Nick Martin

Interview with Caitlyn Koch at Summer Creek Middle School

What inspired you to be a music educator in the first place?

My own band directors inspired me. My childhood was kind of rough, and I didn't get the
full support that I should've gotten at home and I got that through my band directors. I
love music of course, but I wanted to grow up and support other students through music
the way I know it should be happening, and it's not happening in all of our kids' lives.
With some of these kids, if they didn't have band, they probably wouldn't even show up
to school, and they probably wouldn't care about their classes at all. So probably my
middle school band directors inspired me to do this today.

Did you go into college with the idea that you'd be where you are right now?

Yes and no; I figured I'd be a band director, but I didn't really realize what being a band
director really entailed. I thought it'd be music all day long, but it's much more than that.

How did professor Eckert affect your 'journey' as a music educator?

He's one of the best things at TCU; I mean he was amazing. I am so thankful for him. He
told us to do the education route instead of performing because job security is a little bit
better doing a music ed degree, plus he assured us that we'd be playing the same amount
whether you're a performance major or an ed major. He taught me more than anyone else
how to be musical. You can transfer from the saxophone to your ensembles; you can
transfer all of that stuff that you know on your instrument to other things. We can't be as
picky as middle school band directors, but deep inside, I still have that want of perfection.

Of all settings, what inspired you to teach middle school?

I like the middle school age because there are different people every day because they're
changing so rapidly. At first, I was thinking I'd want to be a high school band director,
because you get real, challenging music. However, if I really want to have a serious
hobby on the side or if I want to take care of my family, I think time-wise, middle school
is smarter for me.

What's the best and worst thing about your teaching job at Summer Creek?

The best thing is when kids are engaged and they want to be here, and you know that
you're being a positive influence on them. You can see their eyes light up, you can see
their concentration, you can see that they come in here and kind of breathe in a sigh of
relief like this is their home. That's the best part; those relationships with the kids that
really want to do this. The worst part is that it's really hard to do my job. The worst part is
that schools now are only interested in bubbling in those STAR tests. So they don't really
care about fine arts anymore. They don't care that football is sometimes the reason to be
good at reading. They don't realize that the flute is sometimes the only reason you come
to school sometimes. They don't care that it sparks creativity, all they care about is filling
in bubbles and getting results on reading and writing and math and science.

What prep do you go through each day for class?

You need to look at your long-term goals first; our long-term thing right now is UIL and I
think I counted nine rehearsals left. You also need to "subdivide" and think of the steps
you need to get there. You also have to make sure what you're doing lines up with the
school's mandatory test grades and all of that stuff. You need to fit your content into that
cookie cutter mold they give you. Once you figure all that out, for rehearsals, I'll pick out
a long tone, pick out some kind of warm up that'll translate to the type of music we're
working on. So if measure 47's notes are really sloppy in the trumpet section, I'm going to
pick a warm up that starts with eighth notes and make that perfect. Then we're gonna go
to the music and transfer that warm up stuff to the music. Also, nowadays we're doing a
sight-reading almost every day and then we get on to our UIL stuff.

What have your students done to inspire you?

I've got just stories I could tell. You know, when you see other teachers complain about
certain kids or if the kids tell me like "you're the smartest teacher I know!" Or like "I
don't like going to Mr. So-and-so's class because all he does is yell." I don't know, how
can I put this..

Like what they say gives you a little bit of a new perspective?

Yes, it changes my perspective a little bit. It just keeps me going sometimes. You know, a
little clarinet player named Nick turned in his Smart Music the other day and noticed the
date and said "happy birthday Mrs. Koch!" Those little things kind of help out a bit. The
biggest part is when they "get it"; when they really are doing what you say and they really
want to make music.

Would you ever want to move to another level like high school, college, etc.?

Absolutely not. With high school, I don't really want to deal with marching band. We care
too much about what our feet look like and what our elbow angle is. That's not really
making music in my mind. Plus, with 18-hour days, I don't think I can really have a
serious hobby or feel like I can really take care of my kids very well. I don't want to sway
you one way or another, that's just for me. With elementary, I don't get along with that
age. Right now, I like middle school. I'd need a lot more schooling to teach college, and
I'm not really into more schooling right now.
Is there something you wish someone had told you when you started with your music ed
degree?

You know, they probably did tell us, but we're kind of young and stupid in college.
There's way more to this job than music. I mean we we're just talking about loading the
truck and coordinating schedules and stuff. And I'm not even talking about that; I've got a
full binder of 504's and accommodations, so when we take our band final, I need to go
through and check off who's allowed to have a shortened assignment.. who's allowed to
make me read them all of their questions. Also, I have to try and be a normal teacher on
STAR testing days and stay with the rules and pass out scan-trons.

Have your feelings changed concerning music education over the years?

(laughs) I mean, I don't want to make you quit or anything. I mean I'm very glad I did
what I did because I loved my TCU experience, I loved playing in all of those TCU
ensembles, I met my husband at TCU. So I wouldn't trade it for the world, and I do feel
like I'm getting a whole lot better and I know what I'm talking about. I can reach out to
kids and I feel confident in my abilities. But if I did it all again, all of those feelings aside,
I would maybe consider something else. The future of arts is a little bit scary and a little
bit uncertain and the more we care about standardizing things and the more we care about
just reading and writing and what our scores are, the less room there is for the arts. We
just had a meeting yesterday with our principal and we were just talking about
scheduling. One of the biggest challenges is to get all of your kids in the right class. Like
when you don't want beginners in your honors band, you don't want third band kids in
your top band. You've got to really place them. That's totally impossible if scheduling for
AVID and scheduling for STEM kids.. if they team all of them up, there's no way you can
have a good schedule! There's so many things pulling our kids in all different directions,
it's so hard to just make good music together.

Reflection

Interviewing Mrs. Koch at Summer Creek gave me a new perspective on many

issues concerning music education. Her honesty about the state of fine arts in todays
society wasnt something Ive completely heard before and it definitely enlightened me.
Although it wont deter me from continuing with my degree, its definitely something
that I need to be thinking about. Her take on teaching middle school vs. high school also
made me think. Before, I had never considered teaching middle school, but now, itll be
something be on my mind in the coming years.