In my 12 years at HHOTRMS I interviewed for three different jobs. The first was a .2 FTE job that I was seeking in addition to my .6 FTE job at HHOTRMS. I interviewed, but no offer came of it. The next was at Mid-County Junior High. I was looking to step up from my middle school job to one that included older and possibly more musically mature students. It was a leave replacement job which I am thankful I didn't get. The former band director who was on leave and was "never coming back" (everyone assured me), came back the next year. The third was at Next County Over High School. They were looking for a new band director, and I had just finished a very frustrating year at HHOTR. I interviewed, but no offer (nor even a rejection phone call) was forthcoming. (They eventually rejected me via a letter that didn't even acknowledge the fact that I had had an interview!).
12 years, 3 interviews, 0 offers. Fortunately I didn't really NEED any of those jobs as I already had my job at HHOTRMS.
This go around, I NEED a job. With the pink slip in hand from Dr. Jekyl at Anytown SD, the mortgage isn't getting paid unless I find something to keep myself busy next fall.
I mailed off applications for three different positions. One I knew I wanted, 2 that I wasn't so sure about. I was invited to interviews for one of the "not-so-sure-abouts" at Hot Cross Buns Elementary School as a general music teacher, and at the one I knew I wanted at Amazing Grace Academy as a band and choir director - right up my band-geek alley. The offer from HXB came in first (the very evening of the interview). Right away I started thinking about what I would do if I got both offers. If you'd asked me a week ago, I would have told you that I would take the AGA job, even if it paid less that the HXB job. But the more I started to think about the HXB offer, the less I was sure of AGA.
The AGA was a bit different from other education job interviews I had. Being a religious school, they jumped right into questions about my religious life. I stumbled through those questions, but really felt like I came to life when I started talking about music instead. After all of the religious stumbling, I wasn't sure whether I would be the preferred candidate or not. The head called me that evening with my second job offer in as many days. I was almost hoping that they would not extend an offer to save myself the trouble of making a choice.
After much consideration and soul searching, I ended up choosing the HXB elementary job. Of course, that makes the title of this blog a little strange. If I still call myself "King of the Band Geeks," I will be the king in exile. Will I return to reign again? I don't know. Perhaps the concert I conducted earlier this month really will be my last as a band director. Either way, I am very excited about this new opportunity to teach future band geeks to love music.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
The Last Day of School...Ever
Every year on the last day of school at HHOTRMS, the teachers line up next to the bus driveway and wave as the long line of buses drive away. There are always a dozen or so students who can been seen visibly weeping through the bus windows. I always thought it was at least a little funny that our students can seem to stand being at school all year long, but on the last day they are so sad to leave.
As you may imagine, the last day was a little ad for me knowing that I was going to be saying goodbye. As the final bell drew nearer I felt like I was trudging around the band room more and more morosely. I shed a few tears when the final bell rang and the students rushed out the door. I did not want to take part in the obligatory wave-good-bye-to-the-bus for fear of loosing it in front of the students and be like those students weeping behind the bus windows. In the end my fellow music teachers dragged me from the music office to see the kids off. I did manage to hold it together.
The rest of the day was a bit surreal. I packed up the last of the little things that had been hiding in the nooks and crannies of my desk drawers. I deleted those voice mail messages that had been sitting around for months. I cleared out my e-mail in box, contacts, outlook calendar and task-list. I even deleted every last document from my directory on the file server (after backing them all up on my laptop). While I was doing all these things, the custodian was moving in file-cabinets that belong to the band director that is taking over my job. While she holds other certification and could save my job by teaching in her other area, she's taking my job instead. Perhaps because she feels a tad guilty: she didn't show up in person to move into the office. I probably would have told her to get out anyway.
On the way out, I pried the plaque with name on it off the wall outside my classroom door, left the building, and watched as door slowly closed behind me.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Why I Hate My Union
First of all, while people always talk about the teachers' "Union" we are actually a "professional association" NOT a labor union. And although you'd never know it by the way some teacher's gripe about it, we are professionals and, if we expect to be treated that way, should ACT that way.
That being said:
In my first job as an amusement park ride operator and later as a "lead" ride operator I received performance reviews at least once a season. Although my job only consisted of pressing buttons on a roller coaster control panel, and later as lead, giving employees their lunch breaks at the correct time, my performance evaluation had a grading scale like this: Exemplary, Superior, Good, Fair, Satisfactory, Poor. I always received exemplary job reviews. Later one I moved to a different position at a desk in the same park and continued to receive exemplary performance reviews.
When I took my first teaching job, I was crushed when I got my first evaluation. My shock was not because I did not perform well enough, but because so little seemed to be expected of me. If a guy who doesn't even need a high school diploma can get "exemplary" for pushing a button when the light flashes, shouldn't a professional who has a college degree and a teaching certificate be expected to be evaluated as critically? My first evaluation came back with a "Satisfactory" rating checked at the top. "But you were extremely satisfactory," said my assistant principal. As I am sure is the case in many places the only options on the top of the form were "Satisfactory" and "Unsatisfactory." In my amusement part days, a satisfactory job review wouldn't have been very good at all, in my professional life its as good as it gets.
