Back to School and Beyond

Ahhhh, October! The Back to School season is coming to a close, and the excitement of the new year (New clothes! New backpacks! Fresh school supplies!) is beginning to wane. Those of us teaching at the elementary level are fully reacquainted with the familiar sounds of school bells, laughing children, and bus engines and the familiar smells of new erasers, floor wax, and tater tots. By now we are back into our fall routines having bid farewell to a summer well spent (and now a distant memory!). We have completed the rituals that accompany the Back to School season: dusting off the Orff instruments that sat unused all summer; running the recorder stash through the dishwasher; unwrapping a new plan book; stocking up on pencils, pens, markers, crayons, and Post-its; and putting up new bulletin boards, motivational charts, and decorations to inspire a new year of learning. We have been plowing through our favorite fall repertoire (“Apple Tree,” “Ghost of John,” “Pumpkin Stew,” “Five Fat Turkeys”) and figuring out how to incorporate all the fun activities learned in our summer professional development activities (That new Orff arrangement! That new folk dance! That super fun composition activity!). For me, fall is always a season of possibilities: chances to revisit old favorites and to take risks on new songs and activities.

The new school year also inevitably brings new requirements, new policies, and new questions about our professional practice. Perhaps you find yourself teaching a guitar class, a middle school general music class, or another elective that you have never taught before. Maybe you received an active board over the summer, a set of iPads, or other new technology for your music program. Perhaps your district has a new teacher evaluation program or you have started teaching at an entirely new school. As the excitement of the new year wears off and we are confronted with the reality of new teaching opportunities and requirements, it is easy to become overwhelmed. Let us not forget that we have an incredibly rich professional network of colleagues across the country, from Washington State to Washington, D.C., from New Mexico to Maine. As the school year gets off the ground, reach out! Whether you need advice on how to integrate students with special needs, you have questions about the best software to use in a ukulele class, or you want to share your particular successes with others, log onto the NAfME website and post on the General Music forum (http://www.nafme.org/forums/forum/general-music-2/). Help is just a click away!

And don’t forget to make plans to attend the upcoming NAfME national conference in Nashville, October 25 to 28, 2015. We have an amazing lineup of clinics and workshops scheduled, and there is still time to register! You can choose from more than 300 sessions on topics such as creativity, special learners, technology, collaborative learning, ukulele, recorder, guitar, folk dance, assessment, multicultural music, classroom management, and more. For more information about the conference, for a full list of conference sessions, and to register, please visit http://inserviceconference.nafme.org. There is also a Justification Toolkit available in case you need assistance in justifying your attendance to administrators: http://inserviceconference.nafme.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Justification-Toolkit.pdf. I hope to see you in Nashville for an enriching few days of music and learning!