2022-23 School Year: Some Assembly Required

As an educator, in fewer than 800 days you have experienced the ultimate in pivoting through no fewer than five major teaching modes.

If you taught prior to the pandemic, while things certainly weren’t perfect, the system in which you worked had some predictability. Maybe your classroom was like this piano, it was functional and in good shape. And your school, community, and our country had some systems in place to support your students, you as an educator, and what you did in your classroom.

Then came the pandemic. On March 13, 2020, we were forced into emergency remote teaching with absolutely no training. Not only did everything we ever learned about teaching in our classroom come crashing down around us, the support structures on which we were dependent came crumbling to a grinding halt, too. And we were left trying to figure out how to navigate this unfamiliar territory not only for ourselves but while also supporting our students (and our own families) and providing instruction, social and emotional support, safe spaces, and more.

A great solution to remote learning would be to teach in a hybrid situation, said no one who actually had to teach in this nightmare scenario. Now it kind of looked “normal” as a handful of students returned to school buildings while a lot more of them remained online. You found yourself serving students who were physically in your presence and online. No one won in this situation.

Ahhh… time to return to the buildings with mitigations. Musician masks, bell covers, absorbent pads for the spit droplets from instruments, social distancing, spraying down shared items, hand sanitizer and more. Our classrooms were full of students once again…and also full of lots of things that, while they helped slow the spread of the virus, added layers of challenges for students and for teachers. Everything felt so much harder with all of the extra safety measures, but we did them in order to continue to be able to make music together. We carried on.

And now here we are. For most of us, we are “back to normal.” By that I mean we’re back in our classrooms and most mitigation practices are optional. Let’s be honest – things really are anything but normal after all we and our students have been through. Two years of this merry-go-round of teaching environments has left us exhausted. Our students’ skills, needs, and social lives have been impacted by what they’ve been through. (Re)building programs requires a lot of intentional work, and as we consider what Music Ed 2.0 looks like, we are at a tipping point in Music Education.

*Our new normal looks very different than what we were experiencing fewer than 800 days ago*

Here’s the good news – you are an expert music educator. If anyone knows what to do to continue teaching students to express themselves as artists in spite of challenges and adversity they face, it’s YOU. Music education has been a huge part of shaping kids’ lives in the past and will continue to be so in the future … IF there are teachers like you who have vision, passion and stamina to do this important work.

Look at where you’ve been … and then think about where you want to go.

As you anticipate the 2022-23 school year, it feels like stepping into IKEA. There will be SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED.

*The 2022-23 School Year … SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED*

Where do you begin to put together all the pieces of a post-pandemic music program? How do you intentionally (or mindfully) craft the kind of classroom space you want in this new era? So much has happened to us over the past couple of years. We’ve had to respond to situations that we couldn’t have even imagined just a few years ago. We’ve come to expect the unexpected and now is the perfect time to take stock of where we are, where our programs are, and where we want to go moving forward.

How will you prepare to put together a new year that gets you and your students on the track that best serves their needs? Have you thought about how you will take what you’ve learned and assemble something even greater than what might have been? Do you have a plan for doing this important work in a sustainable way, or are you so worn out that the thought of next year just causes you anxiety at this point?

This has been a rough couple of years. Our passion as music educators has been tested. For those of us who remain in the profession and who see the value in what students get through their experiences in our classrooms, finding ways to do this work in a way that is sustainable for us and for our students is critical.

The last thing you want to think about right now is next year, but in the back of your mind as someone who knows the value of long-term goals and planning, you know that if you’re going to be successful, you need to do some intentional work in this area before a new school year starts, but you likely don’t have the desire or bandwidth to take it on now. So what’s the solution?

When I have something that feels important or urgent and also overwhelming, I’ve learned that having the right supports in place is the key difference in success or failure. From learning to play an instrument and writing a book to public speaking and learning yoga, whenever the task at hand seems insurmountable, I’ve looked to others for support, ideas and inspiration. While that means investing my own time, energy and resources in a class, coach or opportunity, the return on investment always blows me away. It’s because having an expert who can coach me through my own blocks saves countless hours, weeks and months as I reach my goals with much more ease, joy and grace.

With summer approaching, you are undoutedly going to need some time to relax and recharge. Let me ask you a question. Will you enjoy your summer more knowing you have a few days set aside where you will intentionally plan your school year in a supportive and collaborative environment with hands-on and concrete strategies for your specific situation or will you enjoy it more if you figure it out on your own as you go?

I tend to be the person who is way more productive when I carve out specific time for specific tasks. It was when I hired someone who helps people learn to write books that I completed my first bestseller in 90 days. I had tried doing it on my own for years, but there was so much I couldn’t figure out on my own that I ended up just spinning my wheels. When I had someone guide me through the process, my ability to reach my goal happened so much easier and faster then when I struggled on my own.

