Welcome Back!

By now, you are already a few weeks into the new school year. You've established your procedures and routines. You've passed out music and learned some songs. You've set concert dates, contacted your local fundraising consultant, issued instruments and uniforms, and have had your first parent meetings. Many of you have completed summer classes or have spent a great deal of your summer break at school organizing and planning for the year.

In short, I think music teachers are the hardest working, most dedicated people on the face of the planet. You are my heroes - and the truth is, many of your students see you that way as well. But, while the year is new, I would like to offer some advice. Sometimes we get so busy doing the business of education that we forget the purpose of education. We can't see the proverbial forest through the trees. Whether it's your first or forty-first year of teaching, I think it is always helpful to take a step back and remember some basic principles.

Remember Why You're Here

Sometimes it is easy to get so wrapped up in the preparation of a performance or in the administration of a program that we forget to focus on the real reason we do what we do. Many years ago, at a time when I was focused on the details of my program, I vented my frustrations with a wise friend of mine. My friend stopped me and asked me why I taught. After some thought, I remembered that my personal goal was to reach the kids in my band. I wanted them to know and experience the power of music in their lives and I wanted them to grow to become good people. I realized that my continued focus on the daily grind made me forget about my ultimate goal - reaching kids. And it's in the reaching of kids that I found joy in teaching. I realized that when I lost this focus, I lost my joy.

Two of the articles in this issue were chosen to remind the reader of why we teach music. Lane Powell's article, "Why We Play: A Coaching Initiative that WORKS for Music Educators" will remind you to take a step back and ask yourself to define success, define what it is you are teaching, and to think about how you affect your students. Stephen Miles' article, "Broader Minded: Think Beyond the Bubbles" discusses the new advocacy promotion by NAfME. He reminds us that music education has the potential to develop many of those character traits necessary for young men and women to become productive citizens. We teach an art form that benefits our society in many immeasurable ways; ways that are hard to put into words, but they are valuable none the less. Miles discusses the reflective thinking, grit, and non-verbal communication that can take place in a well run music class.

Articles like these help us to organize our own personal philosophies of music education. I challenge you to read them and to revisit your philosophy. By articulating and re-articulating your own beliefs of the value and purpose of music education, you clarify what is important and provide yourself with a clear direction in your teaching. Further, your coherent philosophy provides a sense of musical direction for your whole school and community.

Know Who You're Teaching

After 27 years of teaching, I can now say I have taught students ranging in age from kindergarten through graduate school. I have taught in rural, suburban, and urban areas. From this experience I've learned something; children are similar, but they are not all the same. They have different learning styles. They come from different backgrounds. They have different resources at their disposal. They have different support systems at home and in school. And, they have different values.

Because of the basic fact that children are different, we must remember that they require different strategies. The key is to know who your students are. By knowing how children learn and by knowing each child's strengths and weaknesses, a teacher can choose the most appropriate strategy for any given situation. Elaine Bernstorf and Christine Lapke offer two articles in this issue providing strategies that can be used in the music room. Though both articles are suggest strategies for special needs students, these strategies are equally valuable for all students.

Know What You Want Your Students To Learn

By now, I hope you are all aware of the new Core Arts Standards developed by the National Coalition of Core Arts Standards (NCCAS). The completed standards went online in June and can be found at http://www.nationalartsstandards.org. The new standards are totally online and the website allows you the flexibility to display the standards in multiple ways. At first glance, they are significantly different than the national standards written in 1994, though they strongly reflect the same ideas established during the Tanglewood Symposium in 1968. Once again, this proves that the only constant is change!

It is important that we continue to focus on the enduring skills and understandings we hope to develop rather than just the performances we plan to give. We need to remind ourselves and our public that we don't teach songs. Songs are the means to our students' education - not the end. We teach music. The new standards are intended to reflect the multiple ways in which people engage with music in society. They provide direction for teachers to enable students to perform, create, and respond to music in meaningful ways. The key is not that you follow the new standards as much as it is that you choose to follow some set of standards that will take you to the end goal you have in mind for their musical education.

