music teacher – A Mindful Approach to Music Education

Exhausted?😒 Physically struggling? 😢 Feel like you’ll never be caught up no matter what you do? 🤷‍♀️ Do you recognize the impact of the stress that comes with all the things demanding your time and energy and realize it’s not sustainable? 🤮

You’re not alone. I know the feeling all too well. As a music teacher, you pour your heart and soul into your work. But are you finding that your passion is turning into pain? Are you feeling overwhelmed and stressed, with no time for yourself or your loved ones?

I understand the challenges that come with being a music teacher and what that does to one’s well-being. The constant demand for lesson planning, rehearsals, fundraising, community events, sporting events, trips and performances can leave you feeling drained and burnt out.

And if you have a family or want to have a life outside of school, yeah, we all know what that feels like after a long day of work.

But there is hope.

I have found a solution that has helped me regain control of my time and energy and reignite my passion for teaching music.

I would like to introduce you to The mPower Method, a unique approach to teaching music that helps music teachers to find a healthier balance and reduce stress.

The mPower Method is a combination of unique classroom strategies, time management techniques and self-care practices that have been specifically designed for busy music teachers.

Over the course of the next few months, I’m going to share bite-sized strategies you can use to help you combat the drain that teaching music, especially since the pandemic, has become.

From the classroom to your personal life, the mPower Method addresses the unique stressors and challenges that come with the demands of being a music educator and gives you “homework” that will have you looking at your current practices and what you might be able to tweak to do this job in a more sustainable way.

Imagine if you had a student who was struggling playing a passage on trombone. She was trying to go quickly back and forth between a Db and an F, desperately attempting to repeatedly go from fifth to first position and feeling frustrated because it is hard. If you saw her struggling, you’d likely introduce her to the option of using an alternate position for F, in sixth position, so suddenly it becomes very easy to quickly go between fifth and sixth positions. It’s a small change, but the result is mastering something with more ease and in a more effective way. She saves time and wasted energy with this one slight change.

That’s the principle behind the mPower Method. I share the strategies that have worked for me and thousands of people I’ve worked with to help you find ways to do things that bring as much ease as the discovery of an alternate fingering for a difficult passage does for a struggling musician.

Through the mPower Method, you will learn how to:

Identify the areas in your life that are causing the biggest threat to your physical and mental well-being
Create small changes that have enormous impact on your time, energy and ability to keep doing this important work in a healthier way
Implement practices to maintain your physical and emotional well-being while still delivering a fabulous experience for your students
Have more time and energy for doing the things you love, like spending time with friends and family without being drained

Stay tuned for mPowered Mondays and begin turning things around now!

Don’t let the demands of being a music teacher consume you. Join me on a journey to discover the power of the mPower Method and reclaim your love for teaching and passion for music.

If you can’t wait for the weekly tidbits and want to get started on a healthier journey now, click the button below for a complimentary strategy session where we will talk about your particular challenges and I’ll help you fast-track your transition from loving the job that’s killing you to loving your job and reducing your stress!

Imagine how good it will feel to finally take control after three years of teaching through unimaginable situations. This has been a rough road and I want to invite you to hop on board for this health journey.

Get started now!

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

Summertime, and the Livin’ is Anything But Easy Right Now. What are YOU doing to make sure you’ve got the stamina to make it through a school year like no other next year?

You’ve spent the last three months learning all kinds of new ways to deliver instruction and teach in a distance learning environment, despite never having experienced this as a learner or having been trained how to deliver all your content in new ways – and you made these changes overnight.

While you somehow got through the most surreal educational (and life) experience, you may be looking back at what you’ve learned and now have more questions than answers as we move forward.

Now that school has ended for this year and you’ve had a moment to take a breath, you may be wondering, “What in the hell am I going to do next year?”

How am I going to teach? Will I even have a job? How do I deliver content and realistically meet all the guidelines and expectations without spending 10 hours a day this summer rewriting my curriculum and planning for multiple types of teaching platforms and situations? How can I balance my family and professional lives when I don’t even know how classes will be structured? I’ve never been trained for distance teaching, and I’m not sure how to adapt my performance-based classes… there’s so much to worry about!

To order book from JW Pepper, click this link

As educators, we tend to be organized with plans for every contingency that could come up. But in a pandemic and during a time when there’s so much anxiety about what school will look like in the fall, the time we normally take during the summer to relax and recharge can easily be hijacked by stress and fear of how to teach and support your own family in a sustainable way.

Are you going to spend all summer worrying about next year or would you rather spend it making sure you’re ready to face whatever comes at you without the stress, anxiety, and exhaustion taking over?

