Embracing the Struggle

Educators, especially fellow music educators: Thank you for showing up to work every day. Even when you don't feel great or just don't want to. Thank you for being there for your kids. Thank you for doing the best you can for the students in your care. Even when it doesn't feel like enough (spoiler alert, it will never feel like it's enough), you are making a positive difference in the lives of young people. Don't forget that. Thank you for being a light in the darkness, especially in these times in which the darkness seems to be growing more oppressive than ever. Even though you have your own feelings of discouragement, pain, and trauma, you serve as a beacon of hope for your students and you encourage them to do so for others, without even realizing it. Thank you for dedicating your lives to service. You encourage young people to make music, to make art, to work together to create something bigger than themselves, something beautiful. The opposite of destr...

I tend to move at a breakneck pace with my auditioned choir and push them as hard as I can. For several years now I have wanted to push the limits of what middle school singers can accomplish, and as a result I feel constant pressure, most of it coming from myself, to keep my Prairie Voices working every minute of every rehearsal. We only get 45 minutes a day, and it's gotten worse this year because we have lost 20% of our rehearsal time this year due to this homeroom/character education class that meets every Monday. This school year I have felt like I am constantly under the gun, and that I cannot waste a single second of rehearsal. Yesterday though, I made a conscious effort to slow down. I didn't start warming them up immediately at the bell (though most of them were standing in their spots on the risers at the last bell... finally ...after weeks of me trying to train them to do that), but instead I moved at a more leisurely pace. I talked to a some individual students, t...

That quotation, "no plan survives contact with the enemy" is a paraphrased version of this quote by Field Marshall Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke, a Prussian general who was the architect of the German Wars of Unification in the 19th Century: "The tactical result of an engagement forms the base for new strategic decisions because victory or defeat in a battle changes the situation to such a degree that no human acumen is able to see beyond the first battle. In this sense one should understand Napoleon's saying: 'I have never had a plan of operations.' Therefore no plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first contact with the main hostile force." Field Marshall Helmuth von Moltke never had to teach middle school children or work in a public school in the early 21st Century, but if he had I am sure the experience would only reinforce his belief that you can have all the plans you want, but once you encounter your first ho...

I started officially back at school today. Meetings and prep all this week, first day with kids next Monday. So as I transition fully into teacher mode, I think this is as good a time as any to reflect on what my goals are for this coming school year. At first glance I don’t have any huge mountains to climb this year: I finished my thesis, my Master’s degree is complete, I don’t have any big conference performances I’m preparing a group for this year, etc. But I want (and need) to have a direction, things to work on to help me be a better teacher and make this year better than the previous year. I want to be able to tweak my instruction and my approach to how I do things so that I can avoid stagnating as a teacher. “Just make sure everything is as good as last year” is not much of a hill to climb, after all.   As the summer progressed and I read, reflected, listened to podcasts, and wrote, I identified three overarching goals that I would like to focus on this year. I wanted the...

It finally happened, and it happened in such a low key way that I almost missed it. After a decade of teaching, I finally heard a principal use the word "soul." I didn't mention it first, either. My principal brought it up, in a conversation we were having, and when I realized what had just happened I was floored. Here, finally, was an opportunity to talk about why I do what I do. Not dance around it, not dress it up in "academic" terms that are more acceptable in our field; no, I was finally able to talk about my belief in the importance of educating the soul. This is a big deal to me. Like a really big deal. I firmly believe, and have believed pretty much my entire career, that there is component to our duty as educators that we rarely talk about. It is a component that is so central to our purpose, especially if we are arts educators, that transcends the education of the mind. It's a component that becomes continually marginalized in an atmosphere of ...

So after my last post about my Mini-Camp, I got some requests for specific descriptions of some of the team-building games I do. I chose four that I think are among the best (and actually lend themselves to written description) and I've written about those below: Hammer in the Circle Name Game: So I do this game with a big inflatable hammer, like this: You don't need the big inflatable hammer for this game, but it helps. I've done it before with a rolled up newspaper (which you have to be really careful because that can potentially hurt more than an inflatable hammer) and just with tagging by hand. Here is how the game works: Students get in a circle and go around quickly with everyone saying their first name. One person is in the middle of the circle with the hammer, and their objective is to get out of the circle. They do this by (GENTLY AND NON-VIOLENTLY, I always tell my kids) bopping someone in the circle. The only way you can be "safe" is to the...

Several years ago my auditioned choir, Prairie Voices, had a rough end to the year. A large number of my eighth graders who had been incredibly important to that choir and to my program just kind of quit on me: they collapsed into conflict and drama, they stopped working hard, and when I called them out on it, their response to me was essentially "we have had you for three years now, we feel like we've learned all we can from you, we don't really want to listen to what you have to say anymore." I was floored and incredibly hurt, but after some intense reflection I came to the realization that the complete implosion of this immensely gifted eighth grade class was pretty much completely my fault. As for why it was my fault? I'll get into that story in another post. This post is about the Mini-Camp that I have been doing with my auditioned choir for four years now, but the event I mentioned above was a large part of my motivation to start doing the camp with my Pr...

I am still processing my experience at this year's Colorado ACDA conference, because it was full of some genuinely beautiful and inspiring moments. I was already starting to get excited for the school year, but this conference has me feeling pumped and has sent me hurtling full on into prep mode as I walk away with over 50 new pieces that I want to program this year or in the future, strategies and ideas gleaned from interest sessions and great conversations with my colleagues, and of course the deep sense of renewal that comes from listening to some of the masters in my field. I have been going to these summer conferences for years, at least since I started teaching and possibly before that, and I am not sure I have ever had headlining clinicians who were as inspiring as Alice Parker and Dr. Rollo Dilworth. They are separated in time by nearly half a century, and yet both demonstrated and tried to enkindle in us a deep respect for the art of singing and the concept t...

Today was the first day of our three day state conference for our chapter of the American Choral Directors Association. I've always loved going to this summer conference: reconnecting with colleagues, finding new rep and hopefully walking away feeling inspired by the headliners and the clinicians presenting interest sessions. This is also the first summer ACDA in about six years where I haven't been on the Board, which means I am not responsible for setting anything up and I don't have to stress and worry about my reading sessions and interest sessions. I can just go to the conference and have fun, and it's pretty great. Some Highlights from Today: *Mack Wilberg is one of our headlining clinicians (music director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir) and he gave an opening session/lecture celebrating what makes our choral art so special and important. He said a lot of great and inspiring things, and his whole demeanor and voice reminds me of Bob Newhart. Like not even jok...

I struggle with the summer. I know, I know. I’m a teacher, I’m supposed to love having the summers off. All the tired cliches would lead you to believe that teachers and summer are like Garfield and lasagna or whatever other hackneyed pairing our culture can come up with: “What are the three best things about being a teacher? June, July and August haha!” When I tried doing an internet search to see if teachers suffering from depression during the summer, all I found were comments and articles about getting depressed about going back to school in the fall. After the intense and insane schedule I work for ten months out of the year and everything that comes with that, (constant stress, lack of sleep, not eating well, not having enough time- or feeling like I don’t have enough time- to do anything fun) I know that I am supposed to take this time to rest and renew myself. The problem is, after about a week or two of rest and rejuvenation, I become agitated. I start feeling lonely and bo...