I said, this is my first time blogging on it. Over the past couple of months, I have been trying to come up with something profound to talk about or share about my program, learning, or teaching so far, but nothing has struck my as significant enough to share. Despite this obstacle, I have been determined to share something for discussion. Thus, when I found out yesterday afternoon that we were going to have our first snow day of the year today, the first thing that went on my "to do" list was "BLOG ON DSTL".

I suppose, the most important piece of information to start with in this post is a little about myself as a first year teacher, and a little about my program. Currently, I am working at Riverview Middle School in Plymouth, Wisconsin, and I am just beginning my 6th month as a Music Educator/Band Director. I teach 6th, 7th, and 8th grade band and have 1 jazz band that meets before school. There are about 250 kids in my program and every grade has their own band class. In addition to the band class, I teach individual lessons to every 6th grader, as well as the brass students in 7th and 8th grade; there is another teacher that comes in to cover all of the other 7th and 8th grade woodwind students (without her, there is no way I could deal with all of the students by myself). All of my students feed into the High School in the district which has a very strong fine arts program. As I am his major source of students, there is a good amount of pressure from the High School to not only have the numbers he needs, but to also have the instrumentation he needs for his program.

This leads me to my first topic: Students Dropping Band. In the state of Wisconsin, students are only required to take 1 trimester of band/chorus during middle school. Therefore, at my middle school students are given two (three really) opportunities a year to drop band. The first opportunity comes at the beginning/end of the year when they sign up for classes; students can chose whether or not they want to take band the following year. The second (and third) opportunity comes at the end of each trimester, when they can drop the class if they "do not like it."

At the end of the first trimester this year, even though I was reassured that nothing was out of the ordinary and that students drop every year, it felt like there was a significant amount of students that dropped band at every grade. After this, I had a meeting with the principal to try and change the policy of the school in order to limit the number of students dropping. To my surprise she started the conversation by saying, I do not think that students should be allowed to drop after second trimester. She said, after first trimester, students are making a commitment to the program and should not be given any more opportunity to drop until the end of the year. This was great news, and I especially appreciate knowing that the principal is a big supporter of the music program and our efforts as educators.

But dropping band is the result of a much larger problem at hand. After 5 months of teaching, I strongly feel like I have a great relationship with all of my 6th graders (primarily because I am the only teacher they know), and my 8th graders (who I feel see me as a "cool guy"). It is my 7th graders that I am most concerned about. Everyday feels like a challenge when I begin class. It is a constant battle to engage them, and keep them excited about playing, rehearsing, and working at getting better. The first thing I have going against me is that 7th grade band meets during the first hour of the day. Lethargic is not a strong enough adjective to describe their level of energy. I do have to admit there are about 10 students that always come in ready to work, but that is only an eighth of the band.

The other thing I have going against me, and I think this is the major player here, is that I am not their previous band director. This is not to say that they had an amazing bond with the previous band director, but I feel they are at a stage in their life where they are making significant emotional attachments to teachers and friends. Therefore, my philosophy of hard work, dedication, and excellence are foreign to them. To put things in perspective though, the choir director (my mentor) has been there for about 4 years (she has been teaching for 30+ years) has seen the same emotions and actions in her choir students. Therefore, I feel a little better knowing that it is not all "me" that is causing this reaction in the students.

Still, I have been trying to deal with this motivation issue for months. It has even become something that I am using in my Professional Development Plan as a new teacher; in a nutshell How do you motivate students to work hard for you? Because we only meet every other day, I constantly stress the importance of working (or homeworking) outside of school by practicing and coming prepared for class. Even though it does feel at times this motivation falls on deaf ears, it does feel necessary to keep repeating.

One of the major things I have changed is the way I have been giving feedback. During the first half of this year, there was a lot of negative feedback on my part for two reasons 1) I hardly see the students so I felt I needed to point out all of the problems so they were aware of them, and 2) the students were not doing the work outside of class to progress and I felt I needed to remind them of this fact. My goal is to give them more positive feedback from now on and see where that takes me, but I fear that this will not be enough because even when I give positive feedback, they hardly receive it with excitement or appreciation.

All of this leads me to my big goal for the end of the year: Motivating the 7th graders to stick with band and to work hard. I have come up with some more ideas such as extrinsic motivation (the karate belt method), but my goal is that students will switch from being extrinsically motivated to work to intrinsically motivated. While I never want to give up on these students, it often times feels very difficult to motivate someone who does not care or want to be motivated.

Well, with all of that negative aside. There is far more positive aspects of this job such as technology in my classroom, an amazing batch of 6th graders, and a very supportive music community which I will share in my next post. I think an hour an a half of blogging is enough for now. Until then, I look forward to anyone sharing their creative ideas on inspiring students to work.