Part 1
In the fall of 2015, I ran a panel discussion at the state music conference with a handful of other young music teachers across the state of Maryland geared specially for pre-service and new teachers. I have made some updates and have shared them below. Although that was the intended audience, I would like to add veteran teachers to the list who may find themselves in a new school. Besides sharing some nuggets of wisdom for rising teachers, these truly are good practices.
Just a note to the reader: the topics are in order of importance for the pre-service teacher based on my own personal beliefs, experiences, and discussions with other music educators.
Keeping a Journal
Honest to goodness, this is something I wish I had done while I was student teaching. I have notes and memos and stuff scattered everywhere. At least my planner was incredibly organized and intact. Anyways…this is just something informal for yourself that is not only good practice, but serves as place for you to write down notes, ideas, tidbits of knowledge and information, which keys open what doors, etc. When I started teaching, I would keep a notebook that I would write things down in all the time and then once it was full, I would start another one. I have quite a few filled up from time in the classroom and I periodically reference old ones for reminders, ideas, notes, whatever it was that I kept in there.
In this digital age, you can also keep a running document or folder in your Google Drive or anything like that, but I’m still a little old school and I love the feel of pen and paper. I use different colors, sticky notes to tab things (not in a super organized fashion, just marking where I know important information is), and research tells us the you remember things better when you physically write them down.
*Side note: this is different from the teaching portfolio that many pre-service teachers, and in some cases new teachers, are required to do. This is for YOU.
Contents/Courses
This should be a no brainer, but making sure it’s clear what contents your mentor teacher teaches and what classes you will be responsible for teaching everyday. I mention this because not all middle and high school band directors teach ensembles, sectionals, and lessons all day. Many directors teach other music classes such as guitar, piano, theory, music appreciation, etc. My student teaching schedule did include music theory and an American music appreciation class, both of which I was expected to teach.
One additional note: sometimes teachers teach outside of their contents, which in most, if not all situations, are outside of their control (been there, done that, got the t-shirt [check out my blog post HERE about some thoughts about my personal experience]).
IEPs and 504s
I understand that student accommodations and needs can be overwhelming at first, especially if you didn’t have a good SPED course or instructor in college (that’s a story for another day). I cannot place enough emphasize on how important it is to know which students need extra support and I highly recommend sitting down with your mentor teacher at some point early on to discuss them. This comes from a moment when I was student teaching that I will honestly never forget. A boy in one of my 5th grade percussion classes started acting up on my first day in front of them by myself. I asked him politely multiple times to calm down, lower his voice, and note bang his sticks; he never did and his anger slowly grew to the point where I had no idea what to do. Thankfully, my mentor teacher (Charlie, you really are the best) quietly walked up to him and took him out into the hallway. I finished up the rest of the class (which went smoothly for the rest of class) and afterwards, my mentor teacher informed me that he had an IEP. But not just any IEP: he had Tourettes. Obviously, we got through that situation together, but man, oh manischewitz, did I have a moment that scared the bejeezus out of me.
Don’t let yourself have those moments. To the new teachers, make sure you discuss with the caseworkers about your students. They will give you documents (and trust me…there will be tons of documents…), but they are your life line when it comes to students with special needs, plus cover your behind because you are legally bound to provide your students with supports if stated. Obviously, not all of them will have something like Tourettes, but knowing and understanding what their accommodations are will make your classroom more manageable.
Grading Policy and Grade books
You should ask your mentor teacher for a copy of the grading policy, whether digital or paper. Since you are going to be creating lessons and assignments, you should be aware of what the school policy and expectations are. Part of the student teaching experience is learning how to do grades. What do assignments look like? What rubrics are used? How are the grade percentages worked out? Many teachers today have moved away from paper grade books and use things solely online or digitally. What do those look like? Ask your mentors to show you how to set-up the digital grade book and to give you an opportunity to try things out, or actually input assignments and grades. This is one thing I wish I did while I was student teaching as I struggled with grades as a young teacher. Honestly, it’s still something I struggle with, even as a seasoned teacher (although much of that has to do with me having my plate too full).
Parent Contact/Communication
Have a chat with your mentor teacher about being able to introduce yourself to the parents. It doesn’t have to be anything formal. When I was student teaching, I met many of the band parents at the marching band preview. Even if I didn’t formally meet them, they at least knew who I was. This was super helpful, as I was the staff member in charge on the buses when we went on competitions. I would also ask your mentor if you would would be able to send a little something out via email or newsletter or whatever form of communication your mentor uses to just introduce yourself.
On that note…while you’re having that conversation, find out what sorts of parent communication they use. Is everything done digitally? Do they send papers home anymore? Weekly emails? Newsletters? Everyone is different because you have to cater to your students and community. I used to send out weekly emails and then I ended up doing a weekly Smore newsletter, a digital newsletter platform that you can also save as a PDF and print out paper copies.
All of the Administrative Stuff
Please learn from my mistakes: find out what it means to “take care of paperwork” for your program, whether that is band, orchestra, or chorus. How do you handle money? What are the procedures? Purchase orders? Is there a list of approved vendors? What are the procedures for field trips? And day trips versus overnight trips? Parent volunteer approvals? What goes to the board of education for approval? Talk to your mentor teacher, the secretary, and the principal. What you don’t want to happen is you end up purchasing a sound system from an unapproved vendor, a legit music store, and find yourself in the principal’s office being berated because you didn’t know. Telling me I should have known even though no one had never told me from admin or finance in the two years I was there at that point I guess was irrelevant, so trust me: ask these questions.
Field trip procedures is another HUGE one. Got berated for that one too, even though it was the same situation of no one ever telling me how things work, and I had even asked, but that is neither here nor there.
Also remember that these processes and procedures vary from school district to school district, sometimes from school to school, but the overarching fundamentals are generally the same.
Remember that journal I was talking about? That is the PERFECT place to keep this information.