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S9: E168 Take the Pressure Off

Afternoon Ti Podcast

Season 9

Episode 168

Take the Pressure Off



I’m so hopeful for this school year.  I’m hopeful that my students will have the opportunity to make more music.  To grow in their skills.  To grow in their confidence.  To grow in their understanding and knowledge of musical concepts.  I feel a responsibility to provide an incredible music education for my students and give them the very best experience I can.  That’s a lot of pressure.  You likely feel it too. It comes from our internal desire to teach well and the external pressures and requirements from our districts and schools.


Some of you are already a few weeks into the school year.  Some of you are in teacher inservice and about to begin teaching students again soon.  We’re about to encounter the start of another year that has some uncertainties because life is not back to where it was two years ago yet.  I’m hopeful that it’s going to be a better year and trying to do these four things to take the pressure off - both internally and externally.  I hope these are helpful for you as well.



  1. Taking the internal pressure off ourselves to catch our students up

Instead start with where they are now.

There were definitely music concepts that were impossible to teach last year - melodic concepts without being able to sing?  Instrument techniques without being able to play?

It’s important that we not skip the fundamentals just to have students play music they don’t understand.  It’s important that we spend time on the fundamentals - rhythmic and melodic concepts, listening and talking about what they hear, teaching instrument techniques - so that our students have a strong base of understanding before adding more levels of difficulty.

Be okay with simplifying.  Be okay with backing things up and reviewing what they learned last year in more detail and depth.  Be okay with moving slower.


  1. Take the pressure off yourself to teach and plan content perfectly for every situation 

One of the areas where I have placed pressure on myself is to figure out lessons that will work in any situation - virtual, in-person, hybrid.  Trying to find ways to teach content so that if our school makes a decision to switch lanes and move to a different way of teaching as a result of Covid that I’m prepared.  It adds an extra layer of internal stress to prepare for anything that comes and it doesn’t help ease the everyday stress of what we’re already facing in front of us each day.  Plan for where you are now.  Plan for the situation you find yourself teaching now.  If it changes, then pivot.  


  1. Taking the pressure off ourselves to make this year so much better than last year

Let the year be what it will.  Stay focused on what’s in front of you now.  Do the best you can with what you have.  Let it be enough.  We don’t know what 


  1. Taking the pressure off by standing up for what you are able to handle in terms of performances and the end of the school day

Noone else knows what your year was like.  You can share how hard it was, what you dealt with, and how different things were, but it’s hard for anyone to truly understand unless they’ve dealt with it themselves.  You know what is best for your teaching situation as we enter this school year.  Performances may still look different this year.  If your administration wants you to have a performance in late September or early October and you feel your students will not be ready, have a conversation with them and consider another time in the year that would work.  If the show must go on early in the year, simplify what they do.  Musical performances and sharings can be beautiful and wonderful whether the students perform 5 songs or 10 songs.  And simple is sometimes better.  Go for simple.


The same thing goes for before or after school ensembles.  Are these something that might be postponed until January to give everyone time to settle into a routine and whatever might be ahead with Covid?  Can you start off more slowly with only one ensemble in the fall and see if it makes sense to add a second ensemble in the spring?


And one of the best things we can do this year, is possible, is to leave school when we are able to leave school.  If 4:00pm is the time you have to stay until, then stay until 4pm and then go home. Take the pressure off of yourself to stay late every single day.  


I hope these ideas bring you a little relief and peace as you take the pressure off of yourself.  Take care friends.


 

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