SHINE

A once-in-a-lifetime learning experience to join renowned conductor and composer Francisco J. Núñez and the Young People’s Chorus of New York City for YPC National Studio and Lab in residence at Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, CA.

Bay Section Update

Sandra Lewis Bay Section President

Greetings From Bay Section!

Capitol Section Update

Patrick Neff

Capitol Section President

For our Spring issue, I had the opportunity to speak with Samuel Elmore, a new music educator in our section and recent graduate from Sacramento State’s music education and credentialing program. He is a colleague in my district, and I was excited to speak with him after seeing the great work he has done already. Here is our conversation:

Please tell us about yourself.

I come from a large family of musicians and while it was always clear that it was not being pressured on us kids, 4 of my 5 siblings are musicians. It was pretty cool growing up in a family of musicians, and it is even cooler to be one of three “Mr. Elmores” who are teaching music in Northern California. I started playing trumpet at Joseph Kerr Middle School with Nancy Kreis in 7th and 8th grade, and I continued into Elk Grove High School with Mario Sebastian. After high school, my life departed onto a different route, but I continued my playing through the Sac State Marching band for 3 years and the Sacramento Mandarins Drum and Bugle Corps for four years. By the end of my fourth year of college, I came back to music at CSU Sacramento and graduated there with my Bachelor of Music Education and my Single-Subject Teaching Credential.

Please tell us about your current position.

Before my credential, I made my living teaching after-school marching band and elementary school music programs, and I am now the band director at Oakmont High School in Roseville, CA. I teach Marching Band, Symphonic Band, and four sections of Guitar. I will also be returning to Casper, Wyoming, for my third season as a trumpet instructor for the Casper Troopers Drum and Bugle Corps.

What have been the best aspects of your first year of teaching?

If I could sum up this job with the best aspects, I would say that it is the relationship building and the observation of student growth. Watching my students grow from just the start of the year to now has been truly humbling. Musical growth is my hope and expectation for these students, but watching their social development, development as leaders, and their confidence increase has been incredibly rewarding. Music directors are in a very privileged position to get to understand their students on possibly a deeper level than other subjects. Coming into this job, I really thought that building relationships were meant for building trust when it comes to musical direction and having a “place” on campus, but this year I have realized that it is also about developing a culture where students feel comfortable sharing even the most challenging or traumatizing parts of their life, past or current. It is about building a band that the students are comfortable showing their director and their peers themselves at their happiest, their saddest, and their angriest, their weakest, and their strongest. It is a culture of vulnerability, trust, and confidence that we are trying to build that allows us to have difficult conversations and teach difficult lessons. It gives students a safe space to come to us with information that they know needs to be reported, but they do it anyway because they trust that we will walk them through what is best for them. I could elaborate on this in much greater detail, but the bottom line is that the best aspect of teaching music so far is that the relationships we are building and the growth we are nourishing will always come first to the music, and that has taught me a great deal of humility and understanding that I might not have considered a few years ago.

What are some challenges, and how have you approached them?

What I mentioned above is a challenge at times. Students have come to me with very difficult situations that sometimes resonate with me deeper than just wanting what is best and that can be challenging, but I would like to believe that it is most of our nature to toggle certain parts of our emotional response to ensure the safety and well-being of our students. I have approached these situations with a clear sense of priority for my students. One instance had me calling a sub for a half day just to be with a student and walk them over to our wellness center and have a difficult conversation with their counselor, parents, social workers, police, and other entities that are very scary for a child. When they pick you, it can be tempting for some to prioritize the lesson and the classroom. I think we are in a world right now where if they pick you, then you have a unique opportunity to be their champion and their role model in a way that goes far beyond the realm of music. It is my belief that this should be your immediate priority. None of the successes that I have mentioned are to praise me or to claim that I have a precise handle on teaching because I absolutely do not, but what I have learned is that these are very real parts of the job that are challenging and require us to think, often with precedence over our lesson plan. This challenge of the job goes hand-in-hand with what I think are the best aspects, which is why I have put so much urgency into this part of the job. I have had PLENTY of other challenges, but I wanted to highlight this one because these are not situations that we can perfectly plan for and oftentimes do not necessarily think about until they are happening.

How was your experience at CASMEC as a first-year teacher?

