Read my entire post before you decide to flame me.

As many of you know, in addition to various other conducting duties around the Tampa Bay region, I am a choral/orchestral conductor for one of the most unique and recognized arts magnet high schools in the United States. But that really means that I'm a teacher for a public school.

This school year I decided to keep track of the hours that I spent outside of my contracted 40 hours per week. These hours represent rehearsals, competitions, concerts, outside smaller performances, and does NOT include extra time grading papers, returning phone calls and emails, and dealing with personnel issues (of which there were MANY this year). It totaled over 532 hours, most of which was spent on my own campus.

532 hours, all for free.

And all I got was a 6-page handwritten thank you note.

This thank you note was from a young lady who graduated this past weekend. She told me some things about her personal life that I didn't know after having her as a student for four years. In a nutshell, she had always feared males of my age because of an abusive older male in her life, and she thanked me for being the father that she never knew she could have.

This wasn't my only accolade this year, as I receive many letters like this from students each year (all of which I keep).

And this makes the 532+ hours since August worth every second. Please know that I am NOT complaining about all of the extra time (which my thread title would lead you to believe), nor am I posting this to try to elicit a bunch of "thank you for doing what you do" posts from fellow members.

There are many teachers (especially in the unions) that constantly complain about how they are underpaid, not respected, not valued, and under appreciated.

If you are in the teaching profession to be highly paid and worshipped by the public for all of the countless hours that you work beyond your contract, you are in the WRONG FIELD. I freely gave my time to my students this year, like I do every year. This took time away from my family and my own free time. It's an expectation of my job, and I care enough to put the time in for my students.

This is how you make a difference in the lives of young people. If you choose to be in the teaching profession and you want to do it well, you are committing to many hours for which you will not be paid. And that's ok.

But do NOT complain about how overworked, stressed, underpaid, and unappreciated you are. If that's your motivation and you wear the "poor, starving teacher" hat all day, choose another career. We do this for the kids, and shouldn't have any expectation except for the satisfaction that we made a difference.

Thanks for hearing me out.

Good job for what you did, and for understanding why.

Seems to me you were paid in full. Good teachers make life long impressions on their students, I think sometimes a lot of checked out teachers forget that.

There are too many in the profession that needed to change careers years ago.

Well said. I long ago lost track of the time I spent teaching EMT & various rescue classes in addition to precepting EMT's, Paramedics, and Nurses. I've always been happy to pass on knowledge as well as tips & tricks I've picked up through the years - in the hope that others will continue to share long after I'm gone.

quote:

Originally posted by FenderBender:
Seems to me you were paid in full. Good teachers make life long impressions on their students, I think sometimes a lot of checked out teachers forget that.

This for sure.

Maestro, you sound like my high school band teacher, which is to say, awesome!

My most favorite high school memories often started or ended with my band class. Our teacher was the most amazing person. I still haven't figured out how he took 95 indifferent students from a very large, cliquey suburban Minneapolis high school and, over the course of three years, turned them into friends.

I can't imagine the amount of his own time he spent working with the various special ensembles, trips (we all went to a huge music festival in Toronto as one example), and the school's pep and marching bands. I don't ever once remember him seeming like he didn't want to be there or was just going through the motions.

This particular teacher made a huge, lasting impression on my life. Not only did he teach me to love music, but more so than any other teacher I had, he taught us how to be good people. Almost 20 years after graduation, I still can't thank him enough for the amazing job he did with all of us.

TL;DR - Gong Show's high school band teacher was the shit. Maestro, I imagine you have plenty if former students who would tell you the same thing.

Thanks for the teaching work you do. Good music teachers who care are a gift.

Sorry you didn't get paid for all of your time. 500+ free hours a year is no small thing.

quote:

Originally posted by Maestro:
. . .This thank you note was from a young lady who graduated this past weekend. She told me some things about her personal life that I didn't know after having her as a student for four years. In a nutshell, she had always feared males of my age because of an abusive older male in her life, and she thanked me for being the father that she never knew she could have. . .

You're damned right that letter is worth every second of 532 hours; would be worth 1,000 hours or more.

God bless you, Maestro! Keep up the good work!

Well Done, Maestro.

Without the Arts, would life be worth living?

Looking back, I can not remember one teacher in High School who did not earn his / her pay, and more. "Doc" Randall, music, stands out. But they were all good. The science and math teachers presented clearly, they knew their subject matter and they knew how to teach it.

English teachers that we had taught us how to express ourselves coherently and left me with a love for reading.

History, geography, related classes taught us to ask questions, probe, challenge, and discuss.

I was fortunate to be in a good public school system. That, of course, was 65 years ago. Judging from what I see in young people today, it's not the same.

You are a maestro maestro, Maestro.

Maestro, my son is the music director for a HS in Mn. He has said similar things to what you are saying.
The only notice he has received, beyond students graduating and thanking him was last fall. A new 'minion' of the superintendent noticed a social media post about an issue, which she misinterpreted, and arranged a meeting with the superintendent! He had the presence to contact their union rep, who is another teacher there, and they both attended the meeting. Seems the Supt. was planning on giving him his notice, without contacting the principal, or any of the other students or parents, and following procedures in place. By the time the issue was straightened out, including a phone call from the union attorney, my son was exonerated and the new 'minion' was put on notice. He did learn an important lesson, in this day and age social media is a very sharp sword that can cut you no matter what you thought you were saying!

i was in high school when they had the first teacher's strike. It divided the teachers. I remember my math teacher, she went and continued her classes. I forget her name but it started with B.

On the first day, she explained she signed up to teach and that was what she was going to do.

My wife has some teacher friends. It does take something special to be a teacher in highschool and below - the desire to influence a child positively.

Thank you sir. I wanted to teach, but it did not work out. I have no regrets as I had a great career. I did get to teach adult ed for 3 semesters. I got $500 per semester, which was about $10 per hour. My wife taught for 32 years and I saw all of the time and all of her money that was used for supplies the district did not buy.

Cheers, Maestro!

Nice to be appreciated!

I would bet there were/are others who feel similarly, but just aren't writers.

Nice work!

quote:

Originally posted by Maestro:
But do NOT complain about how overworked, stressed, underpaid, and unappreciated you are. If that's your motivation and you wear the "poor, starving teacher" hat all day, choose another career.

No flame from me.

Every single teacher knew this going in (if they didn't, then they are too stupid to be teaching our children) and yet they chose the career anyway.

Suck it up buttercup. If you don't like it then do something else for a living.

In our kids' high school, it was the music teacher, who organized orchestra, band, non-auditioned choir, auditioned madrigal singers, jazz band, and jazz choir.
There was a huge turnout at the 25th anniversary of the madrigal singers, due to the long-standing and major effect this one teacher had in the lives of his students.
When he retired, one of the most talented musicians, a cellist, talked about how Mr. Brunell used the full scores and not the "kids" scores.
For all of them, he set very high standards and the kids tried to live up to them, to make him proud of them.
His non-auditioned choirs routinely did very well in CA state competition with other auditioned choirs; and his auditioned groups were at the top.

Just another example of how one teacher can raise the level of education in a community for a generation.

For both our son and daughter, being in the Madrigal Singers had lifelong benefits, and our daughter's friend in "Mads" remain among her best lifelong friends.

I feel bad for you. The band teacher at the high school I work at gets a stipend of $11K for the concerts and marching band duties he has to do. It is very time consuming.