Using your Strengths

My old principal always encouraged us to make our classroom unique. She wanted our students to remember their time in our room because of something that was based on us.

In my opinion, one of the great things about being a teacher is the freedom to make your classroom unique. We should all strive to strengthen our weak areas, but I also believe that our classrooms should also focus on our strengths. Include the unique features of your personality and abilities to make your classroom a unique experience. There are many ways to do this.

I remember seeing a drum set on a wish list for another general music teacher and I never understood having a drum set in my room, but now that I do, I can't imagine teaching without it. I am a percussionist and I have had a drum set in my room for two years now. I use it as a play along, during listening games and during many other activities.

I am not saying everyone needs a drum set in their room, but I suggest including things that make your classroom unique. If you play guitar, if you play piano, if you play another instrument or if you have another interest.

I want my students to be excited about music and about learning in general. I also want them to remember their time in my classroom for positive reasons: events or activities. I am alright with being the music teacher who plays drum set.

What are you known for? What activities to kids hear about before they are in you room? What things in your room do they talk about at lunch and recess?

Evaluating Students

I hate grading and trying to find a system that I am happy with has been a constant struggle. This year I am transitioning my grading to standards based, but I am still not sure if I am happy with this process.

Although I hate grades, I see the importance of evaluating my students. Students need to know what they did well and what they need to improve on. Grades were created to show this progress, but I no longer believe that they fulfill this job. Letter based grades are too vague. If a student earned a B on a project, they need to know exactly what they could have done to get an A. They also need to know exactly what they did well. I realize that what I propose is extremely time consuming. I have over two hundred students and I can't imagine having to write all of this for each student. This being said, I think we owe it to our students to find a way to relay this information to them and their parents.

Rubrics and standards based grading are two evaluating processes that I think can help give students specific feedback. The overall goal is that students know exactly why they lost points and exactly why they earned points. If we believe they earned a lower grade, then there needs to be specific feedback as to why they earned it and how they can get better.

All Teachers Matter

I do not want to get up on a soap box and complain about how the fine arts are misunderstood and disrespected, but I do believe that fine art teachers can teach many valuable skills to other teachers. Differentiation and classroom management are inherent parts of many fine arts classes. Students enter the room with varied levels of talent, ability and interest. In order to create a production or music, students need to work together to create it. This working together means all students participate and contribute regardless of talent or ability. Fine art rooms are filled with things to play with. These teachers must have strong classroom management skills in order for these rooms to not become chaos. There are many tricks or tips fine arts teachers can teach us about teaching all students. There are also many tricks and tips that reading teachers, special ed teachers and all teachers can teach us. I am always amazed at the amount of patience special ed and reading teachers must have.

I believe all teachers have ideas they can share with our profession, if we will watch and learn from them. Which teachers do you learn from? Do you skip the specials teachers?

Finding Balance

There was a Twitter chat a few weeks ago about finding balance between school and your family. I have realized this year that being a single teacher is much easier then being married because last year I didn't have to worry about spending too much time at school. Now that I am married, balancing work and my family is much more difficult and I know it is only going to get harder.

I don't believe that school and family can be 50/50 each day, but I do believe that over the course of days or weeks there needs to be balance. I have found the most important factor is staying healthy. Without staying healthy, there is no way I can give my best to my students or my family.

One of my goals for 2013 has been to be a member of the '5 am Power Hour Club.' This is a phrase I learned in a video by Robin Sharma. The idea is to start the morning with 20 minutes of reading, 20 minutes of exercise and 20 minutes planning/journaling. I have found that this time gets me ready for the day and exercise has been key to keeping my stress level down.

How do you find balance?

Kids Say the Darnedest Things

Through a conversation with a colleague, I learned that she keeps a notebook full of funny things kids say in her class. I have always said I was going to do this. I usually end up posting some of them to Facebook (when I remember). At first I thought I should grab a journal and start writing them down, then I decided to make a blog post about it. We have to share our sense of humor or we might all go crazy with the pressures of the job.

1. I like your shirt, I like your hair, I like your whole body.
2. You lived in Alaska, do you know who Michael Jackson is?
3. You look like the type of person who would collect plastic rings from cupcakes.

My New Mantra

The other music teacher in my distinct shared this video with me. I strongly recommend it. It is an important lesson for all adults to remember and it is a lesson we need to teach our children/students. The more fun you have, the better you get, which makes you work harder. It is an ongoing circle. Things that are hard are usually not fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTqDglhzQbw

Idea Bandit

A teacher I follow on twitter mentioned that his school requires teachers to observe each other and then they have to "steal" an idea from their coworkers. The great thing about twitter and the internet in general is it makes this process even easier. As teachers we need to watch other teachers and find ideas that make our teaching better. On the flip side, as teachers we need to make sure our classrooms and ideas are worth stealing.

Are you an idea bandit? Are your ideas worth stealing?