My First Month

​Well it’s Labor Day weekend and I have officially made it through my first month of teaching. Teaching elementary music is simultaneously exactly what I imagined and nothing like I expected. There have been so many happy surprises. I love the kids more than I ever thought I could in such a short time and the relationships I am building with my staff are my lifeline throughout the crazy days. There have also been unexpected challenges; like figuring out how in the world to approach your first experience with SLO’s and what kind magic it takes to make the laminator work.
 
During these first few weeks, I’ve come upon a few practices that make it all a little bit easier. They say every teacher has her own secret strategies for getting thorough the day while also planning for a successful year. I know I will develop so many more as I live and learn along with my students, but these are my first few.
 

1. HYDRATE

I hate drinking water. Like really, I do. I have been known to not have a sip of water for a whole day just to realize that I’m dehydrated and dizzy right before bed. This bad habit did not serve me well the first week. As an elementary music teacher, you are singing or speaking loudly almost all day everyday. After my first week, my voice was so tired and strained. A fellow music teacher in the districted told me that my problem was not drinking enough water. So I started drinking water like it was my job and having warm tea at lunchtime. “Transformed” is not a strong enough word to describe how much more stamina I have now. I know this is kind of common sense, but woah, is it important.
 

1. NAMES

I am a traveling teacher, so I travel back and forth between two elementary schools every day. Throughout the week I see a total of 800 kids. I have been trying SO hard to learn their names quickly because I want them to know that they matter to me and because I’m sick of using up class time refreshing my memory and relearning their names. Finally, this week, I got fed up with the constant cycle of learning, forgetting, reasking, retaining a few, forgetting, etc. So I lined them up in alphabetical order to match their roster order and took a picture. I quiz myself the night before I’ll have a new batch of classes to refresh my memory. Both my kids and I definitely recommend this before week 3 J
 

1. Teach What You Love

I have always connected certain songs to certain musical concepts and deemed them essentially mandatory teaching tools for Kodaly music teaching. For example, when I’m teaching sixteenth notes, I feel like I need to use “Dance Josey” at some point. So for two weeks I included that song in the plans. But guys, I HATE THAT SONG.
 
Actually that’s not true, I like the song just fine. It’s the game that’s the problem. The kids absolutely love it for the same reasons I hate it. There’s running and racing and always a touch of chaos. The noise level is so difficult to manage with my population of kids that it stresses me out and I dread teaching it. So guess what? I stopped. Now, I’m using tools and songs that work for me (like Dinah <3) and leaving out the ones I hate. This makes me a more engaged and joyful teacher.
 
I had the good fortune to learn how to teach music from the very best of the best. But now, I have to start making my teaching my own. It has been crazy, and messy, and wonderful so far.
 
Have any new teacher tips? Share them with me in the comments!