I want to talk about my CASMEC experience before and after I started teaching, because it highlights my experience this year. My first year attending CASMEC was before I had received my credential and while it was full of good information, it was honestly a bit overwhelming at times. Before teaching, our credential program and our student teaching gives us a lot of preemptive knowledge that we know we will eventually need to know, but we do not know exactly when or how we will use it. Going to CASMEC that first year felt like just more information that I was going to love and appreciate and clap for and then hope and pray I remember it for when I become a teacher. Moving forward to this year, everything was viewed in a different lens. I could select lessons and seminars based on what I was needing in my classroom. I could create a focus for the day and extract information that pertained to my situations at school and a lot of it was information that I could use on my very first day back, which was invaluable. I think that it is still important to attend a convention prior to receiving your credential and begin networking and informing yourself on parts of the job. I will say also that this year was more focused and impactful for me now that I can readily utilize the information presented.

What advice do you have for music educators entering the field?

For new educators coming into the field, first and foremost would be to remember that the students come before the music, as I mentioned before. Apart from that, I would say figure out your identity as a teacher and go with that. Do not try to be your cooperating teacher or your middle school band director or your private instructor. Take what you can from all those people and apply it to your own identity. Not only is it unsustainable to be someone that you are not for 30+ years, it will burn you out and it will take a long time for you to feel comfortable in your classroom. I will also say that you should not ever feel like you are too young or inexperienced to advocate for your program. This does not mean you should go challenge your administration, but it does mean that you are the expert and you should set a precedent wherever you are that you are going to be someone that cares and advocates for your program. The students see that, the parents see that, and your site will see that and move forward with that understanding of you. Do not bite off more than you can chew, but definitely recognize that depending on your site, you may have to champion your program more than other directors. I would also say that it is important during these conversations that just because you do not feel supported does not mean you need to approach each entity as unsupportive. This can cause a lot of discord and strife and unwillingness to work with you in the future. Instead, it is our job to educate our school and our district how we need to be supported and what that means for our unique situation. Proposition 28 is going to be great for so many programs, and maybe you find yourself in a program where financial support is not really an issue. Support might also mean asking your administration to come to shows and competitions to see what your students do and show them the value of your program and the investment it is having with these kids. Figure out what you need early on and start advocating and working WITH your administration to make it happen.

Is there anything else you would like to share?

I would just like to thank CMEA for this platform to share a little bit about my first year and I hope that it can be helpful to other directors out there! We all need to learn from each other and whether we are a first year or a 35th year teacher, we all have something fresh to offer. I am glad that I have the opportunity to share my own perspective and ideas with the community and I wish everybody luck and skill as they close the last few months of the school year!

Central Section Update

Michael Tackett Central Section President

Throughout March and some of April and May, the Central Section is always busy with hosting festivals. This year was no different! We had seventeen large ensemble festivals and three solo and ensemble festivals. The large ensemble festival registration numbers exceeded expectations. We were thrilled to have so many schools involved. For the first time, all festival sites offered a sight reading portion.

The Central Section Board starts the process and makes certain logistical decisions about the festivals, but the real heroes are the site hosts and our festival coordinator. Each site host spends countless hours preparing and running their festival. We are honored to have such dedicated and talented teachers who offer their time and resources to make these festivals a great experience for the students. I would like to give a huge shoutout to the following hosts for their dedication to our festivals.

Clarke Keele – Porterville HS

Mike Schofield - Kingsburg HS

Daniel Paulsen - Reedley HS

Brad Pickett - Independence HS

Ben Horton – Actis MS

Geoffrey Ruud - Stockdale HS

Amanda Sproul – Stockdale HS

Robert Madrid - Washington Union HS

Amanda Isaac - Bakersfield HS

Josh Sutherland - Porterville HS

Donna Steigleder – Summit Collegiate HS

Jennifer McGill - Hanford HS

Randy Berger – Retired, Bullard Talent

Carly Ervin - Sierra HS

Tony Mowrer - Fresno State

Regina Montano - East Bakersfield HS

Scott Dirkse – Bakersfield College

Lisa Fritz – Sequoia Youth Symphony

Mario Capote - Tulare Union HS

Beverly Moorhead - Fresno HS

Wendy Shrestha – Sunnyside HS

Chris Morshead – Liberty MS

Rob Bentley – Liberty MS

Elisha Wells – Fresno City College

Hannah Lambert – Ridgeview MS

Serving your local or state music association is vital for organizations to survive and be successful. If you have the desire to help in any way, please do not hesitate to contact someone affiliated with the Central Section. We would love to work with you in any capacity you feel fit. We are blessed to have hard working, loving and caring educators in the Central Valley. Get involved, meet new people, and serve. You will not regret it!