Latest / The Recess-An Inside Look at the Auburn School District / Episode #7: Kevin Paustian, Band Teacher

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Episode #7: Kevin Paustian, Band Teacher · The Recess-An Inside Look at the Auburn School District

• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to the Recess Podcast.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, the proud superintendent of the Auburn School District, Dr.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Alan Spicotti.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: The podcast is a way that we get the stories of the people and programs that make Auburn such a special place out so that we can share those with our community and put the spotlight on incredible things that kids are doing and some of the staff who make that possible.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: Today's guest actually is a topic that is near and dear to my heart.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: I am incredibly excited to have my first music teacher guest, hopefully of many.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: And we are uh just incredibly honored to have with us Kevin Postchen.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Kevin is the band teacher at Mount Baker Middle School, and he has a long history with the district.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh 10 years at Auburn High, and he's he's been here uh over 30 years.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: He can tell us the ex the exact numbers if he cares to.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um but Kevin has been really a leader in our district and in our state, um and has served as the president of the WMEA, which is a state music educator association.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: He is in the WMEA Hall of Fame, and this year he was selected as the Middle School Music Educator of the Year by WMEA.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so some really impressive accolades.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I actually got to know Kevin years ago through his work in the uh WMEA when I was doing some advocacy work for arts education, and uh I'm glad that fate brought us together here in Auburn, and it's been really an honor to be in his classroom a little bit and see some of his band performances and hear him play the trumpet, which is a real treat.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um and you'll get to hear a little bit about all of that right now.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Kevin, welcome.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for being with us.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you for inviting me.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: We start out uh talking about our favorite teacher, and I'm interested uh in when you were in school, who was your favorite teacher?
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: I have to say I've been so blessed to have so many really good teachers.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: And thinking about that, that's a really hard question to answer.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: But my junior high band teacher was named Dave Wilson, and he was remarkable.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: He was I was in school in Idaho, and he was he moved there from Texas and was a big guy, six foot four.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: And boy, when you're in junior high and your band teacher is a big guy like that, but he could play the most beautiful, sweet sounding trumpet you've ever heard, and could play jazz like nobody's business.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I just look back and I always think almost as soon as I went to the middle school level to teach, I would always think, now what did Mr.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: Wilson used to do about this?
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: What did Mr.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: Wilson do about that?
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: And he got me through so many days when I needed to do a better job at my job.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I mean, I haven't been in touch with him for a long time, completely patient and loving and caring.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: Our jazz band played at a jazz festival, and we got picked to play on the evening concert, even over all the high school bands.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: But then when we got back to our school that night, a bunch of us, our parents couldn't come get us, and of course you couldn't do this today, but he put us in his car and drove each one of us home to our own house.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: So, I mean, he was just a wonderful person.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Those are some great stories, and it takes me back to my own education, and my middle school band director is probably the person who um i in some ways probably changed my life the most.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh he was also a trumpet player and uh and really kind of uh challenged me and encouraged me in ways that I just didn't know what I was capable of.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so that just changed my trajectory in life.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so uh it's it's fun to hear you single out music teachers.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know that I've had guests who have talked about a teacher from what they ended up doing professionally, um, and yet music you just have such a strong connection.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um so you talked about your music teachers.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: How did you become a a music teacher?
