Everyone knows that the first year of teaching is the hardest. That’s why in this episode of The Happy Music Teacher Podcast, I tackle the common struggles faced during the first year of teaching elementary music.   I explore practical tips to try for managing the unique challenges that new teachers encounter, including classroom management, battling loneliness, and overcoming the fear of making mistakes. By addressing these issues head-on, I aim to provide first-year teachers with the tools and confidence they need to create a positive and effective learning environment.

My discussion also covers strategies for embracing imperfection and finding support within the teaching community. Whether you're feeling isolated or overwhelmed, this episode offers valuable insights and advice to help you navigate your first year with greater ease and resilience. 

Join me as I share stories, experiences, and expert tips to empower new teachers and ensure that their first year of teaching is a stepping stone to a fulfilling and successful career.

The Questions:

1. Hi all, Looking for reassurance here. I’m in year 1, and it is definitely my dream job, but its also very difficult. Since graduating and moving to a new place where I know no one, it’s been a tough year. Everyone says year 1 is the worst. I know its almost over, but as I reflect on this year, I feel unhappy. I love the job but I didnt realize how lonely post-grad is, and just how many mistakes I would make this year. I went from feeling very secure and having high confidence, feeling valued and part of a huge community, to feeling like I know nothing about anything and messing up every day trying to balance it all.
2. Hi! I’m about to be a first year teacher and have been told by many sources that in my new school I will need to be very on top of my classroom management. This contrasts with my more relaxed teaching style. I know I’ll have to be strict and well prepared to allow for faster pacing. The school utilizes PBIS and school bucks as an incentive and they are provided to the specials teachers as well. The previous teacher utilized outside time as an incentive. Any tips and tricks would be very appreciated. — feeling nervous.

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 Music Teacher Dilemmas. Thoughts from the Happy Music Teacher. Are you an elementary music teacher who's frustrated and overwhelmed? I'm Jeanette Shorey, a happy music teacher who loves teaching every day, but it wasn't long ago I was in your shoes. Join me weekdays as I answer all the questions that elementary music teachers have.

Surrounding what's going on in their classroom, what their students are doing, and the challenges they face every day. Do know that these are my thoughts and they are my suggestions on what you might do better. If you disagree with me, that is totally your prerogative. These are just my suggestions and things that have kept me being a happy music teacher for over 25 years.

If you do find something valuable, I'd be so thankful if you'd leave me a five star review. Now let's get into today's question. Lots and lots of questions this week and last week about first year teacher drama. So let's get right into it. Question number one. Hi all, looking for reassurance here. I'm in year one and it's definitely my dream job, but it is also Also very difficult since graduating and moving to a new place where I know no one.

It's been a tough year. Everyone says year one is the worst. I know it's almost over. But as I reflect on this year, I feel unhappy. I love the job, but I didn't realize how lonely post grad is and just how many mistakes I would make this year. I went from feeling very secure and having confidence, high confidence, feeling valued and part of a huge community, to feeling like I knew nothing about anything and messing up everything.

Oh my gosh, I am so, so sorry that this has been your experience this year. First of all, you've got all the things going on. I mean, you've moved to a new place and I can tell you, having been someone who has moved several times in my life, moving on its own is a very difficult thing because You know, you're really starting over and lots and lots of suggestions about how to connect with people.

I don't want to do that here, but if you are interested in hearing some suggestions, please feel free to DM me because I have had struggles with moving someplace new and my son has as well. So definitely can help you on that front. But let me tell you, let me address. Your first year teacher issues the first year like everybody says is the hardest and I know that doesn't make it any easier to hear that because you know, you're like, duh, of course, it's the hardest I'm doing something new, etc.

But here's what I want to tell you. I am so proud of you for looking back over your year and reflecting on it, because I can't tell you how many teachers, it doesn't seem like they do that. I mean, there are also a lot of amazing, fabulous teachers who do do that, but I can tell that you're going to be a fantastic teacher because of the fact that you're already reflecting on the year and you're trying to figure out What to do better.

I mean, I'm assuming you're trying to figure out what to do better. So I am here to give you the reassurance you need. Year one is the hardest. Year two is going to be slightly easier. Year three is going to be easier. Yet year four, you're going to be like. Okay. I think I might know what I'm doing and that's going to be the same, no matter what kind of job you have.

The difference between a job in any other profession and our job is You not only have your very vast curriculum to deal with, but you've got all the decisions to make because curriculum is not decided for us. And so we've got to pull things from here and there and everywhere. We are doing our own planning while we're not planning like the classroom teachers are every day.

Probably you have. Four or five lesson plans that you're doing every week, and then you are dealing with someone else's children. And for everybody, if you are dealing with someone else's children, it's never going to go as well as it does for that person. So be it, you're, you're a babysitter or you're a substitute, or you're a.

Music teacher, art teacher, whatever type of specialist you are, specialty you have, you are going to be dealing with someone else's children. Plus, you're dealing with classroom management. I know when I was first teaching, It was so hard because I was like, I remember like kids would be playing with toys in front of me and I wouldn't even notice and then another kid would point it out and be like, why does he get to play with that toy?

And I'd be like, oh my gosh, I never even noticed, you know, so there is a lot, a lot that goes into taking care of children, let alone the vast majority. Just huge curriculum you have to deal with. So I want you to first of all, give yourself some grace because the fact that you're reflecting on the year tells me that you are going to be a phenomenal teacher.

