Teaching is an influential career; students are still developing who they are and what they want out of life.  As a teacher, both consciously and unconsciously, we can influence the direction each student’s mind takes them.  We’ve all had those teachers that make us detest a certain subject or teaching method; we’ve also had the teachers who not only give us a desire to learn, but also help us look at life from a different perspective, enriching our lives and forever changing us.  This is my goal as a music educator.  Both in and out of the musical realm of knowledge that I provide to my students, I look to help them grow as a person and leave school to enter the world as someone they can be proud of.

       I grew up in Hays, Kansas, a larger town in the middle of the wide open prairies of western Kansas.  With a population of 20,000 and a Division II college campus, all the people in towns surrounding Hays find it to be a bustling metropolis.  It is big enough to have a Walmart and a mall, but small enough that I knew everyone I went to school with (graduating classes were between 150 and 250 kids, around 800 students in the high school.)  Hays is a 5A school, meaning there were plenty of opportunities for me to be involved as more than just a student in a classroom.  The population of the school was about 10% Hispanic, 85% white, and 5% other.  Since Hays has a lot of people coming from the rural farm areas around it, the student population is a pleasant mix of townies and country kids.  I was one of those that traveled 20 minutes from a farm homestead into town to go to school.  I lived with my mom and dad, and up until high school, my older brother, who attended K-State throughout my high school years.

       Hays High School’s band director is well known throughout the state.  Mr. Craig Manteuffel is currently the president of KMEA, and without a doubt one of the most influential people in my decision to become a teacher.  I couldn’t imagine how a teacher could be capable of touching the hearts of so many students; it seemed that everyone loved him.   The band room was constantly full of students just stopping in to say hi, spending their free time socializing with the friendly band director.  Even students who had never been in band knew Mr. Manteuffel and would feel at ease walking into his room in the mornings or after school just to hang out.  There were many other non-music teachers that I came to be just as close with, and came to realize that there is a special trait about a good teacher – an interest in students, in life, and in love.  It was at that point that I realized the special importance of teaching that may seem hidden to others.  But why music?  That decision came along with a mix of influence from Mr. Manteuffel and one of my lessons instructors, Alex Toepfer.  Alex was an undergraduate music student at Fort Hays State University while I was in high school.  He had a passion for music that was contagious; you couldn’t spend a lesson with him without appreciating everything about music.  It was that fire of passion for music that he instilled in me that I began to desire to spread to the world, or at least a musical classroom and the many students that would enter it.

       My most heart-changing experiences for me came both in the band and choral fields.  While I chose band as my musical emphasis in college, I must say that my passion resides in both.  I sang in two different national honor choirs in high school, one through the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod National Gathering and one at ACDA national conference

.  Ultimately, my decision to pursue instrumental music came down to the influence of High Plains Band Camp at Fort Hays State University.  The first year I attended was the summer  2008, between my junior and senior year, and it changed my life forever.  It was one of the most amazing weeks of my entire life.  I was in the honor band that year and Mr. David Holsinger was conducting.  He, just like the music teachers mentioned before, had that fire of passion.  The concert with him struck a chord in me, and from then on, I knew that band was my calling; it was just a matter of where to take it.

       Now that I’m at Kansas State University, it is time to begin looking ahead at what I want out of my future to prepare me for after graduation.  As a first year teacher, I can only imagine the nerves I will have stepping onto that podium the first time in front of kids that don’t know me, my background, my teaching style, or my philosophy.  They won’t understand yet why I’m there, what drove me to be there, or what impact the next year could have on their lives as well as mine.  However, I feel that I will have confidence, as I will have been educated, trained, and given all the resources needed to succeed, it will simply be my job to put them to use.  Of course, I am not prepared yet.  Although I would be excited to be directing a band tomorrow, the tools to succeed would not be adequately placed.  I would be going off my prior experiences to try and produce some sense of classroom management, to conduct a class, and to be able to connect with the students.  I believe some of my best preparatory classes will come from my education classes and the hands-on training through the opportunities provided at KSU.  After my time here, it will simply be a matter of going out and connecting with the students.  After all, music is personal, it is emotion, and ultimately, that connection is more important than the techniques taught in a classroom.