Productivity and Professional Development

I think we can all agree that there a lot of skills that go into being a good band director or music teacher that is outside of just the teaching experience in the classroom.  One of those skills is Productivity.  There are many things that go into making a productive teacher.  One of the most important things a teacher can do is to be organized.  Ii have always strived to be as organized as I can possibly be.  Often leaving me teased my others, but often asked by the same people how I can help them to stay more organized.  I feel that being organized sets us up to be better at everything that revolves around teaching.   Communication is also very important.  They are so many activities involved with band that I cannot imagine how they would be pulled off with communicating to parents.  In my classroom, I use remind 101 that send out texts, I create email groups, keep an updated website, and send out phone messages.   There a lot of materials for letters that I keep to send home every year and just update.  This also helps with traveling.  Again, I still think that organization helps with all of these skills.

As far as professional development, I have always felt that in my district we get the short end of the stick.  There are rarely any professional development opportunities that involve music teaching.  In my six years here they have never brought in music professionals to assist us, teach us, or mentor us in any way.  Therefore, I often travel out of county and pay out of pocket for my own professional development.  I am sure this is the reality for a lot of teachers.   However, professional development is so crucial to our continual learning that we must find the avenues even if we have to search it ourselves.  One of the biggest reasons I am back in school and seek professional development is to in turn give my students the best music education that I can give them. 

References:

Bauer, W. I. (2014). Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and

responding to music.

Bazan, D. (2016, August 19). Technology Assisted Music Teaching & Professional Development.

Lecture.