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Balance Goals with Experience

Meghan McNamara-Cabral | March 2009



    The best advice I ever received came from the person who was my supervisor and mentor in college. Before my first teaching job, he warned me to be cautious and remember that veteran tea­chers had been working in the school for years and that I should lay low, remain quiet, and make a place for myself before trying to change things.
    These words of wisdom were difficult to hear because my head was filled with fresh, new ideas such as recreating the beautiful sound of my college Wind En­semble in my first student concert band. Walking into that beginning job, I felt the harsh reality of hearing the unbalanced, unfocused sound of a young student ensemble in need of lots of work.
    I was lucky enough to have had someone standing next to me both at school and at home with a daily reminder to keep perspective. They would say, “It is your first job and your first year. You cannot change the world, and you certainly can’t make waves.”
    It was easy to keep perspective for those first few weeks, overwhelmed only by paperwork, a new classroom, and the names of a few hundred students. As days disappeared into weeks suddenly the students were no longer strangers, and I had rearranged the classroom and finished the paperwork. Now I began to remember the countless ideas I had started out with as a new college graduate. This is where I needed to keep perspective.
    Everything can’t change in one year, I told myself. Instead of trying to completely change the entire school (and believe me I tried), I learned to keep a list of things to do that included everything from my personal goals and goals for the ensembles I taught to titles of compositions to teach in the future. As time went on the lists began to fill a notebook.
    It is difficult for new teachers to remember that they have at least 30 years of teaching to perfect what they want to do. Nothing will be perfect at first, no matter how perfect the school or the school district. As a new teacher you have to deal with replacing the person who came before you as well as creating a job with your personal stamp. You will also be confronted with political situations that have nothing to do with music or education and seem like nonsense for the perfect job.
    As long as you keep perspective those first few years of teaching will be easier. Even with the great advice from my college mentor, it took three full years for me to realize this.
    Although it is hard to imagine what the school was like before you joined the faculty, it will help your perspective to find out. I didn’t want to listen to the stories about how the band room once had risers or that students would throw their instruments, whether in or out of cases, onto the shelves in the back of the room. I didn’t want to hear the stories about how there were no lockers or good instruments. I just knew the band room I inherited had plenty of chairs, plenty of stands, and lots of lockers.
    On one of my first days at the school, I walked into a closet and saw  a bassoon rack holding four bassoons  that hadn’t been taken apart since 1980. The first change I instituted was ripping down that bassoon rack and then finding and repairing the cases for those bassoons. In hindsight, I wish I had kept a piece of that rack to remember the perspective.
    Things in this band room already were different and they will continue to change. I will make my mark on this room and on the students, knowing it may not happen in the first year. Three years later I can happily say that the room still isn’t entirely mine, but it has changed into a band room that I’m proud of.
    When I started this job, I wish I could have had a better perspective. The previous teacher should have  changed the world, I thought. Now I realize that he couldn’t; he was ready to pass the torch on to someone new. It was difficult to keep perspective the many times I wanted to clean out drawers and throw away the old parts he had kept to make room for bigger and better things.
    It was difficult to realize he had gone through times when there was no budget, when the music department had to scrape to fix instruments and did not have the luxury of sending them out for repair. Saving those extra parts was my predecessor’s way of dealing with how things had changed when he started teaching. Those spare parts were one of his accomplishments, much like the bassoon cases were mine.
    As I write this, the chairmen of the band, orchestra, and choral departments are in the middle of shuffling rooms, with everyone trying to share the same thing – the auditorium – equally during one period. Each person thinks that he is the most entitled to it. However, I need to remember to keep perspective. When approached with a new and wonderful opportunity, it is hard to remember what was in place before I got there. Things were different and everyone was not equal. As I take a stand for what I want, I have to remember that veteran teachers have seniority, and that when I am in the same position it will be difficult to deal with the new teachers trying to step on my toes. Remember that people came before you and people will come after you.
    The words keep perspective should be on a sign that goes on everyone’s desk. They are important words. We all majored in music to be able to pass on the legacy of Western culture to our students. There is plenty of time for those who are in new, young careers to have the dream band or the music department they want. Everything takes time, and everything takes work. Before changing the world, assess each  situation and make only small changes – one at a time. Figure out the philosophies of the other teachers in music department and in the entire school. Re­member that the band, chorus, orchestra, or even the English departments are not the only departments in the school.
    Tread lightly and cautiously. You will sense when the time is right to budget for that new method book or new sound system. You will know when it is right to expect students to practice two hours a week instead of one. Use judgment – good judgment. Keep a pen and paper handy and   write down every great, new idea you have and refer to it often. Every good idea (or great and elaborate one, for that matter) takes time to accomplish in the right place and at the right time.
    Keep perspective. Be cautious and feel out every situation before you try to change it.