Creating Magic

There have been a lot of articles and Tweets about stepping outside your comfort zone.  As I have been working on ideas for this upcoming school year, I realized that my comfort zone was preventing me from trying new ideas.  This is probably going to sound odd, but I do not like public speaking.  I am fine with my students in my classroom, but outside of this area, I get very nervous.  Due to this, I did not do a lot of parent communicating (unless it was forced).  This is one area I am focusing on this year.  I have created a Grade Level Syllabus and I am going to continue to update my Class Website and Digital Portfolios.  My hope is to give parents many platforms to see what is going on within their child's music class.  We all know that true growth and magic happen when we are outside our comfort zone.  

What are you doing this school year to step outside of your comfort zone?  What are you doing this school year to help your students step outside of their comfort zone?  I would love to hear about the new things you are trying in your classroom. 

Procedures

I recently had a Twitter conversation with a fellow music teacher about what to do during the first week of general music.  This conversation really make me stop and think about what I do during the first week and if what I have been doing in the past meets by goals.  During the first week I have two main goals: I want me students to get excited for a new year of music and I want to make sure my students clearly understand procedures.  There always comes a point during the school year where I wish my students would do something a certain way, so I am going to be even more deliberate about procedures this year.

Procedures That I Focus on the First Week
1.  How to enter/leave the music room.
2.  How to sit/seating charts.
3.  Hand signs (sit, stand and rest position.)
4.  Classroom expectations.
5.  Rules for playing instruments.
6.  Talking rules (sometimes I have them raise their hand and sometimes they can "shout" it out.)
7.  Handing out recorders and putting music folders away (3rd and 4th grades.)


What routines and procedures do you feel are the most important in your classroom?  How do you make sure your class starts off the new year in the right direction?

Music Syllabus

One of my goals this year is to be more intentional with my communications with parents.  I realized last school year that many parents do not truly understand what general music means or what it looks like in the year 2013.  Using technology and handouts, I have the ability to easily cure this problem.

I decided to create a "Syllabus" for each grade.  It lists performances and units of study for each month. I hope that this will help keep parents up to date on what is going on in their child's music class.

2013-2014 Music Syllabus

Do you use a Syllabus or similar document to show parents what their children are learning?  I would love to hear how you keep an open line of communication with parents.

Warm Kitty, Soft Kitty

I am starting the year off by using Warm Kitty, Soft Kitty as my August Song of the Month.  Along with being a folk song, many other concepts can be explored using this piece. 

1. Round (Grades 2-4)

2. Orff - Melody 

3. Harmony (Grade 4)

4. Boomwhackers

Recorder Karate 2013

This year I decided to make a slight change in how I organize my Recorder Karate.  In previous years, I have lamented colored pieces of paper and I would write student's names on the corresponding belt sheet when they passed their test.  This became very time consuming for me and my students were continually getting annoyed when I would forget to write their names on the paper.  This year I am trying this setup (I found this idea on Pinterest).  I wrote each student's name on a clothespin and there are responsible for moving it to the right colored plate.

I also use colored string on the end of their individual recorder, but I have found having a bulletin board also aids in student motivation.

Classroom Tour 2013

This will be my second year at the same school and after rearranging many times last school year, I have found a setup that I am happy with.  Therefore, I am only changing a few things for this upcoming school year.

1.  The upper portion of the inside of the classroom door.

2.  The bottom portion of the inside of my door.

3.  Music History Area-Along with the time periods, we keep track of the music we listen to.

4.  Orff Area

5.  Word Wall Area

6.  For some reason I have two pianos in my classroom, so I use one of them has a book area.

7.  The front of my classroom-I post the National Music Standards under the white board so that students know what we are working on.

What I Have Learned...

I am entering my fifth year of teaching.  I feel like I have learned so many important things in a short amount of time and I am excited to learn even more as I continue to teach.

