THANK YOU for submitting Moffat’s Music Teacher Mojo Meter.
If you are a band director who loves your job, knows what you’re doing makes a difference in kids’ lives, and you want to build a successful music program, then I want to meet you!
Check out my video if you want to find out how you can get more done in less time and have a sustainable music program for decades to come!
With you on the journey – Lesley
The way many of us were taught to manage our classrooms worked great back in the day, but things are different now and those strategies are not always effective in today’s world.
TODAY’S STUDENTS COME TO US WITH:
THIS IMPACTS OUR CLASSROOMS IN MANY WAYS:
WHEN WE TEACH OUR STUDENTS A FEW SPECIFIC SKILLS, CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT BECOMES EFFORTLESS!
Imagine what it would be like to have a classroom where you are able to:
Here’s what Chelsey, one of the directors I’ve worked with through Band Director Boot Camp, says about the First Four Minute protocol I teach:
“Band Director Boot Camp was a game changer for me. It’s helped restore positivity and peace to the culture of my classroom, introduced many significant new protocols that alight with our school’s theme and mission, and has taken the headache off of me and given responsibility to my students. We are all operating in a healthier, more efficient classroom where each individual has a role and we feel safe within our four walls. We laugh as a family and I know they’ll continue on knowing that band was a place where they belonged.”
I’ve been using this new protocol in my classroom since 2016 and the results are off-the-charts amazing, both in my classroom and in my personal life.
If you’ve “tried everything” and are out of ideas for how to get your classes to self-manage their behavior so you can spend your energy teaching, then I’d love to talk to you about what I’ve learned and see if it could help you.
You see, I am on a mission to help music teachers build successful programs without burning out, and that starts by making teaching less stressful!
In a desperate attempt to save my own health so I could stay in my classroom, I learned some things that fundamentally up-leveled my personal health and led to a dramatic upswing in my professional success as an added bonus. My students and I have the benefit of incredible day-to-day experiences that revolve around making great music and memories together because our work together has become effortless.
The directors I have worked with to create and implement this strategy in their classrooms have seen dramatic results with lower stress levels, more job satisfaction, higher student success, and much more. In other words, they are loving their jobs again!
Are YOU ready to fast-track your music program to the next level? Let’s talk about it!
With you on the journey!
Lesley
From as early as I can remember, I knew I was going to be a high school band director. My dad was my high school band director and our family’s life revolved around that band program. I wanted to build the same kind of program that would be visible in the school, community, and beyond and I really wanted to serve students and their families in the process.
I did it … but it was often really hard. I was doing everything I thought I should do to take the program to the next level, but I was desperate to learn how to be an even better teacher without all the trial and error. I wanted to be a band director who was able to spend more time teaching music and less time managing all the drama that goes with the gig. So in addition to teaching full time, I’d attend conferences and professional development to build my skills as a teacher in order to help my students and the program flourish.
It puzzled me as to why I’d go to a conference, attend tons of amazing sessions, capture all kinds of ideas for everything from how to teach intonation and select literature to the nuts-and-bolts of percussion instrument maintenance and incorporating SEL components into my lessons, and return to my classroom gung-ho to implement all the incredible ideas so I could fast-track my students and my program, but after a week or two of trying the new ideas, we’d lose momentum and I’d slip back into old habits.
At conferences, I’d take copious notes and ask lots of questions at the sessions, so why was I having such a hard time successfully implementing these techniques in my classroom? How could I be a more effective teacher without working even harder? How could I work smarter?
In a lot of ways, it makes me think of Pinterest – you know what I mean, you see a post on Pinterest that is way too cool to pass up, so you dive in and gather everything you need to make that Disney Princess cake (even though you’ve never decorated a cake before) and start the project. Only your cake doesn’t look anything like the one in the photo you saw. Instead, you’ve got a hot mess of frosting that makes the princesses look like they’ve been caught in a downpour. Even though you followed all the steps, your results were clearly not aligned with what you intended to do.
That’s how I used to feel after conferences. I would try the newest tuning technique or breathing exercises that someone was teaching at a conference, and I’d get good results…for a while. Then the students and I would slip into old habits and we’d be right back to where we started. It was frustrating for everyone.
As I got older and wiser (and tired of wasting precious time and energy), I took a hard look at why I was having a hard time implementing so many of these awesome strategies my peers were teaching.
The biggest mistake I made when it came to building my program came down to this: I’d take all these new ideas and try to implement them in my classroom and would get haphazard results. I wanted to accelerate kids’ learning so much that I’d overwhelm them with too much and we’d all get frustrated. After the novelty of whatever it was I was trying to implement wore off, momentum to keep working on it faded (on my part and for the students), and then I would assume the new idea didn’t work, when, in fact, it turns out when ideas weren’t successful, it was generally because I hadn’t thought through the crucial steps of how to implement them in a way that made sense in my classroom.
As you head to conferences and other professional development this spring, I’d like to offer a few pointers I’ve picked up over the more than three decades I’ve spent as a band director so you can fast-track your program to success … without burning out in the process.
Teaching is hard work. When you have ideas or learn new teaching strategies, they can be game-changers … if they’re introduced and implemented properly. After all, isn’t that the ultimate goal when you attend a conference or PD? Don’t you want to take a new idea back to your classroom and see improvements for you and your students?
It can be hard to know where to start or what to do next to move your program in the direction you want it to go. That’s where I come in. I help music teachers build successful programs without burning out. I believe music educators can change the world, and it’s my mission on this planet to help music teachers build sustainable programs they can serve in for a long time. We have important work to do, and I’m here to support music teachers on their journey.
To schedule a complimentary 15-minute call to see if we’d be a good fit to work together, click this calendar link and let’s connect! I’ve got a couple of openings for motivated music teachers who are tired of trial and error and are ready for results!
With you on the journey-
Lesley