Thinking about planning an upcoming school year that will be like none we’ve previously experienced can feel overwhleming, especially at a time when all you really need and want right now is to NOT think about what needs to be done to properly prepare for a successful new year when this year isn’t even over yet.

What would it do for your peace of mind and mental health if rather than having thoughts about next year hanging over your head all summer, you set aside a few days to do the work at a time and place and with the structure and support you need to help you plan for a school year that meets your students where they actually are and then grow from there? Would you be able to more fully enjoy the rest of your summer if you didn’t have to figure this all out on your own?

*Do you want to do your job in a more stress-free way?*

I’ve spent a lot of time sharing my strategies for doing this work in more sustainable ways, and as you approach summer, I’d like to share a few things to consider as you figure out how to best use your time while still being prepared for whatever the new year brings.

Carve out time and space to do things that help you relax and recharge.
Assess how your job impacts your physical and mental health and be curious about what you can do to find ways to do this work without it negatively impacting your health. Are there changes that need to take place? Conversations that need to be had? (Music Teacher Mojo Meter self-assessment)
Consider what kinds of strategies you can use to support yours and your students’ social and emotional needs.
Ask colleagues for practical tools to save you countless hours with administrative tasks.
Take time to embrace FUN, laughter, great food and friendship. Invest in yourself and have fellowship with others who can relate to what you’ve gone through and help you get through what’s coming next.
Most of all, take a breath. This has been hard. Allow yourself time and space to process what you’ve done, what you’ve learned and where you want to go.

*Mindful = Intentional = Less Stress & More Jo*y

It’s been a crazy couple of years. You’ve been through a lot. You’ve led others through a great deal. It’s been exhausting.

THANK YOU for all you’ve done to support students through very challenging times. As music educators, it was often your class (and YOU) that made a difference in a kid’s life. I wish you a joyous end to this school year and peace as you anticipate summer and new possibilities for next year.

From Stressed-Out to Streamlined: Making Music Education Sustainable in the Modern Music Classroom

I don’t need to tell you about the challenges we’ve faced on personal, professional, and an even bigger levels in the past couple of years and how those things have made being an effective music educator even more time-consuming as we have had to constantly adapt to change and circumstances that are not conducive to in-person ensemble music making.

Have the past couple of years put you in multiple teaching modes? Have you had to pivot and create (and then re-create) lessons and plans that can be adapted and accessed when students are out in quarantine or when new restrictions come up?

At the end of the day, are you mentally and physically just plain done?

What about your energy for your own interests or quality time with your family at the end of a workday? Have you expended all your creative juices and find yourself too busy mentally preparing for your next day instead of feeling fully present with your family?

This. Has. Been. Exhausting.

As music teachers, the constant adapting to new situations while trying to deliver high quality music experiences for our students in ways we have not been trained to teach has required all kinds of mental gymnastics. The way we always have done things aren’t always working with students or circumstances now days.

You’re busting your butt…are you getting the results you want?

Are your students on-task and focused when you are teaching?
Are students retaining the content you’re teaching?
Are students actively engaging with the activities you present or in rehearsals?
Do you have a way of planning lessons that is efficient and effective?
Do you have systems in place that help your classroom community run smoothly?
Do your lessons and activities support your and your students’ social and emotional needs?
Are your students demonstrating interpersonal skills that support a collaborative environment?
Are you enjoying your job?

Would you like to be able to shout a resounding HELL YES answer to each of the questions above? I’d like to help you!

Like you, I’ve been navigating these weird times in music education. I was about to begin the manuscript for my third book where I plan to share the five key pillars I’ve found that have made it possible for my students and me to navigate these changes and grow as artists and musicians.

But people don’t want to wait six months to a year to get their hands on this. They are asking for the information now so they can (re)build their music program in a way that is sustainable and doesn’t suck all their time and energy and leave them depleted at the end of the day.

So here’s the deal – I’m releasing an ONLINE CLASS specifically for MUSIC EDUCATORS who meet a few criteria:

They love their job (at least most of the time)
They know the work they do impacts students and makes a difference
They want to continue to do this important work for a long time and are looking for proven ways to make this a sustainable career
They see the importance of the wholistic approach – not just teaching a student to play the clarinet, but nurturing the social and emotional needs of the student so they can successfully participate in the music community
They are looking for strategies that help them do this important work with more ease, joy, and grace

If this sounds like you, I’m inviting you to be part of my BETA COHORT for this NEW COURSE! What does that mean?