It’s possible to use the next few weeks as a time to rebuild your own toolbox with skills you can use to keep yourself in the best mental and physical space possible so you have the stamina to do this important work.

Don’t waste all summer trying to figure out where to start. Jump to the front of the line by figuring out how to recharge by identifying your own current mental and physical health status so you can determine what you can do to take care of your own needs so you can support your students, family, and yourself in the upcoming year.

Where do you even start when it comes to figuring out what is creating the most stress for you so you can begin to figure out how to address it?

I’ve designed an assessment to help you do just that!

Check out Moffat’s Mojo Meter for Educators. This quiz will help you identify the very things that are keeping you from being able to truly relax and recharge this summer.

I hope you find the few minutes you invest in taking this assessment to be helpful in identifying what you need to do for yourself in order to support everyone else through this journey.

Peace-
Lesley

🎼 Teaching Music in a Post-Pandemic World… 🎺 Are You Going to Figure It Out or Freak Out? 💪or 😧?

How will you make sure your students and program survive through all the growing pains facing us in music education?

Join veteran band director and author Lesley Moffat as she discusses how to assess your readiness to return to teaching music in the fall. Lesley will present strategies to help you define your core values as a teacher, set goals for teaching to those values, outline strategies to achieve them, and design a 4-Minute Protocol to help students focus their minds and make rehearsals the best part of their day.

Lesley Moffat has taught high school band for over thirty years in the Pacific Northwest. Following decades of chronic illness and exhaustion that were the result of the stress that comes with running a band program, she revamped her teaching strategies to support a healthier balance and lifestyle. Now on a mission to help other music teachers navigate the responsibilities of teaching music in a post-pandemic educational system, she founded the mPowered Music Educator Academy, where she runs the Band Director Boot Camp – a program that gives the music teacher tools to build a successful program without burning out.

Lesley is the author of I Love My Job but It’s Killing Me as well as the upcoming Love the Job, Lose the Stress.

I remember teaching after 9/11. The events of that one day had a ripple effect that impacted every classroom in America in many different ways.

Things were very different as a teacher, parent, and community member after September 11.

The images of the planes hitting the towers and all of the horrible things that happened impacted students who already struggled with anxiety.

The event and everything that happened afterward triggered depression and impacted kids’ (and teachers’) ability to focus. Parents became reluctant to let their kids participate in events that required traveling very far for fear that we didn’t know what was safe anymore.

Returning to the classroom and establishing a new normal and doing that while leading hundreds of students through it at the same time took a lot of energy and mental stamina as we navigated new territory. I had to learn new ways to engage students who were dealing with all kinds of stressors that made it difficult for them to learn. Simply jumping back in and teaching the same old way wasn’t going to serve my students. They needed more than that and I had to figure it out fast!

As I think about returning to school post-COVID 19, I realize education will look very different once again.

The miracles teachers have worked in a matter of weeks and days to still serve students in spite of every school in the country being shut has been nothing short of astonishing. Now that we’ve explored many innovative ways of delivering music education through virtual teaching during the stay-at-home orders, we have new tools at our disposal, so the actual teaching we do may look different as we begin to implement some of the new ways with the old.

But the biggest challenge we face as teachers will be helping our students put pieces back together. During the school closures, we all know there are some kids who will have enriching experiences and others who will struggle with some pretty scary situations. Some will academically be just fine, but others will have slipped further behind while school’s been closed. We may not have a chance to say goodbye to our seniors or other kids, and when we do finally get back in the classroom, we’ll all be wondering what’s next.

I don’t plan on waiting until school starts again to figure out what to do. I’ve already lived through a major change in society that impacted education and I can see the potential pitfalls and opportunities that are around the corner for us as educators. We can either react to the new situations we face when they happen in class, or we can be prepared to support our students and ourselves in ways that are sustainable.

Join me for FREE Music Ed Mondays with Moffat at 9:00 AM pacific time where I will share strategies you can think about now so you and your students are prepared for creating and nurturing a new normal when we get to go back to school.

This is the perfect time to evaluate your vision for your music program and take the steps you need to take to make the transition back to school successful for you and your kids.
I’ve been through a similar experience and would love to share what I’ve learned so you don’t have to figure this out on your own!

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

With you on the journey
Lesley

As If Our Jobs Weren’t Already Stressful Enough … How Will You Serve Your Students In This New Normal? And How Do You Do It Without Becoming Even More Emotionally Exhausted As You Help Kids Cope with Stress, Anxiety, and Uncertainty?

Maybe you’re so overwhelmed right now that you haven’t thought very far beyond how to survive and function as the whole world is transitioning from what we’ve always done and known into a completely different reality.

