Peer-to-Peer Mentoring Podcast
Real talk, practical help, and encouragement for early-career music teachers
The first years of teaching music can be exciting, exhausting, surprising, and deeply meaningful — sometimes all in the same rehearsal.
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.
Listen to the first episode: Ryan Wing
Episode 1: 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.
What you will hear in the Peer-to-Peer Series
Each episode centers on honest, practical questions from the field with answers voiced by those closest to the experience:
- What advice is hard to hear but important to receive?
- What mattered most in the first year — personally, professionally, pedagogically, and musically?
- How do music teachers survive the calendar without losing themselves?
- What systems make teaching feel more manageable?
- What mistakes actually helped teachers grow?
- When do early-career teachers begin to feel like “real” teachers?
Just in Time Music Education Mentoring Network 