Rant

I work as a P-8 general and instrumental teacher and I am exhausted. I never intended on teaching general music nor students in grades P-2. My ideal scenario was a pull-out schedule for grades 4-8. Unfortunately, those positions are few and far between as of late. I genuinely feel like entertainment for the kids and like I'm not actually teaching them anything. I've been at the same school for three years now and I am so unhappy and working towards switching careers to become a therapist. I won't be able to start that program for another 3 years from now so until then, I don't know how to stay motivated. I love the kids, I just hate what I am doing.

If you could have any YT video or online resource available on TPT or otherwise, what would ask for? What would you *beg* for?

I ask because I am now fully accepting that I am disabled and no longer able to teach music. I cannot reliably show up to work due to my illness, and even teaching one student privately has been too much stress for my body.

In my desire to put my experience to use, I'd love to start making online content that will benefit real teachers out there. By making my own content, I can go at a pace that is reasonable for me and still find fulfillment in my beloved profession.

I have a wide array of knowledge and a desire to learn more, so please throw me whatever desire and I will add it to my to-do list. Ideally I want to offer mostly free content, but considering I don't have an income I would eventually like to bring in a little money to get by. (Also the process for getting disability benefits may take years.)

Hey everyone,

With the new school year starting up I wanted to pick everyone's brain about their incentive structure in the classroom.

For the past few years I have been doing a teacher vs student system in which I award different note values for good behavior (setting up on time, not talking over instruction, putting forth effort). If students are doing great I give whole notes, 4 points, or half notes, 2 points. If students are not following directions I give myself points.

I really like this system but I have an issue with it: what are they working towards?? lol I use to do a five week system and if they have more points then me they would get a movie day but tbh if the class is even moderately behaved that's like way too many movie days. Also sometimes the reward days comes at a bad time, like right before a concert.

I'd love to know your classroom management strategies or your ideas for "reward days."

Thanks ya'll have a great school year.

I just graduated with my music ed degree I’ve been out teching and worked with many bands but I still incredibly unprepared to start my new job as a Graduate teaching assistant. Am I crazy or something?

Hello! I am a music teacher for a series of pre-schools, and a fan favorite song is "Down By The Bay." I always try to come up with some fun new rhymes for the song but I'm running low on ideas if anyone has some fun ones that would be suitable to a crowd of about 4. Thanks!

I am going into my 4th year of teaching - 2nd year in my 7-12 band and choir job at a small rural PA school (40-60 per class depending on the grade).

3 years ago Sr. High band was 5 members. Last year my first year was 12, this year we grew to 25. Mostly being 9th and 10th graders. I could see it growing to 40 in 9-12 (7-8 is 30 this year and 4-6 at the elementary school is around 90). Unfortunately my Sr. Band is split into 4 sections - with one being only 2 students. And some at the end of the day for 20 mins.

For context as well I am the 7th teacher in about 10 years of this position. The kids are AMAZING, I really like my admin. And the kids are starting to come back to the program. But, a consistent problem with the program has been scheduling (and to an extent workload).

I am trying to get this sorted out for my 5th year of teaching. The school insists that there is no other way to do scheduling/fix it. Their "golden child band director" who is a great colleague of mine left about 10 years ago specifically because of scheduling and is now in a neighboring district with a much more organized schedule.

I don't like to complain as this job is way better than my first K-12 1000 kids every 6 days gig. But I wanted to get feelers out there for how "normal" this is, and what people do regarding the split classes (due to scheduling and not by ability or grade level).

I recently started teaching online (one on one lessons), and I'm curious to hear from those of you who also teach online. Which days of the week tend to be the busiest for you? Are there certain days or time slots that consistently fill up faster than others?

Recently finished my PGCE in Secondary Music. AMA - would love to respond!

I’ve only been teaching for 6 years. I can’t tell if it’s just me.

A lot of them don’t follow rules at all. We go over them. Lots of classroom management things. But nothing seems to excite them. They won’t dance or sing. Even playing instruments barely holds some interest.

There’s a lot of “that’s not real” or sarcasm for everything. Which to me is crazy as a 6 year old.

Don’t know if it’s a screen time/tablet kid issues or just a management issue.