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Just give uh, you know, not chapter and verse, but tell us your path a little bit.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I was a freshman in high school playing basketball, and it it dawned on me I probably wasn't gonna be a very good basketball player, but I was of course playing trumpet at the time.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: And so I turned my attention to the trumpet, which I was already, you know, pretty good at, and just followed in the footsteps of some amazing trumpet players ahead of me.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I knew in my junior year of high school that's what I wanted to do is be a band teacher.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: But I have to tell you, it has evolved so far from that because at that time I was thinking of being like the equivalent of a head coach and that role of the music teacher.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: And now I look at it so different and the relationships you build with kids and watching kids blossom through studying music, and it's way less about the band achieving something, or I mean, I always want them to sound really good, and I think my bands mostly sound really good almost all the time, but that's that's just the natural outgrowth of what we do, not the goal anymore.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: So I knew I knew when I was a junior in high school and then went to Boise State University right there in my hometown because it was really cheap, and a lot of your listeners will relate to this.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: My first semester's tuition was$73.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: So you can see why I went to school there.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: But they also had an amazing music program, and especially for music education, and I have lots of former friends from Boise State all over the Northwest who are model teachers and master teachers because that music education program was so amazing.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: How exciting.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: So tell us about your instrument um and and just your one thing that I I want to educate the audience, and I'll I'll I'll take a little bit of privilege as a former music teacher, is that uh many, many music teachers are also very fine musicians.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Their own experience playing professionally or just their study of music informs how they teach.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, so I think that's a really important part of who you are in a way that we might not think of uh in some other subjects.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: So tell us about uh what instrument or instruments you play.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: I play the trumpet.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: I remember going home in in sixth grade and saying to my mom, hey, the band teacher came to school today and said we could join band.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: And she said, Okay, just a second.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: And she came back a few seconds later with a trumpet and she said, Here's what you're playing.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: It was my brother's old trumpet, because he was my brother's twelve years older than me, so he was done with it.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm thinking, Oh, okay, I didn't know what I wanted to play.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: That's how I picked the trumpet, but it it works, it's worked out, and I've been playing the trumpet ever since.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of us have a story like that.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: So my version is uh I had a friend who's a year ahead of me.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh his name is Greg Smith, he played the trumpet.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh he was a cool kid, so I wanted to play the trumpet.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but we started uh where I was uh uh in in fourth grade, and I had never stuck with anything in my life, and our our family really didn't have a lot of money to throw around, like we could do the basics, and that was about it.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: So uh she didn't want to pay to purchase an instrument or even rent one.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so she called the band director, and the actually they said a time, like if you call it four o'clock this day, uh we have a few instruments, we'll give them out.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: And she called and said, Well, he wants to play the trumpet.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Well, we don't have any trumpets, but is your son a big boy?
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: This is in like our family lore now.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so he said, Well, the baritone horn is like the trumpet, just lower, and if he can carry it on the school bus, he can borrow it.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: And uh that's that's how I got here today.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: So you mentioned playing the trumpet, but your first reaction was, Well, of course I play all the instruments, so explain that to the audience.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I I get it, but it's it's a really important part of being an instrumental music teacher.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: So the pedagogy for band is crazy.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: And when you go to college to be a band teacher, you take all kinds of these classes.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: They're take up immense amount of time, and you only get very few credits for them.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: And you learn to play the flute and the clarinet and the oboe and the saxophone, and then you have a class to learn the trumpet and the Frenchorn and the trombone and the euphonium.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: And well, you get the idea, there's a lot of instruments, and you really have to be an expert at every one.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: But when I taught high school band, I have to say I didn't really need those skills so much because the feeder teachers would send the students to me knowing quite a bit.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so I would often rely on the students to know.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: And at Auburn High School, we had such a great program and Auburn School District such great support that we had private teachers on almost every instrument.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: So I didn't really need those skills until I transferred to Mount Baker, and now I'm teaching the beginners, so I had to be an expert at every instrument.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I've always been a pretty poor flute player, but I'm proud to say after 20 years at Mount Baker, I'm a pretty good flute player now because I had to become one.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: There's so many tricks and you know, things to know, inside things about each and every instrument.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: They're just all independent.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: So that's hopefully that answers your question about this being coming a band teacher.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: What was your favorite and least favorite uh methods course?
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh what instruments did you like or not like when you're in college?
