Comments on: organizational tips

By: Theresa White

Theresa White — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:57:38 +0000

Hello! I am enjoying your blog, great stuff here! I’ve tagged you for the “7 Things” meme, I hope you’ll consider it! http://theresawhite.edublogs.org/2009/01/13/7-things-meme7-things-meme/. Have a great day and keep up the good work!

By: Robert

Robert — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 20:29:19 +0000

LOVE your idea about the Post-It notes! I’ve been teaching…um…a really long time now, and still haven’t found that “perfect, easy-to-use” system for tracking/recording assessment data.

We elementary music teachers are constantly assessing our students’ learning, but most of that occurs informally. We may “know” that Javier is still having problems with, say, matching pitch, but that’s not quite the same thing as having a verifiable “paper trail” come report-card-time.

(Oh, by the way – another Virginian in the house!)

Right now I’m really trying to use technology to make my life easier…so, for example, I have all the recordings I use in the classroom loaded into iTunes. I then just make a playlist for each week’s lesson, and organize those into folders by grade level. I’ve also created some “Smart Playlists” to make certain things easier to find.

I also use PowerPoint, Photoshop, and Acrobat to create visuals, which I used to do on chart paper or on the overhead projector. By using the “Layers” feature of Photoshop, for example, I can, say, move note heads up or down the staff, or put together rhythm “chunks” into 4-beat patterns or longer phrases. I keep all these files organized on my hard drive by sorting them into folders also.

I enjoy reading your blog…please keep it up!

By: Debbie Harris

Debbie Harris — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 03:03:23 +0000

I also color code my classes but I color code by days of the week. Inside the folders I have for each class is a class roster and seating chart. There’s also room in the folder for me to take up any papers from the lessons. I usually don’t use these papers as grades but to see if the students are understanding the concept. This also makes it easy for me (and a sub!) to take note of those who’ve missed a class and what I may need to go over the next time I see that student. I find that if I don’t have a seating chart, I don’t learn the names very well. The chart changes every once in a while when students don’t get along with someone near them or maybe get too familiar with them.
I teach K-3 with 7 classes of each grade level and see each class once a week with the exception of Mondays which are used for “enrichment” sections on a rotation basis. On Monday, since it is the extra day of music for these classes, we do things we don’t normally have time for in the regular class such as folk dances, computer games, etc.
By the way, as a first year teacher, you do seem to have a good handle on the organizational skills. Good luck!

By: Music Education Blog Carnival Edition for January | Education in Music

Music Education Blog Carnival Edition for January | Education in Music — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 02:28:01 +0000

[...] Organizational tips by Alexandra Gallant posted at The Misadventures of a First Year Music [...]

By: msgallant

msgallant — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 21:05:40 +0000

Thanks! I love to keep organized, I think it’s the only way I can stay relatively sane. I know I border on being too anal, and it may be a sickness of some sort but it definitely helps me keep everything on track! I had two wonderful student teaching experiences in university with two amazing teachers who are even more organized than I am…I borrowed a lot of their tricks!

And I would LOVE to go to Virginia – one of my closest friends lives there. And I can venture a guess that the weather is nicer there than it is here…we’ve got almost 2 feet of snow right now with more coming down!

By: mgrondin

mgrondin — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 19:02:02 +0000

MAN, it sounds like you’ve got a terrific handle on organization in your first year! I struggle to stay organized even here in my fifth year teaching, so I really admire your system. Its a long way from Canada to Virginia, too bad you can’t come straiten me out!