Of course he can, he was a music ed major!

So I spent some time the other night listening to a coworker go on about her nephew and how musically gifted he is.  Ordinarily this wouldn't be big news, family members frequently like to brag on how they are related to someone who is extraordinarily talented.  What got me is that this is the third time now I have had to listen to her stories about how wonderful this guy is and how much he can do and how sought after he is.  And this was the night the pieces of the puzzle finally fell into place.

"He's incredibly talented. He can play like... all of the instruments."

Okay, interesting, considering the number of instruments that truly encompasses.  For the sake of argument, I will assume you mean he can play all of the standard band instruments.  So can I.

"...Except flute... and that other one... the... oboe?"

Hmm... I can understand the oboe, it gave me headaches and jaw aches and was just generally an unpleasant experience, especially since my main instrument has very little inherent back pressure.  But flute?  Really?  He can play all of the [band] instruments and can't play the flute?  I picked up flute in high school after listening to Chicago albums a lot.  Weird. But okay, what else have you got?

"He started on the slide trombone..."

Oh?  Suddenly we're in a universe where we have to specify the trombone having a slide?

"And the french horn... And that one that's a baby tuba."

Euphonium.  What you're looking for is euphonium.  And stop giving me that weird look, that's really its name.

"He had an audition for that Sea World band, and they made him write some music.  Nothing real long, just something short, but he had to write it."

Oh my, he can write notation?  Must really be something, being able to play all of the instruments and write music....

"Yeah, so he took a favorite children's book and turned it into music and played that for them.  Now he's got that guy who is in charge of all the movie music calling him and wanting to talk to him."

Okay, that one was almost impressive.  Not the arranging bit.  Learning to write music is part of the curriculum in any music school.  But that guy who is in charge of all the movie music?  Really?  There's only one?  I think what you really mean is that someone connected to a recording studio might have been interested in adding this guy to a list of studio musicians to be on call for projects.  You know, like studio musicians do.  And wait by the phone for their next gig.  Which is, in its own way, a fantastic way to make a living if you're a first (or even second) call studio player.  But fresh out of school doesn't usually make for a second call.

So... Is he just out of high school?

"No, college."

Was he... a music major?

"Yeah, a music education major."

Umm... So not to burst any bubbles or anything, but ALL music ed majors are expected to be able to do those things.  All of us.  Granted, that doesn't mean we are all good at it, or that people don't have strengths in one area over another (or several areas over others), but being a music education major comes with a K-12 certification to teach music.  Not band or strings specifically, or general music or chorus.  Music.  All of it.  And the expectation is that you'll be good enough at it to teach others.  And let's face it, there are few worse feelings for a music teacher than to realize that you've taught something wrong that has stalled or prevented their musical development (some time later I'll share a story about a trombone player who held the bell with his left hand - NOT one of my students, thankfully).

What this exchange really made me think of was just how disconnected the expectations are for music teachers (and music majors) versus those for many other career paths.  When I was a freshman in college my roommate and his buddies were sitting around our dorm room griping about their schedules and how hard it was to take 12 credits (4 classes).  My roommate finally chuckled and asked me how many credits/classes I was taking.  16.  16 credits, which equalled 10 classes.  This meant that every semester I had early mornings and late nights.  I never had a day off during the week.  "I can't, I have rehearsal," wasn't just a means of avoiding obligations.  It was the same for most of the rest of the music department.  And theater department, for that matter.  That was just the price of being a musician (or actor/stage technician/etc.).  And it was a price that we all paid willingly. Paid twice, really - not only were we working ridiculous hours, we were paying through the nose to do so (don't get me started again on student loans).

Now that I am a teacher, I feel like my schedule now is more or less comparable to when I was a music major, learning all of the instruments.  Granted, I get paid to do all of this stuff now, but the demands aren't all that different on my time.  The best part is that I get
to make music, and help others make music, all day.

So yes, I can play all of the instruments.  And by all of the instruments I mean I can teach any band/orchestra instrument at least on a beginning level, I can teach advanced levels of most brass instruments, intermediate levels of most woodwinds and percussion, and can hold my own (within limits) on guitar and bass.  I can also pick up instruments I am not familiar with and at least come up with something (I doubled on musical saw for a while in a band I used to play with).

