Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Taylor.
Hi Daniel, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
I knew that I wanted to be a teacher in high school. I did not know for sure that I wanted to teach music, but it was definitely one of my passions. My mom was an elementary music teacher for most of her career, so music had been a big part of my life from a very young age. I had been in piano lessons as a younger kid, started playing French horn in 6th grade, and then was in band, choir, and show choir as a high school student. I was also in my church youth choir and played handbells a lot at church. I got the opportunity to serve in band as a section leader, and in my choir class, I led the class several times in sight reading practice. Through the love of music and wanting to provide others with some of the same opportunities that I had, I decided to become a music teacher. It was one of my college professors after a scholarship audition that took me on the instrumental path. I went to the University of Texas at Arlington to receive a bachelor’s degree in music and then teacher certification. My first job teaching band was at Clark Middle School in Frisco, and I have now been at Harrison Intermediate School in Wylie since the 2010-11 school year. My job is great because I get to teach my favorite part of band, which is the beginner year, and I get to watch my students grow into incredible musicians and people in the years following when they leave Harrison.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has been a mostly smooth road. Changing schools and grade levels, in my case, is always an unknown path starting in 2010, but it did not take long to know that I made a good choice. I have seen this band program grow and grow since my first year, and we are constantly looking for ways to teach better and more efficiently. As all teachers know, the year of COVID starting was one of the hardest challenges ever, and in some ways, we are still recovering from that.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I teach at an Intermediate school in Wylie, Texas, and I am a band director. I always prefer to say that I teach music because, in the long run, that is really what it is. I teach 5th-grade students in a general music and then 6th-grade students in their first year of playing a band instrument. I am so proud of the growth of our school band and even more proud of the work that my junior high and high school band programs have done. Our high school band has made it to the Texas state marching band contest three times in the last few years, twice as a 5A school and most recently as a 6A. There are so many of my former students that are accomplishing some amazing things.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you, and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
Most importantly, I have learned how much relationships matter to us. I see many students still struggling with how to make new relationships, and it makes me so sad to know what it did to them. It makes me excited, though to know that there is growth in that area to be gained and just another opportunity to teach students new things.
Contact info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebuccaneerband/
