2,000 Hours

I am joining a year-long project spearheaded by Charles Ripley, a high school English teacher in Iowa. It's called 2,000 Hours. In short, the premise of Chuck's project is that teachers work just as many, if not more, hours then people who work 9-5 desk jobs. (If the average American works 40 hours a week*50 weeks=2,000 hours. The average American is lucky to have 2 weeks of vacation per year, but we're assuming that that's the standard; therefore, the average American works 2,000 hours each year.)

Chuck's blog is great because he makes a video every week detailing what he's done. I'm telling y'all right now, I probably won't have time to make a video, and haven't so far! However, I am joining Chuck by keeping track of the hours that I work every week for a whole year, starting with the first week of summer vacation this past June. My reason is simple: I would like to raise awareness about how difficult it is to do a good job as a teacher, and that good teachers work just as hard, if not harder, then people with desk jobs. If someone is a teacher, and they claim their job is "easy", then they may not be doing the best job. Of course, that's a vast generalization and I've only taught for 4 years. I understand someone who has taught for 10-20 years may have an easier time preparing for and teaching in an effective way then I do because of their experience.

Here's a summary of my life for the last two years: during the traditional academic year, I have lived and worked as a primary music teacher at an international school in Kyiv, Ukraine. During each corresponding summer, I am in an intensive masters program at Boston Conservatory, where I am basically preparing and taking courses towards a Masters in Music Education for 7 weeks. I'm in my second summer here in Boston. After this summer, I have one more summer, and then I'll be finished with my Masters in Music Education!

What are my reasons for getting a Masters in Music Education, especially after I got a bachelor's in music education?

1. As teachers, we are expected to be life-long learners, to always be learning more about teaching, learning and our subject areas. Without the personal stimulation of learning, I would not be able to effectively stimulate others' learning.
   
2. I wanted to learn how to more effectively plan curriculum to increase conceptual understanding of music.
3. I felt that I needed to be around music teachers and professors of music to gain tools for my bag of tricks and to learn in a well-rounded way how to better teach music.
4. My provisional certificate for the state of Michigan expires in June 2013, and I need to have at least 18 credits in an approved program to get the next level of certification. I figure, why not just go all the way and get a Masters Degree if I'm expected to get that many credits?

I would also like to point out that, as Chuck mentioned, a master's degree is not an inexpensive endeavor. I am paying for 3/4 of my masters degree out of pocket; I receive assistance from my employer for 1 credit each summer; I am receiving a grant and scholarship from Boston Conservatory that covers the other 1/4 of the degree. However, because of the 4 reasons that I mentioned above, I really feel that an advanced degree is essential.

So...Here's the link to my personal spreadsheet, which details all of my hours for the last 4 weeks. In case you can't be bothered to look...I've worked a total of 138 hours in the last 4 weeks. And on that note, Happy Summer to you all!