New job!

Well I've been at my new job for a few weeks now, and so far it's MUCH better.  It's such a change to be respected as a specialist and have people solicit my ideas (they had me teach a sample lesson for their professional development the other day)--the school's really into integrating arts into their other subjects.  Plus, they've been working on supplying me with materials and hooking me up with ways to develop my teaching, myself.

The only difficulty lies in being part time.  When they prepared my schedule, I don't think they really thought about how long it would take me to set-up and take-down the keyboards I'm supposed to teach the students how to play (in the dance room, which is why I can't just leave them up).  Today it took me an hour (which meant I clocked out late).  And I love being asked for advice from other teachers, but I'm not sure when I'll be able to do that.  I'm used to teachers being full-time, and putting in as many extra hours as it takes, but I'm not really willing to do that when I'm paid hourly.


So...any advice, either about being a part-time teacher with full-time responsibilities, or about putting away keyboards really quickly?

The Music Teacher Work-out

1. Arrive to office on second floor; go downstairs to sign in.  Back upstairs to office.
2. Lug 28 drums to first two classes, still in the box they came in (I've been feeling it all week in my shoulder).
3. Practice Hora with second class.
4. Run all around during lunch making copies, etc.
5. Class movement activity showing high and low notes by moving body higher and lower; really works the legs.
6. Go downstairs; repeat movement activity.
7. New movement activity.
8. Run upstairs and downstairs gathering things and signing out.  Go home.

Mixed feelings

Well as relieved and excited as I am to have a new position, I'm surprised to say that I'm feeling uncomfortable and a little guilty to be leaving my current position in the middle of the school year.  I doubt that they will replace me (plus who would take a part-time teaching job for 3 months?) and I just started being able to teach recorders.  I don't think they'll be able to have an end-of-the-year concert, and I'll be gone before the Talent Show (though it was originally scheduled for sooner--they moved it without consulting me).

When I think about it, though, I don't think I should feel so bad.  My principal made it difficult to do my job at every turn, and the stress of it was really effecting me.  Plus it kind of seemed pointless to work so hard when they wouldn't have my subject next year, anyway.  I think I just need to keep reminding myself that they really started this process.

New beginning

Well today I received a job offer.  The new job would have the same amount of hours, and almost the same pay, but is much closer to where I live and is at a school with "Arts" in the name...so I'm hoping they'll be much more supportive of what I'm doing.  They have some more materials than I've been working with, but a set of keyboards and a curriculum for that...so I need to figure out what I'm doing.  Anyway, I'm hoping this'll be a much better situation for me.  Now I just need to write a letter of resignation!

It's their game; I can't win

So I think a big part of the problem I've had with my principal is a difference in priorities:  she wants me to put on spectacular shows to entertain the all-important community, and I want to educate the students.  And when some of the students are kindergartners, you can't exactly do both.  So when she "gave me the option" of putting on a talent show, I figured I'd better.

At first, things got better after I started putting the talent show together.  I even was finally mentioned once in that Friday bulletin with a list of accomplishments that I think all PLC-trained administrators think they have to send out every week.

My principal made it seem pretty easy:  just put together auditions, pick 10 groups, and have them perform for the school.  The students would do all their practicing on their own time.  It was more work than I though.  I didn't want to be the sole decider of talent, so I put together a committee.  We had meetings.  We made posters.  We designed a permission-slip, and I kept track of the dozens I received.  I found a rubric and helped design a scoring sheet so that we could be objective as possible.  And Thursday night, I stayed after school for hours to actually watch the auditions.

And my principal decided to hinder me once again.  She didn't want anyone to cry when they found out they hadn't made it.  So maybe we should just put on a 2-plus-hour show after school and include everyone:  the students who forgot their CDs and the lyrics to their songs; the 2nd-graders dancing to songs about 3-somes; the students whose costumes kept them from actually dancing; the kid who got on stage in his karate-outfit (whatever it's called) and asked, "what do I do now?"

I didn't even want to put this on.  I can't believe how much work the art teacher and I put into it (plus the rest of my committee members) and I can't even do this without interference.  Why did I even try?

How to teach music with a minimum of supplies

My first position bought a whole new set of textbooks and all the trappings my third year there.  So it was pretty uncomfortable when I got to my current position and had...nothing.  Ideally I would have a certification which would inform my curriculum (I really want to take the Gordon classes, but they all seem to be on the East Coast and we haven't had a lot of extra money lately).  I'm hoping to hear back from a new school which also has a bare minimum of materials.  So I'm going to share in this post what I've asked for and what I have, and hope that in the comments people can leave some suggestions.

