I believe teaching is the greatest profession in the world.

I believe teachers can be real only if they look upon their life as a service and have a definite objective in life outside themselves and their personal happiness.

I also believe that if a teacher is not enjoying their work, they should either change their attitude or change their profession. Since a profession change is probably the less desirable alternative, then changes in attitude, knowledge and skills could be just what the doctor ordered for a person to become the quality of teacher he or she started out to be. TBA has a Professional Development program designed to continue presenting new and successful teaching methods as well as new materials to its members throughout each year. Take advantage of those programs and gain teaching knowledge of your profession.

This message is about you, the band director, accepting the opportunities and challenges presented to you to assist and lead your students to becoming the best citizens they can be while learning to be the best musicians they can be. Through the years, it has been my experience that the happiest teacher does not necessarily have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything they have. If you really want to be a success as a teacher you will find a way. In the most general sense, success may be defined by the quality of the life you lead and the model you set for others.

I want to give to you a few of my thoughts about teaching that I wish you might consider:

• Prepare well thought-out lesson plans and be clear in your own mind what you are going to teach your students on any given day. Know your lesson so well that you can respond to your students every question, comment and need.
• Be persistent. If your students do not learn what you are trying to teach them the first time, present it to them again in another way the next day - and the next day - and the next day.
• Try to put yourself in your students shoes (so to speak) with their needs to learn. Many students learn at different speeds. Be diligent, but be kind with your demands for their musical performance.
• History books are full of stories of gifted persons whose talents were overlooked by a procession of people until someone believed in them! A few examples:
  1. Albert Einstein was four years old before he could speak and seven before he could read.
  2. Isaac Newton did poorly in grade school.
  3. A newspaper editor fired Walt Disney because he had no good ideas.
  4. Haydn gave up on making a musician of Beethoven who seemed a slow and plodding man with no apparent talent.

The lesson here is: Different people develop at different rates and the best motivators are always on the lookout for hidden capacities to learn.

Hold fast the time! Guard it, watch over it, every hour, every minute! Unguarded, it will slip away. Hold every moment sacred. Give each one clarity and meaning, each one its true and due fulfillment.