love the job lose the stress – Page 3 – A Mindful Approach to Music Education

Teachers Are Grieving – Yet Somehow We’re Supposed to Keep Calm and Teach On…

If that seems a bit overwhelming to you in the current situation, you are not alone.

Music teachers are known for being uber-prepared, super organized, and ready for anything. And now our whole world has been turned upside down, and yet we teachers, who are still trying to acclimate to this unusual scenario, are redesigning everything we’ve ever done and are working miracles to ensure our students don’t miss out on learning while we’re apart.

But this is SO hard to do – especially since there’s almost TOO much information out there to filter through. That’s why I’m offering to help.

In case you missed it, on Monday’s webinar I shared a few things that you might find helpful during the school shutdowns and resulting upheaval to education as we know it.
A few highlights from the webinar include:

Understanding the “three types of teaching,” pre-, during-, and post-COVID

Recognizing how our roles as music educators are changing and will continue to change and how to use this opportunity to grow rather than feel overwhelmed

Discovering the power of how we music teachers can emerge as leaders to help our students and communities deal with the losses and changes that are happening at warp speed

I want to be sure to invite you to be part of my FREE series on Mondays in April where I’ll deep-dive into the content of my second book, in which I teach teachers how to reduce their own stress levels and how to most effectively teach students who come to us distracted by overstimulation of electronic devices, anxiety, depression, ADHD, and so many other things that keep them from learning.

When I wrote the book, I knew teachers around the world struggled for ways to keep students engaged in a very distracting world. Now more than ever, the techniques I share in my book are critical building blocks for helping students and teachers adjust to a new normal that faces us when we return to school.

Rather than waiting until the book comes out in May, I am sharing the content on these webinars NOW. This is the time to start thinking about how you’ll teach students who have experienced all kinds of trauma, new stressors, and situations that will make “normal” learning even more challenging.

I’ve taught over 30,000 classes during my career (so far!) Long before the COVID-19 outbreak happened, I’d experienced personal challenges of teaching when I was dealing with my own stress and exhaustion, and over the years I’ve seen more and more kids coming to my classroom with all kinds of barriers that make it difficult for them to learn.

That’s why I wrote my books – to share what I learned so you can learn from my lessons and not have to struggle as much. The content of the books are more relevant now than ever.

Here’s what Dr. Tim Lautzenheiser said about my most recent book:

“What is uniquely wonderful about Lesley’s writing is based on her own teaching journey. Her wisdom reflects reality rather than hypothesis. She has “been to the well,” she “walks her talk,” and she does it with a sense of understanding unknown in common hours. Rather than simply focusing on the obvious, she delves into the WHY-WHAT-and-HOW of the given situations:
* Here’s WHY you need to take stock of this concern or breakdown.
* This is WHAT you can do to reset your compass to achieve resolution.
* …and this is HOW you can do it to reach your destination.”
Dr. Tim Lautzenheiser, excerpt from the foreword for Love the Job, Lose the Stress, releasing in May 2020

Join me on Music Ed Mondays to dig in to the new realities of what it takes to be a successful music educator in a post-COVID world.
See you on Monday! Lesley

Music Ed Mondays with Moffat: Replay March 30

After 32 years as a high school band director, I was going to retire this year. But things have changed.

Now is not the time to leave my students. I still have work to do and I need to be in my classroom with my kiddos when they return to school next year for a different kind of experience than what any of us have known.

In addition to the many ways they’ve always counted on us, our students will need us in new and different ways. It will require intentional preparation to have the mental, emotional, and physical stamina to serve them without becoming overwhelmed in the process.

This is the exact topic of my second book, which comes out in May, but I’m going to be sharing the content NOW because it’s relevant to any music teacher who wants to use this time to be prepared for what’s to come but who doesn’t know where to start.

I’ve already thought through a lot of this and have a plan – and I’m going to share it with you so you don’t have to start from scratch.

Join me tomorrow for Music Ed Mondays with Moffat to find out why I believe our roles as music educators are critical to the healing of our students and communities during and after this pandemic and resulting upheaval to everything we’ve ever known.

I will share a plan you can access for no cost that will guide you step-by-step through the process of being fully prepared to support yourself and your students through crisis and beyond.

The webinars will be on Mondays at 9:00 am pacific time and I’ll share how you can access the full course of my signature program that goes with my second book, Love the Job, Lose the Stress, for FREE!

_______________________

You are invited to a Zoom webinar.
When: Mar 30, 2020 09:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Topic: Music Educator Mondays with Moffat

Webinar Registration

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Can’t make it? Register anyway and I’ll send you a recording!

With you on this journey.

Music Educator Mondays – Let’s Prepare for the Future of Music Education Together!

I am STOKED to have Dr. Matthew Arau of #upbeatglobal joining me on a webinar for Music Educator Monday this week at 9:00 AM pacific / noon eastern time, where we will talk about the realities of what our roles as music educators are during school closures and what we should be prepared for when we return to our classrooms, whenever that may be.

Matthew and I will be sharing our thoughts about the critical role music teachers play in helping our students and communities cope during this crisis.

We’ll also be sharing tools you can use to keep your own stress levels managed so you have the stamina to do this for the long haul.

If you can’t make it to the webinar, register anyway and I’ll send you the replay.

Together we rise!

Webinar Registration

https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_sX3udf6DSqW3EvW7kIlz_A

HELP! What Do I Do Now?!

