A Night Off

I was tired on Tuesday. It was another in a string of long and busy days that included the weekend and most of the week before. It had been a full day of teaching, plus a staff meeting that included training on our new online evaluation system which took my brain from a steady sizzle to crispy fried. After that I had some of the usual errands, dinner, and convincing my four year old that she was both hungry and then tired.

There were things I needed to catch up on after she did finally go to sleep. Student assignments. Emails. Flyers. Chaperone assignments for upcoming field trips.

But I took the night off.

The dogs and I curled up on the couch and I finally finished the book I'd been trying to polish off since the school year started. After that, I went to bed early. It was marvelous.

I'm an adult (ish) and a teacher though. I get the option to decide how much work I do and when. There are deadlines, but they're often far enough away that I can fit things into my schedule when I have the opportunity and I can prioritize how I spend my time. Students don't often get that choice.

When the subject of self care comes up, work life balance is a huge factor. But kids get little input in their own balance. They're assigned homework with almost immediate deadlines, often from multiple teachers simultaneously. They have practices, games, competitions, family gatherings, chores, etc.

Maybe so many of us struggle to balance work and our personal life because we often take away the chance to learn how to manage it as kids. 

I wonder about this often for not only my students, but my daughter. How, as both an educator and a parent, can I do better at helping the kids in my life figure out how to prioritize, goal set, and take breaks when needed, when so much of their scheduled time is not of their own choosing?

I don't have an answer for this yet. I may not ever. But I'm hoping that a greater awareness from my side will help me to help them.

What are your thoughts? How do you help? When do you decide to take a night off?

Shining Beacon of Failure

A friend once told me a story about working a high school band camp in an area filled with camps that other schools used as well. A hazard of using a Long  Ranger to speak to the band while out on the field is occasionally picking up communications using the same frequency. After a not so pretty run through, over their speakers came "Well that was a shining. beacon. of failure." from (presumably) one of the colleges rehearsing nearby. The kids all laughed because they knew it wasn't from their own instructors, but it became an oft used phrase the rest of the week and one I borrow occasionally.

I'm working on my second beacon of failure for the evening. The first was my initial foray into the wide world of being a Shipt shopper. I wasn't expecting miracles on my first attempt, but as an experienced grocery shopper, I was also expecting to be better at it than I was. Shopping for other people is hard though, even with an itemized list. To substitute an item, you need to text the client and get an OK. Sometimes you have to ask employees to help you sort out three different kinds of plums (that all look the SAME) to find the ones requested. Sometimes you discover that while one store keeps bread crumbs with the baking items, another keeps them with soups. (Why aren't they with BREAD?!?)

I was late which makes me 0 for 1 on timely deliveries right now. My shopper rating doesn't look good.

Failure number two is currently burning on the stove, despite my best efforts. My second attempt at vegetarian "burgers" are crumbly messes that are scorching to the bottom of the pan. I got cocky and messed with the recipe from my first attempt just a little too much. I also just realized that I failed to make my usual sauce that can generally cover a multitude of cooking sins. Dinner's going to be late. And crunchy.

The Universe is often better than I'd like it to be at kicking me in the pants every now and again. Sometimes though that kick in the pants is a great reminder of two things:

1. While we maybe be better at some things than others(give me 50 beginning band students any day), others have different knowledge (shout out to the awesome woman who doesn't even work at the store who kindly pointed me in the direction of a cleaning item I could not find).
2. Being out of our comfort zone can make even "simple" tasks difficult and it's no fun feeling so lost and at the mercy of others.

Luckily the day is nearly done so my bruised ego can recover a bit and I can better strategize for future shopping trips. Also, while my failed burgers don't look particularly appetizing, they don't taste terrible.

It's almost like we learn from trying something new and occasionally falling on our faces.

Summer Goals

Writing goals down for just me is making a to-do list. Writing them out and sharing them here though helps keep me accountable. With a couple of very relaxed and mostly (had to take care of some emails here and there) school free weeks under my belt and the Fourth of July past, it's time to start looking ahead in earnest.

