Happy New Year! I know many teachers are beginning this new semester with student teachers from local universities. The experience of having a student teacher can be exciting, daunting, and stressful all at the same time. You never know what it is going to be like when handing your classroom over to another person. I… Continue reading Starting Out With Student Teachers
Tag: Classroom
Back to School
This is my second week of school and we are in full swing now! For me back to school is an exciting time and I love seeing my students again and getting to make music with them. I teacher 1st-4th graders, so it is nice when I see my 2nd-4th graders they already know my… Continue reading Back to School
Assessment Ideas
In the past I have felt uncertain about how to assess my students that helped them and helped me. I had done singing assessments and written assessments at the beginning of my career that just did not fit with the kind of teaching I was doing. I was having to stop the learning to do… Continue reading Assessment Ideas
Curriculum, Planning, & More
Curriculum I started a very basic form of curriculum in my first few years, but it wasn't helping as much as I had hoped. Then, I took a music-curriculum course. It was lead by Arvida Steen and Jay Broeker, Orff-Schulwerk legends. They helped us to start out with just a basic list of things to… Continue reading Curriculum, Planning, & More
I Can Statements
Mallets & Music : I Can Statements There are never enough hours in the day, and there are especially never enough minutes in a music class it seems. Over the past few years it has seemed that the minutes of "music making" keep decreasing due to the various other educational things I have been asked to… Continue reading I Can Statements
Formative Assessments & Exit Slips
I have tried to do different exit slips over the past few years. They are a great tool to use as well as a great thing for principals and observers to see. Over the past few years I tried post-it notes, small pieces of paper, thumbs up/down; all to no avail. It was either too… Continue reading Formative Assessments & Exit Slips
Music Around the World
I love to use songs, games, and activities from cultures all over the world. I try to help my students learn as much as I can about the world outside of their school district and state. When we learn a song or game from another country we use the Music Around the World board to… Continue reading Music Around the World
