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Best Practices

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This blog post gives you ideas and strategies to set achievable goals and follow through on those targets throughout the school year!
August 18, 2015

Setting Goals and Keeping Them!  HAPPY NEW YEAR!

There’s something so satisfying about walking back into your music room after a few months away, unpacking boxes, rearranging you desk, rethinking your bulletin boards, and starting clean with plans for a new year.  I love that we teachers get this chance every year to reset and restart.  What a […]
Sticky Situation! Using tape in the elementary music classroom.
January 31, 2015

Sticky Situation — Using Tape in the Music Classroom

I love learning and sharing tiny little tricks to make life in the classroom easier. One of my favorite things to do when I walk into a friend’s music room is start asking “Where did you get that?”  “How are you hanging that?” “What brand of (whatever) is that?”  I […]
Why should you teach folk songs, what resources to use, and how to go about doing it!
October 4, 2014

Why Teach Folk Songs? – Resources, How-to, and More

I remember when I first started teaching elementary music I spent my first few months teaching fun songs from the written textbooks that I had access to, favorite lessons from local music workshops, and memorable songs from my own childhood music classes.  But then I hit a wall.  When I […]
August 21, 2014

Orff to see the Wizard, Kodaly borrow your ruby slippers?

One of the things that I love about being a music educator is that there are a ton of ways to teach music to children.  Some of us dwell on rhythm, drums, percussion instruments, and improvisation.  Some people spend the bulk of their time sitting around a guitar or a […]
Tips and tricks to make your bulletin boards the talk of the teachers's lounge!
August 16, 2014

Bulletin Board Best Practices – #1

It’s the beginning of a new year and time to start thinking about what’s to come and forging ahead.  For me, the beginning of the year bulletin board is always a fun and stressful task.  Some of us want to put up a bulletin board that we can use all year […]
I want to talk to you about one of the things that’s been in my head this summer as I plan for the new year: assessment.
June 6, 2014

Perfect Poolside Planning – Thinking About Next Year

No teacher every shuts off their “teacher” brain.  Not really.  We’re always thinking about what could change or what great things we want to improve on.  In the summer I like to think ahead to the new school year and also reflect back on the previous year.  What did I […]
May 28, 2014

Leave a Letter for Yourself

At the end of the school year you’re exhausted.  It’s all you can do to pack away your instruments and materials, input thousands of grades, get through field day/field trips/special assemblies, and make it out the door to summer freedom.  You deserve time in the summer to relax and recharge, […]
Learning objectives posted by grade level and quarter.
February 5, 2014

Learning Objectives Posted by Quarter

I stole this awesome idea from Jennifer Gragson, one of my fellow elementary music teachers in Kansas City, Kansas.  I noticed one day when visiting her classroom that she had all of her learning objectives posted on her board, divided by grade, so that anyone who came in could see […]
Three Classroom Rules for Elementary Music Teachers
January 12, 2014

Three Classroom Rules for Elementary Music Class

The summer before my first year of teaching I was swimming with ideas about what songs I wanted to teach, how to set up my classroom, what things I needed to buy or make, and so much more. Like any good education student who has read “The First Days of […]
October 15, 2013

I CAN Posters – Displaying the National Standards

In my district all teachers are required to post objective questions and “I CAN” statements for every lesson.  Each I CAN statement is intended to help your students understand the point of the lesson focus learning so that kids know what they’re supposed to be able to do at the […]
October 7, 2013

Just a Little Letter… Writing to students!

At my student teaching placement, my cooperating teacher (Debbie Gray) showed me how she would write little notes to all of her students.  She would try and get a letter to each one in a semester so that every student got about two notes a year.  It’s hard to keep […]
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Mark Sixma