• Spanish
• Over Spring Break I learned that my local library offers Rosetta Stone for FREE! I had a big ah-ha moment earlier in the school year when I asked students who spoke a second language. Almost two thirds of my class raised their hands! With a growing ELL population, I would really like to get at least some basic Spanish down, including learning some terminology specific to teaching band. My students speak many languages aside from Spanish, but I'm hoping this will help me connect to more kids and families. I'm hoping to complete a lesson or two per day for the rest of the summer and to find some music ed resources too. Once the school year starts, I can practice with my students.
• Level 1 Google Certification
• I love all things Google and would love to expand my knowledge base. I'm really hoping to complete this before I share about using Google Classroom at a Fine Arts conference in late August. It's not a requirement for my presentation or anything else, but that feels like a reasonable time frame in which to get it done and will also mean that it's completed before the school year starts.
• More Grading Revamping
• I still don't know where I'm going to go with it, but I need to do something about my grading. They have to get grades. I have to hear them play individually. I don't want to do participation points. I believe in retakes and no late penalties. But at last estimate there will be close to 280 students in the band program next year and I'll have around 240 of them, which is up from the 220 I was responsible for this last year. My friend summed it up nicely by saying that logistics are battling with philosophy. I've got some ideas bouncing around, but I'm still figuring out a better direction for both my kids and me.
• Exercising
• Not necessarily school related, but when I'm more physically active, I just feel better. Along with walking my dogs and going for bike rides, I've purchased some weights and a few exercise bands to get back to the routine I when I was doing physical therapy earlier this year.
• Reading
• Holy Cow! I forget how much I love reading until a break comes (or maybe I just don't let myself remember). During the school year, I generally doze off instantly once I get a chance to sit still and read. I've been alternating fiction with educational books and it's been a good balance so far and I'm hoping to keep at it right up until school starts again.

So there they are. Official Professional Development starts in seven weeks. The school year starts in eight. There will still be plenty of relaxing and recharging, but these are goals that will help me not only be a better teacher, but a better me.

What are some of your goals for the summer? Have some Spanish music ed resources? Got a great book recommendation? Discovered the secret to meaningfully grading a large number of students while maintaining your sanity? Please share!

Bring the Extra Batteries

There's still a calendar month left on the school year, but I'm hitting that combination of reflecting/looking ahead that comes with the end of the school year. In no particular order, some thoughts as I look back:

• Classroom management is something I've always taken some pride in, but this year was kind enough to kick me in the pants on that one. Not only have I hit a point where I'm starting vocal therapy due to blowing out my voice over the last year (mostly due to bad habits of talking over kids and singing parts out while the band plays), I'm still having very frustrating moments with some of my groups and I blame myself for much of it. Next year will bring clearer expectations and follow through for the sake of both my students and me.
• Much of our scheduling of events is still based around what used to be a fall season for state tests. Some things need rearranging now that tests have shifted to Spring.
• I am an educator. But sometimes I forget that I need to educate beyond the students in my classroom. Families, colleagues, and others sometimes need help in understanding some of the unique challenges and benefits of a performance ensemble. 
• If some part of me thinks I should pack something for a field trip, such as extra AAA batteries just in case a student's insulin pump starts to fail, I should definitely bring them.
• My grading still needs an overhaul.
• With the exception of a few cases here and there, emails can wait until Monday, and I need to stop feeling guilty for not doing more school stuff at home.
• Some email responses are best done after waiting for a bit anyway so that I'm responding rationally and not emotionally.
• It's the end of my ninth year of teaching and even though there could be 100 things going right, I'll still obsess over the one that's going wrong.
• I really enjoyed working with student teachers this year, even though it was only one day a week. It helped me look more closely at my teaching and rehearsal habits and I'm looking forward to having them full time in the future.
• I love my job. Seriously. My alarm is too early. I get stressed. I sometimes miss things like Moms and Muffins with my daughter because it's the morning of our Spring Concert. My students drive me nuts on occasion. But I really love getting to make music with kids every day and the relationships I get to form with them over time.

There are still a few weeks to learn new things and reflect, but that's where I stand right now. What are some of your big takeaways from this year?

Expanding Roles

Tuesday I had my first two student teachers join my classes. They'll be coming once a week for a few hours at a time and I'm really excited for the experience of working with new teachers.

It felt weird stepping into the role of educating future educators, even on a small scale for the time being. It's something I've always wanted to do. Without others being willing to take me on as a student teacher, I wouldn't be in the career I've always wanted.

Having someone in the room taking notes on how I plan lessons, conduct, and work with students who isn't officially evaluating me in some way is a new experience. They're not watching me to help make me a better teacher (though working with them will absolutely help me grow), they're watching me to develop their own teaching and suddenly I feel a new (but good!) kind of pressure to be on my game even more than usual.

They're coming from pretty different backgrounds and types of experiences, so we worked out a plan for each of them to get them in front of the groups to varying degrees this coming week. I was appreciative of the fact that both were honest about what they feel is their current comfort zone and some things they want to do to get outside of that. Once we see how this Tuesday goes, we'll take it from there.

I hope that I'll be able to give them the experience they need to prepare them for the next part of their education and career, but I'm also excited about what I'll learn from them as we work together.

What are some favorite things you've done with student teachers? Suggestions? They're only with us three hours a week, but I'm open to ideas!

Peace

Like so many other people, 2016 was a particularly...rotten (I'd love to use a more colorful word or two, but I'm trying to keep it mostly professional) year for me. I'm not  just talking about things like the weather and celebrity deaths though. (though at the time of writing this, Carrie Fisher has very sadly just passed, so really 2016 can we be done now?!?)

