MENTORING...


Forgetting and Remembering the Composing and Creating Steve Litwiller, MMEA Mentoring Chair


Oh Great and Powerful Educator of Aesthetics and Musical Nuance! Preparer


of Performances,


Conductor of Concerts, Fixer of the Festivals, and Instructor of the Uninformed! Within the Royal Realm of all your Duties do you realize that you are creating and composing every day? Your reputation and teaching legacy is being constructed every time you have contact with any student or parent, whether or not they are involved with your program. No matter if it’s a smile and “good mor ning , ” a discipline problem,


or performance


preparation, the way you handle situations builds an impression of you in the memories of people you encounter. You are constructing this image from the first day in the classroom until the day you retire.


Now try this experiment: Think about some your personal experiences that made you want to become a music educator. Was it something your teacher said, a musical performance, or a specific incident? What is the big memory you have of your time in grades k-12? Positive or negative?


Now if you can contact the teacher that was around during this major event in your life, ask him/her about it. There is a good chance that your teacher will remember it differently. He/she may not remember it at all. And it’s not necessarily because he/


SPRING 2014 | www.mmea.net


she is “old and grizzly.” Something that was monumental in shaping your career, whether it was a saying, a technique of managing a class, or an incident outside the school day, could have been an average day for that teacher.


But whether or not that teacher recalls it, you remember. It might have even changed your life. So that teacher passed on that legacy to you where it remains for years,


...that teacher passed on that legacy to you where it remains for years, sometimes through new generations of students.


sometimes through generations of students. Now you are the one distributing these “pearls of wisdom” accidentally or on purpose, to people you see every day.


So here’s the good news: The legacy of memories you compose and create will be your body of work that you leave with students. Your influence could very possibly affect generations to come and be a positive force for music education.


Here’s the bad news: All those students in front of you may or may not have accurate memories. Their impressions filtered through time may not be the highlight of your career. They may be downright uncomfortable. What they play back decades from now you may not remember happening. Still, it will be part of the persona you have composed and created.


Finally, you would be surprised at how many of these memories are not about great performances, the “light bulb” that went on when they found out they could play or sing, or an interesting fact they learned about Mozart. It will be how you handled a crisis when the drum major fell off the podium, the tenor fainted because his bow tie was too tight, or the music room flooded. Comedy and tragedy typically carry more weight than the “warm, fuzzy” memories we want them to recall.


So in your drive to prepare


students for festivals, concerts, and whatever else is coming up, keep in mind the legacy you are creating for yourself. It will not be a pleasant moment years from now, when a former student who is now a respected colleague mingles with your peers and recalls you as a charter member of the “Adolph Hitler School of Charm.”


This is a stressful time of the year. Do not let your negative reactions to stress dictate who you are as a music educator! The key word here is BALANCE. You must maintain a perspective about concert/festival/ clinic. It doesn’t turn into a crisis unless you make it one. There is life after this event. You and your students both deserve the chance to enjoy it.


your


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