November, Oh My!
Welcome to November! Is it really supposed to be this hard?
You might be feeling disillusioned right about now. The post-Halloween candy sugar rush and crash are probably showing in your classes. The newness of the year, for students and for you, is really wearing off and the grind is bearing down on how students act, and how you feel right now. You’ve probably gotten the beginning-of-the-year cold; may be still recovering. Everything feels so hard and time-consuming. You’ve increased your caffeine intake hoping that will give you more energy. You’re wondering if it’s all worth the full schedule, lesson planning, collaboration meetings…. will I ever have a life?
Let me first say YOU MATTER! These students need you, even if they don’t show it. Things will improve and you will start to see results of all the work you put in for them. Here are some helpful things to remember and implement for November.
Short weeks: You have some short weeks coming up. There will be a day off for MLK day, usually creating a 3-day weekend. Then you’ll have Thanksgiving long weekend. You’ll get to have a little more time for you. Sleep in, get away somewhere relaxing, visit friends and family, get a massage. Don’t lesson plan all weekend! If shorter weeks give you more anxiety, maybe it’s because of upcoming performances - have you chosen music that is too hard for the time you have? I you have misjudged this, you still probably have time to change out an out-of-reach piece to something easier and fun.
Sleep and caffeine: That part above about increasing your caffeine intake…….are you needing that because you aren’t getting enough sleep? Better idea: plan ahead so you can add another 30 to 60 minutes of sleep, then drink lots of water instead of coffee or soda. I always had trouble drinking enough water. 64 ounces a day never seemed to happen and probably never would, but increasing water intake, I could make that happen. Make sure to take a filled water bottle filled with you in the morning. You can also set yourself reminders on your watch or phone to tell you to remember to drink water. If you want to get fancy, there are smart water bottles that track how much you drink and when. Some come with phone apps to create goals based on age, height, weight, exercise and more. No matter how you hydrate, more water is better. And yes, that might mean you need to stop at the staff restroom more often.
Sick days: NEVER feel guilty about taking sick days that you need. If anyone ever makes you feel like you shouldn’t take sick days, that’s not right and it’s not appropriate for them to ask about it. Unless they approach you with a helpful kind of tone. I also don’t think there’s any problem with taking a mental health day. I’ve done it.
Student behavior: When I first was teaching, I had trouble with taking their behavior so personally. They should know better, right? I taught them that routine already, why aren’t they doing it? Well, it’s not personal. Many students don’t have safe and secure home lives and they could be worrying about extra time at home, which can create some behaviors at school. Continue to learn about individual students and purposefully create opportunities to ask how they are and if you can help. Make connections and have compassion. For routines, you think they should have them down by November, right? Well, no. You will have to keep reteaching and reinforcing them. Maybe you can create a poster or hand signal that’s a shortcut for a routine, so you don’t have to say so much each time. Maybe you can have a class leader that watches and helps for a particular routine. See if you can take some of that responsibility away from you and give it to the students.
Lesson planning: Some of my hardest years, I was finding and creating lessons for 7 grade levels and 2 after-school groups per week. The last music curriculum adoption had been 20 years prior and there was no district framework at the time. This was so much searching and planning, and then evaluating and teaching it differently for the next class because maybe it didn’t go so well. This can be so tiring. If you have any chance to get ideas from another teacher in your district or even outside your district, take advantage of that. There are also many resources on the internet and YouTube, as well. And if you need a sing-along or movie day, do it. No guilt required.
Being thankful: Make sure you take a few minutes each day to list what you are thankful for. We forget to do this. I promise you will feel better pretty quickly. You may have seen the Facebook post - something about “I have too much laundry” turned around to “I’m so thankful I have plenty of clothes to wear”. Can you do that with your current teaching situation? Turn “My schedule is so full” into “I’m so thankful that I have lots of students in my programs”. (Many programs are still recovering their numbers from Covid). Personally, I’m so thankful for family and friends, and my husband who supports me in whatever situation my mission puts me. I’m so thankful for people I get to serve through my passion areas. Start your list.
Mentoring: As always, I will end with this. If you need someone to problem-solve, figure out solutions or ways to look at things, come up with a good next step of action in the classroom, please reach out and ask someone for help. You may need to ask more than one person to find what you need, but don’t think you need to figure out everything alone. If you need a music teaching mentor, I always offer free first sessions and a sample letter to your principal asking to support you with professional development funds. If you feel your district needs someone like me that is dedicated only to mentoring music teachers, please pass along this web page to your music coordinator. This web page address is https://cat-hyperboloid-be6f.squarespace.com/
Hopefully, you find these tips helpful for your November, Oh My! All my best, Amy