Monday, March 25, 2024
I remember marching in parades in school. Our band would tackle every weekend marching festival like the warriors we were. We would compete in small parades, large festivals, and everything in between. I remember being wholly unprepared for one particular parade. This was a bowl parade that was well outside of our regular marching season, and while we were as prepared as we could be, there simply is no prepping two hundred kids for five and a half miles worth of parade half a continent away from home. I remember being in this giant and wonderful celebration with floats that were larger than life and thinking about what my director had told us: be sure to pace ourselves. We had seen thousands upon thousands of people along the route. We were giving everything we had to show up in as memorable a way as we could, which takes a toll on a kid. I remember seeing people holding signs with how far we'd marched, and how far we had left to go along the route. We were getting to the end of the parade, and I remember being exhausted. I remember thinking that we were almost there, and then seeing a person holding a sign saying, "2 MORE MILES!" That was outrageous! They had to be joking, right? There was absolutely no way we had little less than HALF of the parade left. How would we make it to the end? Some of us didn't.
The Spring semester feels like that in music education. You do your diligence to plan, prepare, and pace yourself throughout the year and at some point, someone holds up a sign telling you how long you have left to go, and it leaves you questioning. How are you going to make it? Are you going to make it? This must be a joke, right? Contests, concerts, meetings, grading, and all the other plates we spin as music educators start piling up and suddenly, you're sprinting what was supposed to be a marathon of a year.
Many of us fall prey to the guilt that comes with rest. We have so much to get done both professionally and personally that we can have serious problems pausing. When you get to the point where having a hobby feels like another responsibility rather than an outlet, it's time to make a change. You need rest. Music teachers need rest. Learn to rest or you will burn your way out of this career. Learning to implement some healthy rests into your world can make the difference between a short and long career in music education.
Here are a few small ways to incorporate some small but frequent pauses in your life and help prevent burn out:
- Take a mental minute with each class. Between warmups and rehearsal, literally take sixty seconds and lead your class through some breathing/counting exercises, guiding them through proper breath support. It's good for you and them. It will help calm all your nervous systems. Going straight from one class to another class each day, everyone could use more pauses. By deliberately taking a moment, you can refocus and relieve your brains.
- Take 10-15 minutes of your plan time for you. Lock your door, turn your lights off, and make yourself unavailable. For those 10 or so minutes, you can suspend your day. Practice refocusing on you for the moment. No work. No responsibilities. Enjoy a cold Dr. Pepper or snack. Focus on just the food and drink and NO MULTITASKING! You're not wasting time; you're giving your mind and body a necessary caesura.
- Set a timer or time limit on work. It might feel like it, but you don't have to be "on" 24/7. Enforce a time clock in your life where you "punch out" for the day when you leave work. If you can't get whatever work you have to complete in the time you have allotted, it will wait. There will be more time. If there isn't, then maybe it isn't as important as it feels.
- Bed time break-down. PMR Pro is a great, customizable app that can lead you through progressive muscle relaxations. It can be 2 minutes long, or 20 minutes long. PMR is a dual step relaxation practice to reduce stress and build awareness of sensations of tension and deep relaxation in different muscle groups, which helps relax your body and mind. For those of us who have a difficult time turning our brains off to sleep, this is a great technique.
How will you make it to the end of this year? By pacing yourself. Setting healthy routines that don't take a lot of work to incorporate into your day will help you on your way there. Remember how important your students and family are to you, and then acknowledge that you are just as important. You would never begrudge one of them a rest or discourage them from incorporating a healthy habit, so don't do it to yourself. Take a breath. Take a moment. Create positive change and growth into your life and those that surround you by remembering to care for yourself.
Are you frustrated teaching D.S. and D.C. al Coda? No matter how many times you tell students to "mark your music," it just doesn't seem to get the job done, does it? I have a solution for you if you've got $6 and 5 minutes. While I'd be happy for you to Venmo me the money, use it to buy a 24-pack of erasable colored pencils. And the five minutes? Use it to stop class and have your students mark their music with my 2-color color coding system.
We mark the two sets of signs with two colors:
D.S. al Coda/𝄋 in one color and To Coda/Coda in another.
| Samantha Stevens is in her 18th year of teaching 6-12 grade bands. She is currently the associate band director in Independence, Missouri (4 years), and was the director of bands at East Buchanan (Gower, Mo) for 14 years. Samantha is passionate about researching and developing simple solutions to common music reading problems. She previously published an article, "Blocks & Cubes" (2018), and presented on recruitment and retention (2021) with Palen Music Center. |
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