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: I have to say I liked all, I loved all of them because, and I see this in my students now that there are students in every program who want to learn all the instruments.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: And it's hard sometimes to say, let's get really good at one first, and then branch out, and especially get them to wait until high school to branch out, where they can keep playing their main instrument.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: And then, for instance, at Auburn Riverside, they have a great percussion class.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: So if I'm a trumpet player and I've always wanted to play percussion, I can do both at Auburn Riverside.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: Or think about your typical high school band that has a marching band and a band that plays at basketball games, and then the regular band and then the jazz band.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: And if I play a different instrument in every one of those, I can start satisfying that need to play lots of instruments.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I was one of those students, but again, my family, they handed me a trumpet and said, This is what you're playing.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: I wasn't very good at the string instruments.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: See, that was my memory too.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: My least my least favorite was violin, uh, because as a very beginner, uh no matter what you do, it's hard to play in tune, it's hard to uh have a pleasing tone, and it's right next to your ear.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and you can't hide on it, cannot get away from it.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um my favorite, uh, I don't know if you had a chance to learn, but the harp, you you cannot play out of tune and you cannot make it sound bad no matter what notes you play.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not sure why they felt we needed to learn harp.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't very practical, but it it certainly was uh gratifying.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: Kevin, tell us uh you've had the unique opportunity to teach high school and middle school music, and you started to get into this a little bit, uh, but build on that, what are the differences uh between teaching at those two levels?
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: High school, especially in a great high school band program like we had at Auburn, it's all about performances.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you finish a concert and you pass in that set of music and you hand out a new set of music and you're getting ready for the next concert.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: The students are pretty proficient at what they do, and some of them are like superstars.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: And so you're challenged to keep them challenged.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: At middle school, it's all about teaching them how to play.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: The music you play isn't really all that important.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: You want them to like it because they'll play it better and practice it more if they like it.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: But there aren't like standard repertoire pieces for middle school band.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: But middle school, it's all about just learning how to play your instrument, learning the knowledge of music, how to read notes, how to count rhythms, and then ensemble things like just how to stay together.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: They're not gonna stay together, but you keep working on it and teaching how to stay together.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: High school, you sort of expect them to stay together.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: We have incredible music teachers, um, band, choir, orchestra, general music, all the way up and down K-12.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's really a strength and an asset and a um really special part of the Auburn School District.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I have to jump in there because I totally agree with you.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: The Auburn School District has amazing music teachers, and they're all working really, really hard to make sure these kids have access to music.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's it's they're all have really high standards for themselves to push these kids and create opportunities.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you look at some of the m elementary musicals that go on and the hours that takes for that elementary music teacher to put that together.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we really have amazing teachers in this district.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I'm glad you pointed that out.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and I agree with you wholeheartedly.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: Tell us why this matters.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, so you have a big platform, certainly many, many, many people listen to the podcast here, Kevin.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh take take the podium for a minute and talk about what is the value, the importance of music education.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, well, that's a big question, and we could do a whole show on that, obviously, but I'll try to limit myself somewhat.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, music plays an important role in society and always has and probably always will.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, music has this amazing history.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: You can't talk about the history of anything if you don't throw in Beethoven and Mozart.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: Those are important figures in the world, not just because of their music.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: Beethoven was the most famous person alive during his life on the whole planet.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's amazing that a musician would fill that role, besides uh Prince or somebody like that.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: But even Prince probably wasn't as famous as Beethoven was during his life.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: So music is huge.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you can you can become a musician, you can make a living as a musician.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: The Seattle Symphony musicians make enough money that that can be their only job, and they can live in Seattle.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: Now, the cost of living in Seattle is pretty high.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: You can study music in college.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: So music is a real thing.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's not somebody's imagination, or as my son says, it's not magic.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's something that actually you can make a living at and study and do that.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: But it's also recreational.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's something that's uh therapeutic.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: It needs to be in everybody's life.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: I I can't imagine, I know there's a few people that don't really listen to music much, but most human beings listen to a lot of music.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: And music is hugely important.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: Now, look at our school music programs historically.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: Why did band and orchestra and choir become what they are?