2016 brought some huge challenges in my personal life. Last year, my one word was Focus. I found some. But the things January Amy thought she'd be focusing on were NOT the things June Amy had to actually focus on and December Amy cannot believe how long ago June seemed.

via GIPHY

So satisfying to watch. Every. Single. Time. (and yes I understand the ironic juxtaposition of this gif with the One Word goal I'm about to share)

At one point I joked to my therapist (no really, it was that kind of year), that though my professional life seemed to be finding the direction I'd always hoped for, my personal life seemed to be moving in a directly inverse motion.

Near the height of 2016's...rottenness, this quote came across my Twitter feed and provided a good kick of perspective. It was something I needed right at that time and it forced me to change how I was looking at my circumstances.

Though the process of finding my One Word has really been in the works since I saw this quote I'm going to keep riding it into the new year.

Peace.

1. Peace within my own life. While my hold on personal Peace has been more tenuous some days than others, it's stronger now than it was even a few weeks ago and I'm going to keep working toward it. There are too many things at stake to be angry all the time, and if 2016's perceived indifference to so many's plans and wishes has shown us anything, (please forgive the cliche) it is that life is too short to spend it in any way that makes us continually unhappy. So I will keep finding peace within myself and my new circumstances, because I do not wish to sacrifice happiness.
2. Peace for my students and my daughter. 2016 brought on some scary changes to the world and how humans choose (or more importantly do not choose) to relate to one another. While the problems in the world at large can seem overwhelming, peace can take form in many small actions by many people. In any way I can, I will actively fight (yes, fight) for the peace they deserve whether with activities in my classes, contact with lawmakers and legislators, movements and people I choose to support, and even the basic choices I make in my every day interactions.

This is going to mean a more solution seeking and less complaining. More reaching out and less quiet seething. More standing up and less frustrated acceptance. More understanding and less judging. It's going to be bumpy and messy, and I'll probably screw up more often than I'd like to imagine, but I'll keep trying.

Peace is worth the laser focus of a One Word goal.

An Outside Perspective

Monday was Halloween. Kids were particularly...spirited. I was feeling grouchy due to a night of minimal sleep, feeling overwhelmed finishing grades for the end of the marking period, and yet another rough morning convincing my three year old that not only does she have to wear more than the over-sized t-shirt she slept in to go to preschool, but that Mommy also has to be to work by a specific time.

We were working on a piece we'd only looked at a couple of times before, it was not going well...and my principal came by for a pop in observation.

And all I could think of was everything going wrong.

via GIPHY  Me, on Monday. Minus the fez. Though I do hear that fezzes are cool.

Most days I love to have visitors come in. The students always find a little extra focus and enjoy a chance to show off what they've been working on. Monday was not one of those days.

Tuesday I came in to find some feedback in my mailbox. I threw it in with the rest of my mail and waited until I got back to my office to check it.

I should have looked sooner.

Where I saw a chaotic space, she saw an inviting environment. When the students and I both made mistakes, she complimented risk taking. When we were having a typical conversation about how to better align parts, she heard music specific language and vocabulary. And where I saw an every day band class, she saw engaged, hands on learning.

Though I know having a guest in the room it has its value, like so many others, I forget to take my own advice.  As a teacher and a musician, I sometimes forget to look at the good things my kids are doing. The day is spent on so many small details needed for improvement that I lose sight of the forest through the trees. Outside perspectives can really bring back focus on the positives, refresh your outlook, and bring the big picture back into focus.

Word Wall 2.0

I'm making some headway on my list of new things to try this year. One of the techy ones was to create an interactive word wall using augmented reality. The idea is that when a word on the wall is scanned with the appropriate app, a video comes up with an explanation and/or demonstration of the term. I saw the idea at MACUL a couple of years ago and I've been dying to try it out. There were a few kinks to be worked out as I was learning some of the technology right along with the students, but most of them have it done now and I'm really happy with how it's looking!

While there are many augmented reality applications and sites out there, we used BlippAR. Within a couple days of requesting an educational account, I had an email invite to set it up. Once you're set up, you'll have to add your students under your umbrella account by choosing manage users, and then invite them to your project. It's important that students create within one project so that only one campaign code is needed to read all their Blipps.

Once my eighth graders set up their account through my invite and created a word card that would go on the wall, I shared these directions in Google Classroom.

