Does it ever feel like the last 3 minutes of class can be the craziest? You get students all settled down where they’re learning and following directions with no problems and the second you mention the words “line up” they turn into a herd of cats. Line up time doesn’t hav...
We’re edging every closer to the end of the school year but we’re still plugging away with recorders! My students have really fallen in love with this quirky little instrument and I’m so proud of their progress. Today I stood back as my kids played “Mambo Mary B-A-G”...
Creating plans for a substitute teacher is hard! Whenever I have to take a day off from school I feel like I make plans on plans on plans. Do you ever feel like you spend a whole day just planning for the substitute and then get a post-it note the next day saying “Kids were good.” Is...
This little teacher trick came from one of those crazy moments when you just do something crazy, go with it, and see where it leads. I had a kindergarten class show up at my door one day and they desperately needed something special to get them to pay attention and listen. I’ll be honest, ...
This video has always made me laugh. Patricia Routledge (you might know her as Hyacinth from the BBC’s “Keeping Up Appearances,”) does a wonderful job of acting as an opera diva and really hamming it up for the audience. The basic plot is that the soloist who sings abo...
So, my first year teaching I hated teaching recorder. It was so much work and so much logistical planning and so much stress. It took some time, research, and planning to make it fun. Now I really like playing and teaching recorder. Here are some little tips I’ve picked up along the wa...
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 idea...
Imagine a giant piano keyboard set up in a park for anyone to play. Sounds like fun, right? Step on the keyboard and a note will sound. Find a friend and you can play a song together. Now instead of synthesized piano sounds, imagine that any time you step on a piano key an opera singer sings...
One of my main goals this year is communicating with parents. I want them to know what we’re doing in music class and how that relates to district curriculum, local, state, and national standards. More importantly, I want parents to know what we’re doing in music class and how that...
BI’ve made a podcast episode about this blog post. Check it out on iTunes or wherever you download podcasts! You can also listen to the podcast on the web through this link. Every year I tell my K-1 ...
I’m doing recorder karate with three grades and I ran out of space and ideas about how to show progress for all three grades. I normally try my best to create a visual display so that students can track their progress and show off to others how well they’re doing (see what I USUALLY do...
I’ve written in the past about displaying student progress through a Recorder Karate bulletin board but I wanted to share one more way to display students progress using felt squares and velcro! This mimics another process I’ve done in the past where I built a big and colorful pagodas...