Welcome!

Hello all, and welcome to my page!

I am a 3rd year music teacher in Ohio, and after reading hundreds of blogs this summer thanks to Pinterest, I decided to try to write my own. In my district, I am the only music teacher for the Preschool through 3rd Grade classes. Each class comes to me once a week, with the exception of 3 first grade classes that get to visit twice (don't ask how they picked which ones would visit twice, it's a mystery to me). I have 2 classrooms, one of my own and one I share with another music teacher.

As with any new music teacher, I feel like I am constantly redoing things to find the absolute best way to reach each and every student. I am open to new ideas, so if you have any thoughts or comments, please feel free to share with me!

I'd like to start with a tour of my main classroom, the one I don't have to share.

I am blessed with a large room, where we have 2 different areas to work. Most of the time my students sit on the colored mats you see in this picture. I like having them sit in a square because it makes it easier for traditional circle games and I am able to see all of the students. The mats are great because I give the students the choice of sitting "criss-cross applesauce" or on their feet, and they can see where they need to be to be in their own personal bubble.

Throughout my first year as a teacher, my principal kept suggesting that we all post schedules and objectives for the students to see. I did not realize how beneficial it was until I created these 2 boards side by side. On the right, I made pockets out of the scraps from laminating (you know, those really long tails that you always have to throw away?) and made generic descriptors for the activities we do on a regular basis. Every week, I change around the activity cards so students can see what we will be doing. Even the kindergarteners start to catch on to what word is what by the end of the year because we use the same activities throughout the year.

The left board is a new one I added this year. I had been posting my goals for each class as "I Can" statements, but I decided to dedicate a board to the goals this year. I laminated white bulletin board paper to make the piano keys, and cut them out and stapled them to the black background. I take an overhead marker and write the various goals for each grade level on the keys, and when it's time to change them, it's easy to wipe the keys clean with a wet paper towel. The kids love being able to see what I expect from them before we even begin class.

This is my other new bulletin board this year. I spent time this summer typing up bios for many different composers, and I am featuring a different one every month. I am doing centers a few times this year to see students in smaller groups, and this area turns into the "Composer Center" where the kids draw what the music makes them think of or fill out a listening glyph while listening to music by the composer. The listening glyphs I use can be found here.

In this picture, you can also kind of see that I lined my white board at the front of the room to make a giant staff. It took me a few hours to get it exactly how I wanted it (using electrical tape and a ruler for straight lines), but I find myself using the staff on a daily basis.

A big project this summer was redoing my entire behavior system for my classes. I had been making classes earn stickers to move towards a "music fun day" where we played games that they chose, but there were some classes that had a difficult time listening, and did not care that it took them half the school year to earn their first "fun day." After seeing the "Rockin' Behavior" guitar on pinterest from this site, I decided to create guitars for each grade level. Each class has their own clothespin labeled with the teacher's name. At the end of every class, we decide whether or not we followed the music rules. If they did, their clip moves up toward the words "We Rock!" If they did not follow the rules, their clip moves down. This has been very effective because the classes get to see how their class's behavior compares with that of the others in their grade. When a class reaches "We Rock!", we have a "Rockstar Day" where they get to choose from a list of games or movies for the next class period. After the "Rockstar Day," we reset back to the green in the middle of the fret board.

Any comments and/or questions are more than welcome!