snow day reflections

We have yet another snow day – this makes 7 or 8 in the last 6 weeks – so I am doing a little bit of reading and planning. I’ve been reflecting on the past couple of months. It seems as though we haven’t progressed very much, what with winter field trips, winter carnival days, special guests, snow days, etc. I always assumed January and February were the months where you could really catch your drive and get lots done becuase there aren’t any major holidays, but this has not been the case for us! However, here are some of the things that my classes have been working on:

Grade 1: We’ve been learning (after much preparation!) to label tah, ti-ti, and just last week – sah. Where I live, kindergarten is not part of the public school system, so students only recieve their first experience with music in grade 1. In September 2011 kindergarten WILL be in our school system. I’m looking forward to that!

Other things we’ve done:

• Poem & Song (with non-pitched percussion instruments & sign language) for Martin Luther King Jr. Day
• Read, “Orchestranimals” by Vlasta Van Kampen & listened to audiobook
• The “Elevator Song” – melody direction (high pitches, low pitches, experiencing major scale aurally & visually w/ boomwhackers, playing pitched instruments)
• Sound story – “The Little Boy Named Espimandos”

Grade 2 – We’ve really been focusing on rhythm reading, writing, and performing – and then we added in solfa on top of that. The kids love it! They take such pride in their compositions!  We’ve also been doing a lot of singing & movement games

Grade 3 – We have been working on a sound story – “The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat” by Eugene Field. Then, we learned a song based on the story and now we have begun working on an Orff orchestration to accompany the song. We’ve also been learning about the pentatonic scale, and how to set up our xylophones and metallophones into F pentatonic.

Grade 4 – We have been working on an Orff orchestration to “Little Green Bug” from “An Orff Mosaic from Canada” by Lois Birkenshaw-Fleming.  On top of singing this silly song and learning all of the instrument parts that go along with it, we’ve been writing our own silly lyrics based on the original song.

Grade 5 – We began 2009 with a short unit about Franz Liszt. We researched a little about his life, and then we listened to his music. We watched the video, “Liszt’s Rhapsody” – and then we had a lot of fun with Bugs Bunny & Tom and Jerry’s animated versions of the Hungarian Rhapsody.

Then, we reviewed our treble clef note-reading, learned about major scale patterns, and the tonic & dominant notes in C major and F major. We sang, “Chumbara” and “Everybody Loves Saturday Night” and played the I and V chords on Xylophones and keyboards. Now we are moving into playing entire chords with small groups of students.

Grade 6 – We have been working on a “decades of music” unit. We’ve been visiting stations in the music classroom that have been all about music in the 50’s all the way to the music of today. We’ve been to listening stations, watched videos, read articles, played instruments, and visited websites to help us experience each decade.

As I look back, I can see that we have been accomplishing much in the music room – just at a bit of a slower pace than I’d expected. March Break is in 2 weeks – after which our snow days should begin to taper off, and more work can be done! 

Oh the things we will do!

I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that my school (the one I teach music at) is quite small – approx. 180 students in 9 classes over 6 grades. We don’t get a lot in terms of technology, usually the bigger schools get the cream of the crop, but we are starting to see some new things come into the school. I was told this week that our school will be getting LCD projectors installed into several classrooms around the school. I spoke up about how fantastic it would be for me to have one in the music room. Well. I’ve never seen such shocked faces in my life. “What in the world would you use an LCD projector in the music room for?”  Well. I told them. And guess what? I’m getting one

I can’t wait to get it set up and start sharing the ideas and lessons that I will be using in collaboration with the new LCD projector! I would love to hear your thoughts, though. Do you supplement your lessons with PowerPoint? Notation softward? Fill me in! 

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.

things I’ve learned

I’ve been a “real teacher” (edit: paid teacher) now for just about 2 1/2 months.  It’s time to do some reflecting! Here is a list (though nowhere near exhaustive) of some of the things I have learned so far:

1. Lesson plans are not set in stone!

This is not a new concept to me, I learned it over and over as a student teacher in different schools, but it’s something that I always need to be reminded of.

I love to plan. I like to have things in order. When that order gets messed up, I don’t like it. I have to let that go a little bit because I know that no matter how much thought I put into planning something, it sometimes just doesn’t go exactly the way I had planned. I have to change and adapt with each class, the student’s moods for the day, MY mood of the day, if there’s a substitute, the weather, etc.

The good thing, though, is that I have multiple classes in each grade, so I get a chance to teach each of my lessons more than once. By the end of the day, I’m pretty much a pro at the lessons because I’ve learned what works and what doesn’t as each class goes through.

2. Flexibility in schedule

My school is great for making sure that students don’t miss their specials when something else comes up (i.e. a guest speaker, a field trip, etc). Sometimes these things are unavoidable and cannot be rescheduled, so I actually end up with a prep period for the day (wow!) – but that is rare. I’ve learned to be flexible in moving my schedule around and allowing classes to trade music periods so that all students get their music class. It really doesn’t bother me that much, I would much rather change my schedule to fit them and still teach them, then miss a class.

