| Thanks to all music students, past and present...
There is no place to post this that looks correct, so I thought I’d put it in the lounge.
I’d bet that most of the people who post here were pretty serious band members when they were kids. I‘d bet most of us were the type that hung around the band room, offered to help our band directors, shared things with him/her that you would never consider sharing with other teachers, and were in general pretty nice people to be around. As a middle school band director I want those of you who fit that description to know just how much you meant to those band directors, even though they may never have told you so.
My schedule shifts in the middle of the day from the 5th grade bell schedule to the middle school bell schedule. That means I have two lunch periods back to back. Yesterday during both lunch periods I had 20-30 kids in my room playing instruments, sharing extra music time with one another and with me. I give my lunch time to help the kids get some special one on one time to correct problems like bad embouchures, or maybe to teach them alternate fingerings on WW instruments, or to take a 5th grade trumpet player who plays low C not matter what he fingers and get him to start playing correct notes.
I love to watch the kids help each other, and from corner to corner there are 10 different sets of music going on all at the same time. Yesterday I noticed the smiles on the kids’ faces – it was something I needed after a kind of bad week when I was just not feeling very good. The energy in the room was amazing – I call it “organized mass confusion!!!”
When the two lunches were over I was exhausted, going from student to student, group to group, helping, giving pats on the back for improvement and good work, and just enjoying time with “my kids”. When the kids left I just sat down to catch my breath, thinking how crazy I am to be a middle school band director, but also that I’m one lucky guy to have such a great job!
I took about 2-minutes at the end of my last two classes yesterday to thank my students for being a part of my life. I told them how much I enjoy them, and how much they mean to me. I know that my band director enjoyed us, but I don’t know if he ever really said it. If your band directors never said it to you I’m saying it now.
Thanks for all the extra time, practice, help, peer tutoring, moving of equipment, but also thanks for sharing the stories about your next door neighbor’s dog, or about your little brother, or about your grandpa. Thanks for the hug as you walked out the band room door. Thanks for turning around to as you walked out the door simply to tell your teacher; “have a great weekend!”
Those little things all add up to make the life of a teacher pretty special. Wow! For 30-years I’ve been allowed to teach young people music! I’m a pretty darn lucky guy.
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