Read Part 1

Effective music teachers are instilled with a passion to be the best. Following tips from those who have walked the road before is certain to help educators fulfill their talents.

Enhancing the Professional Practice of Music Teachers: 101 Tips that Principals Want Music Teachers to Know and Do offers insight and answers to many of the questions and issues confronting today’s music teacher.

Part 2 offers six Tips that Support Recruitment. Among those are:

• Work Closely with Classroom Teachers – Classroom teachers have daily contact and credibility with students and parents, which gives them great influence over what students think and do.
• Create a Standing Room Only Recruitment Meeting – Make it something people will be talking about. Entertain, teach, inform, motivate, and persuade by doing things like showcasing your superstars and former students and showing videos of your program success.

Part 3, Tips that Enhance Instruction, is the longest section of the book – offering 27 tips.

• Speed Kills – and leads to more mistakes. Technique doesn’t improve by playing faster or louder. The opposite is true: the discipline to learn slowly and build produces better results.
• Teach for a Standing Ovation – The entertainment business is omnipresent–children expect to be entertained. Approach each class as if you were performing on stage at Carnegie Hall.
• Limit Your “Okays” – Repeating the same word or phrase becomes overbearing. Record yourself to avoid these repetitions that you might not be aware of.
• Don’t Stand in the Same Place – Move around toward misbehavers and the quality of your musical production will improve.

For complete tips and details, Enhancing the Professional Practice of Music Teachers: 101 Tips that Principals Want Music Teachers to Know and Do is available with a 25% discount to MENC members from Rowman & Littlefield Education.

Author Paul Young, a graduate of the Ohio University School of Music, is a former music teacher and elementary school principal. He currently is the Executive Director of the West After School Center in Lancaster, Ohio, and an adjunct professor of music at Ohio University-Lancaster.

Common Sense Tips, Part 1

—Becky Spray, December 2, 2009 © MENC: The National Association for Music Education