Continuing as a Performing Arts Educator After Year Two

You made it. Your first year of teaching is behind you and you signed the contract for year two and possibly beyond. You built up a connection to your students, you feel like a contributing member of the faculty, your lessons went better as the year progressed, and you recharged over the summer break by doing some fun things.

So now what? Do you start over again with all of the same challenges, anxieties and worries as last year? No. You get all new ones as you are no longer the rookie and now need to not just maintain your program, but move it forward. And that will be your mantra for your third, fourth, 15th and 25th year – how to move the program forward despite students changing every year.

First, you should be proud that you are now in your second year. A significant portion of teachers quit after one with a high percentage of them being those in the fine and performing arts. So why that high level of burnout? It has been attributed to a combination of being unprepared for the time the job requires, the dissatisfaction with how much of that time is taken up with non-student- related activities, and the slow progress that seems to be made daily. However, you have managed those concerns by being willing to put in the time necessary, be organized so that your time is well-spent, and understand that to successfully accomplish long-range goals requires daily, short-range goals. And you are ready for year two and beyond.

Second, you should truthfully evaluate how year one went and make the adjustments needed for continued success. And not everything needs adjusting, but you certainly found areas that need attention where you need to improve your skills or expand your knowledge. Keep what worked well, modify what worked, but could be better and add to your toolbox.

• Continue to set your expectations at the beginning and work to support your students in meeting them on a daily basis. Don’t let up just because you know your returning students better. They will respond better knowing what to expect in your class and from you.

• Continue to learn students’ names as soon as possible and use them as often as you can, trying to connect with each student, each class, each day.

• Be positive and complimentary when students perform as you expect them to and especially when they surprise you with an unforeseen skill or talent. You are likely now familiar with a portion of your ensemble students so you now know what they are capable of and have a better idea of what they can become. Push them a bit harder to be more successful.

• If you felt unprepared for an aspect of your position, find a music colleague in your district or nearby who is noted for that skill set and pick their brains. Pick up some tips on programming choices, conducting ideas, popular electives to teach, or how to fix bent clarinet keys.

• Add to your conducting skill set by preparing your scores more before adding them to the students’ folders. Learn the music (memorize if possible) so that you can increase your eye contact with them as you lead them through rehearsal.

• Expand your program choices to pieces that you have not done in the past as well as solicit some input from your returning students about composers, eras, styles, and the genres for new pieces. Start a notebook that has each concert’s program and have it available for returning students to peruse to remind them of pieces, performances, music, and anecdotes connected to each. Make sure to put your year one programs in it and keep it up with each successive performance.

• Continue to program based on the three Es: Educational, Enjoyment, Entertainment, but now expand the educational component with new material. For example, if you have not done a piece in compound meter or one that changes meter (or key signature), add one to the next concert.

• Continue to program past the next concert including pieces in their folders in September that are challenging and programmable for next spring. Consider expanding that process by highlighting or featuring an era or composer in each concert throughout the year. Celebrating the 250th birthday of a composer by performing one of their pieces in each concert will give you the opportunity to teach about them, their era, their history, their significance over the entire school year, rather than the six weeks before the Fall Concert.

• Make more connections to their other subjects now that you know the other faculty members better. Perform a Civil War piece and have the AP US History teacher come to class and speak about the historical time the composer lived in. Connect aspects of your elective classes (Music Appreciation, History of Jazz, World Drumming, Music Theory, etc.) to what other teachers offer. Once you take the first step, your colleagues will help you find those connections.

Proud as you are of your first year, the accomplishments yet to come will greatly surpass them if you take what worked well and refine, take what worked okay and improve, take what did not work and replace. While it doesn’t get easier, it does become more gratifying, more exciting, more fulfilling, and more rewarding for you, and ultimately more beneficial for your students and your program. Being a performing arts teacher is tough, draining, challenging and underappreciated, and will create the most joy you ever had. It is worth every moment.