Through trial and error and a few emails/chats with our extremely helpful Blippar representative here are some things we figured out:

• One challenge we encountered was that the image and video have to be pulled from the computer's storage. Most students did their image and video on their phones and sent them to their email to be downloaded to the computer, then uploaded into BlippAR (this whole process was actually more complicated than creating the actual Blipp!). If students had a cord to directly plug into the computer, it was much easier than trying to email large files.
• Another issue was that .MOV wasn't always cooperative to get into the program and edit correctly as .mp4. Once we figured that out, a lot of students used free file converters online and it fixed many issues.
• Students do not need to publish and make their Blipp live. As long as it works with the campaign code entered in the settings, others with the same code will be able to see their creation. If they publish it live, it will not work because one of the ways BlippAR keeps things secure for students is to keep things visible only to those that the codes are shared with.
• After adding the video to the Blipp, students should wait a minute or two before clicking Test/Publish to see if it works. If they do it too soon, sometimes the video hasn't finished processing.
• It doesn't just look cooler if the word is decorated and uses some color, it makes it easier for the app to distinguish between that and the other things it picks up in the background.

Our still under construction, but good looking "wall!"

The larger paper in the upper left includes instructions on what app to use and the campaign code that has to be entered so that the videos associated with the cards will work. You can see it closer here.

While I did miss the ease of instantly creating on a mobile device like I've done before with younger students in Aurasma, BlippAR's design studio provides the possibility of some really interesting student creation, as well as providing me a platform to assist students with their projects directly. Having our own representative for additional support was great too! Email feedback was responded to quickly, and I even did a Google Hangout with our rep because BlippAR is looking to learn and continue to improve their educational offerings. 

Now that I've finally gotten to try it, I'm looking forward to finding other ways to incorporate this into our classroom. Once we got past some of the initial frustrations, the students seemed to really enjoy it and I love the reactions of students and colleagues who have never used augmented reality! 

Do you use AR in your classes? Have some ideas on other ways to get students creating with it? Please share!

Savoring the Silence

I'm not anti-social or an introvert. I'm actually a pretty textbook definition of ambivert.

But I like quiet.

Considering that I'm a middle school band teacher with classes of 40+ kids playing big, expensive noise makers, who are still developing the ability to control their volume (when they play their instruments too), I know how ridiculous that comes across.

From 7AM until 6PM there are kids in my room. Students come in at least half an hour before school starts, my partner teaches a section of 6th grade band during my prep, and the after school program (latchkey) is housed in the band room.

After school I spend the remainder of the evening with my three year old who is never lacking in silly and imaginative things to talk about. By the time she exhausts the last of her seemingly endless energy reserves and finally falls asleep, I'm out cold on the couch.

This is why I eat lunch in my office most days. It's why I usually either listen to sports radio or nothing on the way home (especially in that first month of beginning band). It's why I've even avoided using Voxer as a learning tool.

Those peaceful moments are few and far between. When they do come I take that time to recharge and decompress.

So that's why on this last day of summer, I'll probably do a little work. But I'm also going to sit on the deck, read a book, watch the birds, hang out with my daughter, and savor the last bits of silence before the awesome noise of school begins again.

New Year, New Ideas

Just like people post about goals on their social media so that others check in and hold them accountable, I'm going to try the same idea with plans to start the school year and continue throughout. I've forced myself to actually take time off this summer and wait until August to start officially planning, but that means I've got a lot of ideas bouncing around that I haven't actually put down on "paper."

I'm hoping that posting these will help me keep on track:

• Continue to move more towards standards based grading, even though I'm on an A-E system. I want to establish clearer rubrics so that students better understand the system and can use it to improve as well as find better ways for students to feel that they earned a "successful" grade at the end of the marking period. Last year students were allowed unlimited retakes, extremely flexible deadlines, and I stopped including behavior as a part of their grade. However, many did not take advantage of these opportunities and so ended up with grades that they were not expecting from "just band." I've gotten some great resources from a friend on how he used it with his bands and need to really sit down and work it out for mine. 
• Giving my student more input and control over our social media. Each class hour will have a section of the week that will be in charge of coming up with one post and one summary of that week's activities to be included on the update for our website. They can take pictures and email me the caption to go with their post that I'll then share on our accounts. Student posts will also have their own hashtag in addition to our school and fine arts tags. 
• Interactive word wall. I saw the idea to create an interactive word wall using Aurasma at MACUL a couple of years ago, but until this year didn't have the circumstances to try it. The eighth graders will be assigned musical terms and have to design a card with their word on it. When the word is scanned with the app, a short video of that student will come up with an explanation and demonstration. When new terms come up in our  music, students will now be able to learn from each other, even if they're not in the same class.
• Updating room decorations. Seventh graders will work in groups to come up with relevant quote posters for the room. We're fortunate to have an actual poster printer, so they'll create them online with sites like Canva.
• Flexible seating options. Obviously this cannot be done full scale in a band room. Putting a 6th grade tuba player on a yoga ball is just screaming for unpleasant headlines, lawsuits, and job searching. What I imagine are some spaces at the front of the room and around the outside with some comfy chairs, stools, cushions, etc that can be easily moved and stacked. Many students come in almost half an hour before school starts and hang out with friends and we also do a lot of collaborative work that doesn't always involve their instruments. I'd like to have some options other than band chairs and stands for kids. My first step will be to reach out to our families and see what they might have sitting in the basement that they'd be willing to donate. Next I'll try some resale shops and my last stop will be Amazon. As it comes in, I'll have students help figure out how to arrange things and get it all set up.

