Please don't go changing everything all at once. It's not going to work out for you.
You're listening to that music podcast with Bryson Tarbet, the curriculum designer and educational consultant behind that music teacher at the elementary music Summit. Each week, Bryson and his guests will dive into the reality of being an elementary music teacher, and how music can truly be transformative in the lives of the students you serve. Show Notes and resources mentioned in this episode can be found at that music teacher.com.
Welcome back to that music Podcast. Today we're going to be talking about kind of a touchy subject, especially when it comes to starting a new school, which is changing school traditions. I want to start by bringing a story from my own high school experience into it. Every year, the show choir would sing our song called fruitcake for Christmas. And the director clearly hated it. Because it was a it was a tradition that he inherited. I'll be honest, the song was kind of fun. But it will also not a great song. It was just one of those kinds of like trashy things you do. Because it's a holiday tradition. And I don't think it's done anymore. And honestly, I don't blame them. Because it didn't bring the director joy. And honestly, we there are already so many traditions out there, we you know, we can we can afford to let some go. So I want to talk a little bit today about how we can change school traditions, without getting an angry mob every time. And I want to start off by saying what I started the episode with is, do not, especially if it's your first year in a new position, do not go changing everything all at once. That is going to be the really big disconnect a really big shift. And that's going to cause a lot of tension. I'm not saying you can't make your program your own. But I think there's a line we need to follow because as music teachers we are whether we want to or not, we're kind of a pillar of the school, we are there for multiple grades, we are a constant in life of our students. And a lot of times the families as well, because they get to denote to understand what is you know, in third grade, we do this in fourth grade we do we do record us whatever that might be. So there's a few things that you can do to slowly make changes, but I would not recommend you doing any abrupt shifts. So one of the traditions that I changed my school. I talked a little bit about this in Episode 120 why I don't do Christmas concerts. But I inherited essentially a winter concert a Christmas concert. The schedule was already made for me. And it was it was I think it was built as a Christmas concert. My first year of teaching I did one of the I think was like an Alfred Nutcracker, little window can production and it was cool. But it really didn't bring me joy. But listen to one to one episode 120 I'll talk more about that what I learned from that experience is I did not have to find any joy in doing that kind of thing. And as I talked about in episode 120, there are a lot of different reasons why I don't think it's necessarily appropriate for me to put on a Christmas performance. But I also knew, if I came in my first or second year and just tried to change it, things were there was likely going to be some tension, especially you know, I know the district that I teach, and I know I you know, I mean, I know what I kind of know what to expect. And you will likely know the same thing in your your position, even if you've only been been there for a little bit, you can kind of get a little bit of a read. So what I did is I slowly made some shifts, and I'll be honest, COVID kind of not help. I'm not gonna give COVID any credit. But COVID definitely throw a wrench in and kind of made it easier for me to make a shift. But so my first year of teaching, I did the Nutcracker performance. The year after that I was really not I was like no, I really don't want to do a Christmas performance. So I did a winter performance. And we did essentially different carols and things like that from around the world. And we use that as a way to get a little bit into more diverse repertoire and make it a little bit more of acceptance and accepting the different cultures and different religious backgrounds and things like that. So after that second year where I did the you know, winter around the world COVID happens so we didn't have performance for a while. But then I was able to when when we were able to have things things back in person, you know, it took a while. That's when I started my folk dance night backup. So even before COVID I was already making a shift. I knew I knew that I wanted to make some sort of shift. I didn't know what that was going to be yet until I decided on the folk dance night. But I knew that the Christmas concert didn't sit right for me especially knowing the students that I teach and knowing what my you know what public education is and should be. But again, that's what episode 120 So I knew that I wanted to have that. So that is kind of i The my first step. If you're trying to change some school traditions, take baby steps don't change everything all at once. So if there's one tradition that you absolutely cannot stand, you can let it go. But I wouldn't recommend you let go of like, all the traditions all at once, especially if you're not replacing them with new traditions. And that's something that I'm doing right now, which is I'm replacing that tradition of having a Christmas concert with the third grade gets