I Got the Job—Now What?

You’re a new teacher and you’ve been hired at a small school where you are the only “music” person in the community. You just graduated from a wonderful college band program and are excited to impart your vast amount of knowledge on to your young students and then it hits you, “I got the job, now what?” In a small school, a lot of your job is going to be administrative duties as well as trying to get your students to achieve at a high level. This article is aimed at younger teachers in need of some direction and advice to help set you up for success.

Find the Right People

The first group of people you should get to know right away are building secretaries and secretaries in the administration office. These people will be a wealth of information for you. They will be able to tell you how the process works for filling out purchase requisitions, bus requests, calendar requests, etc. Who do those forms go to after you have filled them out? Many schools will have a new teacher in-service meeting where this information is given, but many band directors will have started before this happens.

Your administrators will be a valuable source of information for things such as adding concerts or fundraisers to the master school calendar. They can provide you with insight on certain community events where the band will need to perform. Make sure to ask them for a copy of the faculty and student handbooks and familiarize yourself with the school’s policies and procedures.

Next, reach out to the custodians and maintenance individuals. They are your go-to when you need to find keys. They’ll be a part of helping take care of your room such as replacing light bulbs, cleaning, etc. Every year, I had maintenance people who would help me mark my practice field before we started the fall marching season. They can be tremendous help!

Lastly, contact local directors who have established programs. Local directors can help answer questions about what contests or festivals you can go to and those dates, how to complete entry forms for certain contests or festivals, and when meetings are for area directors associations and/or state conferences.

Learn How to Manage Your Budget

I have also seen a number of young teachers who get themselves in trouble because they don’t handle the finances of a band program properly. In many small schools, you will not have a music store in town where students can purchase reeds, valve oil, drums sticks, etc. So, you end up keeping those supplies in the band room where students can then purchase them from you. Find out from the secretary how they want you to receipt every purchase. At one time in my career the office (from the auditor), wanted me to write a receipt for every single reed that I sold. I told them I would never get to teach class if I did that so we came up with a form where the students simply wrote down their name, date, what they purchased, and the amount. That form stayed on my desk and was readily available when a student needed to purchase supplies.

Get to Know the Parents

Next, the time comes to meet the students and parents. Many small schools may have a “meet the new band director” night. If not, plan something yourself and put something in the local newspaper or use a website and start getting the word out. When you have that first meeting with students and parents, be positive and friendly but firm. Try not to talk about the past too much, but focus on the excitement of what a great year the band is going to have. At that meeting you might enlist some students and parents to help you organize and clean the bandroom, organize flip-folders, fix music stands, get uniforms ready to check out, etc.

Time for Your First Rehearsal

Finally, it is time for that first band rehearsal which may or may not come before school starts. Again, briefly introduce yourself and talk about what your expectations are for the band members. Learn their names as soon as possible. Be organized in your approach to the rehearsal and be energetic, energetic, energetic!

The better prepared you are before the first day of school, the lower your anxiety level will be. I remember my first day of teaching years ago. It was in a small school and the vocal teacher was also a first year teacher with band experience so we worked together well. Right after lunch, we hear this rumble in the distance and we both look at each other. About that time, through the doors came 80 fifth graders. Again, we looked at each other like “what do we do now?” We both survived, but it was a great learning experience on how to be prepared for the upcoming school year.