What are some of your new ideas this year? Please share and we can help keep each other motivated!

Band Portfolios with Google Sites

Portfolios have come and gone and come again over the years as a way to track student growth. For our non-music colleagues, these were a little easier to maintain. Tracking and storing evidence like paper or pictures of projects was definitely much less complicated than tapes (both audio or VHS), mini disks, or CDs.  Technology though has now opened up a huge number of options for tracking music student progress over time by creating digital portfolios.

I claim zero credit for any of these ideas. In fact, it was a colleague who introduced me to the idea last fall. I know that many people are looking at ways to incorporate this though, so I wanted to share one way it could be done.

This video shows how our middle school students set portfolios up using a Google Site.  Since we use Google Classroom for all of our assignments, it's very easy to get videos from students' Drive to their Site.

A few quick tips I did not mention in video:

• Make sure your students are renaming their videos as they go along. They are often uploaded with generic number/letter names that make them difficult to sort through later.
• Check your district's policies on student created sites. Ours can create them, but their default setting is private and they can only be shared with people in our domain. This is beneficial for student protection and privacy, but unless they open their sharing with me I cannot see their site.
• I used Screencastify to make this video. When this was first assigned, I did a similar one that was a little more specific for students, then loaded it as an assignment in Google Classroom along with a list of the specific assignments and tests I wanted added to their portfolio. It's free and fairly easy to use and may be a good way to help your students with their initial set up.
• Each semester I posted a list of assignments that students needed to add to their portfolio in Google Classroom. The list usually included a couple of playing tests (every beginner added Hot Cross Buns to their portfolio), some of their written work, a practice reflection, and then I let them choose something else to add.

While a Google Site makes the most sense for our students with our current technology set up, this can easily be done with a variety of other hosting platforms such as Weebly. It could even be done through something like KidBlog because students can also add from their Drive to a blog post. The great thing is that no matter what platform you use, there are lots of options to help your students track their progress over time!

How are you doing digital portfolios? Please share your ideas in the comments!

What My Dogs Remind Me About Teaching

I was not always a dog lover. In fact, after being bitten as a child (barely broke the skin but very scary when they're the same size as you!), most large dogs scared me. As soon as we bought our house though and started walking around the neighborhood, the idea of having on to stroll with us sounded better and better. I was thinking a something small like a Boston Terrier. However, having grown up with large dogs his whole life, my husband wanted one he could wrestle and play with (and was larger than our cats).

The search began, and after spending weeks looking through Petfinder, we came across Bones, soon renamed Porter. He was a three month old black and white puppy that had been found living in a car with his mom and siblings in Detroit. We put in the application and a couple weeks later he was ours! Shortly after adopting him, the warnings began. "He'll turn on you." "Don't let him near the cats." "Aren't you guys planning on having kids someday? They're dangerous."

We did our research refuting all of the myths surrounding dogs like Porter and worked to make sure he'd be a great ambassador for all the block headed dogs out there. About a year later, we adopted his new "sister," Arcadia. With her brindle pattern and stockier build, many perceive her to be even scarier than Porter.

Having two dogs will teach you a lot, but having two that fall into the very broad classification of "pit bull" will drop much more learning on you than you anticipated. Here's what my two dogs always make sure I remember:

• Not Judging Books By Covers. Just like dogs, every kid is an individual and deserves to be treated as such. Assumptions based on appearances or initial behaviors do nobody any good. We need to dig at the root of their behaviors and find ways to help them work through their issues whether academic, social, or otherwise. We have to get to know our students as people and...

• Differentiate. Porter is the kid who's really good at "doing school" but not so good at putting it into practice. He'll run through every answer he's ever learned to try and get that treat, but when it comes to remembering "stay" when we really need it, nothing but cute head turns and tail wags. Arcadia on the other hand is the one asking "Why do we even need to learn this?" She'll figure it out in her own time and when she does, it'll be because it was her idea and clearly not ours. Just like with our students, we have to work with their strengths and weaknesses and try to...

• Set Them Up for Success. Leaving our toddler's leftovers on the dinner table is just too great a temptation for Porter ("leave it" is another one of those phases we're working on actually putting into practice). Within minutes, he'll be enjoying a tasty treat. Arcadia came with a few more emotional problems when we adopted her, so we learned not to take her into spaces where there are off leash dogs. Teaching and training is important, but so is planning ahead. We can't get angry at students for acting out when we have not thought through a lesson or set up clear expectations. Failure can be a great teacher, but there's a big difference in letting them try something new or completely setting them up to fail. Unfortunately whether things are going right or wrong...