I'm so happy that you love the job. I'm so happy that you've made it through this year and it seems like you're powering through. And what I want you to remember is that. Mistakes are how we learn, and I tell this to my students all the time. If you're not making mistakes, you're not growing as a human.

You're not growing as a person. Now, if you are in a situation where colleagues and admin are not supportive about the mistakes you're making, then maybe you're in the wrong place, and that's something to consider. But If you are just beating yourself up, because as musicians, we are such perfectionists because we've been told forever.

Don't get any notes, any notes wrong. Don't get your, you know, don't get the pitch wrong, et cetera, et cetera. So, you know, you want to make sure that yes, you want to do a good job, but perfectionism is not going to happen where you are. Chaos is going to happen, and your students are going to do the wrong thing.

thing and you're going to say things the wrong way and they're going to totally do something you didn't expect them to do. This is what it's all about. And so I want you to give yourself some grace and I want you to write down 10 things that you did really well this year. Did you connect with the students well?

Did you do a good job? planning your lessons. Did you have some fun wins with your kids? Did you connect with your colleagues, et cetera? I want you to know that it is very lonely being an elementary school music teacher. And I have some solutions to that. I have a community that I run called the Happy Music Teacher Academy.

There are very inexpensive, to it. One of them is just community and we get together and we have coffee once a month. And this summer we're going to do some collaboration. We're going to do some lesson planning together and we're going to do some curriculum development together, et cetera. So I will link to that in the show notes.

Make sure you check that out. And this is something that your school can pay for. It can be written into a PO and paid for that way. If you need a community, if you would like to be a part of a community, make sure you check out the Happy Music Teacher Academy. You can go to storiesthatsing. net forward slash join the Happy Music Teacher Academy to find out more.

Question number two, again, a first year teacher question, but this is someone who's on. Hi, I'm about to be a first year teacher and have been told by many sources that in my new school I will need to be very on top of my classroom management. This contrasts with my more relaxed teaching style. I know I'll have to be strict and well prepared to allow for faster pacing.

The school utilizes PBIS and School Bucks as an incentive and they're provided to the specials teachers as well. The previous teacher utilized outside time as an incentive. Any tips and tricks would be very appreciated. Feeling nervous. So, first of all, I commend you for reaching out ahead of time and, you know, talking to colleagues about classroom management.

What I'm going to tell you is that In my opinion, and this is totally just my opinion, School Bucks, reward systems, those sorts of things that work in other areas with the classroom teachers, that sort of thing, are not going to work as well for you. Because you don't have the power, because, in my opinion, it is so difficult to pick out those couple of students and then you have to write down who you picked out so you make sure that you don't pick them again because, you know, of course we want to be fair, etc.

I do not know what PBIS is, I'm sorry to say, but it's great that your school has a uniform system. Behavior system and if PBIS is more of a class behavior system, then I would say it's a really good place to start that being said. Strict? Yes. But, I think, I have a very relaxed teaching style, and I like to have a relaxed teaching style because it's important to me that my students, when they come into my classroom, they can kind of, if you will, let their hair down a little bit because they have to be so rigid in their classroom most of the time because, you know, learning is a big deal, and they have testing, and All of the other things that go into being in their classroom.

So when they come to me, I want them to be more relaxed. I want it to be a more relaxed atmosphere. This is how I do that. I am very careful about my lesson plan flow. My students do not have time to misbehave because I literally never stopped teaching. Now I've been teaching, this is my 26th year. So for me, that's going to be easier.

What I'm going to say to you is, and this goes for all first year teachers, when you are planning your lessons, make sure you plan transitions between them. Make sure you have an activity for them to do as they're coming in. Make sure as soon as they sit down, you get started with your day, have everything set up, have your smart board set up.

Or your PowerPoint set up, have your instruments all out, ready to grab so that you don't have to stop because as soon as you stop, they are going to attack. They're, they're going to be like, you know, they immediately start talking and then it's hard to get them settled back down. So I do transitions for everything.

So let's say we start out with a movement activity. After the movement activity, I'm going to say, sit down on the floor, crisscross applesauce, hands in your lap. And then I am going to point out some people. Jaden, I love the way you sat right down. Samuel, I love the way you have your eyes on me. Sally, it is so amazing that you This is our very first class together and you are already sitting exactly the way I like.

I can tell you are listening very carefully. So I shower them with positive reinforcement. That is a big deal. Everywhere we go in my classroom, Let's go to the story, place the story, place the story, place, let's go to the story, place and sit right down. So I never give them verbal directions. And the other day I did give verbal directions and they like, didn't even listen to me.

And not that they didn't, not that they didn't on purpose, but like they didn't even hear it. So if you sing your directions and you keep things flowing, that's a really good thing. Now. I could go on and on and on and on. But what I wanna tell you is we don't have that much time. So what I wanna tell you is keep your lessons structured, keep everything flowing, have everything at your fingertips.

Make sure you are familiar with your activities and above all things. Give yourself grace because that first year is challenging as we just talked about with my last person that I answered the question for and just give yourself grace. Allow yourself to make mistakes. Well, that's all I have for you today.

But before I go, let me remind you. Keep learning, keep growing, and keep being fabulous. You, this podcast is a proud member of the teach better podcast network, better today, better tomorrow, and the podcast to get you there. Explore more podcasts at teach better. com slash podcasts. And we'll see you at the next episode.