My position right now I teach classes from K-5, plus a self-contained moderate-to-severe primary grades SPED class.  I started off the year with 0 supplies provided by the school.  I luckily had

• 30-some-year-old teacher's editions and CD sets meant for grades 4-6 which my previous position had discarded
• a set of 123 Favorite Kids songs CDs which I bought from Target in a panic the night before I started.  The singing is pretty cheesy on a lot of them, but in a pinch some of the songs have educational value
• 30 sets of chopsticks I bought at the Japanese market to use as rhythm sticks
• http://kodaly.hnu.edu/search.cfm is an amazing website which every general music education should use

I sent my principal an extensive list of what I would like to use.  What I received was:

• First Steps in Music: for Preschool and Beyond, which I use extensively with my K-2 and SPED classes and borrow from for parts of my 3rd grade lessons, as well.
• 150 American Folk Songs to Sing, Read, and Play, which has some good material.  I have to say I'm surprised by how many repeats they have (how many versions of "I have lost my closet key" does one music teacher need?!).  It is organized by tones used, which can be helpful.  It also has a game, in which the teacher holds a student over his/her lap in "spanking position" and sings a song with the words "horny cup" in it, which I think would get someone instantly fired!
• 150 Rounds for Singing and Teaching, which I have used a lot with my 3rd graders.

Finally, just last week, I received

• a recorder for almost every 4th and 5th grader I have.  They were one short in the order, and I guess I should have explained that usually the teacher needs one on which to demonstrate.
• 4 sets of Remo Sound Shapes, which all the kids are enthusiastic about playing!  Unfortunately I have no bag or cart in which to carry them, so I need to figure out a solution to that.
• a generic set of rhythm instruments we ordered from the school district.  They're kinda crappy, but usable.
• Get America Singing...Again! Volumes 1 and 2, plus CD 3 for Volume 2.

If you were teaching general music, on an extremely limited budget, what would be the first things you would buy?  Are there any other websites you would use as a resource?

Laid off!

Well, things are at least resolved, and I'm feeling much calmer.  The art/technology teacher I work with (we share an office and have become friends, bonding over our situation) asked our principal for a letter of reference, so she could apply for a full-time position.  The principal took that opportunity to schedule a meeting with her to "discuss next year".  The a/t teacher came back from the meeting and told me that we were both being laid off at the end of the year.  During the meeting, the principal had also cautioned her against applying for jobs in the same charter network, calling her "inflexible" (we found out last Monday that there's no school this Monday and neither of us made a big deal about how often this has happened!) and saying she complains too much (to me...we need to vent somehow) and that her emails are too abrasive.

Leaving aside the fact that she hadn't even attempted to schedule a meeting with me until hours after I knew I was being laid off (we finally talked after school) I think this is the best way things could have gone for me.  The way I was being treated, I was almost afraid of being fired.  Actually, it was a school decision to replace us with a full-time science teacher, but still counts as being laid off.  This way I don't have to work there next year, and I don't have to explain to future prospective jobs why I quit.  Plus I can potentially collect unemployment. So I'm feeling really bad for my friend, who has much fewer resources to fall back on, but much calmer myself.  How funny to be so relieved that I'm being laid off!

Is this real life?

My first couple years as a teacher, when my job made me want to cry it was because of behavior and classroom management issues.  The next few years was because of my difficult principal and some insanely catty colleagues.  This year, it's the job as a whole.

I'm sick of having to leave home at 6:30 in the morning, and it being a good day when I get to work in less than an hour.  I'm sick of emailing my principal about 3 important issues and having her respond to one.  Then when I chase her down, she tells me she's too busy to try to order the CDs I asked for in order to make HER happy about our upcoming show.  I'm sick of having to document the behavior of the ADULTS who are supposed to support me in special ed because the principal's niece thinks she's running the show.  I'm sick of being disrespected, despite the fact that no one's every observed me teach or given me any feedback, except what I received about my performance.  I'm sick of everyone making it obvious that I should just concentrate on having a huge show instead of actually trying to teach a balanced music curriculum, at a charter school that prides itself on its reputation of really educating children better than the public schools.  I'm sick of being so stressed out I can't sleep and my shoulder hurts all the time.  I can't believe I just got recorders and percussion instruments and I have to cram in teaching those and preparing students for our show by June.  What am I supposed to do?

The good things about my job:  it forces me to live my life to the fullest when I'm home. I try to make every night feel like a weekend; I love my students; I'm learning to demand what I need from passive aggressive bosses--I'll never be such a push-over again as I was at my first job; now that I've planned year-long curriculum from almost no materials, I don't think I will ever have such a challenging job again.