3. What? I have homework for music class?

On the very rare occasion, I’ve given some small assignments in my upper elementary music classes – for example – we’re working on music portfolios in grade six. I asked my students to write a paragraph or two about what music they liked and why they liked it. I also gave them the opportunity to be more creative then that. Some students did amazing work! One student made me a video, others made collages, some made posters, CD’s, and some wrote wonderful short essays. The key word here is “SOME.” More than half of my students didn’t hand their assignment in on time, and had to be reminded over and over, notes home, etc. Some didn’t even do it at all. It was like they couldn’t get it through their heads that this was actual homework.

In grade 4, I had my students working on a note-naming worksheet. We spent a class and a half working on them, most finished their work. Those that didn’t finish were told to finish it at home. I got one back.

It’s going to take awhile to get this going. They would never pull this in their homerooms (at least, not to this magnitude!). I’m not planning on giving a whole lot of homework, but I think I’m entitled to it. I take my class, the things I teach, and their work -  seriously!

4. Choose your battles

I have a couple of students in the school who continuously give me trouble in class. I’ve learned that – for my own sanity, and for the sake of the lesson – I don’t need to react to every little misbehaviour. I don’t want to make their lives miserable, and I do only have 30 minutes in which to teach the class. So. That’s it. I need to choose my battles.

5. Ask and you shall recieve

My school is very small (<200 students), and we don’t have very much money. My music room is fairly well-resourced, but there are a few things that leave much to be desired.  I love to use Orff instruments in my teaching – I find them so much easier to manipulate, the sound is excellent, and for so many more reasons. At the beginning of the year, I only had an alto metallophone, and alto xylophone, a soprano xylophone, and 17 cheap (CHEAP!) glockenspiels. They’re the ones in the blue plastic cases with yellow plastic mallets. They do offer a complete chromatic set of bars but the sound is AWFUL, and the bars are so tiny. They are far too difficult to use for younger students.

I asked my principal about money for purchasing new instruments. She said it just wasn’t there this year, but for me to give her a list of what I would like. I did so, and she authorized me to purchase a new soprano metallophone. The bass metallophone and xylophone will have to wait, but I know it will come!

I also got permission to have a donation jar at our Christmas concert this year – I don’t think this has ever been done. We really need a new electronic piano (preferably a clavinova). I know if I keep asking, things will come.

6. Personal PD

Like I mentioned before, my school is very small and has less than 200 students. We run on a 6-day cycle, and music occurs 3 times in a 6-day cycle. I can teach the entire school – all classes – in a single day. Therefore, my position is only 50 percent of a full-time teaching position. I teach every second day for the full day. The previous music teacher taught music in the afternoons and taught grade 5 in the mornings (then another teacher took the grade 5 class in the afternoon). Enrolment was down this year, and there was no need for that extra half a position, so that’s where I am. It’s possible that they will give me more subjects in the coming years, which would be great!

Anyhow – I decided that on days that I am not teaching, I will make sure that I do something educational for myself. I subsitute teach quite a bit on those days, but on  days when I am not needed, I read other teacher blogs or books about teaching, discipline, etc. It’s been awesome! I would continue to do this even if I were teaching full-time, but as I am not, I have a lot of time to do this! It’s refreshing, interesting, and I have used lots of lessons, techniques, and ideas that I have learned.

7. Colour Coding is in

I’m an organizer – I love lists, folders, labels, everything like that. Because I teach 6 different grades and multiple classes of each grade, I desperately need to keep myself that way. Colour-coding has been the key for me. Our school uses the “Share the Music” program as the main text for music education. I use the colours of those texts to colour code everything I do in my music classes. I have coloured baskets for worksheets and assignments, my resource binders for each grade that I make are colour-coded, I even have coloured pens (buy these!) that I use to write my lessons in my plan book, to grade papers with, etc. I have post-it notes and flags that match too. I know it seems excessive, but it works for me!

8. Hand Sanitizer!!

The nearest bathroom is quite a hike from my music room, and after being on the floor, handing mallets/instruments, holding hand, etc. with the children, I desperately need to wash my hands!! I keep a bottle of hand sanitizer in my desk to blast those germs!

9. Coffee, coffee, coffee!

Just like the bathroom is a long ways away, so is the staff room. And who has time to go to the staff room anyway? I’m a bit of a caffeine addict, so I keep a coffee maker in my music room in “my” area. That way I can have hot coffee quickly, and I can also make tea when my voice isn’t doing so well. It’s saved me more than once already!

