We sat down with Elisa Janson Jones, the founder of the Music Teacher Guild, to discuss her journey from a passionate music teacher to a successful creator of an organization dedicated to supporting fellow educators. Elisa shared the challenges and triumphs she encountered while establishing the Guild and offered invaluable insights into the future of music education. Her dedication to supporting music teachers and fostering a thriving community is commendable. Join us as we explore her story, her vision for the Guild, and her advice for educators looking to make a meaningful impact in the music world.
SBO+: What experiences or challenges as a music teacher motivated you to start the Music Teacher Guild?
When I started my first teaching job, I thought I was the most fortunate human in the world. I got to open a brand new school and build a program from scratch! I’d put myself through college working at a brand-new music store, so I felt like I knew my stuff about music products and the business of running a program. I took extra time getting my bachelor’s by taking double instrument pedagogy classes. Since I was young, I’d sung in church choirs, performed in community musicals, taken voice lessons, and participated in almost every music class offered in high school and college. I’d already started building relationships with the music educators in the area since they had been my customers. My father, a career music educator, was the music department chair at the university just down the road from the school. I felt prepared and excited to take on my dream job as a middle school band teacher!
Except I wasn’t prepared. I couldn’t read a budget sheet, struggled with parent communication, and had no idea how to work the sound system in my classroom. I realized early on that I still had deficiencies despite my program’s successes over those first three years.
For the next eight years, I ran my own private lesson studio as a stay-at-home mom with three small children, and my first job back in the classroom was as an elementary music educator teaching K-5 at a private Catholic school. I was recently divorced and needed the job, so I wasn’t about to turn it down when they offered it. I was sorely underprepared.
Other teachers saved me. My kids’ elementary music teacher sat down and coached me through creating my first elementary curriculum map. He pointed me toward resources and simplified this job, which felt terrifying and foreign. Other teachers at the school coached me through classroom management, and every guest I hosted on the Music Ed Mentor Podcast acted as personal mentors to me.
In addition to my bachelor of music degree, i have a master of business administration and a doctor of education degree specializing in instructional design. For nearly a decade, I’ve committed to not only making my own knowledge and expertise accessible to music teachers but also designing experiences and organizations so that no music educator will feel isolated. Music educators should feel like they always have someone to reach out to when they need help – even if they aren’t quite sure what help they need. No one is coming to save music education – we must do it ourselves.
SBO+: What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in the early stages of founding the Guild, and how did you overcome them?
Being a disruptor is not easy. You must spend so much time convincing people that what you’re building is a viable business entity and designed to scale rapidly and serve the ultimate mission of supporting teacher retention. It takes a lot of teaching skills to educate people in a new way of doing things! They may think it’s a great idea, but until they give you their email address or their time or their money, it’s difficult to know for certain. It must be such a high-value proposition that they’re willing to flout convention, which often requires admitting the way we’ve always done it may not be the best way to do it. If the saying is true that “when you always did what you’ve always done, you always get what you’ve always got,” then “if you want what you’ve never had, you have to do something you’ve never done.”
Until the Music Teacher Guild is ubiquitous in every classroom and studio, outreach will be a challenge. The good news is innovation attracts the most forward-thinking and visionary educators and partners. The guild mentors who have signed on so far are some of the most experienced and passionate people I’ve ever met. The partners willing to throw their weight behind our movement show genuine commitment about supporting music education.
SBO+: What is your vision for the future of the Music Teacher Guild, and how do you see it impacting the music education community in the next five to ten years?
I see the Music Teacher Guild becoming a staple in the professional development toolbox for all music teachers. We’re designing menus of learning experiences so there’s something for everyone. We’re embracing very modern instructional strategies: ‘just in time’ learning, micro-learning, interactive interfaces, chat events, and hybrid modalities. The guild mentors are key. They create classes, interactive workshops, and communities while offering individual mentorship and clinician services.
We will continue creating targeted experiential learning to provide extension opportunities while addressing knowledge gaps in music teacher education. I have ideas, so you’ll just have to follow us to see what’s coming next.
As far as overall impact, I hope that by providing relevant, accessible, diverse, and effective learning, we will see more flourishing programs in schools and studios and increased longevity and career satisfaction in music education overall.
SBO+: What sets the Music Teacher Guild apart from other organizations that offer professional development?
We are holistic, relevant, diverse, and most of all, accessible. The community is accessible via a robust app, accessible from any device. It’s a music-exclusive ecosystem, off traditional social media, which limits distractions. There are no in-feed advertisements. Each member experience is customizable, not prescribed by the algorithm. We host video and chat events in the platform alongside an LMS system. I’m really proud of this particular technology for connection, communication, collaboration, and content-rich courses.
We also have a booking app so teachers can browse upcoming classes or book a mentorship call right from their phones. And since we’re technology-enabled, they aren’t limited to mentorship from a teacher in their district or even their state. If they need a clinician for their band next week, they can find someone in the app and know they are a trusted, vetted, and trained mentor.
Our educational philosophy is a bit different from other organizations. We focus on skill development, not just knowledge building. The guild mentors are trained to craft educational experiences for skills-based outcomes. That means you’re not going to learn a hypothetical theory of something; you’re going to learn how to put it into practice by putting it into practice. We’re flipping the educational model away from lectures, which tend to be passive and ineffective, to guided experiential learning. We treat teaching music like it’s a skills-based craft, because it is.
We’re also shifting the way music educators are perceived by training the individual to become a well-rounded music educator equipped to step into any teaching role. We aren’t focusing on just band or elementary music teachers. We’re focused on the individual: the music teacher. This year, they could be teaching students in a Missouri music store or running a 1,000-member marching band in Texas. Next year, they could be teaching modern band in Ohio or musical theater in the Philippines. We want to ensure that regardless of the music educator’s current role, they have everything they need to succeed.
We are also nimble. We are technology-enabled, so if we are approached with an idea for an educational experience or collaboration, we can make it happen.
What sets us apart more than all of this is what we don’t do: in-person conferences, advocacy initiatives, and student programs are all off the table. We focus on one thing: teaching music teachers.
SBO+: How do you see the landscape of music education changing, and what role do you think organizations like the Music Teacher Guild play in these changes?
I see music education becoming what it needs to be to serve music educators, the music industry, and society at large: with enough music class options so each student connects and creates music in a way that resonates with them. I see music educators moving away from lecture-based instructional strategies and more to student-centered, inquiry-driven learning activities. I envision that by making these shifts, we will have more students in music classes, more educators enjoying their careers, and more power to make the changes we want.
SBO+: Where can readers learn more about the Music Teacher Guild?
Our website is packed with information. You can download the apps, browse mentors or request being matched with one, or apply to be a guild mentor. We’re very grateful for all our partners and supporters as we bring the Guild to life.
MusicTeacherGuild.org