I sometimes wonder if there is any kind of monetary reward beyond a teacher's salary for knowing how to play as many instruments as a music education graduate does.  Usually I think not.

But maybe, just maybe, I will find someone who desperately needs a children's book set to music and performed by a beginning to intermediate level band, complete with guitar and drumset and anything else that strikes their fancy.

In that case, come see me.  Or the majority of the folks I went to school with.

Or the rest of the music education graduates around the country.

We're a pretty awesome bunch once you get to know us.

And collectively we can play literally ALL of the instruments.

Teachers Pay Teachers Sale

Today and tomorrow Teachers Pay Teachers is throwing a sale to celebrate 3 million users! A sitewide 10% discount can be combined in many stores to make a total of up to 28% off!

My store is one of the 20% off stores, meaning everything I have posted is on sale.  Stop by to look at Boomwhacker activities (Introduction, song collections), beginning band and strings music, note reading activities, and more!  Feel free to leave feedback on the product pages or as comments here!

Holy three months later, Batman!

So when I started this blog, I intended to update it at least every couple of weeks.  Shame on me for not keeping it up.  I have lots of things in the works right now, some school related and some not.  I have some pretty great pictures of my kids working hard both in an academic fashion and in a performance fashion.  There is so much going on I can hardly keep up.  That said, I think I may have officially discovered my personal limit for how many irons I can have in the fire at one time.

The trouble, of course, is rooted in finances.  Of the kind where I owe Sallie Mae around $64,000 and Great Lakes another $8,000 or so.  A great big shout-out to my alma mater for setting me up to graduate with more student loan debt than I made in gross income in my first two years teaching.  Too bad I have this troublesome habit of eating and wanting to live indoors, otherwise I probably could have made more headway on these loans.

To rectify the situation I currently work four jobs.  I say currently because not too long ago I actually had five.  I teach full time, I teach private lessons through my own personal studio, I work for Tractor Supply 3 days a week, and work for a pet sitting company sporadically.  And also I am in charge of the Destination Imagination program at my school.  So I suppose that could count as my current fifth job.

But the purpose of this post (believe it or not) is not to gripe about money and needing multiple jobs to keep up with things and be able to eat and pay rent and put gas in my car to get to said jobs.

Instead, it's about personal limits.   What a person can do, what a person can't do, and how they may die trying.  A long time ago I thought that having a job meant getting up, going to work, working 9-5, going home, doing whatever you wanted in the evenings, relaxing on the weekends, a vacation in the Summer, and not having to worry about much beyond that.  If kids were in the picture, they occupied the space outside of work.

Now, it seems to me that working can be anything from standard bankers hours to a few hours here and there, working every waking moment in one capacity or another, trying to squeeze every last drop of energy and willpower from your body before collapsing in a heap in bed at the end of the day where sleep becomes increasingly elusive from the continually increasing quantity of caffeine required to make it through the day.

A couple weeks ago I had a realization that the coming week had not a single hour that wasn't spoken for.  Wake up, take care of the animals, get ready for work, report to work at the designated time, put in a full day of teaching, then either come home to teach lessons for 3 hours, go to a county level rehearsal and run a low brass sectional, go to work at Tractor Supply, or run the DI group.  This was every weekday in one form or another.  Saturday was spent at a DI event in the morning and Tractor Supply in the evening.  Sunday was a blur, as friends were in town dealing with major medical issues that brought them from the West Coast to here.

At first I thought "Wow, that's a lot of stuff going on.  I'll really have to buckle down to get through this week."  Now here I am several weeks later realizing that I have this same (or similar) schedule to look forward to for at least another month until things calm down with the extra school activities and rehearsals.

Within the last 48 hours I have begun to realize that I am in the midst of a juggling performance.  And it is no longer a question of "Will something fall?", but rather "What has already fallen, what can I do about it, and what's going to fall next?"  I missed a staff meeting this morning that I had no idea I had missed until I got to school.  What's worse is that I was supposed to help a friend's band this morning in the other end of the county.  It never occurred to me that I had double booked myself.  Back to the old calendar for me.