So many questions in light of COVID-19 and how we serve our music students during this challenging time

I teach at the first school in the US that was shut down for a confirmed case of coronavirus at the end of February, so I’ve had a little bit of time to think about this and start asking a bunch of questions.

In case you missed it, here’s a replay of the webinar from Saturday morning where I share some ideas for music teachers who find themselves with all their major concerts, festivals, trips, activities, and recruiting up-in-the-air.

If you’re wondering what you’re going to do next, join Elisa Janson Jones, Shannon Shaker and me for resources, ideas, and practical advice.

We are with you on this journey, because together we rise!

WEBINAR LINK

BANDing-Together-for-Success Supplemental Material and Links Download

Registration for Next Year’s Classes Can Be Challenging: Here’s a Possible Solution

It’s that time of year again when kids sign up for elective classes for next year, and it can be hard to navigate all of the things you need to do to communicate with the middle school teachers, students, parents, administrators, counselors, and others who are involved in the scheduling process.

If you forget a step, if students or parents aren’t clear about what to do, or if you don’t have a plan at all, then kids who should be in your program will fall through the cracks and you won’t get to have them in your band. That defeats the purpose of building a music program!

Students have lots of choices when it comes to the classes they are going to take. They will have opportunities to hear about your program from their current teachers, friends, family members, you, and in lots of other ways. Your program has a reputation that can go a long way in influencing their decision as to whether or not to sign up for band.

But ultimately kids need to know what you offer, how they can sign up, what the appropriate class is for them to sign up for, and how they can be a part of your program. The easier you can make it for them to understand what you have to offer and what they need to do to register for the correct ensemble, the more likely you are to have a robust program with the numbers you desire.

Clear communication is key to helping everyone navigate this process seamlessly and with the best results. After all, isn’t everyone going to be happiest when students are in the level-appropriate classes with good instrumentation? So why not build that in starting NOW so that when school starts in the fall, you have all your kiddos in the right place and you can hit the ground running!?

In my 32 years as a high school band director, I’ve learned a few things about what does and doesn’t work in terms of recruiting. This year I’ve put together a 10-minute video that will be shared with incoming students. The video, along with a short letter to parents, gives everyone the information they need to make the best decision about which class is right for them as the next step in their musical journey.

You don’t need to reinvent anything. If what you’ve been doing isn’t getting you the results you want, give this a try. Feel free to steal any of the ideas and try them with your students and see what happens.

I’ve been fortunate to have lots of great mentors who shared their tools with me in the past, so it’s my turn to pay-it-forward with this resource.

If you’d like me to email you a copy of the letter I send to parents of incoming ninth graders, shoot me an email with “Recruiting Letter” in the subject line and I’ll send you my document which you can edit and reuse yourself.

Let me know how it goes!

Lesley

RECRUITING VIDEO

😳 My school will be closed on Monday because we’ve had a confirmed case of coronavirus.

As a band director, I want to take the opportunity to be proactive in helping our kiddos stay healthy while playing wind instruments. 🎷🎺 💪 One way to do that is to share information with their families that helps them make choices that minimize their exposure to bugs that could potentially make them sick.

I created a poster to hang in the classroom and a letter to send home to parents as reminders about how to keep their horns healthy so their kids stay healthy.

Feel free to steal and use these. We can band together to lead the way to make sure families have the information they need so their kids can keep playing music without being unnecessarily exposed to unhealthy germs.

You can download pdf versions to share in your community here:

FREE POSTER/LETTER

Love the Job, Lose the Stress

When I was at the end of my third decade of teaching, I found myself saying, “I love my job, but for the love of God, it is literally killing me.” My body and mind were worn out from the sheer numbers of students and events I managed every day. Decision-making was becoming too taxing because my brain was being overstimulated all the time. I nearly walked away from my life’s work in order to keep from losing my battle with chronic health issues that were exacerbated by the sheer exhaustion that came from my job.

In what turned out to be a very smart decision on my part, I decided to do whatever it took to figure out a way to balance my professional and personal lives in a way that let me be the mom and band director I wanted to be and that my children and students needed me to be.

Luckily, in that process, I discovered some strategies that helped me overcome the health issues and fatigue that had become my new normal and made it so teaching is now not the stressor it had been.

I have just finished writing the book that is literally the answer to the problem I’d struggled with for so many decades. In it, I share the secrets of how I’ve been able to up my game as a badass band director and regain control of my health in the process.

The changes I’ve made have impacted me in a million ways. Here are just a few:

I haven’t gotten sick from being over-exhausted this year
Teaching has become much less taxing, going from requiring my active management to students monitoring their own behaviors
I no longer require medication for anxiety, depression, or ADHD
I’ve lost 75 pounds
My classes are SO easy to run – and that’s with 60 kids per hour, with instruments
Students remember and retain what we work on in class
Parental involvement supports the program in ways that free me up to spend more time with students and less time managing the program
Classroom management is a breeze
My stress levels are so low that it helps ground my students in my presence

In my second book, I teach you how you can take your high-stress job and restructure a few things in order to make it more manageable – so you’ll have the energy to do the things you love so much.

Let me know if you’d like to be on my list to receive an advanced reader copy of the manuscript draft. I’ve completed my rough draft and will have a high-level edit ready in a few weeks, so be on the lookout!

If this sounds like you a book that speaks to you, just click this link and you’ll automatically be put on my “Book 2” list to get it as soon as it’s ready to go!

Book 2 Advanced Reader Copy Request

Wishing you a joyous spring. May you rekindle that spark that lights you up with joy in your classroom and at home. You really can be living the dream!

With you on the journey!

Lesley