It’s hard to trust your intuition as an elementary music teacher. All over social media, especially the last few years, there has been more teacher advice, suggestion, tips, and strategies given than ever before. I’m blown away at the amount of mentors available online. There is truly so much advice given and so many teachers willing to share tips and strategies. Listen to the advice, take the PD, get the training you need.. 100%!!! But… realize at some point you have what it takes to keep moving forward. Oh yeah, and listen to episode 188 of The Elementary Music Teacher podcast, where I go into all of this more.
Trust Your Intuition as an Elementary Music Teacher
You’ve learned skills, listened to podcast episodes, taken workshops, and so on and so forth. So the trainings have equipped you and have given you what you already need. Go through the pages of notes or the ideas you have and then actually begin implementing them. Just pick an idea and start with that. You have intuition for a reason.
Listen to the definition of intuition… the ability to know something without analytic reasoning, bridging the gap between the conscious and non-conscious parts of our mind. So what exactly does that mean? It means that a lot of the times, you already know what you need to do when it comes to teaching a lesson, classroom management strategies, assessing your kiddos, planning virtual ideas, putting on performances, and so on and so forth.
If you’re teaching a lesson, but don’t feel right about it, that’s your intuition so listen to it. When you have great ideas or something sparks an interest in you, that’s your intuition coming into play. It takes time, but you’ll learn how to listen to your intuition and what to do with your feelings. When you slow down enough, whether it’s in the shower, while you’re driving, or even when your head hits the pillow at night, and you’re able to clearly hear your thoughts, let your intuition guide decisions and write them down.
What Might Be Keeping You Stuck
When you hear advice, make it your own. Don’t hear ideas and then just sit with them. Think of how you can make it work for you and your students. But, also, you might feel stuck at times because you feel like you’ll make a mistake, or might get criticism on social media if you post that lesson plan, or aren’t doing things as good as other music teachers.
This is exactly what I mean by listening to your intuition. There’s so much advice being given, whether on social media or in person. I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, but it can get overwhelming because there’s so much being said, and a lot of times it contradicts what someone else is saying. No wonder you start doubting yourself from time to time.
I miss the days of teaching when social media wasn’t even around, because unless we were emailing or talking to other music teachers at workshops, you didn’t really know what anyone else was doing, so it was easy to just focus on moving forward the way you needed to for your students.
Not all social media is bad, but maybe you’ve heard or seen posts like this:⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
➡️Sell your teaching products, but don’t do it “that” way
➡️Teach your students music, but “not like that”
➡️Plan effective lessons, but not too much
➡️Be a mentor, but “not that way”
Yes, all of the advice is great, but sometimes you have to just step into your calling and know that you’re teaching, creating content, and living the way you’re meant to. Have mentors, listen to great advice, but also learn how to filter it all through the lens of what aligns with your goals, mission, and ideas.
How to Keep Moving Forward⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
If scrolling your feed is causing you to feel a certain way, then don’t look at it for a while. Or, if you know you’ve already gotten what you need out of a certain training, then don’t go to another one for a while about that topic. When you’ve taken notes upon notes about implementing something into your classroom, but haven’t actually tried the thing the training was about, trust your intuition about how you need to implement that for your kiddos.
You see, whether you realize it or not, teaching can feel like a rat race, where it’s competitive especially in the social media day and age we live in. But, who are you really competing against and what’s the point of that? If you don’t teach a lesson the same way as another teacher, does it really matter that much in the scheme of things?
Are you being too hard on yourself? Have you forgotten all of the excitement you felt to bring your own personality, background, and ideas to your students at your unique school?
If so, next time you feel fear, doubt, or any other negative emotion creeping in, trust your intuition and that you have what it takes to teach music, reach the music education community, and to inspire those around you friend.
Have you been trusting your intuition as a music teacher? Tell me about it in the comments below or share your thoughts on social media as you share this post. I’d love for you to share this post or any of the resources on my website with a friend or colleague who you know NEEDS to see it too.
P.S. Are you feeling frustrated or stuck as an elementary music teacher? Check out these free resources to help you teach elementary music with confidence!
Also…I wrote a book called “Make A Note: What You Really Need To Know About Teaching Elementary Music” to help music teachers move forward in your teaching career. You can get your copy here.