But, how do you know that the students are learning what you are teaching? The new core arts standards have considered this. Our own Fred Burrack and Dr. Kelly Parkes from Virginia Tech University have been tasked to lead the national development of Model Cornerstone Assessments (MCA's) that are designed to authentically assess student learning within a music classroom. Assessments are being designed that can be adapted to fit within a teacher's unique teaching context so that learning can be assessed in a way that fits the students. Dr. Burrack's article, "Documenting the Quality of Student Learning in Music," discusses the MCA's and asks for your help. We need teachers who are interested in piloting the first draft of the assessments. If you are interested in serving the profession in this capacity, you can learn more at
https://kstate.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_6ofT98LqKfDQnid.

Keep Sharpening Your Saw

Stehen Covey, in his book, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" states that, to be effective, we must learn to preserve and enhance the greatest asset we have—ourselves. That means that we must have a balanced program for self-renewal in our professional, physical, social/emotional, and spiritual areas of life. Mentally, this means that we must be life-long learners. As teachers, we do this for our own benefit as well as to model the ethic of life-long learning to our students.

There are many ways in which we can sharpen our professional saw. If you are a new teacher, I highly encourage you to take advantage of KMEA's mentor teacher program. Holly Taylor and Kelly Knedler, our state mentoring co-chairs, are great people to contact in order to get involved. As a new teacher, you need a mentor in your school to show you how things are done at home, but you also need a mentor in your own discipline who can relate to your unique experiences and lead you through the duties associated with music teaching in Kansas. If you are a "seasoned" teacher, I highly recommend that you take advantage of KMEA's mentor teacher program as well. While the program is initially intended to aid new teachers, mentors gain from the experience as well. We all know that teaching is one of the best ways to learn a subject and we also know the personal satisfaction to be had when we can be of help to another person.

There are other tools we can use to sharpen our professional saw. First, the KMEA In-Service Workshop (ISW) is one such tool that will once again be held at Century II in Wichita, February 26-28. These yearly get-togethers are incredibly valuable for our profession, not just because of the great sessions and the great performances, but also because of the camaraderie we develop as we reconnect with old friends and make new ones. Second, professional journals such as the Kansas Music Review and Music Educators Journal are high valuable as ways in which to keep up to date with teaching endeavors. To stay sharp, you must read! Finally, choose one aspect of your teaching to improve upon this year and commit to researching the topic. We need to learn to use the search engines and the cyber community we have at our internet fingertips to access the information that once could only be found in long and tedious trips to the library.

Keep it in Perspective

We must also remember to sharpen our physical, spiritual, and social/emotional saws. My wise friend reminded me of this during another of our conversations. He reminded me of the price some teachers pay when they spend all of their efforts on their profession and neglect their personal lives. He asked me to name some of the well-known band programs in our state (Washington) at the time. After I named the first program, he reminded me that the teacher had been married and divorced three times. The next person I named had developed ulcers. The third person had never been married and the fourth had a son who committed suicide. Even my friend, who is now in the Washington MEA Hall of Fame, had never had a child. He also reminded me that the programs I named began to have difficulty when the teachers' home lives took a turn for the worse. Few of the names I mentioned could boast a great band program and great home life.

My point is that we must remember to balance school and home. Exercise and eat well to maintain your health and energy or it will eventually affect your work. Show love to your spouse in order to create an energizing place to go home to or it will spill over into the school. Spend time with your children. They will teach you more about teaching than anything else. Finally, spend time with your God in order to remind yourself of why you do what you do in the first place.

We all must balance our focus on the trees AND on the forest. We still need to teach notes and rhythms, prepare for the next performance, and administer our programs. BUT, remember music is more than notes and rhythms and music education is more than music. It's about the growth of our kids.

We are engaged in a noble profession and a noble subject. The impact of our actions will affect people for generations to come.

Have a great school year!

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