You’ll get access to new content each week
- There are five units that take you through the key elements of assessing your current practices and how to implement them in your own classroom
You can work at your own pace, moving as quickly or as slowly as you need to in order to be successful in understanding and implementing it.
- The investment of time varies, but most people have spent an hour a week on content (videos / journaling / activities) and an hour once or twice a month on our live group Q&A calls
You’ll earn The mPowered Music Room Level 1 Certification upon successful completion of the series.
You’ll have a powerful system for planning, implementing, and teaching that will make your job much easier and more efficient.
BETA BONUS: As part of this Beta Cohort, you’ll be invited to LIVE Q&A with me twice a month for the first two months you are in the program – a $200 value for FREE!

How does this work?

You receive access to new recording each week that outlines one of the five components of The mPowered Music Room
The videos (15-30 minutes) come with journaling and/or reflection activities that help you assess your own practices and learn the five key elements in a successful music classroom:
- The “F” Word – Focus: What is YOUR focus and intention as a music educator?
- The SOCIAL needs of your students and why addressing these needs is so critical to a successful and well-rounded music education
- A daily protocol for tuning your students’ brains and bodies for music class to get their attention and focus where it needs to be for optimum learning
- The key to planning effective CONTENT for your students so they’ll remember and connect with what you are teaching them
- A proven way to quickly and effectively assess individuals and groups of students every single day for feedback about anything you need, from comprehension of content to a mental health check-in so you can more easily plan follow-up lessons
When you’ve completed all the units and activities, you’ll earn a Moffat’s mPowered Music Room Level 1 Certification and you’ll have a plan that becomes your blueprint for a streamlined music classroom that leaves you with plenty of energy for yourself and your family at the end of the day!

If you’d like to join this Beta Cohort, all you need to do is click the SIGN UP BUTTON below. When the course is officially launched, it will be offered for $199 with optional live coaching for an additional $100 per month, but the total investment for the Beta Cohort is $99 and includes all the course content AND Live Q&A with me on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month during January and February! This is a $500 value!

What are you waiting for? Won’t it be nice to know you have a plan and support in place to help you do this important work in a more sustainable way? Think of the relief that comes with knowing you’ve got someone there to help you figure all this out!

I look forward to helping you find your groove and making your life’s work a little easier in 2022 and beyond. 🙂

Lesley

What in the world do you do to get mentally prepared for a school year like this?

Are you feeling the “Sunday Scaries” as you think about all of the unknowns that face us this year and wonder how you can stay grounded and not let it impact your mental, emotional, and physical health?

You know the symptoms that show up when you are struggling as a teacher …

Sleepless nights
Constant worry
Feeling overwhelmed
Not knowing what to do to plan for the unknown
Overeating
High blood pressure
Unwinding with excess alcohol
Relying on medication to relieve or mask symptoms
Collapsing at the end of the day with no energy left for your own family
Aches and pains that are exacerbated by stressors
Fear that your program is falling apart under these conditions

How are you supposed to show up for your students when this is so hard on you?

I don’t have all the answers, but I do have a few strategies I can share that will help you move into this school year a little more grounded and with a couple of tools to give you the stamina you’ll need to do this important work without burning out.

If you’d like to …

Learn a strategy that you and your students can master that diffuses excess energy and helps everyone settle in and focus before you dive into content every day
Feel healthy and grounded even when external forces seem to be doing everything in their power to cause stress
Have a reliable way to lower your heart rate / blood pressure when you feel anxiety and overwhelm
Develop the SuperPower of helping students feel peaceful in your presence so they can focus on the content and community you are teaching them

… then join me on Tuesday, August 31 from 4:00 to 5:00 Pacific time for an Intention Setting Session where I will help you get some clarity on how to approach and set up this year for less stress and more success.

This will be a live session with the opportunity for you to interact and ask questions. My intention is to give you a couple of useful tips so you can rest easier when you think about the upcoming school year.

THANK YOU for your dedication to music education. You are changing kids’ lives through your work. It matters.

With you on this journey-

Lesley

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85880658705

Stepping Into A New Year with Sustainable Strategies

In spite of what the stupid title of my book claims, stress is inevitable.

Your response to stress, however, is what determines how you (and your students) ultimately get through the year.

As we head into a third school year being impacted by the pandemic, we have so much more to do than just teach kids how to play music.

For many of us, we lost the opportunity to have our students play music together in ensembles because we were teaching remotely or had other obstacles that prevented us from doing the very thing our classes are intended to do. It’s tempting to want to jump right back to doing things just like we used to now that we’re going back to full-time face-to-face teaching. But after 18 months of non-traditional learning, our students (and we) need more than that.

How we step into “Music Ed 2.0” is important. It’s all about building a safe and strong community for our artists.

