What is a small (or even silly) thing that drives you crazy about being a band director?

In our recent survey, we asked Band Directors Talk Shop readers, “What is a small (or even silly) thing that drives you crazy about being a band director?”  With hundreds of responses to the survey, we came up with this categorized list of your answers of why you LOVE your job of being a band director! Thanks so much to all of our readers who took time to fill out the survey. Keep an eye out for more Readers’ Collaborative Posts in the future!

Questions

• “I left my instrument in my classroom, can I go get it?”
• “Do we have to get our instruments out today?”
• “Are we playing today?”
• “Can you play all of the instruments?”
• “Can I use the restroom?”
• Questions that are covered in handouts and emails.
• Answering the same question over and over.
• People who ask if I have ever taught a class!
• “How do you listen to that all day?”

Struggles in the Classroom

• Gum.
• F vs. F# in beginner sax players B vs Bb in beginner trumpets.
• Students who play when I am talking
• Lost music.
• Cell phone addiction.
• Forgetting the mouthpiece puller in my office when I KNOW I’m gonna need it.
• Talking
• Repeating instructions.
• Picking up stands
• Kids not bringing a pencil or their books/music.
• Music left on the stand or floor at the end of class.
• Inattention.
• Kids spending more energy making excuses than making music.
• Managing three different classrooms in three different buildings and all the STUFF in them and what building it’s in at any given time.
• Not being able to get a sub who can teach my class.

Instruments

• Over-blowing! I call them Saxophone and Clarinet bombs! Why must we play the loudest possible sound?
• High school students still playing on cheap 2.5 reeds.
• Kids who try to play with shredded reeds.
• Broken instruments at the most inopportune time.
• Flipping sticks.
• Pencils and percussion equipment everywhere!!
• Stuck mouthpieces, especially when I just told you to stop popping it into your trumpet.
• Keeping up instrument repair on the school instruments.
• Students who don’t put a name tag on their instrument.

Parents & Administration

• Other teachers’ perception of what I do.
• Parents who think they know what’s best for my band.
• Administration not understanding that interrupting your class stops every single student from learning.
• Dealing with unreasonable parents or sometimes unreasonable administrators.
• Hall duty between class. I can see what’s going on the hall, but not my band hall.
• Parents surprised about band events and performances even after papers have been sent home with the students, an online schedule is available, and periodic parent meetings.
• How many administrators don’t know about music education.
• Lack of parent engagement with their children.
• Parents who tell their children that band is for nerds.
• Navigating the politics of public schools.
• Being constantly looked at as an inferior subject by grade level teachers.
• Professional development that is not compatible with a performing ensemble class but insisting that we use and conform to whatever format/thing they’ve decided on.

Other

• Spending 80 hours a week at school.
• Loss of rehearsal time for testing.
• Early morning classes outside the timetable every day of the school year
• Filing music at the end of the year
• Finances
• Paperwork, i.e. facility requests, bus requests, fundraising preparation.
• Grease and oil stains on my clothes after a repair.
• Honestly, marching band.
• Kids getting picked up LATE
• Instrument Inventory and Marching Band uniforms.  Enough said.
• When people pronounce the z’s in Mozart and mezzo like English z’s. I make a big deal out of pronouncing them like “pizza” with my students!
• Trying to figure out the balance with sports programs.
• Organization of my library!
• The time away from my family outside of school hours.

Related Reading:
I Love Being a Band Director Because…
The Most Important Thing I Learned as a Music Education Student (from 70+ Band Directors)
Tips for Recruitment and Retention in Band

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