There is no way I'll do this job again next year (I don't think they want me to, anyway), but I worry about what this means for the future.  How do I explain to interviewers why I left?  Do I even want to still be a music teacher?  (when I'm sane, I know I do, but sometimes I just wish I could stay home).  I plan to get my multiple subject credential, and I would like to go for Gordon certification, to improve my chances and abilities to have a better music teaching job.  For now, though, I just keep thinking, like the kid in the David after Dentist video, "Is this real life?. . . .RRRAAAAAWR!"

Is there a right choice?

Well things at work have gotten even worse.  The more I have to deal with my principal, and the more she thinks she needs to deal with me, the worse it gets.  I'm not sure why she thought she had the right personality to be in administration, but if you're so scared to give honest feedback that your teachers don't know what you want from them, and if you punish them for asking questions, you probably aren't doing a great job.

I've been trying to to my best at work, but focus on being happy at home.  Once I get home, I try not to think about work (which is why I haven't been updating on here again) and I try to make the most of every moment, which is probably a good plan anyway.

Anyway, my husband has been urging me to quit (something I probably can't do right now and let us keep our home) or write her supervisor (someone I have no relationship with) and it kind of got me thinking about if there is a *right* response in this situation.  Is there someone I owe something to?  Is it my obligation to risk my job to alert the higher-ups (since this is a charter school, there's no union, and the main office is about an 8-hour drive away)?  If I'd been with the students longer, or felt like the school was allowing me to teach them better, I might feel like I should finish out the year for them, but I don't really feel like that.  I wonder if I'm being selfish by staying with the job because I need the money, when I know how badly the school is being run.  I am doing my best with the materials and perimeters I have to work with (I FINALLY got some instruments), so I don't think the students are really being deprived, but should the business know how badly their schools are being run?  Or should I just keep my head down and try to finish out the year?

A tale of two kindergarten classes

This is the first year I've taught as young as kindergarten, and it's been a bit of a classroom management challenge. I talked to the kindergarten teachers and got some suggestions before the year started, and I've been using a preschool curriculum (with modifications to hit more of the standards), so I feel like I'm teaching appropriate to the level. One of the classes has been fabulous all year long. The other two have given me and the art teacher plenty of trouble. Lately, though one has been rapidly improving. A comparison:

• Both changed the configuration of the classroom--doesn't that just make it feel better?!
• The unimproved class is still using the same clip chart from the beginning of the year; the improved class has completely revamped their discipline system
• The unimproved class's teacher very rarely communicates with me on discipline; the improved class's teachers have emailed me to give feedback (I asked for it) and explained their new system and how I can use it.
• The unimproved class's teacher starts music class with a talk to her students on how rules stay the same for "specialist" teachers as for her--and while she says this I see students making faces and playing around. The other class's teachers use more age-appropriate language and a significant amount of sign language to communicate expectations.

This school has a tendency to hire mostly inexperienced teachers, and so discipline is difficult when I only see the students forty minutes every week. But I wish the other kindergarten teacher would take some cues from the other two. I try to keep class moving and quickly move on to new activities, but it's very difficult when I have to stop frequently to give new directions.

Has anyone else experienced difficulties with teaching the little ones? Is there anything that has worked for you?

Potpourri

• I've been having a lot of trouble with one particular kindergarten class. They are a gigantic handful for me and the other specialist teachers. I try my best to keep class engaging, and follow through with the classroom teacher's discipline system, including rewards, but am still feeling at a loss. If anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear them!
• I've been listening to pod-casts on my way home. Some interesting ones talked about Arabic music and 20th Century American music. The music education pod-casts were too short!
• Today one of the teachers I work with was accused of shaking a student while she was working with a small reading group. The music teacher and I were both in the room when the alleged shaking happened (it didn't). She was so upset by the accusation, and it's frustrating that this student is not going to have reading intervention anymore because his mom chose to believe him. More troubling is how this fourth grader has learned to lie about being abused to get out of having extra work.
  

A fun book, needs more thought

I recently checked the book Rubber-Band Banjos and a Java Jive Bass: Projects and Activities on the Science of Music and Sound by Alex Sabbeth from our school library. It's a collection of activities rated by difficulty, designed to teach students about the science of sound. The project which really appeal to me, however, are those in which students create their own musical instruments. This book has a project to create a guitar, complete with frets, a banjo, a French horn-type instrument, and of course, some percussion instruments.