• People Will Judge You.  People cross the street and run away on paths to avoid us. I get suspicious looks from people at the vet's office, and have encountered remarkable changes in people's attitude toward me when I share that we have two "pit bulls." As teachers, we get judged for a lot of things: poor test scores, being teachers in the first place (those who can, do, right?), getting "summers off," crime rates, world hunger, etc. In the world of both teachers and "pit bull" owners though, many allies can be found for support and advice. We just need to reach out and find the resources that work best with our students But (and you probably knew this was coming)...

• They're Worth It. Though I've cleaned up more disemboweled stuffed animals than I'd like to count (my inner child who grew up on Toy Story still cries inside whenever I throw one out), and have basically given up on ever having a well landscaped back yard, I wouldn't trade my dogs for anything. Nor would I give up teaching. There are days that I come home frustrated and angry, but the joy I gain from spending my days with middle school musicians is not something I would give up on. Luckily we've got two big, silly dogs always ready for a walk and some moral support on the ruff days.

Everyone Has To Start Somewhere

While eating lunch waiting until my last presentation of the day at our state music conference, I overheard a group of music education students laughing at the idea of a Twitter Party session. Coincidentally, that Twitter Party happened to be my presentation. They thought the ideas of having to even learn how to use Twitter and then use it professionally were ridiculous. I admit I was tempted to go over and correct them, but I refrained from doing so.

I had to remind myself that everyone has to start somewhere. It can be easy to laugh at someone or be frustrated with them when they're not in the same place as you. However, that's not the way to help them grow or bring them over to your side.

8th Year Me would be so annoyed upon encountering 1st Year Me. My grading practices were inflexible and punitive. I used little to no technology. My students had minimal say in musical choices or rehearsal options.

But I've learned and grown and discovered that I will always be learning and growing and probably laughing at younger versions of myself. The combination of experience, Twitter, and the occasional well-deserved servings of Teacher Humble Pie have made me a better educator. Those students laughing at the mere idea of my presentation have had little of any of those things.

Without a stepping off point, none of us would be where we are now. Being smug, frustrated, or annoyed will not get anyone anywhere. So when sharing a new idea or when someone is sharing something different with you, approach with an open mind and choose kindness first.

Don't Talk to an Empty Room

OK.  I've finally caved.  Instagram it is.  Now that I teach only middle school and many of my students are only allowed on Instagram but not Facebook or Twitter, I finally set one up for our classes.  In only a few months of having social media for our bands, the Instagram account has twice the followers of either of the others.

If social media is an important part of connecting with families, then we have to keep up with what is being used most frequently now, which with my students meant jumping into Instagram. This is not to say that other platforms are obsolete, but each one provides another opportunity to make different connections and reach our audiences where they are.

In all honesty, one of my biggest reasons for not creating Instagram account was because I didn't want to maintain three separate accounts.  Enter If This Then That! IFTTT is an amazing resource that I use to connect all three accounts. In the hands of more experienced users, this site can be used to automate things I hadn't even thought of.  For me though, this means that with one post, three separate accounts are updated. The posts are also better visually than when doing things like linking Twitter and Facebook. The Facebook posts actually show up as their own post rather than a Twitter link and the Twitter posts show the picture you shared instead of just the Instagram link and caption.  

IFTTT uses "recipes" to link your accounts.  Just search for what you want to set up.  For example: "If Instagram then Facebook page." There will be plenty of ready made recipes that you can borrow. It takes a little bit of work on the front end setting up and linking your accounts, but that time is well worth it.  You can even tweak existing recipes to fit your needs.  I wanted my Instagram photos to post on Facebook, but didn't really need them to go into an album.  I just clicked on the recipe and left the spot for an album name in the recipe blank.  

We have to adapt and move ahead with our audience.   Sharing info in places nobody is looking is like talking to an empty room.  If we want to share our story, then we need to tell it in places people will keep hearing it.

Teaching Can Break Your Heart

There are so many things that education schools do not and honestly cannot prepare you for.  This isn't anything that hasn't been said before, but occasions do come up that remind you of it, whether your first year or your eighth or your twentieth.

Your classes may teach you how to respond to hateful things coming from tiny mouths, but they don't tell you how you'll worry about that student over weekends and breaks because you know they're repeating something heard at home.

Your classes may give advice on how to work with kids working through grief, but they won't tell you how to handle students looking at an empty chair where a friend used to sit or how to pick a funeral arrangement for a young life that ended far too early.

Your classes will tell you about transient student populations and homelessness, but they won't tell you about the panic when the secretary asks if a student made it to school because their home was boarded up and a foreclosure sign was on the door when the bus came to pick them up that morning.

