Tools to help music teachers be more productive
Music Teachers have a very busy schedule. Possibly music teachers have the busiest life of all teachers
Of course, many would argue with that statement. Physics, Chemistry and English teachers of course work very hard and no-one would say they don’t work extremely hard to bring excellent lessons to their students.
Music Teachers however have to do a lot of extra activities that other teachers don’t have to – like running marching band and musicianship programs, preparing student recitals, arranging instrumental programs and communicating with parents about rehearsals and fund raising for equipment.
With all these duties consuming the teachers time, it is vital that they be extremely well prepared to ensure that their music sessions are both enjoyable for students and stress free for themselves.
There are a few practical tools that can help music teachers
A planner. This simple thing can save you all sorts of embarrassment from double scheduling events if it is well managed. It is so easy to double schedule school events with personal events, as most music teachers would well understand! You can use a modern PDA or Mobile Organizer, or use the traditional paper diary for just a few dollars.
A location plan for all the school equipment. Even if your music room has one well used Recorder and a broken guitar with half the strings missing it is vital that those two instruments have a specific home, and that your students come to appreciate that when in the music classroom. When you are teaching hundreds of students every week and sometimes many hundreds of dollars worth of instruments it is important that it is put away carefully. Make a plan, commit it to paper and put it up near the equipment. Vigilance over this for a couple of weeks will make your life a lot less stressful in the long term!
A personal website – What if you could have a website where you post news for your students, music parts for practice and tests so they can get it done without you even being there? Its as easy as setting up a personal page on blogger or another blog platform, and getting going. Just consider – if you put materials there that you ask children to download for additional work… once its done this year you will never have to do it again!
Software tools. The latest music software often has built in assessment and worksheet creation tools, so you can create your own resources in minutes. Alternatively there are lots of ready made Music Lesson Plans to help you.
Ready Made Lesson plans downloading instant print worksheets and lesson plans from the world wide web can save you many hours preparation, and there are many brilliant sources of material available now.
Music teaching can be such a rewarding career choice, as it is sharing the love of music and teaching – and it should be enjoyable for all!