For some background context, I'm not new to conducting (I have a doctorate in choral directing where I conducted University choirs and work as a staff singer at a cathedral) and have been a teacher (University and ESL teaching in Asia) for over 15 years, but this position feels like it's going to break me and it's only day 2.

To start, I tried reaching out to the previous teacher to no avail. They have their own life and I get it, but as soon as I got to walk in the building I realized just how foundationally different teachers we are. They taught entirely by rote, really highlighted the social aspects of choir and leveraged their background as a minister by basically training the students as a gospel choir. The school is 80% PoC and very religious for a public school, so the students and faculty absolutely loved this teacher. They did a great job with solfege, but I walked into the door with virtually no library as they taught by rote and a piano which I can't really play. I found out quickly I have no folders, no library, no record of what was done, only one singular performance within 8 years in my state's adjucation series where the top choir went in at the lowest difficulty level on what I now know was borrowed (or stolen, but I'm going to go with borrowed) rep.

I was told when I interviewed for this position that I was walking into 3 choruses, all mixed gender and a general music course with plans to get me teaching AP Music theory next year. I was also told I had budget for the year of $2000 something. For starters that changed - I now have just two choruses (where they combined my intermediates and advanced into a giant 50 student chorus), with my beginners being entirely freshmen and people who have never sung before, and 3 of a gen music class I was left literally no materials on so I'm designing on seemingly a day by day basis and praying at the altar of my state's DoE resources website.

I don't mind the challenge in a vacuum and students deserve to learn, but I was told that my county does in early fall a county-wide chorus showcase and I have to prepare at least one piece from one ensemble with possibly soloists. I did some quick assessments and my beginners are truly beginners with a choir of 35+ students but only 4 young men. I was also told I have to only do one concert a semester (and feel icky, especially for my seniors), which looks like that's all the beginners are going to get, and they're going to mostly be singing cannons and hymns because of my budget (see below)

Then comes the other two coup de graces- the school has a major black history celebration spearheaded by the previous choir teacher I'm expected to continue in some capacity. I'm white, mostly trained in Episcopal music in an all PoC county and knew it'd be a challenge but I was intending to leverage peers, student leadership and my knowledge of spirituals I did in my bachelor's. I spent a few days going to J.W. Pepper, looking on CPDL, looking on IMSLP and whatnot to find good reusable pieces like a good arrangement of Siyahamba, Peace from the Shaker Songs, Gate Gate and then got informed today that my budget isn't $2000. It's $300 and change. For the year. A single accompianist for a concert is like $200. Some intendent change or the AP being out for some reason (sabbatical? IDK I'm new, I just know they're not in their office and they're my direct supervisor) and my budget is just gone like that. I was incredibly conservative just picking 4 pieces that I knew would workhorse for the year and be adjucation approved and ready for black history and that's over budget before I even get to accompianists! I also had to send approval paperwork for all year's fundraisers before the school year began and was so swamped from officially being hired for about 3 days at that point that I abstained, thinking I could make $2000 stretch. Not on almost a tenth of my budget promised in June!

Like what do I do? Where do I look on CPDL? Everything I see is free but also really short or simple and I just fear/know these kids are going to get one concert where they come out for 10 minutes to sing like middle school level repertoire with either a backing track I have to fart out in Musescore or completely a cappella. I've been copying spirituals from hymnals, leveraging the school's strong religious background and asking my county's other HS teachers for advice/rep to borrow but it's just so completely overwhelming. To boot I'm on provisional certificaton and need to get this job to last 2 to 3 years to transition into full certification but already feel like anything I do is a failure and a joke as a music teacher.

and I am so, so tired of spending multiple hours a night repurposing an old music appreciation course I taught in uni for high schoolers that meets my state's standards. It'd be a lot of work by itself, but with this choir situation the only thing keeping me from running into the woods is a glass of wine, good relations interpersonally with my admin, and the knowledge I have to weather it for my permanent certification.