Your classes will talk about how poverty affects students, but not about how you'll feel when you see a student wearing the dinosaur sweatshirt and shoes you picked out when for "Child-M, age 5, likes dinosaurs" when you and your colleagues adopted a local family for Christmas.

Teaching can be hard, messy work.  Why?  Because we're not dealing with widgets. We're dealing with human beings learning how to navigate the messiness of life.  These developing humans are why we get up and go to work every day.  They're why we love our chosen profession.  And the amazing things they're capable of make the risk of heartbreak worth it.

An #EdCamp Love Letter

Dear EdCamp,

I know you've seen a lot of people and don't remember who I am, but I wanted to let you know the impact you've had on me.

A lot of my friends had been telling me to check you out for a long time.  But between grad school and a newborn at home, it just wasn't the right time for us.  Last fall though, I finally decided to give you a try.

I wasn't sure what to wear so I went with typical school day clothes.  Once I got there, I realized I was overdressed, but the environment was so welcoming that I quickly stopped caring about my clothes.

The vibe was unlike any other conference or professional development I'd ever attended.  People were excited to be there, and it was 8:30 on a Saturday morning!  There were a lot of differences between you and other PD I'd attended.  People had Twitter handles on their name tags, they wore shirts with QR codes linking to their websites, and...the session board was blank.  As I watched people request different topics, I watched the board fill up, including a session I found myself collaborating on with another teacher I'd just met!

You started off pretty flashy.  Some free breakfast, good opening remarks, and a quick recording for a lip dub and we were on our way.  My new colleague and I shared the impact of Twitter on our teaching and practice and got new teachers signed up and tweeting!

The rest of the day was a whirlwind of learning! I attended sessions everything from Visible Thinking, to maker spaces, to one inspired by speed dating that had us all sharing our favorite websites, apps, and technology with each other in 60 second bursts!  You were even thoughtful enough to buy lunch.

I've seen you several times since then.  Every meeting has left me with new inspiration and ideas.  After seeing so many other teacher sharing their learning and experiences, I gained the confidence to start sharing my own learning with colleagues.

Next weekend, I'll be returning to the site of our first encounter.  I can't wait to see the new things I'll learn, discover, and grow from!

Looking forward to seeing you again soon!

Amy

At Least Don't Hurt

"Take these home for Mom and Dad.  Tell your parents about this later. Dear Parents...  Be sure to remind your parents about Bingo Night!"

All of these are innocuous phrases with no ill intention.  They're probably said in some variation or another more times than we can count in a day.  But for some kids and the people who care for them, words and phrases like "parents" and "Mom and Dad" can be just a little bit of salt in an open wound.

I have had students being raised by grandparents, students in foster situations, students who have tragically lost one or both biological parents, students in single parent homes, students whose parents have divorced and both remarried, and students being raised by a sibling.
.  

As a kid who was raised by her dad, I remember being sensitive when someone assumed that I was with both parents or since they were divorced that my sister and I lived with my mom.  The adults in my life were not purposely trying to be exclusionary or hurtful, but it didn't take much to remind me of the I was different, especially right after they split.

Instead of saying "parents" or "mom and dad" or "guardians" (which I always found to be a very sterile term anyway) what about "Family?"  Now you could tell students to share something with their families. Communications home could be "Dear (insert class, school name, mascot, or organization) Family."  Not only is it going to help those kids in atypical situations feel more included, that subtle change in language can make your class, organization, or even the whole school a family.  

It's not perfect, and I'm aware that there are kids who would rather forget about their family too, but it's a simple change.  If as educators we're always seeking ways to help our students in ways both big and small, something like switching around a couple of words certainly can't hurt.

The View of School Choice from Out Here

On the way to dinner yesterday, we drove by an electronic billboard advertising a nearby school district looking to encourage people to make those schools their schools of choice. Is this really what schools have to spend money on now? It's not the first time I've asked this question. I ask it every time the six page, full color mailer from the district I live in comes quarterly to us as well as people in surrounding districts (including the one I teach in). I ask it when I see a full page ad in the Sunday paper. I ask it when I hear a radio spot.  I ask it when I go to the movies and there's a school district's commercial before the trailers. Why aren't the people who are so concerned with how schools choose to spend their money concerned about the thousands and thousands of dollars being wasted on school of choice ads? Because they're often the ones who think school choice is what's going to make our schools better.

Please don't misunderstand, I do not blame those districts for advertising (though the time the neighboring Goliath rented our David district's one and only tiny "hall" to hold an informational meeting was fairly dirty). They are simply adapting to the world that's been created in education. Due to Michigan's decreasing population and birth rates, we're all fighting for the same kids because no matter what schools do, most districts are losing students.

