But, the cool thing about my job, just as with any school teacher's job, is that there are a number things that you can reuse from year to year. Once the time is taken to create it, then it doesn't need to be created again...maybe just tweaked a little bit. It's almost like composition.
One big project that I've been working on is something that I hope many other music teachers are doing. I've created a student webpage specifically for my students, where they will have access to tons of resources that I can provide from them as a brass teacher. I list information about famous brass players and composers, great pieces of music involving brass, care and maintenance, recordings of the stuff they're working on, and post all of their performances. It's a go-to site when they need information from me when not in their lesson. I'm also thinking of starting a discussion forum so they easily contact me whenever they want without the pressure and awkwardness of sending an e-mail (from their eyes, I mean). Once this site is done, I can use it for years and years.
I've also been constructing a webpage for the Whidbey Island Horn Club. I already have the Facebook Page going, but the website allows us to organize things better and provide more information, including biographies of the members and a nice archive of photos, videos and recordings.
Those two websites alone have taken a good deal of time.
And then I've got regular duties as a teacher to fulfill. I'm up to 20 students now, and the new beginning band students haven't even started playing instruments yet in this area, so I'm about to get a flood of new students soon enough. On top of that, arranging music for the Harbor Brass is a priority--I start the new season with them tomorrow. And they Horn Club rehearses this Sunday, also in preparation of a new program. Wow!...there's a lot of stuff to do. Who says musicians aren't busy?
...and to top it off, I've been playing a lot of horn. I'm always looking to get better and perform better, particularly with the Saratoga Orchestra, so I'm trying to play horn a lot. Plus, recording always goes better when I practice...who'da thought that, huh?
Take care and value music.