Balancing your time as a music educator can be challenging. Music teachers have many responsibilities! Here are a few tips from MENC members to help keep teaching your primary focus:

Organize to save time

Music and handouts should be ready to pass out before each class. List on the board events, concerts, and due dates. Develop your own filing system. File records, grades, forms, schedules, lesson plans and music so you can find them in a moment's notice.

Clean environment

Keep your desk clutter-free and always keep your classroom in order. Students do not enjoy coming into a dirty room.

Easy access

You never know when a teaching moment will arise, so be ready to find materials without losing focus. Questions from students and parents may come up. Have materials ready to answer quickly and accurately.

Keep records

Documenting financial and student records will help resolve possible concerns from students, administrators, and parents in the future.

Delegate!

Ask students to help you by taking attendance, writing announcements, filing, leading sectionals, data entry, or chairing committees. Student helpers are huge time savers!

Staying organized will allow you to spend energy on furthering your education and knowledge. Focusing your energy on music is the ultimate satisfaction for music educators and staying organized will allow you to do that.

Do you have other tips on this topic? Share them on the Future Teachers forum.

Reference

Teacher to Teacher, A Music Educator’s Survival Guide (2001). Reston, VA: MENC.

--Shauna Leavitt, October 22, 2008, © MENC: The National Association for Music Education