I was speaking to a mentor of mine a couple months ago for a masters degree assignment learning about their background. Something that surprised me was how despite all of the accolades under their belt, how "messy" their path was to get there.
I am a young teacher, but I wonder how many directors that could describe? How many great teachers out there have gotten 2s,3s,or even lower? How many have been close to leaving the profession before they "hit it big", or even *did*, leave the profession?
This is a tough profession sometimes, and maybe it's just me, but there are a lot of times I feel woefully inadequate. It is encouraging to me to hear when the top educators in my field have felt (or still feel) this same way. That there is still hope for the average teacher. I think it starts with being more open about these things.
Does anyone else feel this way? I feel like a roundtable clinic hearing about the humble beginnings of the leaders in our profession can help provide perspective.
It seems you may want to define what you consider success and then pursue the answers from that standpoint. SEC’s comments are true, but he leaves out the fact there are many directors out there who have have become “successful “ after struggling early in their careers. Our profession is not really good at helping us understand “sucessful ” can be defined in a number of ways beyond, or outside UIL ratings. The inner city orchestra director who had tons of kids in her program and a huge parent following. The director who has spend years in a small school in the middle of no where with a program that we all may not know about, but for their area is competent.
Usually the question really revolves around what is your understanding of what we do. I believe the central point we should be focused on is music education. Teaching and encouraging kids to be the best they can be. And through that teaching we make kids life long music makers and music lovers.
UIL ratings are not the end all, but, taken in perspective we can use them to improve our teaching. UIL gives you a somewhat varied standard in which you can measure your teaching. If you are getting consistently poor ratings, you need to examine your teaching and your situation to see what can be improved. Also keep in mind, while what is done on the elementary is vitally important, when yo I step into a middle school, or hs band position, you also have the added factor that your district has has spent a great deal of money on the program for equipment and facilities. You have to factor everything together.
Factoring all the above together and other ideas you may have, what is your definition of “success”
I don't know if my path was "messy", but I'm certainly a fairly late bloomer. Worked four years as an assistant at a 2A, where I felt (as you put it), woefully inadequate. Had such a bad time with a terrible principal my second year I very nearly left the profession. So glad I stuck around (I outlasted him). I never took a band to UIL until my 5th year of teaching (then at a BBB Junior High - weird classification for sure). Generally got 3's (at least one 4) but this inner city school was where I really learned how to teach, and LOVED my kids. After four years there I moved to a rural school and have spent the past 21 years in the small classifications. Never got a sweepstakes until my 9th year of teaching, and have still gotten lots of 2's (and the occasional 3) with groups. Just how it goes. However, along the way I've also gotten 3 State Marching medals (one is gold), lots of sweepstakes, a couple of top 5 Honor Band finishes, and an OPS win, so I think I'm pretty "successful" if you look at it that way. (I think I'm pretty "successful" because I've carved out a nice career being around wonderful small town kids and hopefully making an impact on their lives in some way.) The longer you do this, the more you realize it ain't about the hardware or the ratings (but they are fun to get!) Best of luck to you - I wish you a long and happy music career!
There are tons of great people who are poor educators.
There are tons of great educators who are terrible people.
There are dozens of great educators that work in small towns and inner city schools that earn only one or two first divisions in their careers.
There are also dozens of great educators that earn multiple years of sweepstakes (and in some cases decades!) that don’t belong within a hundred yards of a child - for any number of reasons.
Being “successful” shouldn’t solely mean UIL success. IMO, that seems like a better first step. Stop tying our self worth and our worth in the profession to the number of trapezoids in our classrooms.
Perfect example: our elementary brothers and sisters work very very hard and get half the recognition a HS BD does - at best. But without that positive foundation none of that HSBD’s work is possible.
