What makes a school year successful? How do you know you’re a good teacher? Can we just talk about this for a minute?
It’s the end of the school year and the last few weeks have been a rollercoaster of emotions for me. I’ve thought a lot about what it means to be successful. In our profession, it’s easy to see how you’ve failed. Your numbers aren’t high enough. Your students are dropping out. Your groups didn’t score well enough at festival. Nothing is ever good enough. It’s a lot harder to see how you’ve succeeded, and it can be hard to accept those successes. Even when you “make it,” you can never relax. High recruitment numbers this year doesn’t mean you will have high numbers next year. Just because your group performed well at State this year doesn’t mean they will next year. Were your successes really you, or was it just a fluke?
I struggle with these feelings of inadequacy every year. Sometimes I wish there was some tangible way to measure my success, someone to give me a grade, so to speak. Because I don’t have that, I went to my students and asked them if they felt like we had a successful year and what success looks like.
Overwhelmingly they said yes, this year has been successful. Their measure of success was that they improved as individual players and as a group and that they built good relationships with each other. Some of them mentioned they were sad we didn’t do better at festival or they wished other students practiced more, but those comments were few and far between.
Students just want to feel like they’re good at something and they belong somewhere. That’s what success looks like for them.
When I asked what success looks like, I had one student immediately look up the dictionary definition. (Smart aleck. But also I love dictionaries, so okay.) “Success: accomplishment of an aim or goal.” Reading that definition made me realize that maybe I don’t feel like a success because I don’t really know what my goals are as a teacher, or if I do, maybe I’m not prioritizing the right ones.
I have so many aims and goals for myself and my students. I want my students to love music and understand and talk about it in a deeper way than just like or dislike. I want them to play their instruments well. I want to have enough students to keep my job. I want students to know how to build habits and use practice strategies, and I hope they learn how to apply those skills outside of my class. I want them to feel loved and part of something bigger than themselves. I want my groups to get superior ratings at festival. I want to collaborate with other teachers in my department. I want to feel confident that I’m a good teacher and I’m making a difference.
I’ve spent far too much time lately focusing on the easiest things to measure, like how many students I have in my classes and what scores we get at festival, which ironically are the things I can control the least. I’ve felt like a failure with no hope of improving.
This week I listened to a podcast about self-doubt and how to get past it. They recommended keeping a journal of successes on a regular basis, so here I go. After finishing up this school year, here’s my journal of what went well this year.
- We did more performances than we have in years, and we were well-prepared and well-received for all of them.
- I had students improve pretty drastically over the course of the year. Some students came in not knowing how to read rhythms, shift, or play in different key signatures and now they can. I even had some beginners who started knowing nothing and by the end of the year, they were playing along with third and fourth year players.
- My students loved the music we played. It was just the right amount of challenging, beautiful, exciting, and fun.
- We collaborated with all of the other performing arts. We combined with the band for some symphonic pieces, filmed a music video with the ballroom team, accompanied the choir, and even wrote and played incidental music for the drama class skits.
- Our annual tour this year went so well. Everything went smoothly, the students had some amazing experiences, and we won some trophies.
- My students have learned how to practice effectively and have tons of practice strategies to use when they encounter a problem.
- My students get along and enjoy each others’ company. Even the most socially awkward kids have found a place where they belong and are appreciated, some of them for the first time in their lives.
- I had more students audition for next year than I have ever had at this school, and more students are taking private lessons than I think I’ve ever had.
- I love my students and they know it. We’ve built some great relationships and I’m going to miss them so much.
Those aren’t all things I can measure, but that doesn’t make them any less important. Are there things I hope to change for next year? Absolutely. I’m going to clarify my goals and priorities for myself and focus on the things that matter the most. In the end, my students got it right. If I can help them be good at something and help them feel loved, then I’ve been successful.
It’s been a great year. I’m ready for summer.