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_01: Because they can service a lot of students in a little bit of space and time.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: The average music teacher would have 40, 50, maybe 60.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: And when I taught in Idaho, the average was 80 students per class.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: Now imagine a school that has five band classes with 80 students in each band, and five choir classes with 80 to 100 students in each choir, and a high school orchestra program, you get the point.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: You can service a lot of students and deliver great instruction to a lot of students that way.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: Where other forms of music which are becoming more popular in schools, but they can't reach as many students.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: Uh jazz band's a good example of that because it's a more of a late comer to education, and the typical high school jazz band has 20 to 22 students.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: So that's great.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: And usually they're the more elite students and they need that extra challenge, but you're not reaching as many students.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: And most schools aren't going to hire the same amount of music teachers as they hire English teachers or science teachers, so that a science teacher can only have 30 students in their class.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: But then there's the other part of music, which is the social part and the emotional part, which today we're totally clued into social emotional learning.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: But bands and orchestras and choirs have been doing that forever.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: Bands always become families.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: Orchestras are always families, choirs are always families.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: Kids take care of each other.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: When Susie can't afford her choir dress, the other kids pick up the slack and make sure it happens.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: When Billy can't get to ride to the concert, somebody goes and picks Billy up and brings him to the concert.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, this has been going on forever.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: And it's even more noticeable after COVID when social emotional learning is really deep and spiritual, and these kids are picking up the slack and helping each other out.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, all my best friends were in band, and I'm still in touch with a lot of them today, all the way through from middle school.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I went to junior high, but junior high, high school.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: I'm still in touch with those band kids today.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: And it, I mean, we just don't, it just doesn't go away.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm not even on Facebook, by the way.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: I can only imagine how much more contact I'd be in with my former bandmates if I was on Facebook.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: I I love that answer, and actually I'm I'm kind of blown away because uh it wasn't what I expected.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of times music teachers will I I I think are are a little bit defensive about the the profession and the value, and and they'll go to academic responses, and so there's a body of literature that says students who study music, they have brain development, they they tend to be more successful academically and do better in math and language, and um, and there's a lot of studies on that front.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um my my answer to this tends to be that there are things that you can learn uh about music, musicianship and humanity and culture in a in a music class that you just cannot learn anywhere else.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um and there's research that the brain actually develops capacity if you teach music young enough.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um so you always have the ability to achieve in music, meaning that you can you can learn it, you could have somebody who's never studied an instrument pick one up later in their life and and and they would they would learn it to some degree.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um but if you learn early, uh you actually grow your aptitude and you uh you grow your capacity to learn.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's a lot like learning to speak a language.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you could always learn the vocabulary, but it's really hard to learn the dialects and the sounds and uh be a natural at it.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, this might be a little bit inside baseball.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: You have uh a really qualified music teacher speaking to a uh a former music teacher who's now a superintendent, but uh I'm always fascinated by this topic.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: You got into something talking about your colleagues and what they do, saying that uh they more and more our music teachers are doing whatever it takes to give kids opportunities to uh play an instrument or participate in music in in whatever way they are interested in.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: And you jumped on board with something that we set up uh several years ago now, which is a nonprofit, music for life, that has a mission to provide instruments for students to play.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and and you've been really tremendous in uh bridging this you know small but mighty uh band of community members who are supporters of music and actually getting the instruments into the hands of music teachers and ultimately kids.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: Could you say a word about that and we'll put a little advertisement out there for Music for Life?
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: Music for Life started with the rotary and for this very point, get instruments in the hands of kids.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: And they would take used instruments that were donated by people in your community, and then this committee in Auburn, we raise money for Auburn, and the money is used to put those instruments into playing condition.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: Then they're added to a school's inventory, and we can check those instruments out to students, and these are students like a student who uses a clarinet for four years, and then we get it cleaned up, and then we give it back to another student who uses it for eight years, and then we get it cleaned up, and then we give it to an and this could this could be perpetual as long as all of those students take good care of that clarinet, because instruments do have a life, and there's a point where it's not the m worth the money to repair something, but these are all good serviceable instruments, and my job is to accept the donations when they come in through the community and get them to a local music store to do the repair work, and then to take the instruments from the music store, and then it gets in a student's hand right away.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: And boy, we've had I c I mean we haven't been doing this for very long, right, Alan?
