I heard that! Sometimes I wonder if it would have been valuable during my teacher prep to observe, just for 1 class period, a less-than well-managed classroom. Sometimes, it’s valuable to see what NOT to do as well as what “good job!” looks like. Makes you appreciate the decent and in order more if you know what the alternative looks like. (of course, no one would want to be the bad example for observation, so this is not a flawless theory) I’m in my 2nd year of early elementary after being in 4th-6th for 6 years. I feel like I’m both experienced and also just starting, because not all big-kid stuff translates to little-kids. It’s definitely forced me out of my comfort zone.
Keep up the good work Joel, you don’t have a clue how large your impact is, because not everyone tells you (nor am I saying they should - it’s just how people are.) Teachers are remembered long after you pass through their class, and I am freshly astonished (and a little frightened) each time I’m forced to realize that fact. Good series, looking forward to reading the rest of the articles!

A couple of things I wish someone had told me, in my first year:

#1) You can go a long, long way on good classroom organization, when you’re a band teacher, so spend time thinking about procedures and routines that fit your situation and #1B) if the procedures you think will work, don’t–then try new procedures until you find something that solves the problems, rather than punishing kids for not having a pencil in their folder or whatever.

#2) Whoever came up with the phrase “don’t smile until Christmas” was a moron.

Hey, Joel! Can you contact me? It’s about the October Carnival of Music Ed…

Nancy Flanagan (nflanagan@comcast.net)

Related, I suppose, to #9: Make sure to socialize with non-teachers. Otherwise, you’ll be talking about nothing but school all the time.

And make sure they know that #8 doesn’t mean drugs/alcohol ;)

I really enjoyed reading your top 10- maybe every teacher should construct his/her own top ten list after their 1,5,10th year. I bet that would be some interesting reading!

Here you go and thanks for thinking of me:

http://doug-johnson.squarespac.....acher.html

@Doug Johnson - Awesome! I’ll include it in a later series!

Teaching is a wonderful way to get touch with our innermost beings. We actually end up learning more than actually spreading our own hard work and diligence gained in college. Not that that’s a bad thing. It’s not.,

Over the past marking period and half, I have numerous issues with behavior in my 7th & 8th grade band class. Yeah, it’s full of rowdy boys and very few girls and it meets right after lunch, a sugar-coated wonderland of talking and chattering among other things. One of things that I learned directly from Joel, the author of this awesome website, is that we can’t blame the kids for everything. Now I know what he meant.

I gave my class a quiz on basic fundamentals of music theory and terms today, ya know just to keep them on their toes. It was worth 20 points and covered basic things like the difference between a treble clef and a bass clef, dynamics and performance terms such as crescendo and fermata. more specifically, things that are supposed to be learned in the first year of band. I know because the 7th graders I had last year all did very well on this test and 8th graders didn’t. What came back to me loud and clear through that quiz is that the kids really don’t understand the subject matter. So, why was I getting so angry and uppity about it? Answer: I didn’t give them the information they needed to know. I can’t blame the kids for this, something so basic in a class like this but I can blame their first year band teacher (prior to my existence at this school).

My task is set before me and I know what I need to do: go back reteach the basics so we can more forward. I will be apologizing to my students so hopefully we can move on to higher ground soon.

I have called the parents to let them know of my findings and tell them of my plan to fix it. their child will be bringing home some homework over the next two weeks as we get everyone on board. I have their full support and we’re getting things in swing so next semester can run smoother and I’m almost positive that the behavior issues will calm down to the point we can actually enjoy class. Next year, I won’t expect them to know everything as soon as they come in the first day. We’ll take some time to review before diving in.