Peer-to-Peer Mentoring Podcast
Real talk, practical help, and encouragement for early-career music teachers
Peer-to-Peer Mentoring is a podcast from the Just in Time Music Education Mentoring Network featuring honest conversations with music teachers who are close enough to remember the challenges of the early years and far enough along to offer perspective, practical advice, and encouragement.
These episodes are designed especially for early-career music teachers, but they are also helpful for mentors, cooperating teachers, supervisors, music education students, and anyone who wants to better understand what new teachers need in order to grow, thrive, and stay connected to the joy of teaching music.
Episode 105: Pace Yourself
Guest: Crystal Barbour, Year 4
Length: 47 minutes, 14 seconds
Best for: first-year teachers, mentors, student teachers, cooperating teachers
Our fifth episode introduces Crystal Barbour, a fourth-year band director at Four Oaks Middle School, reflects on what has become clearer since her first year of teaching. She talks honestly about building trust in an established program, adjusting classroom-management strategies, finding mentors who understand her teaching context, and protecting the time and energy that make a long career possible.
Her advice to beginning teachers is both practical and reassuring: pace yourself. You do not have to fix everything at once.
Episode 104: What Matters More than Getting Every Note Right
Guest: Tiffany Holman, Year 3
Length: 47 minutes, 36 seconds
Best for: first-year teachers, mentors, student teachers, cooperating teachers
Our fourth episode introduces Tiffany Holman, Director of Bands at East Alexander Middle School in Taylorsville, North Carolina. Tiffany returned to teach in the community where her own musical journey began and now works alongside some of the educators who once taught her.
In our conversation, Tiffany reflects on the moment she began to feel like a band director, the mentors who helped her slow down, the boundaries she had to create, and why knowing students matters more than getting every note and rhythm right.
Episode 103: Finding Your Own Version of Success
Guest: Mattie Pennington, Year 1
Length: 37 minutes, 36 seconds
Best for: first-year teachers, mentors, student teachers, cooperating teachers
Meet Mattie Pennington, Director of Bands at Myrtle Grove Middle School in Wilmington, NC. Mattie graduated from Michigan State University in 2025, where she taught through the Community Music School and performed with the Wind Symphony and Spartan Marching Band. She also served the Spartan Marching Band as Quartermaster and head of Physical Operations.
In this episode, Mattie reflects on moving from Michigan to North Carolina for her first teaching position. She shares what she learned about classroom systems, protecting time for herself, learning from mistakes, finding mentors who understand her particular context, and defining success according to the students in front of her.
Episode 102: What Gets Clearer After Year One
Guest: Brett Howard, Year 1
Length: 52 minutes
Best for: first-year teachers, mentors, student teachers, cooperating teachers
Meet Brett Howard, Associate Director of Bands at West Craven High School in Vanceboro, NC. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education from East Carolina University. Howard was born and raised in Lenoir County where he participated in musicals, different musical ensembles, and played tennis. In his free time, you can find Brett gigging with the No Quarter! Brass Band, shopping at McKay’s with his wife for books, movies, and records, as well as touring a small, coastal town for local eateries.
Episode 101: Ryan Wing
Episode 101: What I Thought Mattered in Year One — and What Actually Did
Guest: Ryan Wing, Year 3
Length: 50 minutes
Best for: first-year teachers, mentors, student teachers, cooperating teachers
Our conversation explores early surprises, hard truths, practical pivots, and the advice that may not feel welcome in the moment but becomes deeply important over time.
