Another BIG 101 update

Career #5, Make difference in one student's life
this is going to be a long one...

So, I'm a teacher. More specifically a band director. I teach little 6th grades how to read and play music on a new musical instrument. Of which most of them have never played before. Then throughout 7-8th grade we get to mold them into better players to move on to high school.

When I was in 6th grade I had a WONDERFUL band director, who is THE reason I am a band director today. So, naturally, I wanted to be just like her. I mean we even played the same instrument, and are both "vertically" challenged (her more so than I). She was an amazingly strong, independent, and immensely successful woman. Unfortunately, she passed away this last October before I really got a chance to pick her brain about our wonderful career. :(

Now a little background about the kiddos. When you're in 8th grade at my school you have the option to take this class called Career Connections. Most of the 8th grade band kids take it because they don't really want to do athletics. The kids learn about different career options and towards the end of the semester they get to go on a field trip to "test out" a career. For instance, if you wanted to be a vet you might get to go to a local veterinary office, etc, etc. Well we had about 3 kids that went to the high school to be with the head band director for a day. Pretty cool, we thought.

Moving on. I had sectionals (after school tutorials) with my French Horns (the instrument I play) that afternoon. All three of the 8th graders, which happen to be my very first class of 6th graders, are in this Career Connections class. I was asking them how they enjoyed their field trip and I had made a comment about how cool it was that we had a few kids from our program that wanted to be band directors. ALL THREE of them said " that was my first pick too, but I didn't get it" ALL THREE OF THEM! I said how disappointed I was that they didn't get to go as well, but explained that not everyone can go to the same place. Then one girl pipes up and says "yeah, I want to be a band director and teach French Horn, just like you!" Then the other two say "Yeah! ME TOO!" It was SO CUTE! I couldn't believe that my very first class of 6th graders ALL wanted to be band directors. It really touched my heart and made my year!

I never thought that I would really know if I meant something to a child. I definitely didn't think I would find out within 3 years. I thought maybe later in life I'll see a previous student at a music conference and they'll tell me how much they enjoyed my class. But it was really neat to see that, even in my first 3 years.