My special ed class complete their tambourine project last week. They all really enjoyed it, and seem to get a lot from having their "own" instruments, which they created. I'm really glad that I had some help thinking of these projects for them. Unfortunately, there were parts of the project which didn't work very well. I'm wishing they had been tested out better. First, the students were supposed to paint the pie tins which would become their tambourine (they did this with the art teacher). Except the paint didn't stick well to the plates. Even after she sprayed the tins to try to seal them, much of the paint is falling off. Also, the project involves using tape to attach a string around the side of the plate. Except the tape isn't sticking very well, either. I will continue to use the projects in this book, but I think next time I'll test them out better first.

How to make teaching "a la carte" easier for music teachers

This is the first year I haven't had any kind of a classroom, at all, and have to go from classroom to classroom for EVERY class (I technically don't have a cart, either, but since I don't have any instruments, there's not as much to lug). Anyway, here are a list of things that would make it easier on me:

• Leave room on the whiteboard, and have some markers nearby
• Give me a seating chart, and try to give me updated ones as seats change. I know you think I should know all their names by this point, but I teach 400some students, and the way I remember names better is by seeing them written out in order of seating.
• Have your working boom-box somewhere accessible. It's awkward when I have to uncover it from a bunch of papers. If I email the principal that yours isn't working, don't tell her it's fine because you have a new one if it doesn't actually play from an ipod, like the old one did.
• Don't talk and giggle with other teachers in the back of the room, especially if we're listening to music and I've just given a lecture about silence.
• Don't pull students to do work, just because you think you can. How does it look to the other students if they can just randomly miss my class for yours?
  
• Let me handle management, but give me the tools to do so. Let me use your clip-chart, but don't interrupt me to scream at (y)our students.
• I have a few minutes to walk from class to class. I like to take some of this time to prepare my items, get my bearings, etc. If I'm 5 minutes early, please don't teach your students to leave their other work right away and be ready for music class, especially when I often drop off my things in your room and then run to the restroom.
• If I'm early, don't check your clock, and then ask my what time my clock says. I don't have a clock. I just walk to your room when I'm done with my old class and then start getting ready. You don't arrive at school right when your start time is, and I don't like to, either.

• Let me start on time, and return so I can leave on time and get to my last class.

Is there anything other music teachers can think of that would make it easier when you go from class to class? I have noticed teachers adding my vocabulary to their word walls, and I think that's a fabulous way to be on the same team.

I work for the kids, not the administration

Well after all the time I wasted over my break lamenting that I would have to go back, it turns out it felt really nice to be back. As hard a time as I have with the administration of the school, I actually see them very little. And it was good to see my students again.

This year has been the first year where I taught students as young as kindergarten (or any grades below 4th since student teaching) and, while it's taken a lot of adjustment, you can't deny that those kids are cute. I love my 2nd graders, who enjoy music so much they all sight "ahhhhh" when I tell them my time is up. Another good experience for me is that I have a self-contained special education class, which I see four times a week. I love getting to know those students so well, and it allows me to try things with them which I don't feel like I always have time to do in other classes. Although it can be difficult finding out what will work for all of them (there's quite a span in terms of their abilities) it's a treat being in that class. Plus, the way the teacher structures and interacts with the students creates an atmosphere which feels good as soon as I walk in the door.

I did force myself to discuss future shows with my principal, but overall it was nice to find that my feelings for the way the school is run didn't stop me from enjoying my job. And how can you not like your job, when your job is to make music with children all day?

How to make a music teacher re-consider

• Don't provide materials (I have no instruments...just "First Steps in Music for Preschool and Beyond" 150 Folksongs and 150 Rounds books)
• Don't provide a place to work (I share an office, which is actually a closet with a water-test valve and I don't even have a key to it)
• Don't tell them anything (I found out they changed the date to my concert from a 2nd grader)
• Don't give any feedback until between the dress-rehearsal and the concert, and then tell them everything they need to change in the few hours before the show

I'm dreading my vacation ending.

I'm back...

Well it's been a while. A lot has happened since my last post. Last year I bought a condo, then received notice that I was being laid off the next month. Since then, I got engaged, lost my job, accepted a part-time job an hour's drive away, and got married.

While home life is going great, and for now I think we'll be able to keep the condo, the new job is far from ideal. I was torn between taking an only part-time job so far away and just staying home for a while, but thought I would learn a lot from the new place. It's a charter school which is part of a huge system which gets great results which it attributes partly to the great professional development it gives its teachers. Unfortunately, I found out after I was hired, that that doesn't include music teachers. Nor do I have much in the way of materials, respect, or information about what's going on at school. As my 3-week winter vacation is coming to an end, I am dreading going back. My last day before break was terrible (probably will be another post). I'm continuing to apply for jobs when they come up, but for now I'm trying to stick it out for just this school year.