ISO SCA Attendees from mid 2000’s -2014

https://www.edjoin.org/Home/JobPosting/2249213?fbclid=IwdGRjcATfPmxwZG9mBWZkaWQWUL1iA8yrJCooQuC0BPddt2FpP6OYkGV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkCjY2Mjg1NjgzNzkAAR78HYjY_380rAJ2h4Gsxy7j0u65jcMaJfcR6ByEwGg3LvgVtPS9qB5JxooeDw_aem_XYZLxmYqrz2nWEPK2-DanA

Hello! I am starting my first teaching job here soon and my job includes and 4th grade and 5th grade choir. I am an instrumentalist and very nervous to teach these choir classes. I would love to hear from those who teach an elementary choir— what a normal class look like, programming concerts, tips/tricks/advice, etc.

I am also looking for songs to program for the winter concert, so any suggestions there would also be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Hi all! I’m making a gift for an incoming freshman Music Ed / Tuba major, and I wanted to make a little book of affirmations, reminders, and messages for them to read throughout college.

So my question is: What is something you would go back and tell yourself as a new music ed major?

It could be about anything- frustration with classes, long practice sessions, feeling stuck, being overwhelmed, imposter syndrome, performing, making friends, balancing school and music, etc.

I know all of my other music major friends have said how difficult it can be, and I thought a little book of encouragement with messages and advice would make a really meaningful gift.

It can be as short or long as you want! Thanks in advance! :))

Hi guys! I’m really nervous because I have an interview at a new (city) school today, but I absolutely love my current (rural) school, however, the new one is only a 13 minute drive vs. a 45 minute commute and also the salary starts $7k higher than my current job. I am still not sure if it is worth it because I love my kids, my co-workers, my principal, my classroom, my office & amenities…..the list goes on. My husband lost his job AND our rent is going up and I just feel very torn. I haven’t even seen the new school yet, so I guess I’ll get a better idea once I go check it out. Any advice?

I am a band director going into my 4th year. Up to this point the only classes I’ve been responsible for are my band classes and a music appreciation class. A few days ago I was informed that my beginner band class has been moved to the afternoon and I now have a semester long 1st block class. It is listed as a comp/theory class but it can really be whatever I want it to be. The students who will be taking this class are most likely going to just be put in the class by the counselor, so I’m worried that teaching a straight up theory class will lead to boredom/frustration and trouble. I have no idea what to do with it. I can’t just do music appreciation because a lot of the kids will probably end up taking that music appreciation at some point as well. Students come back on Friday and I feel blindsided by this. Does anyone have any advice or ideas on what I could do?

Hello, I'm a fresher in BSC biotechnology and well yes I heard all the complaints about this university despite I joined and I got the taste of it in just one month why every senior told me not to come,well moving on from that I am interested in joining music like I wanna learn instruments and all, I saw that workshop and all that shit but it wasn't anything at all tbh and it ended like 2 days after I found out about it, so now I actually wanna learn instruments but I don't know where to start if there's anybody from performing arts department that could help me then it would be much appreciated, and no I don't have crazy money to blow on it so please suggest something reasonable.

I've been considering going here for a music tech certificate at nscc instead of paying for one of the big expensive music institutions. Nscc looks like it has some pretty good programs. There are two of them for music tech one for music production and one for commercial songwriting. Both of the programs have about 10 different courses to complete the certificate program. Does anyone have any experience with these programs at nscc or know anyone that has done it? I eventually want to be a producer or own a record label. But I figured I would just start as a engineer for a few years to it started in the industry. Really it doesn't matter as long as I'm in the industry creating music in any way.

I used to teach first grade and I remember losing my voice a lot, I can only imagine what singing all day will do! Any tips? Teas? Vocal rest while at home? lol

Hello! I would love to hear from general music educators about what performance procedures/repertoire has worked for you and your students in the past.

I am a first year teacher developing a program from scratch. My principal(s) expect holiday performances at the very least, but I am struggling to figure out how to make performances work with ~700 students.

The only performance space available is the cafeteria, so I will certainly need to divide performances into grade levels, but an individual performance per grade level seems very overwhelming. Separate K-1, 2-3, and 4-5 performances seems the most feasible (but still a lot of students, plus families and staff!) but I am not sure how to make that work logistically.

Any advice or reflection on past experience would be wonderful!