Jane Morgan, the band director at Stratford Landing Elementary School and Waynewood Elementary School, has been named the 2013-14 Elementary Band Director of the Year by the Fairfax County Band Directors Association.

Morgan has been teaching band at Stratford Landing since 1999, and said she has learned a great deal from her students.

It is her students that have brought her the most joy in her position, Morgan said.

“It’s great to see what the kids accomplish and how far they go,” Morgan said. “They just keep me fresh every day.”

Morgan has also taught middle and high school students.

“When I first came, I was high school and middle school, exclusively. I started in New York working, and moved down here,” she said.

As for teaching elementary school students, Morgan said that getting the children on the right track is the most challenging part of the job.

“I would say that with elementary, we are just starting children on a career of playing instruments, so we are helping them on a process of helping them decide what instrument they would like to play,” Morgan said. “When they first start out, sometimes they will do some switching. It’s important to make sure it’s a positive start for them and make sure they have the fundamentals for middle and high school.”

Morgan said she enjoys watching her students go off to band programs at Carl Sandberg Middle School and West Potomac High School.

“I am very fortunate; I’m in a great pyramid band-wise, with West Potomac High School being the top of the pyramid. My students and I have the wonderful possibility of going into those two great pyramids,” she said.

Morgan said the community recognizes the quality band programs at Sandberg and West Potomac, which makes students interested in joining band at Stratford Landing.

“For me, seeing my students go into middle school and play and then into high school, is very rewarding. There are a lot of them, and I try to get to as many concerts as I can, to see them play,” Morgan said.

Morgan’s band students have taught her many lessons.

“Never categorize a student. Never put a label on them. Never assume anything about that student in terms of how they do in other areas. I look at every student as having an open book and I consider every one of them of having great possibilities, and that is the biggest thing the students have taught me. Also look at a child as an individual, and also hold your standards high,” she said.

Morgan’s colleagues praise her as a dedicated teacher who is an advocate for the band program.

In a statement released by Fairfax County Public Schools, Morgan’s daughter, Elizabeth, who is also a band teacher, praised her mother for her hard work.

“She is one of the reasons I wanted to become a band director,” Elizabeth Morgan said in the statement.