My hope is that by pushing in all of these directions and being pulled in many more, I will be able to emerge on the other side of the school year with a sense of accomplishment.  At the moment I fear for my sanity.  I do not function well on not enough sleep.  I am starting to dread going to work - all forms of it.  I spend time at Tractor Supply doing things that are so vastly different from school, which may be helping in many ways.  I teach lessons because I love it.  I do DI because I feel it is important for the kids.  I work with other bands because I want to help the students grow as musicians, and because helping out colleagues always feels good.  Pet sitting is fun because I love the animals.

My worry is that as a result of all of these divergent activities each will suffer somewhat.  I know I don't feel like I am being as effective in the classroom as I should be.  I have a to do list that is a mile long and getting ever longer.  Some of that list can wait until Spring Break or Summer.  Other parts of it are far more immediate.

I hope that anyone reading this can take solace in a couple things I have learned.  First, you can always do more than you think you can.  It might cost you time, energy, sleep, sanity, etc., but you are very capable of enduring.  Second, the ability to compartmentalize your life can come in handy while also causing trouble.  I find myself at one activity suddenly realizing something that needs to happen with another activity.  Third, a good calendar is worth its weight in gold, silver, platinum, diamonds, tritium, and anything else of value all combined.  The hard part is sticking to it.

I'll see everyone on the other side.  And who knows, maybe I'll hit the lottery and run away to a cabin in the woods somewhere so I can rest a little. :)

What have we been working on?

Veterans' Day!

On Wednesday, November 13th the 4th and 5th grade students performed for our Veterans' Day Program.  The students sang the Star Spangled Banner to open, and followed with 7 selections from Music K-8 Magazine.  They did a fantastic job overall, the principal and fourth grade teachers even gave them a standing ovation!  The best part for me was to get the kids to sound good on songs they didn't particularly like.
That said, as with any performance there were plenty of things I wish we had done differently.  There were some problems with rushing, some problems with over-anticipating a few entrances, enunciation, etc.  My personal favorite is that it seemed that my two kids who have the hardest time matching pitch are also some of the shortest students, guaranteeing that they were right down front.  Of course that means their voices are some of the most prominent - thought this is also because they took my instructions to heart - don't sing scared!  We spent a fair amount of time talking about proper performance practice and how to sell their performance.  We talked about breath support and all of those fundamental singing techniques.  Most of all I told them that if they were going to make a mistake they needed to do it "loud and proud" so even though it was a wrong note it wouldn't sound unsure or scared.

Now if only I can figure out what happens to kids between fourth and fifth grade that makes them go from wonderful singers to wimpy singers!

Program order from our concert:

Star Spangled Banner - Key
America The Beautiful - Ward/Bates, arr. Jennings
We Will Not Forget - Riggio
Those Who Served - Jennings
Proud of Our Veterans - Jennings
Thank a Vet - Wilson
A Time for Peace - Jennings
We Celebrate America -  Jennings

I will continue adding tracks as they get edited - this is my first attempt at using SoundCloud!


Have a great week, and if I don't get a chance to post again before then, have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Teachers Pay Teachers Sale!

Greetings everyone!

It's that time again... When teachers gear up, parents do a happy dance, and students look forward to actively socializing constantly!  Yup, school is about to begin again!

To help teachers gear up, Teachers Pay Teachers is throwing a huge sale, with many items discounted up to 28%!  Everything in my own store is on sale, though I definitely encourage everyone to take a look around as there are tons of excellent resources across the site.

Here is the link to my store: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Nathan-Earley

I am working on several projects right now, and hope to have some interesting updates in the next few days.

Among other news: I have a student teacher!  Granted, it's a "buoy" placement, so it's only 6 weeks or so, but it's going to be an interesting adventure all around.

Until next time,

I am really bad at this...

Good morning!

I have noticed recently a bunch of people repinning this blog on Pinterest.  My hope is that this is a sign of increased traffic, that people will come and read and either be inspired or made to think about something or at least interested enough to come back.  I know I haven't been as good about keeping up with posts as I should.

However -

With the new school year coming I plan to have quite a few new things to show and discuss, starting with my classroom itself.

