Band Director

Before you interview for a school, do a lot of research on the town itself. Its history, traditions that it has, such as festivals, celebrations, anything like that, important people in the community. And if you can't find those answers, make sure that you ask that in your interview. Another thing is, is looking at your own philosophy and what you want to get out from kids and what you want to get out from teaching itself. And make sure that you're always doing it for the kids and meeting kids where they are and not where you want them to be right when you get out of college. That's always hard because we like to play the hard things. So, research the community, research the school, and always ask the important questions such as, what do you, what would you like for the band department to get out of my teaching?

The advice I have for you about getting started, this will be getting started at a new school, would be to definitely take time to meet the people that are going to have a big influence over your teaching career. Obviously administrators, meet your building leaders, meet your union rep, make sure you introduce yourself to the secretary and the head custodian because they will be super important to you. But make sure that you also take time to meet your band parent group leaders and your student officers. Especially at the high school level, they'll want to take part in the transition to you being the new band director. So definitely meet those people, hear their ideas, and try to keep as much the same in your first year as it was before, assuming it was successful, and then change things down the road. Good luck!

Get ready to to make a lot of mistakes. I think that it's, you know, just be humble enough to admit that you're going to make mistakes and that you're going to pick the wrong music. You're going to not turn in something when it's supposed to. You're going to miss some paperwork. You're going to not please all the students. You're going to have parents that are mad at you and, you know, just realize that it will be okay and just to learn from those mistakes and just do better next time because eventually you're going to get to a point where you're going to realize why you're doing this and you're going to have those moments that are going to stay with you for a long time.

Before you get started, once you are hired at a school, make sure that you know when all festivals happen, what, if there's any fees for them, if your band is taking a trip or if it is a trip year for your band and who you talk to, if you have a music booster organization and who their president is, and really get involved in the community. It's a lot at first, but once you show that you're involved in the community, your community knows that you're in it for the long haul and you're in it for their kids. So make sure you know when all of the important dates are and get a sports schedule as soon as possible so that you're not caught off guard and also ask when any pep assemblies are going to be. Get everything organized on a calendar, have one in your office, and then have one outside on a bulletin board for all kids to see as well. Good luck!