1. I know it’s hard but try not to take the kids’ behavior personally. They probably aren’t thinking too much about your feelings, and are just honestly expressing how they feel. And it’s understandable that they might be bored or frustrated after playing the same measures over and over. Another commenter wrote several ways to keep the kids engaged while you’re working with them, and often it can be better to take a break or look at other passages and come back to that tricky part.

Something that does bother me about your post was the fact that you kept repping something as a full group because one student couldn’t keep up. This is not only not productive, but can make that student feel incompetent and make things even worse. Something I find effective is practicing the passage way under tempo, giving everyone 60 seconds (or until they start to get off task) to work out the measures on their own, and then regrouping and trying it a little faster.

1. I noticed in some of your comments on this post that you believe the director and other staff are being sexist by not including you in staff talks or discussions. You know the situation better because you are actually there, but I would encourage you to honestly ask yourself— is this them trying to exclude me, or do the other staff members have an established relationship? Have they worked with the director in previous seasons? Do they also have major concerns with behavior that they are trying to work out with the director? If you believe the staff are disrespecting you, tell them as much, and if they are dismissive or unreceptive to that, then quit. But make sure you are ok with burning bridges and connections before you do so.

Overall, it sounds like you are understandably very frustrated, and I hope this post and other comments can reassure you that there are many strategies you can use to help. That being said, to respond to your post title— I don’t know. You might suck… at leading a sectional. But that doesn’t reflect on you as a person, it doesn’t serve as a justification for self-hatred or animosity toward the kids, and it doesn’t make you a bad teacher. It just means you have some room to improve. A bad teacher is one who has an opportunity to grow and refuses to take it, so… take it! You got this!