Tag: SEL in music

An Exclusive Offer for Music Educators

I know there’s not a lot of Music Conducting going on right now, but I’m stoked to find out my book is a #1 New Release in the Music Conducting category this week. 🎼

Our jobs as music educators involve MUCH more than conducting ensembles. In today’s music classroom, we must find innovative ways of addressing our students’ social and emotional needs so they stay connected with us, with one another, and with the content we are teaching them.

But that can feel like an impossible task during a pandemic when NOTHING is normal or easy.

As many music teachers are finding out, trying to teach ensembles during a pandemic leads to frustration on everyone’s part. I’m hearing from teachers all over the world who normally have incredible engagement from their students but are discovering that having kids practice scales and songs on their own or work on music theory or other activities just isn’t drawing students in and they are struggling to hold their programs together.

The stress that comes with wondering if your students will register for ensemble classes next year is keeping many music teachers awake at night as they watch the enthusiasm and energy that normally is present with their students and them dwindling with each passing day.

I am grateful to have had the opportunity to simultaneously edit this book and shift from in-person band directing to online music education all at the same time! It gave me LOTS of opportunities to practice identifying and meeting my students’ social and emotional needs in an uncertain environment and design my curriculum (and this book) to meet the SEL needs of students – regardless of our current situations.

I’ve learned a TON through the process of writing and editing this book and refining what I am doing with my students. I’d love to share my tips with you so you don’t have to start from scratch.

When we do return to in-person teaching and can safely make music together once again, it will be more important than ever that we’ve already taught the skills that are so inherently addressed in our ensemble settings so students have an environment conducive to their growth as artists that is supportive and nurturing.

Teaching “online band” isn’t something I ever envisioned, but here we are.

I dedicate this book to all the music teachers out there who are creating and teaching and loving and inspiring students to express themselves through their arts in spite of the circumstances in which you find yourselves.

The work you do matters.

May you experience more joy and less stress for you and your students through your music journey this year and for years to come.

This situation is hard, but it is temporary. Music may be the only thing some of your students find solace in right now.

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FREE gift for Music Educators

As a special gift to music educators who are working tirelessly to teach in ways we never could have imagined, I offer a FREE sneak peek to my new book. May you find an idea or two that helps you navigate the strangest time in education ever.

Thank you for being a music educator. 💖

How Do You Engage Teenagers In “Online Band?”

Story time, of course.

There was SO much information they needed to know on that very first day, but the most important lesson of all was that it will all be okay. The kids needed to hear that they are not alone and that I’m here to walk this walk with them.

This will be a hard road, and if they don’t get the chance to build relationships with one another while we are in a 100% virtual environment, it’ll be pretty hard to keep them engaged when they no longer get to play in ensembles with their friends in their band classes.

By the time they go to register for classes next year, they’ll be burned out and disconnected from the band kids unless we intentionally spend time building the kind of culture online that so organically occurs in our classrooms.

When kids listen to stories as children, most of their memories involve feeling peaceful and being interested in what’s happening. Story time is usually something children love … no matter how old they are.

So we connected on our first day of virtual high school band for the 2020 school year with good old story time.

As soon as my voice fell into the familiar beat of the rhyming patterns they’ve heard so many times before and they saw pictures of the very people they made memories and music with in past years, I could see their faces visibly relax as the stress dissipated and smiles began to appear.

The kids are as overwhelmed as we are and they said over and over again how grateful they were that we are taking the time to do this before jumping into content.

As you move through your school year, remember why you are pouring so much love and energy into an impossible job. It’s hard. It’s never enough. And people still complain.

Know that you are making difference in kids’ lives every single day. I am hearing stories about the conditions under which you are teaching and I am in awe.

Music teachers are incredibly resilient – but that can also be our downfall because we (and others) expect ourselves to just figure out how to do the impossible because we always seemed to solve unsolvable situations in the past.

I, too, am feeling the strain of trying to teach huge classes online without being able to see most of them while monitoring the chat room and breakout sessions and internet issues and screenshares and the list goes on and on. I have to plan out my classes with the same level of detail I did my first year…and this is my 33rd year!

I decided that there’s just too much stuff out there right now. Lots of great apps. Tons of great platforms. A million pre-designed lessons.

We’ll get to that later.

None of that matters until my kids and I connect and we create an online classroom truly worthy of being called a “band room”, that magical place where students thrive through music, relationships, and love.

“Connecting Through Music” is the theme my students selected for this year. We will use music to connect us as humans, but it’ll be in new and innovative ways. The delivery and some of the content changes. The fact that we are teaching little humans remains the same.