Many policy makers think this is all wonderful because schools have to work harder to compete with each other, which in turn makes them work harder for their kids. To a degree, that may be true. Here's the problem with competition though, it produces losers. That's great for sports and keeping cable prices down. It's not great for schools though, because the losers in this situation are students with little say in the matter.

Those who like this business model for schools say "Don't like your school? Go somewhere else. The bad schools will close up and the kids benefit." Except that's not how things work. As in many things, it comes down to money. Some families can afford to transport their children to other districts on their own. They have the time, transportation, and resources to where this is not a problem. But what about those students left behind? As each student leaves, funding for that district goes down. The students whose families cannot take them elsewhere are now left in a school with far fewer resources, which must now make even more cutbacks and offer less and less.

Even more sad is that the schools that kids are leaving aren't necessarily bad ones. I taught in a rural district of about 600 kids. They well for being so small, and offer more than you'd think we can. But in all honesty, there are just some things that they cannot offer or compete with due to our size.   Unfortunately, they're surrounded by larger districts who can offer more, and it's hurting already small enrollment numbers.

"Then consolidate! Close up and send your students to the 'bigger and better' districts!" many would say. It would save so much of the taxpayers' money if we didn't have to pay for all those extra schools. There may be some places where this could be a long-term benefit. But schools who aren't in a large metropolitan area are often flat out ignored in this discussion. Policy makers seem to forget that there are schools in places other than major cities. There are a lot of direct and indirect consequences in these situations.

Those families who couldn't afford to send their kids to other schools probably can't afford to move either. Kids in more rural areas would be putting in 10+ hour days when you include their bus rides. There are a number of families who chose smaller districts like ours because their kids struggled in a larger settings. Now those kids would be thrown back into a bigger place that they were trying to avoid in the first place.

Additionally, the district I taught in is the largest employer in that community. I'm not talking about the teachers either, though a few of them do live in district. I'm talking about the secretaries, custodians, para-professionals, cooks, bus drivers, media center specialists, lunch/recess aides, and substitute teachers who live there. Along with decimating the heart of the community and closing up a district that has been around over 130 years, dozens will be left jobless. Instead of tax money going to support a local school, it will pay for unemployment.

A better solution needs to be found for our students.  Schools shouldn't have to try and poach kids from surrounding areas to stay open and functioning at their highest level.  Every student, no matter where they are located, deserves an excellent education in a place that fits their needs.

Dear Rookie Me (a.k.a.: What I Wish I'd Known)

Dear Rookie Me,

Congratulations on your first full time gig!  Yes, I know that you got the offer with less than a week to go before school started, but here are a few things to help you out:

1. Organizational skills.
• Try to find some.  You'll be tracking well over 300 kids in 13 grades and two buildings.  I know there's no student growth requirements yet, but there will be and having a system in place will be a huge help.  Also, don't be afraid to throw some things out!  There are decades of stuff in your rooms.  Make some space.
2. Stand up for your kids and their music education.
• I know this can be a challenge, especially as a new teacher, but changes are coming and not all of them will be in favor of your students' interests.  Become an advocate early and often at all levels.  From talking with administration to writing letters to representatives, it all makes a difference.
3. Discover the professional uses of social media.  
• Welcome to being a department of one.  It can be a little isolated.  And let's face it, you really don't know much of anything about teaching general music yet, especially for K-3.  There are Facebook groups just for music and band teachers.  Find them and use them!  Ask questions, borrow ideas!  Twitter is a great way to connect with educators of all kinds from all over the world.  Being the only band and music teacher doesn't have to be lonely.
4. Reach out.
• There are some pretty awesome teachers in nearby schools.  They were once new too and they're more than willing to help.  Ask admin if you can visit them, see if they can visit you, call or email and ask them questions.  
5. Learn to say "no."
• Being active and involved is good.  Feeling overwhelmed and occasionally a little taken advantage of is bad.  Be a part of things that you're passionate about, but don't feel like YOU have to be the first to volunteer for everything. (I know this is easier said than done!!!)  Make your students and the classes you're teaching your first educational priority.  Plus, someday you'll have a tiny human of your own to care for, and it's a lot easier to do when you're home every now and again.
6. Seek out your own professional development.
• A lot of the PD days you attend aren't going to be that much use to you.  Find something else to further your learning.  Read.  Get on social media.  Find conferences and events to attend.  Go to an EdCamp.
7. Kids are awesome, but kind of gross.
• Wash your hands. Take vitamin C.  Get a flu shot.  Wipe down shared instruments.  Your immune system will improve, but spending the better part of your first two years sick isn't a lot of fun. Take care of yourself!

I'm not going to say things get less crazy.  They don't.  The craziness just shifts from being stuff that happens to you, to things you'll learned how to roll with.  Embrace it and have fun!  You're finally getting to do the thing you've been wanting to do since the fourth grade.  It's going to be awesome.