wisconsin advocates for music education (WAME)
Letter to Beginning Music Teachers – Part II Justin Kamp, WAME Committee Member
Dear Fellow Beginning Music Teachers,
In January’s edition of WSM, Bruce Herring, a retired music teacher wrote, “An Open Letter to Beginning Music Teachers” and talked about what he has learned over the years to make him a more effective teacher in the classroom. I am writing to you as a brand new music teacher… well brand new as of September 2013. I too, have learned some valuable lessons even in the short amount of time I have been teaching elementary general music in Milton.
Beginning of the Year Jitters
Yes, beginning of the year jitters are real. And the advice from Bruce is perfect; take one day at a time. Let me add my perspective to that. You will NOT cover all the material you want to cover within the first days, so breathe. It took me a while to figure out what the students already knew about music. You remember, Prior Knowledge?! I anticipated what I thought students would know from my student teaching placement and that was a pretty good beginning point. So use your limited “prior knowledge” and then start off. Soon enough you’ll be at a full-out sprint with what you’re teaching.
I Have to Learn How Many Names?!
I was panicking about how I was going to learn all 360 names of my K-3 and sixth grade students whom I see only twice on a six-day rotation. I dreaded it would take the entire year. A solution that helped me was making a seating chart for fast glances throughout the class period. My students didn’t even know I had the chart right on the piano for quick reference. Something else that helped was to be present in the hallway before and after school. I gave my, “hello” to the kids BY NAME, even if all I could remember was one name that day. Slowly but surely, I learned them all! I knew 100 percent of all 360 names by Halloween… but I still keep that seating chart on my piano for a quick glance, just in case!
Policy
As a traveling teacher, it seemed overwhelming that I was going to learn the rules and policies for each school. Each school had a theme and variation of each other, but there are subtle, but major differences. In Milton, we have a mentoring program, where my mentor is another music teacher. That’s helpful for all my music questions, but not always helpful when it comes to building policies. Something that helped me was to engage the help of an experienced teacher in each school as my “go-to” for advice or question. That way, you know you are following that particular policy instead of guessing or blending two different policies together.
Re-learning My Alphabet?!
Here I am a college graduate and I never thought I’d say I needed to “learn my alphabet!” Of course, I’m not struggling to learn my ABCs, but the long list of education acronyms seems to go on forever. There’s PBIS, LFM, EBD, EE, LD, ELO, SLO, PPG, PT, OT, SLD, CD, IEP, PST, RTI, DPI, LMNOPQRST. Okay, that last one isn’t real. It helped when I put them into a chart and categorized them and listed the meaning. Some pertain to special education classifications; others are behavior prevention, or curriculum related. It is definitely hard to remember so give yourself a tool to help.
26 April 2014
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68