10. Hydration!

I have a 1L Nalgene water bottle (BPA-free!) that I take to school every day. I need to drink a lot of water because I’m singing all the time (plus I just like to drink water!). I can refill at the handy water fountain outside my music room as needed. I can also use it to fill my coffee maker if needed

11. Lysol!!

I keep a can of Lysol disinfectant spray and a jar of Lysol disinfectant wipes in my room. At the end of the day I try to remember to always wipe down my mallets and instruments, anything the kids and I touch or handle. I don’t want to get sick. End of story!

12. Post-it Notes

The number one life-saving thing I’ve learned about for the music room is the wonderful, beautiful invention known as the post-it note. I buy the “Super-sticky,” recycled versions. I use them all the time for to-do lists, quick notes, etc – but the best use for them that I have found is for assessment. I watch the students playing or singing or whatever I need to assess that day, and I just jot down a little note on my post-it. It’s simple quick, and much less threatening than to the students then writing in a big mark-book or binder!

I’m sure this list will change and grow (exponentially, I’m sure!) over the next little while, and over the years

Collaboration Christmas!

For most of the month of December, the phys. ed teacher and I will be collaborating on a dance/movement unit with our students. Our schedules work out so that one of us has an older grade when the other has a younger grade. I’ll be bringing my classes to the gym to work with her classes on dance and movement projects set to Christmas music. Two of the classes will be working on line dances, and the other two will be working on black light movement pieces. We’ll have black lights set up, the windows to the gym will be completely blacked out, and the lights will be turned off. The students will dress all in black, they will wear white gloves or hold white ribbon. The white will be the only thing you see.

Because my Christmas concert is already chock full of pieces from all of the different music classes, there (unfortunately!!!) is no time for us to allow the students to perform all of their dance/movement numbers in the concert. We decided that one group – the most outstanding group -  will have the chance to perform at the concert, and all of them will have the chance to perform at the traditional Christmas sing-a-long assembly on the last day of school before Christmas. This way, everyone will be (hopefully) committed to doing the best job they can, and everyone will have a chance to perform at least once.

This is not only a wonderful chance for the students to work with a group that they are not used to working with, but it encourages participation, team building, and leadership for the older students. Teaching is such a lonely profession – it will also give myself and the phys. ed teacher a chance to be around another adult during the day. We’re so excited to work together on this!

Legends and ghost stories

I’ve been having trouble keeping my grade 6 students engaged. The “junior high” mentality just kicks in earlier and earlier – they know they’re at the top of the totem pole here at the elementary school, and they think they’re too cool for what I have to offer sometimes. It’s ok though – they keep me on my toes! I like a challenge!

For the next couple of weeks, we’re going to be researching our local history for ghost stories, legends, and the like. We listened to a song today called, “The Ghost Ship” and we discussed the elements that made this particular arrangement an effective retelling of the tale of this ghost ship. I am going to have the students work in small groups (2-3 students per group) to research a legend or ghost story that originates from around our area. Then, they are going to collaborate on writing the lyrics to a song based on that legend or ghost story. Once the lyrics are finished, then I will help them put a melody to it (if they don’t already have one in mind) and we’ll create simple accompaniments that will suit the style and feel of their piece. Hopefully, we’ll then record their compositions.

When I presented the idea to them, they immediately loved it. I think that my two grade 6 classes just really love to be hands-on and they like to be treated as responsible people who can handle a project such as this – they feel important, and that this is going to be something worthwhile.

That they are already taking ownership of this project makes me super excited – I think it will be all that much more meaningful to them

What do you do?

…when a child sits in the corner, curled up in a ball, and won’t participate or respond to you?

the “whiteboard” experiment

I tried to be economical and savvy and inventive…but I’m pretty sure it backfired. I had this brainwave that having individual whiteboards for my music classes (grades 4-6, mostly) would be an awesome way to help to rhythm drills and theory lessons, etc – and it would! It would be fantastic! But the thing is, those individual whiteboards cost a lot of money. So I thought I would make my own.

I laminated sheets of cardstock with 2 lage music staves printed on them. They were flimsy, but the whiteboard markers I had worked with them, and they erased rather well. I was excited.

I took them out in one of my grade 6 classes yesterday morning. The kids were really excited because it was new. We did some rhythm dictation and some note-reading exercises and all was great in the first class. But then, as I was working with one student individually, the kids started to play with their new “whiteboards” – they were writing notes to each other, they were seeing if they could colour the whole thing in with their marker, they broke markers and made the ink leak everywhere…Yeah. It was awful.

But I tried again with the next class. The erasers that came with the markers started to get really full of dry-erase marker dust, and wouldn’t erase very well at all. Now the desks were full of colour and so were the kids hands.

The sheets do clean up nicely with a little bit of that expo dry-erase spray – they were good as new again. I’d love to have the real thing, but I know that won’t happen this year.

So. I tried it. It didn’t work as well as I thought. The end.