I’m 54 years old – I was set to retire this year, and for the final few months of this school year, it looks like I’ll have the opportunity to completely revamp everything I’ve ever done!

I understand your stress. And I also know what you can do right now to protect yourself from going to those dark places where you feel so overwhelmed that you just want to give up.

Filtering through all the information that is coming at us and changing by the minute can put us in survival mode, which makes it impossible to access the parts of our brain where creativity and planning and functioning are regulated. It feels chaotic as everything we’ve ever done has completely been upended. And on top of making sure we and our families are okay, we are now thrust into a world where we must figure out how to teach band, choir, orchestra, and other music classes online.

Online. Seriously.

When I was at Indiana University in the early 1980s, computers weren’t really a thing for most of us. For the first seven years of my teaching career, I didn’t even have a computer at school. Everything I taught was done with me in front of my class delivering instruction and interacting with my students in real time.

Teaching face-to-face was how we learned and how we learned to teach. But in light of COVID 19, everything I’ve been doing in person with my students for the past 32 years has come to a grinding halt and, like you, I must figure out how to connect with my students and their families and somehow deliver meaningful experiences for them in spite of not being able to be physically present with them.

Even though I am a pretty chill woman who has been there and done that, I, too, am experiencing anxiety about how I can serve my students in a situation and future that are unpredictable.

I figured that I’m probably not the only one who needs to have coping mechanisms in order to not just survive but actually thrive, so I wanted to be on the forefront in talking about how music teachers can minimize the stress and maximize the opportunities that are arising.

Dr. Matthew Arau and I teamed up on Monday to share what we’ve learned in our combined nearly six decades of music education experience to help you cope with the stress that comes in the moment as you are trying to figure out how to get through each day as well as what you can do to prepare for a smooth re-entry when you and your students return to school.

Things will be very different. We can help you prepare now so your new normal will be one where you and your students can thrive. I hope you’ll check out our webinar and tons of free resources we’ve put together for you.

You are not alone in this. Reach out to people like us rather than spinning your wheels and trying to figure it out on your own.

Music educators have always changed the world through the magic of music education – and we’re gonna keep doing it no matter what obstacles arise.

Together we rise.

With you on the journey –
Lesley

FREE Resources

WEBINAR with Lesley & Matthew 1-Click Replay

PS – Join me next Monday at 9:00 am pacific time to talk about what you can start doing NOW to make returning to your classroom as smooth as possible for you and your students.

Effortless Classroom Management: From Chaos to Calm in 21 Days with Today’s 21st Century Students

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:

Anxiety
Depression
ADHD
Short Attention Spans
Awkward Social Skills
Trauma
A Lot of Influences that Impact Their Ability to Learn in a Traditional Classroom Setting
Addiction (phones)
Over-Stimulation
Lack of Proper Sleep
Lack of Proper Nutrition
Chaotic Home Lives

THIS IMPACTS OUR CLASSROOMS IN MANY WAYS:

Students have a hard time focusing
Students are easily distracted
Students are distracting to others
Anxiety, depression, and trauma keep students’ physiological and biological makeup in stress mode, overloading them with cortisol and other hormones that literally make it impossible for them to focus and learn
Not all students trust adults and are resistant to authority, which adds to the challenge of managing and teaching classes
Good classroom management typically requires an active process by the teacher to constantly keep students engaged, and that’s exhausting hour after hour, day after day

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:

Get students to fully relax in your presence
Guide them so their heart rates are relaxed and at a similar pace
Disperse the unproductive energy and noise that comes with a new class entering your room
Help students change from being in a state of over-stimulation and stress to being calm and relaxed in your presence, literally changing the hormones their bodies produce, allowing them to access their brains for discovery and learning instead of being in flight-or-fight mode
Invest four minutes a day that fundamentally up-levels the ease with which you teach and students learn

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.

Classroom management is a breeze
Students play in tune much better as their bodies are more sensitive to pitch when they are relaxed
They are more musically artistic and expressive
Nearly all tardies have been eliminated
Students are much more engaged
Performance skills (and scores at Regional and State festivals and competitions) are markedly higher across the board
Stress levels are much lower for students and teachers
Non-instructional distractions are eliminated or greatly reduced
Benefits carry over from year-to-year
Kids like the benefits on a personal and group level, so they are motivated to do this every day
Much higher retention rate of what they learn
Reduced heart rates and controlling excess energy results in much easier teaching and learning environment
Students and teachers tap into the intuitiveness of music
Teaching is much more fun and far less exhausting, resulting in a happier and healthier teacher and students!

