by Melissa Stouffer | Jan 6, 2026 | All, Music Teacher Life, School Breaks, The Sustainable Music Teacher
Happy New Year! Semester breaks are a great place to reset things that went awry during a previous part of the year. January is all about resets so let’s look at a few things that you can quickly review at the new semester. Grading/Rubrics I know I’ve said...
by Melissa Stouffer | Dec 2, 2025 | All, Music Teacher Life, Season: Winter, The Sustainable Music Teacher
The closer it gets to holiday breaks, a lot of teachers lean into a little holiday fun, relaxing, extra crafts, movies, and parties, (don’t come for me, I know learning is still going on!!!), music teachers are often rushing to get MORE done because concerts....
by Melissa Stouffer | Mar 18, 2025 | All, The Sustainable Music Teacher
As we get into the dredges of the year, I thought this would be a good time to talk about some of the things that successful music teachers do. It’s easy to get bogged down with to do lists, events, performances, and feel disenchanted as student behavior slides...
by Melissa Stouffer | Aug 8, 2023 | All, Back to School, Organization, The Sustainable Music Teacher
As the school year gets ready to kick off, we start thinking about all the prep work we have to do. Obviously a lot of us think of decor but there are a lot of other things (more important things!) that go into a well run classroom. Here’s a big list of...
by Melissa Stouffer | Jul 11, 2023 | All, Music Teacher Life, The Sustainable Music Teacher
Teachers can be pack rats. There, I said it. You know what I mean. We want to save all the things in case we might use them in the future. But do you really need an entire desk stuffed with ALL those things? Nope. Insert comments about how less cluttered classrooms...
by Melissa Stouffer | Jan 4, 2021 | All, The Sustainable Music Teacher
bound·ary | \ ˈbau̇n-d(ə-)rē \plural boundaries1. something that indicates or fixes a limit or extent I checked my teacher dictionary and I didn’t see that word. Just kidding, but it’s sort of true, and in the age of...