Things are different now. That doesn’t mean they are worse, but they are different.

Where to you even begin when it comes to reestablishing routines, traditions, and all of the other things that are the foundation of our music programs after losing those opportunities and experiences for the past year and a half?

It’s going to take a lot of intentional planning to do this work. Are YOU ready to step into next year with your own mental and physical health in tact?

Are you prepared to identify and support your students’ social and emotional needs so they can express themselves as artists in your classroom?

Not sure where to start? No problem. I’ve got your back.

Check out my latest book, where I share the strategies I teach my students and clients to support a holistic and healthy approach to music education.

As Dr. Tim said about this book,

“This latest-greatest contribution offers a tried-and-true blueprint for vocational success while embracing the critical importance of fueling one’s mental, emotional, and physical health.”
Dr. Tim Lautzenheiser, Foreword, “Love the Job, Lose the Stress”

Buy Book NOW!

Music Educators Need To Tune Up Their Mental Health More Than Ever This Summer

We’ve done the impossible. Somehow we managed to get through a school year like nothing we’ve been trained for and we held ourselves and our students together.

Now it’s time to tacet and take a moment to assess how YOU are doing.

What do you need to do over the summer to ensure YOUR mental, emotional, and physical health get a tune-up so you can enter the next school year with the stamina and renewed passion you have for the important work you do?

I’m very grateful to Paul Fox for his recent review of my latest book and share it in hopes that it provides some strategies that will be helpful for you as you consider how to recover from this year and move forward with less stress in spite of the traumatic year we’ve faced.

If you are wondering how to reset, recover, and renew in a way that makes teaching MUCH easier, then you might want to check out what Paul has to say. I’m sharing it with his permission. You can check out a ton of great stuff at his blog: www.paulfox.blog. You’ll want to bookmark that page for timely content.

REVIEW of Love the Job, Lose the Stress by Paul Fox (www.paulfox.blog)

In my “New Year’s blog” posted on December 29, 2020, I shared my advice on “how to make a difference in 2021” and told readers to find their own good role models and “positive gurus” to sustain their vision, motivation, and drive throughout the year.

Someone who has recently become inspirational to me is the wonderfully uplifting Lesley Moffat, probably an expert on the search for “mindfulness” in personal life and even during her band warm ups. In my opinion, her transformative stories provide the roadmap for happiness and wellbeing! She now has published two books (you need to read both) – I Love My Job But It’s Killing Me, and Love the Job, Lose the Stress, and if you are still teaching music full-time, you need to peruse her website: https://mpowerededucator.com/.

Now her latest book ties in all of the above enrichment and enlightenment – “successful social and emotional learning in the modern music classroom” – and adds an essential focus on teacher self-care and wellness. What was that saying attributed to Molesey Crawford in Unlocking the Queen Code?

Know thyself.
Love thyself.
Heal thyself.
Be thyself.

Lesley Moffat has taught high school band for over 32 years in the Pacific Northwest, with her ensembles earning superior ratings and performing all over the US, Canada, and even in Carnegie Hall. She was planning to retire at the end of 2019-2020 when the pandemic hit. (As far as I know at this time, she has not retired yet – “for the sake of her kids” she stayed throughout this challenging time of COVID-19 and the slow reopening of schools!) She clarifies this in the introduction to her Love the Job, Lose the Stress book:

“I completed the first draft of this manuscript on March 3, 2020. Ten days later, schools across the world began shutting down as the coronavirus began sweeping the globe… The ultimate purpose of this book is to share the protocol I created that has become the basis of the social and emotional learning needs for my students (and truth be told, for me). Everything I talk about in this book was true before the pandemic, and it has proven to be as powerful in a virtual environment as it is in person… The great news is that you can give your students the gift of learning to self-regulate, calm down, and focus without distraction through intentional design and practice.”

She offers an intriguing set of easy-to-read chapters in her “hard to put down” 191-page work.

My Life’s Work Is So Much More Than Just A Job
I Love My Job But It’s Killing Me
The Badass Band Director’s Bible
Step One: The Moffat Music Teacher Mojo Meter
Step Two: Identifying the Three C’s – Care, Clarity, and Consistency
Step Three: Identifying Your Priorities
Step Four: SNaP Strategies for Music Teachers
Step Five: Tuning Our Bodies
Step Six: Creating Your Own First Four Minute Protocols
Coda
Fine

Highlights of suggestions from Love the Job, Lose the Stress

Like her last book, the Moffat Music Teacher Mojo Meter returns. If you are ever privileged to have her as a clinician for a local workshop, it is likely she may send out this survey to the participants in advance. These fifteen questions will provide her an individualized needs assessment of the stressors attendees are experiencing so she can differentiate the planning of her “help session” (page 48).

