#26: Virtual Roundtable - Advice for Newer Teachers 1

The Band Director's Lounge Podcast

Hello and welcome!

If you are listening to this episode in real-time, it is now August and the start of a new school year is just around the corner. This upcoming year may not be your first but if you are like most teachers, memories of your first year of teaching might still feel like “it was just yesterday”. I know that I still get many of the same nerves, and sense of anticipation and wonder on the eve of every new school year upcoming school year just like that first year teaching.

This episode is geared towards the new teacher. For them, their “FIRST” school year is just about to begin and they may need some grounding or words of encouragement before they begin their teaching journey. Are you a seasoned director? Don’t worry, I think that you will find this episode helpful too as it might just bring you back to some of the important fundamentals of our profession.

This episode contains fifteen responses from fifteen different directors. Each director has anywhere from a couple of years of teaching experience to being near or done with their career and enjoying retirement and ranging from elementary teaching to collegiate instruction.

In the show notes for this episode you can find time stamps with the names of each of these directors AND my full-length interviews with each if you want to go check out more of what they had to share about teaching and band directing. During this episode each response will be shared back to back with a slight pause in between so you can hear each answer without delay.

I think that you will quickly notice themes and recurring ideas emerging even from this sample of fifteen teachers. I hope that it will inspire you, motivate you, and quiet some of those nerves as they share lessons that they likely “learned the hard way” or wisdom that was revealed to them over the course of their teaching.

The answers are in response to a hybrid of two questions:

“What advice would you go back and give your former self at the start of your teaching career? OR What advice would you give to a teacher in their first few years of teaching?”

Enjoy!

Episode Overview

• #4 Rachel Pletke - LeSueur-Henderson, MN (02:05)
• #5 Anthony Boldt - Kasson-Mantorville, MN (04:08)
• #7 Steve Schmitz - St.Louis Park, MN (06:31)
• #8 Dan Tewalt - Wayzata, MN (07:37)
• #9 Matthew Potter - Chaska, MN (10:42)
• #10 Scott Sater (Ret.) - Shakopee & Backus, MN (10:57)
• #11 Dr.Doug Orzolek - University of St.Thomas, MN (16:01)
• #12 Caleb Rebarchak - Bellefonte, PA (16:55)
• #14 Dr.James Miller - Gustavus Adolphus College, MN (17:38)
• #15 Miles Mortensen - Minnetonka, MN (23:17)
• #19 Erin Holmes & Bradley Mariska - Farmington, MN (27:33)
• #21 Amanda Kaus - Rochester, MN (31:15)
• #23 Erik Hermanson - Cleveland, MN (33:03)
• #24 Geneva Fitzsimonds - Edina, MN (33:59)
• #25 Dr. Heidi Johanna Miller - Gustavus Adolphus College, MN (35:10)

Conclusion

I hope that you enjoyed this episode format! I am not sure about you, but listening through this it felt like I was sitting at a table with these fifteen awesome educators having a “virtual roundtable discussion”. I hope to be able to sprinkle episodes like this in as I continue to build my bank of interview questions and responses with directors. So if you liked this format, there will be more like it in the future!

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Good luck with the upcoming school year! Remember to take time to keep yourself recharged and healthy so that you can come back fresh each day for yourself and your students.

Thanks again for tuning in, I will see you back here next time in The Band Director’s Lounge.

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