to do an interactive folk dance night. And to me, that is a really cool experience. I know not everyone's going to feel that way. But there are just a lot of reasons why I think that's more of an accessible and just better for everyone kind of experience. But it's another tradition, it's still something for them to look forward to. It's still someone from say, Oh, I remember in third grade when we did this, and that, or, you know, maybe someone comes back couple years later, and they haven't a younger sibling. And they're now learning things that they learned when they were in school, you know, different things like that, that I think, when you're especially if you're going into remove traditions, see if you can replace them with ones that do bring you joy, and that you kind of fit more with your educational philosophy. Another tip is to get all your main stakeholders on board, I'm really thankful that my principals have been really kind of understanding that let me run my program, which is great and don't kind of don't view my performances as, like an event that this that the school is putting on, it's an event that I'm putting on as part of the school. So I have a lot, I have all the creative control, which I love and you know, little tangent, that's how it should be. I'm just gonna say that there. But you, you, I want you to be really transparent with your administrators and be like, Hey, I'm trying something new. That's exactly what I did with this folk dance night. I went into my principal's office, and I said, Hey, I'm trying something new. I think it's gonna be really cool. I kind of walked her through it, I'm like, do you think this is something that the community will be on board with? And she's like, Yeah, let's give it a try. So thankfully, I haven't really supportive admin. So I really think it's important for you to get your stakeholders get get them on board. And then also just make your expectations clear. So in any sort of communication on the phone last night, once it had shifted from a concert to a folk dance night, I was very clear that this was an active interactive event that students should be wearing tennis shoes, and parents and grownups and families are we're going to be invited to join us. I want everyone to know what they're getting into, especially when it's something new. One last thing I want you to leave I want to leave you with is when you're thinking of changing a tradition, start by asking yourself why? Why is this something that I want to change? Why is this something that doesn't sit right with me? Is it because it was the other the you know, the former teacher that created it, or that started it? Or, you know, do you have a an educational or social emotional learning or some sort of reason behind why you are opposed to continuing it. And I'm not saying one is better than the other. But I think that it's important for us to realize that we are a part of the bigger picture picture. So sometimes we need to, for lack of better words, suck it up, and give students and experience but also understanding that we are the educational professionals, we are the experts in the music field, we have that content specific pedagogical content knowledge. But just I think it's a good it's good for us to start by just taking a step back and, and really kind of observing where we're coming from. And really take note on how we're feeling and why we're feeling that way. So if I leave you with nothing else on this episode is to try to take baby steps. You can make your program your program, but it will not happen overnight. If you try to make it happen overnight, it's just going to be a lot of chaos. And whatever you're doing, always keep it student centered. Why are we changing this? Why are we doing this? Because that's what's best for the students. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. If you enjoyed the episode, it would mean the world to us. If you were to leave us a five star review wherever you're listening. It really helps us understand what we want more of in the podcast, how we can improve it and how we can really make it more honed to exactly what you are looking for. As the elementary music teacher in your classroom. We put out an episode every Wednesday, so be sure to hit the subscribe button or the Follow button wherever you're listening so that you get new episodes delivered to your phone right? Every week on Wednesday, when we release something new. If you haven't already joined us inside that music teacher community. I would love to invite you to join us inside our content specific professional development learning community, that music teacher community. Each month, you'll get an a masterclass that allows you to dive deeper into a topic relating to elementary music, a template pack to help you take that master class concepts and actually apply it into your classrooms, as well as other bonuses throughout the week and the month where we're able to sprinkle some other things in there as well. On top of that, you also get a community of like minded music educators that understand where you're coming from. So you can actually get off of music teacher Island and be surrounded by other people who understand what it means To be an elementary music teacher with that being said thank you so much for listening today and if nobody has told you today thank you so much for making an impact in the lives of the students that you teach and thank you so much for spreading the love of music