You’ll have a lot more questions to answer in Chapter 5 (page 50). Read and identify (and define for yourself) her three C’s for success: care, clarity, consistency.

In Chapter 6 (page 67), she wants you to identify your priorities. This is your chance to dream big! You’ll have to read her story (with wide swings of emotion) about her Jackson HS Honors Wind Ensemble performing at Carnegie Hall.

Also returning from her previous book, Chapter 7 (page 81) shares her Start Now and Progress – or SNaP to it – strategies for music teachers. Revisit her amazing tale about doing (of all things) push-ups: “By taking small incremental steps that build upon what I did each day before, I was able to take a skill that was very difficult for me on April 1 and do it 60 times just 30 days later.” She sums up three SNaP Strategies “for busy band directors” (page 90).

Gratitude for the attitude
Time stealers
Reset yourself

Don’t miss her Chapter 10 (page 156) and “Lesley’s Top Ten Badass Band Director Tips!”

Finally, probably worth 1000-times the price of the book and all the time you will put into it is her Chapter 8 “Tuning Our Bodies” (page 103) and Chapter 9 “Creating Your Own First Four Minute Protocol” (page 129). This is where you will take what you read, reflect on her philosophies and system of classroom management and warm-ups, and adapt it to your situation. Adding to your teacher’s toolbox the techniques of mindfulness, breathing exercises, and listening skills – and practicing them with your students daily – will make all the difference in the SEL of your own lessons and overall program.

BRAVO and thank you Lesley for being so intuitive, upfront, and personal… and being so generous in sharing your secrets!

We applaud your efforts, and agree with Dr. Tim Lautzenheiser who said in the Foreword to Love the Job, Lose the Stress:

“This latest-greatest contribution offers a tried-and-true blueprint for vocational success while embracing the critical importance of fueling one’s mental, emotional and physical health. Spot on! Bull’s eye!”

“This is not a book you read and then put on the shelf; rather it is a file cabinet of priceless data certain to boister the health, happiness, and good fortune of every (music) teacher.”

“As music teachers, we teach students how to develop all kinds of skills, from mental to physical, in order for them to be well-rounded musicians. We show them how to properly form and embouchure, the correct fingerings to use, how to read music, what proper posture looks like, how to be artistic and expressive, and so much more. And we always tell them to “pay attention and “focus.” But do we ever teach them how to pay attention and focus? The secret to getting students engaged, focused, and curious so you can teach them all the cool stuff about music is teaching them how to actually build those skills until they become habits. Once you’ve taught them how to learn, then everything else becomes a million times easier for you and for them.”

— from the back cover of the Love the Job, Lose the Stress

Order your copy today to make the most of your summer!

Order Now

Are You In Tune with Your Own Needs?

Stress. It’s real. It’s intense. And it has an impact on everything we do because it impacts our emotional, mental, and physical health.

Normally at this time of the year, we music teachers find ourselves stressed about all of the activities that take place in the spring, from trips and festivals to graduations and other rituals. We are used his time of the year being very busy, but those same events that make us busy are also very rewarding.

This year, not so much.

We are certainly stressed out, but this year we are getting all of the stress with very little of the rewards.

Instead of enjoying the traditional spring-time activities with our students, we are watching our music programs struggle as a year of online, hybrid, and in-person-but-with-masks-and-social-distancing educational models have required us to create (and re-create) all kinds of new experiences for our students and this process has left many of us depleted, depressed, and wondering if we have the stamina to do the work it will take to rebuild our programs.

It is daunting to think about all of the ramifications this year will have for many years to come, and worrying about the short and long-term impact all of this will have on our life’s work is enough to cause even the most well-seasoned veteran music educators stress.

Everything from worrying about whether we’ll have enough students to keep all of our class offerings and how to do all this with budget cuts and other challenges eats away at us and often shows up as insomnia, headaches, weight gain, aches and pains, upset stomachs, GI issues, high blood pressure, depression, anxiety, and other physical issues.

As teachers, we are expected to somehow gracefully lead our students through this crazy situation – one we’ve never experienced before or been trained to handle.

And somehow we are supposed to nurture their social and emotional needs even as our own lives are full of challenges. But how can we support their social and emotional needs when our own social and emotional needs are neglected?

We can’t.

As we head into the summer months, this is the time when it’s essential that YOU are your priority. You cannot continue to take care of everyone else’s needs when you are depleted. You have been asked to do the impossible and you’ve undoubtedly gone to super-human lengths to serve your students before and during the pandemic. And now it’s time for you to take a good look at how you are doing and what you need to do to “tune up” your body and mind so you have the stamina to step into next year with renewed vigor and purpose.

