Five Favorite Pins of January – 2014
I will admit, I spend a lot of time on Pinterest browsing ideas, getting inspiration, and seeing how other teachers decorate and plan for teaching. Pinterest can be a really great tool to help you plan for your own classroom and inspire you to try new things. Why not share some of the great ideas that I found on Pinterest in the last month or so!#1 – Recorder Karate Roster
This was a great find from Laura who blogs at Make Music Rock! This roster is a quick and easy way to keep track of your students who are involved with Recorder Karate. When you have a whole school of kids testing, earning belts, and moving at different speeds it’s hard to keep track of who has which belt. I love the simplicity of Laura’s idea! This color coded roster makes keeping records of recorder belts a breeze. I’ve been using a modified roster for my recorder karate kids, but this color coded roster makes it simple to check off when kids reach their belt. I printed out one roster for each homeroom and keep them in a binder together so that all my records are in one place. This is an awesome resource and you can even download her template for free! Thanks Laura!
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/374361787747218210/
#2 – Recorder Homework Box
I NEED TO DO THIS! Kids are constantly asking for more copies of recorder music so that they can go home and practice. This cool, color-coded filing system is a brilliant idea! The “homework box” helps kids find the music that they need, makes it easy for them to grab their homework and go, and saves you time of shuffling through papers and getting distracted. When a kid asks for more homework you can just point to the homework box and let the kid get it on their own while you attend to other students. My plan is to create a box like this, fill it up with homework, and put it in the homework box spot somewhere away from my desk. If I put it in a low traffic area (away from the teacher desk and “line up” spot) then students can get what they need without disrupting the flow of the rest of the class. I think I’ll also put “master” copies of the homework somewhere safe so that I can run to the copier and quickly make more homework to fill up the box when needed.
#3 – Snow Sounds Book for Vocal Exploration
Sweep, crunch, swoosh, scrape . . . All night long, snow falls silently, bringing forth a world blanketed in white—and a very noisy day. For at dawn’s light, machine, man, and child begin to dig out: first the big highway grader and snowplow, then the smaller town plow, a father’s snow blower, and a boy’s shovel . . . But will the streets get cleared in time? This book has some really wonderful imagery and opportunities for making new sounds with your body. You could easily turn this into a sound story and make the sounds with instruments. No matter what you do, the book is perfect for winter and snow in January!
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/374361787755528792/
#4 – Seven Ways to Beat the Sunday Night Blues
Here is some great advice for any and all teachers as we continue to soldier on through the second semester of the school year. We all have lessons to teach, performances, open houses, parent teacher meetings, end of year festivals, and lots more to plan and work out. It’s an overwhelming amount of work if you look at it in one huge chunk. This page gives you some good advice on how to plan out your week. There are tips on how to make your weekend as restful and peaceful as possible to make the following week truly great. The author of the page, Angela, is a truly wonderful teacher and has great resources (and even a podcast) for all teachers!
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/374361787769171016/
#5 – Songwriting Balls
The idea behind this pin is to create a set of “composition balls” where each colorful, plastic ball has a note of the staff written on the side. Kids can pull the ball out of a bag or box and then write down that note on the staff. Eventually you end up with a set of pitches that could be played on a piano or xylophone. I’m not sure that I could see myself using these composition balls exactly as the original author suggests because it doesn’t really create a singable or playable melody. However, I could definitely see myself writing different multi-note rhythms on each ball or writing down single notes for rhythmic notation. And maybe instead of balls you could use little blocks? Or coins? So many extensions with this really cool idea.
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/374361787747242709/
#6 – “Frozen” Ice Cubes
I know the title of this blog post says “5 Favorite Pins of…” but we’ve all got those “food recipes we want to try” pages on our Pinterest accounts and mine is no exception. I saw this pin and I couldn’t resist repining. What a fun treat this would be to bring for a class that’s done something really exceptional! Maybe you could pair it with this cool video of Elsa singing “Let It Go” in 25 different languages? Multicultural and cool treats in one lesson? Score!!
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/374361787747235982/
That’s it for my five favorite pins! If you are a music teacher (or a classroom teacher whose ideas could work in the music classroom), and you are interested in joining the linky party and blogging about your five favorite pins this month, head over to Mrs. Miracle’s Music Room Blog to find her post and follow her directions on how to join the party!
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