"I'm not throwin' away my shot... Yo! I'm just like my country... I'm young, scrappy and hungry... I'm not throwin' away my shot!" These are the words the young Alexander Hamilton (You know, the founding father... The guy on the $10 bill?) raps in the new Grammy-winning Broadway musical Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Yes! I said "raps!" Miranda's musical was written as an experiment in the world of musicals, just like the creation of America was an experiment in the world as far as governments go... Hey! Just like your first year of teaching:

• You are young and ready to take on the world of teaching!
• You are looking to impart your knowledge!
• You are full of enthusiasm!
• You have a lot of tools, but might not have mastered how to use them!
• And... Many things you do are just experiments to see what works and what doesn't work!

There are many times that new teachers in music are quickly disillusioned as the ensemble(s) they are in charge of don't respond the way their former college ensemble(s) did. Possibly the new teacher has to find his or her pace for the first semester and it is different than expected. Sometimes the administration is difficult to work with, because they do not understand music. Maybe there are discipline issues that the new teacher creates, or were left by a former teacher. These are just some of the issues a great Mentor can help a new teacher through. That way when they are "scrappy and hungry" to teach, they don't miss their "shot" at being a good and effective music teacher in their first year or two! Well, that's where KMEA Mentoring can help! We hope to set you (the new teacher) up with success, rather than only experiments with undetermined outcomes. This year at the KMEA In-Service Workshop we were able to meet many new teachers through the three events we hosted. And with the induction of Green ribbons for New Teachers and Gold ribbons for Mentors, it was much easier to make direct contacts while perusing the exhibits, or at a concert performance.

The first event was "How to Stay Organized Your First Year of Teaching." This inaugural session hosted a panel of veteran music educators including Shawn Knopp, Summer Miller, and Bill Schick. This session was meant to be an extension of an already wildly popular session "Tips from the Trenches." Comments from past years indicated that the "Tips" session was not long enough. So, in this session we walked the attendees through things that music teachers need to know their first year of teaching, but may not always consider. Topics we discussed were from Administrators to Custodians and Grades to Extra Duties. We had about 70 in attendance!

Our next session was the annual "Tips from the Trenches." This session is a question & answer session for directed by the New Teachers, which features a panel of veteran music educators. This year's panel featured six "tried and true" teachers in all areas from around Kansas. They were Catherine Tummons, Amanda Vanausdall, Teri Harpool, Larry Brownlee, Jodi Reese, and Lisa Dameron. We hosted about 30 teachers for this session. The most popular line of questioning dealt with classroom management this year. But other topics discussed were:

• Building rapport with squirrely middle school students
• Creating a great work relationship with Co-Workers
• Planting seeds of support for the Fine Arts in your Administrators
• What do you do when you don't have an Accompanist?
• How do you look past the terrible parts of teaching?
• How do you teach music on State Assessment day and the kids have no brain left?
• Increasing retention rate of students at the Middle and High School levels
• How to keep track of activities that need scheduling (eg. Solos/Ensembles/Contest)

The New Teacher Luncheon, again, was a great hit! This was the 12th time KMEA Mentoring has hosted this event. Attending were 22 new teachers. Featured as guest speakers were NAfME President Glenn Nierman, KMEA President Martha Gabel, KMEA President-Elect Gretchen Bixler, KSHSAA Administrator Craig Manteuffel, and KMMA Representative from Senseney Music Lori Supinie. Also, the luncheon featured three of the six district Mentor Chairpersons. Attending were Jodi Reese, Bill Schick and Mary Jo Harper. Many great connections were made face-to-face with these great new teachers! During the New Teacher Luncheon we asked that the New Teachers tell us about themselves and what concerns them most during their first year. The results were:

• Classroom Management and Discipline, where 81% felt this was a concern
• Knowledge of teaching materials & music literature in your teaching area with 64% concerned that they did not have a grasp of it
• Student evaluation and grading tied with Curriculum Development were concerns of a little over half the group coming in at 59%
• Least concern was Interpersonal skills at 0%
• About half, 45%, have a Mentor, whom they trust to ask for help
• 90% stated that the new teacher luncheon and events helped them gain some perspective

This year has been phase one of a two-year revamp of the Mentoring program. We have been more "proactive" to seek out new teachers in the state of Kansas. We cannot forget to thank all of the hard work, Former KMEA President and MENC SW President Ron Chronister has provided and will continue to provide as we move into this second year. Ron has been quite an integral part in creating a database, first for all new teachers and attaching each district to an anchor representative to help provide new teacher information for every school district in the state of Kansas. The next phase will be creating a database for Mentor teachers in each of the six districts in the state of Kansas. Once that is in place we will begin work on contacting colleges to help us know who is close to graduating, and ready to join the work force. Also, we thank the new KSHSAA Administrator and former KMEA President Craig Manteuffel for his quick work, which allowed all High School Principals to contact KMEA Mentoring in helping to provided information in creating the database.

So, don't "throw away [your] shot" to be the best teacher you can be. Get connected with KMEA Mentoring and stay connected! Don't hesitate to contact us now that we've made a personal connection through KMEA ISW! We hope that the rest of the year is a glorious music making time for you!

The following is a list of District Mentor Chairs (please look on their respective district websites for contact information):

• Northwest (NW) District Mentor Chair: Bill Schick
• North Central (NC) District Mentor Chair: Nancy Monical
• Northeast (NE) District Mentor Chair: Kim Harrison
• Southwest (SW) District Mentor Chair: Jodi Reese
• South Central (SC) District Mentor Chair: Deborah Harris
• Southeast (SE) District Mentor Chair: Mary Jo Harper