I had planned on already having all of my personal things moved into my room and be at least partially set up by now, but that has not quite happened.  One of the joys of being in a Mobile Music Mansion is that it comes with some of the troubles that such Mobile Mansions are prone to.  For example, for two years we have been chasing a series of ceiling leaks.  Roofing people have come and looked, other maintenance folks have looked, and the building service folks have replaced the affected ceiling tiles something like 6 times, all to no avail.

As a result, my plans to post a before school classroom tour are postponed a bit, though I may get a few good shots of my room packed up yet in disarray due to ladders and plastic sheets and whatnot.

Rest assured, however, that posts will be forthcoming, and hopefully as engaging as I imagine them to be.

I hope everyone has had a fulfilling, relaxing Summer, and we're all ready to dive into the next school year!

Teacher Appreciation Week

Howdy!

Since this week is Teacher Appreciation Week, I figured I had better write something.  It's been too long since my last post, and I'm really trying to keep up with things.

First, in honor of T.A.W. there is a sale going on at TeachersPayTeachers that can give you up to 28% off your purchase!  My store currently has 23 items, all marked $5 or less.  That means you can get my arrangement of Chameleon for beginning band at a low price of $3.60!  There are tons of products created by thousands of great teachers, and a great deal of them will be on sale for the next two days.

Second, a bit of commentary.  Yesterday I was a bit amused to find the PTA at my school had given us all boxes of bandages with a note that said something about how we "hold the place together."  I suppose I understand the sentiment that was intended, but I couldn't help but be a bit disappointed.  Not because I didn't appreciate the thought, and not because I have no use for bandages.  My disappointment was that they weren't latex-free, so I can't really use them in my classroom.

And that's when it hit me that I've been teaching long enough for my thought process to go there first.

I used to wonder when I would feel like a real teacher.  I spent my first year waiting for someone to find out how inadequate and unprepared I felt. My second year I felt like I was keeping my head above water, but just barely. My third year I felt like I was being tugged in multiple directions all at once.  My fourth year I started a new school, so in many ways I was back to the drawing board.  But my fifth year?  For the first time in my professional life I think I may have a handle on some things.

I am definitely not yet to the point of feeling like I have everything covered.  I wonder sometimes if I will ever feel that way.  This has been a year of experiments, of reorganizing, of trying to push myself beyond my own comfort zone.  In many ways I think this has been one of my most productive years for myself, but in many other ways I feel like I am becoming more and more aware of all that I have not done or not done well enough.

Let's get back to teacher appreciation week for a moment.  Do you know what really makes teachers feel appreciated?  The little gifts and whatnot are nice, but for me that's not really what does it.  Personally, I feel appreciated by my principal and my content supervisor, which is a huge change from where I was not that long ago.  Beyond that I have positive relationships with many of the parents at the school, which is a huge plus.  That is appreciation to me.  I feel valued as a professional, I feel like my viewpoint matters to my colleagues (ok, some more than others, but still).  I feel like I'm past the stage of worrying about being unmasked as a phony (thank you, Holden Caulfield!).

You know what would make me feel even more appreciated?  Not having my salary and general livelihood on the chopping block when there are budget issues to solve.  Not having my judgment questioned by people whose only classroom experience as an adult is for a photo op.  Not having my friends and colleagues (and myself) forced to take on multiple part time jobs to make ends meet.  Knowing that the money I spent and the debt I incurred to take on this profession is both money well spent and debt that can be paid off.

Too many of us (and that's a general "us," not just teachers) feel the pressure of financial burden.  I worry that if the trends continue, teachers will be forced out of teaching because we cannot afford it.  Personally, I have over $60,000 in student loan debt.  I am working on finding yet another job (current count is 4, the next one will make 5) just to try to keep up or (dare I say it?) possibly get ahead financially.  I am starting to wonder if anyone in a position of power will ever notice that they could not have gotten there without teachers who were not only there to collect a paycheck, but that often had to go above and beyond with little to no compensation just to push students to be their best.

Doctors make a lot of money, and they should.  The same goes for anyone in a position that helps create the modern world we live in.  I just wonder when the time will come that the people in positions to do something about it understand that everyone who is anyone got there with a lot of help from those of us in the classroom.