I wish you a year of growth and grace.
Lesley

That is the actual Kaypro computer I got when I started college in 1983! They sure didn’t tell us we’d eventually be teaching high school bands using computers back when I was at Indiana University!

Setting Up Your Students for Success in Such an Unusual School Year Takes Intentional Planning and a Little Extra TLC

All summer, in spite of your best efforts, you’ve been thinking about all the obstacles you and your students face this year. Many of them may even seem insurmountable. And yet I bet you’ve come up with a lot of creative solutions for meeting many of your students’ academic needs this year, because that’s what educators do.

There are a ton of the platforms and apps that are out there help us facilitate a lot of the challenges that could otherwise seem insurmountable.

But there’s really no effective app that addresses your students’ social and emotional needs. YOU are the one who does that. You are the one who has to know her students well enough to figure out what their needs are before you can begin to help them with the struggles they face.

Do you have a plan for quickly and effectively identifying the challenges that will make it difficult for your students to be successful, especially in a virtual, hybrid, or way-different-than-normal-in-person teaching situation? How are you going to get them to truly think about and articulate their obstacles so you can use that information to drive your instruction and help them be successful?

And what are you going to do once you understand their obstacles? Do you have proven ideas for navigating this kind of situation with so many students and families who are experiencing so many hardships while trying to manage school and jobs and life during a pandemic?

This is all I’ve thought about and it’s my mission to help students become the best version of themselves through the magic of music education. When the rest of their world seems to be falling apart, we music teachers can help them make sense of it. We can give them the tools they need to manage their emotions, express themselves, and learn so much more than just how to play a few songs. But first we must meet them where they are.

If you know this is true but just don’t know where to start, I invite you to watch this short training I did that gives an idea of what you could do in the beginning of the year to get to know your students so you can better serve them. Starting with this step will save you a LOT of time and effort down the line.

The training is free. I hope you find it helpful. Please don’t hesitate to let me know if you have any questions.

With you on this journey –
Lesley

Free Training
FREE Sneak Peek of my latest book at mPoweredEducator.com/contact

What is Band Director Boot Camp?

People keep asking me, “What is Band Director Boot Camp?”

Band Director Boot Camp is the program I designed for the band director who wants to:

  • Up-level your program now
  • Build a successful and sustainable music program that is respected in your school and community
  • Serve students by helping them become awesome human beings through the magic of music education
  • Make band a place where every student feels welcome and safe to be themselves
  • Spend more time teaching music and less time on all of the other stuff
  • Find a better balance between work and family life
  • Build a tribe with other like-minded band directors for support, encouragement, and masterminding
  • Cut through a lot of the pain and time that go with building a program with practical advice from someone with over 30 years of experience as a high school band director and mother of three

It’s true that between zero period jazz band, evening concerts, pep band events, trips, fundraising, and meetings, the life of a high school band director is never dull! There’s great joy to be had as you shape young musicians into awesome human beings, but there’s also a price to pay when you love doing it so much that your life’s work becomes all-consuming. How do you meet your students’ needs and still have a life of your own – without being so exhausted that you can’t enjoy it?

I found that when it came time for me to actually write the book I’d been thinking about for years, I was successful when I found someone to coach me through the process. It wasn’t about having someone else do the work – I did all the writing, but I did it with someone who has successfully published thousands of books, so I got it done in three months. Not only did I get it done in a much shorter time than if I’d tried doing it on my own, but my book reached Best Seller status and has launched me into coaching, teaching professional development, presenting at conferences, being a guest for webinars, podcasts and radio shows, and mentoring other music teachers. I was far more successful at writing a book and so much more because I worked with a mentor instead of trying to figure it out on my own.

Band Director Boot Camp is the same concept. I’ve taught over 30,000 classes in my teaching career, so I’ll teach you how to sidestep common pitfalls and energy-suckers and spend more time teaching music. I will be your resource and help you identify and reach your milestones, whether that involves starting a booster program or setting up your first big trip, while saving you hours and hours of time – and lots of headaches and stress!

After reading I Love My Job but It’s Killing Me, Dr. Tim Lautzenheiser said, “Most of us have learned many of these lessons [overworking and burning out] THE HARD WAY. We are convinced we can “push a bit harder” each time around…but – alas – we do burn up the engine in doing so. I want all the young teachers to read the book so they can avoid learning some of these lessons through self-abuse. This is a profound contribution to the entire educational profession.”

Band Director Boot Camp takes the principles of my first book and applies them to the life of a busy band director, giving you practical and proven strategies for being the badass band director you always dreamed of being!

If you’d like to learn more, check out this self-assessment to get a clearer picture of your goals and what is keeping you from reaching them.

Band Director Self-Assessment