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!

Set Up A Call 🙂

With you on the journey!

Lesley

I Used to be Really Good at Classroom Management, But Things Are Different Now

For most of my teaching career, I had been really good classroom management.

As soon as attendance was taken each day, I’d get the kids’ attention so we could get down to business. I had clear expectations and the kids were almost always really good about meeting them. I was quite effective at keeping kids engaged and classes ran smoothly. It took a lot of energy to do this hour after hour and day after day, but the consistent efforts gave me really good results, so I continued to work hard to maintain outstanding classroom control.

Sure, there were always a handful of kids in each class who were excessively chatty or who couldn’t seem to stop playing their horns when I cut the band off in rehearsals, but 97% of the time, I was in control and things ran smoothly. At the end of the day, I usually felt pretty darned good about how my classes operated.

But as the decades have passed, teaching has changed. Kids today are different than when we were kids, and if you’ve been teaching for more than ten years, you know that teaching effectively in this day and age requires a different set of skills than how we were taught in school.

Teenagers haven’t changed – they are simply reflecting what they see going on around them. Having been exposed (or dare I say OVER-exposed) to electronics and other stimuli since birth, their attention spans and ability to focus on anything for more than a few minutes is staggeringly low. It’s not their fault, but that is their reality.

Traditional forms of classroom management and discipline aren’t always effective in today’s classroom.

Like I said at the beginning of this, I used to be really good at classroom management.

But now things are different. Now the students in my classes manage their own behavior and I spend my time and energy teaching music instead of responding to student disruptions!

Several years ago I made a significant change in how I approached teaching, and the results have been off-the-charts amazing!

In the 30,000+ classes I have taught in my teaching career, it is how I structure the FIRST FOUR MINUTES that has fundamentally uprooted everything about how my classes run and how students are learning and retaining what I teach.

I asked my students to share how the First Four Minutes have impacted our class. Here are a few of their responses:

We play better in tune because we can feel pitch and not just hear pitch.
We are more musically sensitive and expressive.
Hardly anyone is tardy anymore. (They don’t want to miss our routine)
Everyone is more engaged.
Our performance skills are improved.
The stress level is much lower.
Non-instructional noise has been eliminated.
Benefits carry over from year to year as students.
It’s easier to learn and retain what we learn.
We have a communal energy.
Music feels much more intuitive and easier to learn.
Band is a lot of fun because we can work super efficiently and make great music together. In my old band (where we didn’t do this routine), so much time was wasted on discipline and constant disruptions that I stopped looking forward to that class. I almost quit, but now that I’m in a class where we actually get to spend time playing music, I’m staying!

As a teacher, I have reaped the benefits of having classes where I get to do the very thing I wanted to do all my life – teach music! I get to do it in a setting where classroom management has become effortless. I no longer expend energy on “being in control” because I’ve learned to teach students how to take control of their own energy. And they do it. Every day.

I love one of my recent client’s comments where she said,

“I’m in a coaching cycle with this outstanding author and Bad Ass Band Director and ideas are constantly leaping off the pages in the book and out of our Zoom calls. Even strategies I didn’t know I needed are coming to life and finding a home in my unique and non-traditional classroom.“

Chelsey has implemented my First Four Minute routine into her classroom and it has been a game-changer for her, too. The reason it’s working is because we took the concept and customized it into a routine that works in her classroom and in her situation.

That’s what I do now – I help teachers create and implement a successful First Four Minute routine that helps them take today’s students and get them ready to focus and learn so they can teach content and not spend their energy “controlling their classroom.”

If you are a music teacher who is already running a successful program but needs an easier, more effective, and reliable way to keep kids’ attention and focus without having to give constant reminders, (you know what I’m talking about…”put away your phone”, “trumpets – stop talking”, “percussionists, wake up and pay attention”, etc.) then I’d like to talk to you.

I am looking for a small group of dedicated music teachers who have a 2020 VISION of taking their already good program to the next level by learning and implementing a strategy that will fundamentally up-level their teaching.

Because we are kicking off a new decade, I am offering a 50% tuition discount to anyone who schedules a strategy session with me by January 5. I am interested in working with teachers who are highly motivated to get results and who are open to achieving them in unconventional ways.

If you know you have a lot to teach your students and want to spend more time teaching and less time re-teaching and managing your classroom, I can help you!

Click the link below and let’s talk about your situation. If I can help, I will offer to do so. If I can’t help, I will be honest with you so you don’t waste your time or money.

Are you going to up-level in 2020? I’m with you on the journey. Schedule a call and let’s get started!

Hugs – Lesley

Schedule A Call