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's been a pretty short, a short tenure on this group.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: But I I know we've had well over a hundred instruments donated through this of all kinds.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um matter of fact, I had to just tell all the music stores that do this work, no more drum sets.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so for everybody listening, I just like to point out that uh we accept donations of instruments.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of times, as Kevin said, uh you might have had a son or daughter who played an instrument in school for a while.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's been sitting in the closet.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, if you want to put it to good use, um bring it to the administration building on 4th Street Northeast.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you could drop it off at Mount Baker Middle School, get it to one of us, and and the process is uh we then uh give it to Music for Life, they give it to one of the music instrument repair businesses in the Seattle area, and they get it into condition, and they like to say we provide ready-to-use musical instruments to students.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so we'd love to have that.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: If you're interested in donating, there are ways to do that as well.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I know the the Auburn Rotary, the City of Auburn is given grants.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: Uh individual donors have have contributed.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: That money uh helps to offset the cost of the repairs.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and it's just a program that works.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I love it.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Kevin says no drum sets, and I'll add uh no upright pianos.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: They don't want those people who trying to get rid of upright pianos, but it it doesn't work that way.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um thank you so much for your your role in Music for Life.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm here with Kevin Postchen, who is the band director at at Mount Baker Middle School and uh a very accomplished teacher.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: He uh was just selected as the Middle School Music Educator of the Year.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh what does that mean to you?
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, it's quite an honor, and I feel honored by it.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um I know sometimes other teachers of the year kinds of things, you apply for those, but this is a nomination.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: Somebody nominated me, and I don't really know who.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: And then the uh Washington Music Educators has a committee that goes through all the nominations.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: They give out an elementary music teacher of the year, a middle level teacher of the year, high school and college.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: So that this committee selects from all the nominations, and it's every two years.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_01: It's kind of humbling because, as I said before, not just my colleagues in the city of Auburn, but statewide, because I I actually get a chance to go out and judge festivals and work with people's bands quite a bit.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: And there are amazing music teachers in this state.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_01: Not that everybody's nominated, but somebody nominated me, and then the committee thought I was doing really well.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, when you're my age, you know, people do kind of know about you.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe if you just stick with something long enough, you're bound to win some kind of award.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, uh my guest Kevin Poshin, very humble.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but you have these incredible credentials.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: You must have some student success stories you could share with.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yes.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, uh one of my favorite stories is a young lady.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: Her parents told me this story later.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: I was teaching at Auburn High School, and I hadn't been there very long.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: I think it was my second or third year, and this young lady was in school at one of our middle schools, I won't name the school, and she wasn't really enjoying band, and she told her parents she was done.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: And they said, you have to at least do one year of high school band.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: And today she's a high school band teacher herself.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_01: Now that's pretty amazing.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_01: But then, even better, her younger sister, the same family, her younger sister, she opted not to join any music in middle school at all, but then saw how much fun her sister was having in high school.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: And she came to me and said, I want to join the high school band, but I've never done any music, I've never played piano, I've never done anything.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, That's fine.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_01: Just come on in.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_01: I knew the family, so I thought this will be great.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_01: And so back in those days, Auburn High School had this really highly competitive marching band, and we went to Camp Sispus for marching band camp.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: And that was this girl's first experience, and I had a great percussion teacher, and he he the first day we unloaded all the equipment and he gets her on a marimba.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: She wanted to play percussion, and he gets her on a marimba and he says, So here's how you build a major scale on the marimba.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: And he taught her the whole steps and half steps you needed.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, uh, and she was she she could play one pretty fast, and he said, Okay, I'll just leave you to it.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_01: And by lunch, she could play all 12 major scales on the marimba by using this formula he taught her.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_01: And she went on to, she was the state marimba first place person at the state solo and ensemble contest by the time she graduated high school and was in a marimba trio that won small ensemble.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, talk about success in four years.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_01: Here was a student who had zero music background, but a good family and a family with music background.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_01: Anyway, yes, I've had a lot.