organizational tips

As music educators, we all know about the necessity of keeping organized. I’m sure many of you are just like me in that you see every student in your school for music class. That’s a lot of paper work, names, materials, and information to keep track of! I’m still a newbie at this, and I’m always picking up new ideas and strategies for keeping on top of things. Here are a few of the things that I do to keep myself organized at work. I welcome any and all of your suggestions!

#1. Colour-Coding

I know I’ve just recently talked about my love for colour-coding (read it here), but it truly is one of the most effective means of keeping myself organized. My school uses the “Share the Music” texts, and I simply colour co-ordinate everything to do with a certain grade with the colour of their text (i.e. Grade 4 has a purple text book. I write all things having to do with grade four in my plan book with a purple pen, I use purple post-its to label their worksheets, I use purple baskets to collect their things in, etc).

#2. Personalized planbook

I didn’t purchase a commercial teacher plan-book because none of the ones that I could find were suitable for my schedule. I made my own just using Microsoft Word. I print off pages as I need them and I keep them in a binder. I use index dividers to mark the months of the school year. This way I can tweak my planbook exactly the way I want it, and make changes if need be.

#3. Labelled instrument baskets

I teach elementary music, so the bulk of my instrument collection is made up of shakers, rhythm sticks, jingle tappers, finger cymbals, etc. I purchased several baskets from the local dollar store and separated my instruments into the baskets. I labelled each basket according to the instrument that was in the basket. Then, I separated the baskets into families (i.e. wood, metal, tappers, shakers, etc). Now my students know exactly where each instrument belongs, so we keep things tidy. I also use this to introduce my younger students to timbre and non-pitched percussion families.

#4. Post-it note assessment

I buy post-it notes in bulk. I love them. The super-sticky ones are great, and you can get them made from recycled paper now as well! I use them for close to everything, but my favourite use for post-its is assessment. I can quickly jot down a note or two about how a student is doing without it being overly obvious. Its much less menacing then writing in a grade book all the time. I simply collect my post-its at the end of the day and transfer any necessary information into my grade book. Because of the constant shift of students (new class every 30 minutes), the post-it method for keeping info is the most quick and effective.

#5. Graded resource binders

I keep a separate binder for each grade (colour-coded, of course!) with songs, activities, and lesson plans divided into units (I go by month). Like I said before, we use the “Share the Music” text, but I do not use it religiously. I have many other books and resources that I like to use as well, so I’ve basically began creating my own collection of resources and materials that I use to teach the required curriculum by photocopying selections out of the books that I own and placing them in the appropriate section in my binder. It will take me awhile to get it right (years, I’m sure! – and even then it will change constantly!) but I like having everything I need at my fingertips rather than searching through six or seven books to find what I wanted.

So there you have it – those are just a few of the tricks and tips that I currently use to keep organized. I’d love to hear some more suggestions and ideas! Please comment and let me know some of the things that you do to keep yourself organized!

colour-coded baskets

I’m a bit of an organizational freak. I teach 9 periods/day, and have basically no down-time whatsoever what with choir practices, meetings, duty, and now I’m helping out our awesome phys. ed teacher with gymnastics. I need to have all of my supplies and paperwork – whatever I’ll need for each class – ready first thing in the morning because I usually don’t get much time (all of you music teachers know what I’m talking about!) to eat, let alone get something ready during the day.

I’m a little bit OCD on the colour coding. Everything I do is colour-coded specifically to the grade or activity that I am involved in.  We use “Share the Music” as our main text, so I’ve colour-coded all of my grade-level things according to the colour of their textbook (i.e. grade 1 = yellow, grade 2 = red, grade 3 = green, grade 4 = purple, grade 5 = orange, & grade 6 = light blue).I’ve also got my choirs and ensembles colour coded.

Here are some of my insanities:

• I have colour-matching post-it notes, for any sheets needing to be photocopied, filed, handed back, etc.
• I write everything in my daily plan book with coloured pens matching each grade level.
• I write notes to my classes (i.e. page numbers for texts, or the to-do list for the day) on the whiteboard with a marker in their corresponding colour.
• I keep a separate binder (with a coloured label) for each grade, containing my monthly units, worksheets, lesson plans, transparencies, etc.

I know…It’s insane.That’s not even the tip of the iceberg.  However, my favourite colour-coding thing that I’ve done so far (second to my triplus fineliner coloured pens) is coloured baskets.

Late in the summer I stopped into the local dollar store to look for some classroom supplies. I found baskets of varying shapes and sizes, and in a rainbow of colours! I bought a basket in the corresponding colours to the classes that I teach. Now, when I prepare for the day (either the afternoon before or early in the morning), I simply deposit any and all supplies I might need (i.e worksheets, story book, work to hand back, art supplies, handouts, pencils (I’ve got plastic pencil cases with colour co-ordinated tops with class sets of sharpened pencils and erasers. ), etc) into the appropriate basket.  Then, when each class comes in, I just grab their basket from my shelf and voila! I have everything I need.

Classroom Management PD

I’m a brand new music teacher in a grade 1-6 elementary school. I LOVE what I do. The thing that gets in my way is my discipline skills: I tend to be much too permissive, and I need to be more firm. We’re still in a “honeymoon” phase right now, as it is still extremely early in the school year, but I know that problems will soon arise! I truly want to improve my classroom management skills so I’ve been doing some research. I know that it will take time to develop and master my classroom management strategies, but I want to start early.

My job is only part time for the moment, I work 3 full days out of a 6-day cycle. I’m using my off days to search for teacher blogs and articles about classroom management (among other topics), and I’ve also started reading and re-reading a few books on classroom management.

Here are a few of the strategies and techniques (in no particular order) I’ve learned in the last couple of weeks (I haven’t yet decided which ones I’m going to use – not sure what I think of them yet).

#1. “Class-Yes!” – www.powerteachers.org – attention getter

Teacher says, “class” and students must respond with “yes.” The kick in this one is that the teacher will change the way s/he says, “class” (i.e. repeating it twice, silly voice, etc), and the students must respond with their, “yes” the exact same way the teacher said, “class.” This one is supposed to help get the class’s attention.

#2. Three Strikes – discipline for misbehaving

Student misbehaves, teacher writes misbehaving student’s name on the board. Student misbehaves again, teacher underlines name on board. Student misbehaves again, student gets a checkmark next to name and a detention.

#3. Clap Back – attention getter

Teacher claps a short rhythm (always the same) and students respond by clapping a short rhythm (it’s up to the teacher -it could be a repetition of what the teacher clapped, or a pre-determined response rhythm that compliments the teacher’s rhythm).

#4. “If you can hear my voice…” – attention getter

Students are talking, and aren’t responding to teacher’s requests for silence. Teacher says, softly, “if you can hear my voice, please clap once.” The students who can hear the teacher will usually respond with a clap. This will get the attention of the students sitting around them. Teacher continues, softly, “If you can hear my voice, please clap twice.” Students will respond with two claps. Teacher doesn’t usually need to go beyond that.

So. Those are the things I’ve read/been told in the last few weeks. I need more ways to deal with students who misbehave in the classroom – I really am not a fan of the name on the board thing – it teaches kids they are allowed to misbehave twice before anything happens.

More to come!