Why do we as professional expect so little of ourselves? Why do we aim for mediocrity and so often manage to hit the mark?
Because our union demands it! If we had "real" job reviews that differentiated the truly outstanding educator from the merely satisfactory educator my current situation might not exist. Perhaps they would see that my colleague, band director number 2, while she does have the appropriate certification to do my job, and she does have more years on the job than I do, just doesn't do the job as well as I do.
I student of mine sent me an e-mail recently after he heard that I was being let go. He wrote, "I hope you get a job close by and do so well that you make Anytown School District look stupid for letting you go!" I hope so too.
That being said:
In my first job as an amusement park ride operator and later as a "lead" ride operator I received performance reviews at least once a season. Although my job only consisted of pressing buttons on a roller coaster control panel, and later as lead, giving employees their lunch breaks at the correct time, my performance evaluation had a grading scale like this: Exemplary, Superior, Good, Fair, Satisfactory, Poor. I always received exemplary job reviews. Later one I moved to a different position at a desk in the same park and continued to receive exemplary performance reviews.
When I took my first teaching job, I was crushed when I got my first evaluation. My shock was not because I did not perform well enough, but because so little seemed to be expected of me. If a guy who doesn't even need a high school diploma can get "exemplary" for pushing a button when the light flashes, shouldn't a professional who has a college degree and a teaching certificate be expected to be evaluated as critically? My first evaluation came back with a "Satisfactory" rating checked at the top. "But you were extremely satisfactory," said my assistant principal. As I am sure is the case in many places the only options on the top of the form were "Satisfactory" and "Unsatisfactory." In my amusement part days, a satisfactory job review wouldn't have been very good at all, in my professional life its as good as it gets.
Why do we as professional expect so little of ourselves? Why do we aim for mediocrity and so often manage to hit the mark?
Because our union demands it! If we had "real" job reviews that differentiated the truly outstanding educator from the merely satisfactory educator my current situation might not exist. Perhaps they would see that my colleague, band director number 2, while she does have the appropriate certification to do my job, and she does have more years on the job than I do, just doesn't do the job as well as I do.
I student of mine sent me an e-mail recently after he heard that I was being let go. He wrote, "I hope you get a job close by and do so well that you make Anytown School District look stupid for letting you go!" I hope so too.
Publicity is ALWAYS a Good Thing
Shortly after I was told by my principal that the pink slip was imminent, a story ran in the paper about Anytown School District's budget woes that mentioned "one band director at HHOTRMS has already been let go." I sent an e-mail to the reporter asking why I hadn't been identified by name, after all there are only 2 band directors at our school (I guess 2 is a lot). His reply was that he wasn't sure if I would want my name in the paper identifying that I had lost my job, especially since he hadn't had an opportunity to talk to me yet.
"A lot of people at the meeting said some very nice things about you, I think there might be a story in this." the reporter replied in his e-mail. A few weeks later we sat down and had an interview in my living room about the whole situation and the story ran shortly thereafter.
Two days after the story ran, I ran into a friend of mine who had seen the story in the paper. "It wasn't very nice of them to print something like that in the paper," he said. "I sure wouldn't want the whole world to know about it if I had lost my job."
"I wanted it in the paper!" was my reply. I have over 1500 graduates of my middle school band program that now know about the situation and can join the parents of my current 200 kids to let Dr. Jekyl know what a horrible mistake she made by letter me go.
Since the story ran I have received job leads (one of which is very promising) from 3 different sources, none of which would have known about me if the story hadn't run.
In the mean time I'll keep chugging along looking for openings that fit what I do. If I can find another group of band geeks that will let me be their king, then great. Maybe life will take me elsewhere.
"A lot of people at the meeting said some very nice things about you, I think there might be a story in this." the reporter replied in his e-mail. A few weeks later we sat down and had an interview in my living room about the whole situation and the story ran shortly thereafter.
Two days after the story ran, I ran into a friend of mine who had seen the story in the paper. "It wasn't very nice of them to print something like that in the paper," he said. "I sure wouldn't want the whole world to know about it if I had lost my job."
"I wanted it in the paper!" was my reply. I have over 1500 graduates of my middle school band program that now know about the situation and can join the parents of my current 200 kids to let Dr. Jekyl know what a horrible mistake she made by letter me go.
Since the story ran I have received job leads (one of which is very promising) from 3 different sources, none of which would have known about me if the story hadn't run.
In the mean time I'll keep chugging along looking for openings that fit what I do. If I can find another group of band geeks that will let me be their king, then great. Maybe life will take me elsewhere.
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