As many of you know, my own emotional, mental, and physical health greatly suffered due to the stressors I experienced during the first three decades I spent as a high school band director and mom of three. Turns out that making babies in your belly, running a program that serves 300 teenagers a day, having zero period classes five days a week and several night activities every week, and all of the other things that go along with being a busy band directing mom isn’t actually a one-person job, but being the control-freak that I used to be, I tried to do it all. And it cost me dearly.

I’d gotten to the point where I thought I had to walk away from my life’s work because I couldn’t figure out how to turn around the damaging effects the stress was having on my personal health.

Through my work with music teachers all over the world this year, I am seeing many who are currently struggling with the same challenges I faced when I had more stress than I could handle. My mission is to share the strategies I learned and applied in my own life with other music teachers so they have the stamina to do this important work for many years to come.

In my books, I Love My Job but It’s Killing Me and Love the Job, Lose the Stress, I share strategies that took me from unhealthy (and unhappy) to health and much happier. The changes I made in the ways I respond to stressful situations and how I learned to “tune my brain and body” to function at a completely different level took me from being unhealthy, depressed, anxious, overweight, and unable to sleep (and being dependent on lots of prescription pills to mask symptoms so I could keep on working) to being in a much better state of mind and body (and off all the pills!) Getting my own personal health turned around has paid dividends in my classroom ever since – for my students and for me.

This year has certainly been stressful, but the stress no longer has power over me. The reason it doesn’t is because I have practiced making changes in habits that were no longer serving me so that I am at my physical and mental strongest and stay grounded in spite of the constant stream of stressful events that continue to play out.

I want to encourage you to take some time this summer to intentionally focus on your emotional, mental, and physical health. Let’s face it, if your own social and emotional needs aren’t met, how can you support your students in their social and emotional needs? We all realize that their SEL needs will be greater than ever after the year they’ve just experienced, so it’s essential that we address this at a core level – and that starts by supporting your own social and emotional needs first so you have a strong enough foundation to support them without it sucking all your energy.

It’s like being a music teacher – in order to be an effective music educator, you first had to become a musician who had acquired the habits and skills you would eventually be teaching your students. That required intentional practice, setting goals, and taking steps every day to build the skills that allow you to be an excellent musician even when under stress.

But who has the time or energy to figure all of this out after the exhausting year you’ve just experienced?

I want to share the four components of The mPower Method ™ I outline in my first book because they are the areas where makinga little change can have a huge impact. Through daily small steps, I was able to focus on these areas and see tremendous improvements in my physical, mental, and emotional health – and my ability to go from thinking I had to walk away from being a music teacher in 2017 to now being in a better place than I was then…in spite of the pandemic.

Moffat’s mPower Method:

Meals: The meals you eat directly impact your brain and body. There’s no getting around it. Putting sugar, processed foods, and a lot of the options that are quick and easy (and cheap) into our bodies is equivalent to playing a Buffet wooden clarinet with a plastic reed. That beautiful clarinet simply won’t respond to a plastic reed the same way it will with a high-quality cane reed that’s the proper strength for the musician who is playing it. Take the opportunity to notice how you feel after eating meals, and if words like “bloated, gassy, and tired” are the first ones to pop up, ask yourself how you want to feel and find foods that support those feelings. If you want to feel “energetic, focused, fit and flexible”, notice what foods help you feel that way and eat more of them. Much like reed strength preference varies for woodwind players based on everything from embouchure to experience levels, our diets are very personal. Our bodies are all different, so don’t worry about what everyone else is doing. Just focus on what makes you feel the way you want to feel.

Movement: Our bodies were made to move. As music teachers who are used to being on our feet, directing, and being busy, the sudden shift to sitting in a chair to teach online music classes came as a shock to many of us. Finding ourselves spending hour after hour seated in front of our computers as we designed and delivered curriculum meant that many of us didn’t get the kind of movement our bodies need – and that can result in unhealthy physical attributes such as weight gain, joint pain, muscle stiffness, back aches, and much more. If we don’t allow the fluids in our bodies to circulate, they become stagnant and that’s how diseases settle into our bodies. Take opportunities this summer to find movement that feels good for you so you will be motivated and look forward to doing it. For me, yoga and walking are my activities of choice. My husband prefers ice hockey and other more vigorous activities. Again, the activities themselves aren’t what’s important. What really matters is that you have regular movement in your day so your body is able to metabolize your meals, keep the organs working their best, and produce energy.