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I have a lot of former students who are now music teachers all over the Northwest.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_01: And they luckily they stay in touch with me and kind of give me a hard time from time to time.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: I have a former student who's was at the national championship game in the Husky Marching Band, uh, and he was a stellar saxophone player.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, when we did our fifth grade instrument trials this fall, Ted Brown was a little shorthanded bringing people to help us.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_01: And so I was able to get this because UW hadn't started school yet.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: This former student came to help me get the fifth graders to try out.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_01: Now he was a saxophone player, and we don't start saxophone, but he helped me with the clarinets.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_01: And Mount Baker has 14 fifth grade clarinet players right now because this kid was so amazing with those guys.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's a great strategy.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: Good.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that must make you feel incredible to have a a a tree, a family tree, if you will, of uh former students who are teachers in music.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: And uh actually I mentioned a family tree.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: So let's let's pivot uh because two of your own kids are music teachers in the Auburn School District.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: So tell us about your kids following in your footsteps.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: Well, of course I'm incredibly proud.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: They're both fantastic music teachers in different situations, so they have different outcomes, and they're very different people, I have to say that anyway.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: But um sometimes I tell people maybe I didn't act miserable enough when I would come home in the evening, the few times I would go home in the evening, but both of these both my son and my daughter were in my bands at Auburn High School, which was the greatest four years of my life.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: There isn't, I don't think there's anything better than having your own children in your band program.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_01: And for all the reasons we talked about the benefits of a music education, and they that was their family, their friends were all in the band.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_01: Well, they weren't, I wouldn't say all of their friends were in their band, but their friends were in the band and they hung out with them.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_01: I I don't think I pushed my kids to be musicians or to be in music, they might disagree with that, but they're both outstanding music teachers, and it's a real source of pride for me to see the success they're having and changing kids' lives.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, and again, they're both already.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_01: Remember, I told you in my early career I was more focused on the success of the band and the trophies and all that, and they've never been that way.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe I was able to model the relationship building later for them better.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_01: It's so much a family affair, Alan.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_01: I know you know this, but uh, I've been fortunate at Mount Baker to have my grandchildren in my band now, so it's been really fortunate that way.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: I've really enjoyed uh seeing Kevin's actually incredibly supportive.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: I see him numerous times, uh Kevin and his wife Kim at concerts, uh watching uh his uh you know the Auburn High Band or the Auburn Riverside Band, other musical groups in the district.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes uh Kevin and Kim are have the grandkids in tow, and are you know it's a it's a family affair.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: Before we start to wrap up, uh I want to talk about your playing and a really cool band that I assume you put it together, but maybe you had help or you're shaking your head no.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so tell us about the Auburn Music Educators band, and I know it's it's it's there are different genres of the band, and and I've I've had the chance to to hear you guys in in different settings.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: So tell the audience about the band you play in.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, it's called Groove Amendment.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_01: We were originally a different name, but it was sort of political, and the political time sort of cooled off, so we changed the name to be a little more appropriate.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_01: And um it's a very interesting group.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_01: Actually, my daughter Megan started this group.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um I played the trumpet in it, Megan plays piano, my son Tony plays saxophone, although originally he was our bass player.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_01: And now John Heinz, who's the orchestra teacher at Auburn Mountain View and at Rainier Middle School, is our bass player.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: And then Megan's husband, Ryan, is a professional trombone player and teaches a lot of Auburn students trombone lessons and works with Megan's chamber groups.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_01: He's our trombone player.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_01: Ryan's also the trombone professor at Pacific Lutheran University and St.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_01: Martin's College, and is the principal trombone player with the Olympia Symphony.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_01: So he's no small potatoes, that guy.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_01: And then our drummer was the band teacher at Auburn High School after I left there.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_01: His name's Scott Fry.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: He's currently teaching in the Pewallop School District at a high school.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: And it's just wonderful.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_01: We mostly played jazz, and we started off having gigs here in Auburn at different places, different breweries, or wherever we could get in.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_01: And uh the most recent thing, we played in the lobby at the Auburn Symphony holiday concert, and we did a whole bunch of Christmas music jazz style, and it's really been fun.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we don't get a chance to rehearse very often like we'd like to, because uh four of those people are high school music teachers and they're really busy.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_01: So it's a fun group, and yeah, we play a lot of music.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, uh we do some of Dell tunes, and uh, we have a actually who is the group that does black?
