Music Teachers however have to do a lot of extra duties that other teachers don’t have to – like running band and ensemble programs, preparing student recitals, co-ordinating private music teachers and communicating with students about rehearsals and fund raising for instruments.
Music Teachers have a stressful life. Of all teachers probably music teachers have the most work to do on a regular week by week basis. They never have the time they need to create outstanding Music Lesson plans.
Of course, many would argue with that supposition. Maths, Chemistry and History teachers of course work very hard and no-one would say they don’t work extremely hard to bring excellent lessons to our children.
WIth all these tasks taking the teachers energy, it is vital that they be extremely well prepared to make sure that their music lessons are both fun for students and trouble 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 Palm Computer or i Phone, or use the old fashioned paper planner for just a few dollars.
A location plan for all the school equipment. Even if your school has one well used xylophone and a broken guitar with half the strings missing it is vital that those two instruments have their place, and that your students come to learn and respect that when in the music classroom. When you are teaching lots of students every week and sometimes many hundreds of dollars worth of equipment it is important that it is put away carefully. Draw a diagram, commit it to paper and stick it on all the walls near the equipment. Being careful about this for a couple of weeks will make your teaching a lot easier in the long term!
A personal blog – What if you could have a place on the internet where you place news for band members, music parts for practice and assessments so they can complete without you even being there? Its as easy as setting up a personal page on blogger or word press, and getting started. Just think – if you put materials there that you ask children to download for homework… once its done this year you will never have to do it again!
Software tools. The latest software for music often has built in assessment and work sheet creation tools, so you can create your own resources in minutes.
Prepared Lesson plans downloading ready made work sheets and lesson plans from the world wide web can save you lots of preparation, and there are many great sources of material available now.
Teaching Music can be a very rewarding and enjoyable choice of career, and with the right tools it is even easier.
