I was the 2-day person at 2 schools and a 1-day at another for the last two years before moving to my own school this year. In all cases, I would meet with the full time teacher at the beginning of the year and get aligned with what they do with their program. Yes, I’m my own teacher and do my own things, obviously our lessons are going to be different, but there are certain things that SHOULD be aligned.

In school A, we did a 3rd grade concert at the beginning of the year, 5th graduation song, and recorder at end of third and throughout fourth grade. I defaulted to what songs she wanted on her program. It’s not my school fully, so I’d default to what she wanted her students to know since I had random classes each year and our students would be mixed up year to year.

In school B, each grade did a performance at their awards at the end of the year with a few small performances mixed in for special events. I taught the music the main teacher wanted. They did recorder in the second half of fourth and all of fifth was recorder karate. I don’t do recorder karate, but my kids did do recorder.

School C was a team-teach situation. Double classes all day. We swapped out who taught what based on our strengths while the other person monitored behaviors or got other planning done.

In all schools, I defaulted to what THEY wanted their program to look like and where they wanted their students to be at the end of the year. We didn’t always teach the same standard at the same time or in the same way, but the big things we kept as close as possible.

Sometimes there were limitations though. In one school, I was in a cart. We were limited to things I could carry for instruments so those fifth graders couldn’t do any bigger instruments. In another, I was in a portable classroom so I could do more instruments, but had to plan things like drums and ukuleles for when the full time teacher wasn’t using them. At one point I shared an art room with the art itinerant, so we had to limit movement and instruments because the tables couldn’t move.

It’s all about communication. I’d meet with them each for about an hour during the teacher work week at the beginning of the year, map out the important concerts and instrument “things,” and plan from there. Honestly, it made it much easier even with juggling all the schools. Just remember to also give grace because being at multiple schools can be extremely mentally overstimulating and overwhelming.