Music teachers thrive most when they network with other music teacher and share their challenges, experiences, tips and stories. One teacher who knows this better than most is Debbie O’Shea, a self-professed ‘Networking Queen’.

Debbie is a Brisbane-based music teacher and the founder of Crescendo Music Education. After almost 40 years in the profession, Debbie says you can never stop learning. She doesn’t pretend to have all the answers and loves being a resource to help others find out what they need to know on their music teaching journey.

Debbie shared why networking among music teachers is a great way to share, support and inspire each other. She also shared some of her favourite networking tips and ideas. 

Debbie had five reasons for becoming the Networking Queen but has since developed two more…

• Reason # 1 - Meeting the need to be sociable and to connect. This reduces feelings of isolation and creates opportunities to: find work (professional and voluntary); advance your career; find performance opportunities for yourself and/or your students; make contact with composers and/or conductors. You never know where connections might lead.
• Reason #2 -  Create a sense of belonging or ‘tribe’. This creates and builds relationships, both professional and personal.
• Reason #3 - Support. Networking allows you to find mentors and peers to help find solutions to specific problems.
• Reason #4 - Teaching ideas can be found and learned through networking with others.
• Reason #5 - Being in the company of others leads to increased motivation and inspiration

Then she added a couple of extra reasons …

• Reason #6 - Personal development benefits arising from being with others include: Improved communications skills; discovery of relevant research; discovery of new areas to study; tolerance and patience; and vulnerability.
• Reason #7 - Networking provides opportunities to give through sharing and ‘paying forward’ which in turn can lead to collaboration opportunities.

Debbie also shared her top ten tips for networking.

Which you can listen to on the podcast.

Useful Links

Crescendo Music - https://crescendo.com.au
Crescendo on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/CrescendoMusicEd
Debbie O’Shea on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbie-o-shea-62a3741b/
Crescendo Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/CrescendoMusicEd/
Crescendo on Twitter - https://twitter.com/crescendomusic

Professional Associations
KMEIA http://www.kodaly.org.au/membership/
ASME http://www.asme.edu.au/
ORFF http://www.ancos.org.au/
Dalcroze https://www.dalcroze.org.au/
ANCA https://anca.org.au/

Facebook Groups and Pages
Crescendo Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/crescendocommunity/
KMEIA QLD Page https://kodaly.org.au
KMEIA QLD  Discussion Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/32111233720/
Music Teachers Group (over 30,000 members) https://www.facebook.com/groups/m