180 DAYS, BUT SO LITTLE TIME

Well, it has finally come, the new school year. Summer vacation is now behind us and we have some 180 days of instruction ahead of us...or is there…

In the world of music education, when we begin to breakdown how much time we receive with our students, we realize that it is not that much. When you work in an elementary school you have to teach your whole curriculum in 38 hours or less. WOW! That is only a day and a half. Once you get into middle and high school, the times become a little better. Most have 180 hours or less. That breaks down into seven and a half days. Not much time to prepare all of the music for all of your concerts and also teach theory to the students. However, despite the lack of time with our singers, we always find a way and somehow manage to get all the work done.

On top of the time crunch we are all dealing with budget cuts. Last year our state went through a great deal of pain as we watched teachers lose their jobs and programs being cut. But did you know that we were not alone? Did you know that over in England, music teachers were facing the same challenges and frustrations? The battles that we were waging are the same battles being waged all over the world. But because of your perseverance, music was saved in many of our school systems.

This summer Chorus America added a new resource to their arsenal of Arts Advocacy materials and I would like to share that with you. Below you will find the link.

http://www.chorusamerica.org/choiradvocacyguide/free/

I also am proud to announce the return of the ICC’s INNOVATIONS program. This is a program that is free to all area schools. Please visit the ICC webpage and look under FOR TEACHERS for more information.

Here is to a great year of work, done in only a few hours!!