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_01: I can't remember, Nirvana or somebody, but it's it's instrumental and it's jazzy style.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I mean it's a lot of fun.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_01: But you might not know this too, but we also have an Auburn faculty brass quintet.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, I do know that.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and so I play trumpet in that, and uh uh Garrett, who play who's the music teacher at uh Hazelwood Elementary, and then Jess Haney's the music teacher at Bowman Creek, and Megan plays the French horn for that, and then we've had a trombone player from North Taps Middle School, but he's going to the dark side, Alan.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_01: He's becoming an administrator, and so he's he's been super busy, and his name's Eric Spring.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_01: We haven't had the luxury of having him around.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_01: So our quintet we're hoping Ryan might pick up the slack on the trombone front.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: My guest has been Kevin Postchen, uh, who has made a really big difference in our school district and our community, and he's told us all about his career and about music education, which again is near and dear to my passion.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um and certainly I there's no question I wouldn't be where I am today if it weren't for music education and my own experience as a music student and the path that put me on.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: Let's finish up uh moving away from music.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: A question I ask all of my guests what was your favorite thing to do at recess?
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Alan, that's a long time ago.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, no, I'm kidding.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_01: I've been thinking about it.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_01: I do remember playing marbles at recess.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_01: And even I went to a country a country school in Idaho, and it was so it had a big piece of property, and there would be dirt hills in the playground, and we would make little courses for our marbles to go down, and so but we would mostly play marbles and try to get each other's marbles.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_01: I I don't kids don't even do that anymore, I don't think, but and then of course touch football was just every every recess somehow if the weather was decent enough and we could do it.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_01: But I other than that, I don't remember doing much at recess at all.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe just walking around.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I I love it.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: Those are both those answers, marbles and touch football.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I haven't had a guest mention either.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm starting to get multiple tether balls.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the marble sounds fun.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: We learn from recess, right?
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, play is the earliest form of learning for kids.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, so I'm glad you have those fond memories.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm glad you you've spent uh the hour with me here, Kevin.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: And it's fun to tell your story, and it's I think really important to salute the really great work that Auburn music teachers are doing uh because they do make a s a difference for students and have um just really provided opportunities that you just don't get in other parts of the school.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and I've been out doing levy presentations talking about what the levy funds, and of course it's the enrichment levy, so all kinds of athletics and activities and arts, and it's a really important point for me to make that um we know that not every student is going to uh be interested in every offering that we have.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the same kid's not gonna want to play football or play the flute or you know, study something in current technical.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but we want to have something for every student and for a lot of them, their niche, their passion, the way that they grow personally is through music.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm glad that we have people like my guest, Kevin Postin, uh helping them to develop and really turn into fine young people.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you, Kevin.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh pleasure to have you here.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Alan.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: This has been the Recess Podcast.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I'm your host, Alan Spicciotti, and I enjoy telling the stories of the Auburn School District.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_00: If you enjoyed this story, uh maybe if you played in band uh and you want to share with some of your uh lifelong friends from band, please uh forward this podcast so that we get the word out and we can kind of brag on some of the amazing people we have in the Auburn School District.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_00: That'll do it for this time.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_00: I hope to have you join me next time.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: Goodbye.