Music: My husband is able to tell what kind of mood I’m in based on what I’m playing on the piano. From the style and type of music to the way in which I’m playing it (gently vs. “with gusto”), he can read my state of mind. I use the opportunity to play the piano to channel my emotions, help me work through a tough day, or to connect with my need for artistic expression. In my books, I share how non-performers can use music to support them in their health goals. From making playlists to help them feel energized so they’re motivated to exercise, sleep better, or focus to attending concerts and blasting their car radio, even non-performers have endless tools at their disposal to make achieving their goals easier. From playlists to performing, you have dozens of ways you can use music as a motivator, relaxer, energizer, and so much more. Music is one of your Super Powers, so why not use it to your advantage?

Mindfulness: Finally, taking a mindful approach to the choices you make is the real game-changer. Deciding what’s important, why you want or need to make changes, and how you want to feel when you’ve made those changes is key. Being intentional about taking care of your personal health is the foundation for making EVERYTHING in your life easier.

Summer Homework Challenge: Take a few minutes to look back at the last year and pat yourself on the back for the super-human lengths you went to in order to provide your students with music education in spite of the innumerable challenges and stressors that showed up and tried to derail everything you’ve worked so hard to build.

What were the costs to your health? Are you in better or worse physical, mental, and emotional health than you were before the pandemic? When you think about next year, are you filled with excitement or feelings of fear? Do you feel like you’ve gotten to the finish line and are a victor, or do you feel like you’re being dragged through the final leg of the race and are barely going to make it?

Wherever you are, acknowledge it and then decide if you want to make any changes from how you feel right now. If so, give Moffat’s mPower Method a try. Before we can take care of our students and our families, we must take care of ourselves. It’s not a selfish act – it’s the same thing as taking care of our instruments.

Your body and brain are like an instrument. Just like we must keep our instruments in good condition if they are going to respond when we play them, we must do whatever it takes to ensure our own brains and bodies are “in tune” and functioning at their best, or we’re fighting a losing battle.

Thank you for all you’ve done to continue to serve your students during this challenging time. Now it’s time to take care of you so you are ready for Music Ed 2.0!

The F Word – This is Where the Magic Happens

If we don’t teach our kids to FOCUS, then even the most riveting lessons are not effective.

Watch Replay

This is my FAVORITE thing to teach because it is the ultimate game-changer when it comes to:

Reducing teacher stress
Reducing student stress
Easy classroom management (there’s a reason my second book was a #1 Best Seller in Classroom Management)
Higher student engagement
Mental, physical, and emotional well-being for educators (and students)
And so much more…

Check out my latest video that lets you experience the magic of The First Four Minutes and how this protocol changes everything!

Spring forward with renewed energy, momentum, and stamina by investing four minutes a day with your students to build this skill and your life will become MUCH easier. I promise. 🙂

Lesley

The mPowered Music Room – A Five-Part Series to Up-Level Your Impact as a Music Teacher No Matter What Your Circumstances

ICYMI: Here’s the replay link for my recent session on how to construct a music classroom that supports teacher and students’ social and emotional needs in spite of all the challenges we face.

This 30 minute videos gives you an overview of how The mPowered Music Room can help you do the important job of teaching music without burning out. You’ll learn what components are critical to success so you can invest your energy in those things for the benefit of you and your students.

Moffat’s mPowered Music Room – Supporting Teacher & Student Social & Emotional Needs for Optimal Learning

You’ll come away with ideas you can take into your classroom to keep your students engaged this year and motivated to continue next year, regardless of whether you are teaching in person, virtual, or hybrid.

I’ll be offering four more FREE LIVE CLASSES on Fridays at noon Pacific time through March 19, where I will break down each of the four components of the mPowered Music Room and will give you ideas and templates you can use to support a sustainable music program without burning out. Don’t worry if you can’t show up live. If you register, you’ll automatically get the replay.

We’ve got important work to do. I hope this makes it a little easier.

Watch mPowered Music Room Week 1 Replay

Who on Earth Writes a Book Called “Love the Job, Lose the Stress” as a Teacher During a Pandemic?!? (me)

I uploaded the manuscript on March 3, 2020 … just 10 days before schools shut down and education (and everything else on the planet) became a hot mess.

With the book about to hit bookstores, I’m excited to offer a FREE series where I teach all the best nuggets about what I’ve done to manage my personal health and my classroom over the course of the past year so that in spite of ALL the challenges and frustrations that have come with teaching during a pandemic, I have managed to maintain my emotional, mental, and physical health.

The stress isn’t gone, but the strategies I’ve developed, practiced, and applied to my personal and professional lives have helped me not only weather this storm, but be able to stay grounded and provide a stable place for my students to grow as artists.

I’ll offer the webinars live on beginning on Friday, February 19 at 12:00 Pacific time. If you can’t make it, no worries. Just register and I’ll send you the recording so you can watch it at your convenience.

Vision Boards, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and a Surprise

When One Teacher Didn’t Throw Away Her Shot

Featured NAfME Member Spotlight | Lesley Moffat

Online band is hard.

In an environment where students and teachers normally collaborate and work toward shared goals through the work we do in our ensembles, I was struggling with how to teach those important skills in a virtual environment, and I knew that if I didn’t find a way to help students nurture those skills now, then it would make our work harder when we eventually return to the classroom.

Enter—vision boards.

One of the activities my students and I did is create vision boards that identify one goal we want to accomplish by the end of the school year. When we were making the boards, students asked me what my goal is, and I replied, “I want to have Lin-Manuel Miranda as a guest co-host for You, Me, & A Cup of Tea” (which is the new daily routine we do at the beginning of each class: I spotlight a different student each day with an interview, and they share some music with the class). We’ve been studying Hamilton, and I saw the opportunity for him to not only inspire my own students who are desperately missing making music with their friends but also to speak to music teachers and students with whom I could share this video.

My purpose in doing so was to 1) show my students the power of having a vision, taking steps to reach the goal, and reaching out for help when they need help, and 2) creating a video that can be shared with music educators and students around the world who could use some uplifting words from Lin-Manuel to remind them of the power of the arts—and not to give up when circumstances become difficult.

Fast-forward a few weeks—a short video I posted on Facebook was viewed tens of thousands of times and shared by hundreds of people. I received countless messages with email addresses and other ways to contact Lin-Manuel. I followed up with all of the leads.

But it was William who got Lin to respond.

I awoke early one morning to find a package on my front porch with a note that said, “DO NOT OPEN UNTIL DIRECTED BY Honors Wind Ensemble.” A few hours later during our online class, I was instructed to open the mystery box.

Inside the box was an envelope. When Will said, “Ms. Moffat, who’s it from?”, I looked at the return address, and my jaw fell to the floor when I saw Lin-Manuel Miranda’s name in the top left-hand corner of the envelope!

As I opened the envelope and I realized what Will had done, the tears started flowing.

In my hands was a handwritten note thanking me for my work with my students. And on my computer screen I saw the dozens of kiddos I’ve been with for years share in the joy and excitement of this moment.

Excerpt from Will’s email to me about how this happened:

“I was pretty excited too because less than 24 hours after sending an email to Lin-Manuel, I got a response back from his wife! I was amazed out of my mind that I was talking to Lin-Manuel’s wife! She said that Lin-Manuel would write you a handwritten letter, and I got so excited! I didn’t think it would arrive because of the valiant efforts you have been making to meet him. When I got the letter in the mail, I started jumping up and down! I was not only excited that I was holding something touched by THE Lin-Manuel Miranda, but I was also excited to see your reaction. I have experienced a lot of troubles throughout this pandemic that a lot of other people have as well. It made me so happy to see your reaction and feel the joy coming through the screen. It also made me happy that we can still enjoy these experiences through zoom and still make everyone happy.
I am beyond honored to have received a handwritten letter from Lin-Manuel. Sharing that joy with the kids was really a powerful bonding moment—much like when we all have a performance that required a lot of hard work to make happen, but the payoff is grand when it all comes together.”

Since we couldn’t have a winter concert this year, I created a special video for my students to summarize our Online Band experience. The letter from Lin-Manuel made the video. (Disclaimer: My first day ever rapping was 36 hours before recording this . . . just sayin’!)

I have not given up on having Lin-Manuel as a co-host for You, Me & A Cup of Tea. I have put together a handful of questions to ask him to inspire teachers and students who are struggling with missing making music with their peers and questions for his advice to decision-makers about the importance of keeping the arts alive and well in spite of financial challenges. Our kids have never needed the arts like they do now during these challenging times.

About the author:

NAfME member Lesley Moffat has taught high school band for more than thirty years and is currently the Director of Bands at Jackson High School in Mill Creek, Washington. She is the author of I Love My Job But It’s Killing Me: The Teacher’s Guide to Conquering Chronic Stress and Sickness and Love the Job, Lose the Stress. Moffat has been a presenter at multiple NAfME conferences and participated in conferences and webinars for Washington, Illinois, and Pennsylvania as well as being a guest on podcasts and serving as a guest conductor and adjudicator throughout the Pacific Northwest.

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The National Association for Music Education (NAfME) provides a number of forums for the sharing of information and opinion, including blogs and postings on our website, articles and columns in our magazines and journals, and postings to our Amplify member portal. Unless specifically noted, the views expressed in these media do not necessarily represent the policy or views of the Association, its officers, or its employees.

January 8, 2021. © National Association for Music Education (NAfME.org)Tags: arts education, band, Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda, online class, virtual learning, vision board, zoom