1.  Plastic Tablecloths and Fabric make great backing for bulletin boards.
2.  Hot Glue keeps posters on the wall (Cinder Block) all year while still being easy to remove.
3.  Take the time to make a Sub Folder (I keep mine a draw marked Sub Plans.)  It may seem pointless and time consuming now, but they come in handy when you least expect it.  I keep an updated seating chart, schedule and classroom expectations/routines inside a file folder.
4.  Rubber play mats make a great Orff area (or a place where students will spend a lot of time sitting.)
5.  Students love interactive bulletin boards.  If they are boards that show individual progress, have students be responsible for moving their clip.  This makes it less time consuming for you and it is easier to manage.
6.  If you have waxed floors, talk to your janitor about using acrylic paint.  It will come off with the wax, but students will not be able to pick at it.  I use it to paint a large staff on the floor and to paint seating boxes.
7.  Get to know your secretary and janitors.  Especially as a music teacher, these people are vital to your happiness.
8.  Have an area in your room for books.  It is important to surround our students with literacy.  They need to see that it is not a separate activity.
9.  Take time to eat lunch in the staff room.  It is easy as a specialist to feel like you live on your own island.  It is important to take the time to foster relationships with coworkers.
10. Electronic Calendars make lesson planning easy.  Use the yearly repeat option to copy your lesson plans from year to year.
11.  Keep an up to date class website.  This won't eliminate the use of paper copies (in all schools) but it will help keep parents up to date.  It is vital to keep parents involved and informed.  In most cases, it is harder to cut a program if they know what is going on.  It may seem like people do not care what happens in specials, but this is not an excuse to not keep them informed about your classroom: grading, expectations, events and units of study.
12.  Setup Electronic Portfolios to help parents and the community see what is going on inside your classroom.  Specials have changed a lot over the years and many parents do not truly understand what happens in those classrooms.
13.  Embrace Social Media.  Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook are great tools to reach and communicate with other teachers.
14.  Create a classroom that is unique to you.  Include your personal interests/hobbies and traits that will make your classroom different then others.
15. Create a positivity wall. I moved my desk into my store room and have turned it into a little office. On the wall facing my desk, I have taped many of the cards and poster I have received from students. All teachers have rough days now and then, this wall helps me remember that I am good at my job, even when I feel frustrated or overwhelmed. 

16. At my school we are asked to take all of our bulletin boards down at the end of the year. This is so nothing falls off when they wax. A trick I learned from another teacher is to use paper to cover your bulletin boards. This way nothing will fall off, nothing will fall in the wax and you don't have to take down all the bulletin boards. 

What are the biggest lessons your have learned throughout your teaching career?

Song of the Month

During my Elementary PDS Program, my cooperating teacher did a song of the month.  Her rational, was that it allowed all students to have a song each month that they could sing together.  This allowed siblings, cousins and friends to be able to sing a song together outside of school.  I liked this idea and it is one that I have incorporated into my classroom almost every year.  I try to pick a variety of songs and sometimes they align with individual grade projects.  I also try to pick seasonal songs.  
Note: For this school year I still need to pick a song for August and December.  The December song will be the all school song from our Christmas Program.

2012-2013

August	Apple Tree
September	Michael Finnegan
October	Halloween Song
November	Over the River
December	Frosty
January	Down by the Bay
February	Are you sleeping?
March	Ding Dong
April	Do Your Ears Hang Low
May	Camp Grenada
2013-2014
August	Soft kitty Warm kitty
September	Miss Mary Mack
October	Skin and Bones
November
December
January	Little Miss Sally Walker
February	Swing Low
March	An Easter Basket
April	On Top of Spaghetti
May	I'm A Nut

Coaching Is Not Just For Athletes

The definition of coach (according to my google search) is to guide or instruct a team or person. 

I am a big believer in the power of coaching and I am a product of great coaching, who has seen first hand what can be accomplished when there is someone guiding me.  In my opinion coach and teacher are synonyms.  However, the true meaning of coaching comes out during the evaluation and assessment period. It is during these times that I believe we can learn a lot from athletic coaches. Parents, teachers and administrators can all use the principals of coaching to help teach those around them. 

As a coach and a teacher, my goal is to help my players/students strengthen their current skills and to teach them new ones. All skills are learned and mastered through hard work and repetition. The key to practice is that we have to be practicing correctly. If I only practice how to write with my right hand, I am never going to learn how to write with my left hand. Also, if I am practicing something incorrectly, I am going to master it incorrectly. The role of a coach is to guide us through these practices so we can learn how to perform the skill correctly.  During practice it is vital that feedback is given routinely. Feedback cannot be a once a week/month or year type of thing. During the learning phase it is vital that positive feedback is given so we know how we are progressing. 

I believe the true power of coaching lays in the fact that it's not about if you fail, it's about the process of learning and mastering new skills.  During the learning process we often learn many ways how not to be successful before we master the concept correctly. This is not failing, this is learning. Humans would never learn anything if we gave up after one unsuccessful attempt. 

As a basketball coach we are working as a team towards the same goals of learning the skills and knowledge of the game. How effective would it be if we practiced or had games everyday and once a month I sat down with each player and told them everything they were doing wrong?  I believe this would turn out horribly, yet we continually do this with evaluations on our staff and assessments on our students.  As teachers, we need to give continual feedback to our students.

My goal as a teacher is to help all of my students be successful as individuals.  This requires me to lead and guide each student through their individual learning journey.  It is time consuming and challenging, but I believe there is great power in the coaching model.

What Running a Half Marathon Taught Me About Teaching

This summer I decided to force myself to workout by completing the Runner's World Holiday Run Streak Challenge.  The challenge was simple: run a minimum of one mile per a day, everyday between May 27th and July 4th.  What started as a simple run streak quickly morphed into something completely different.  I am the type of person that struggles once I get an idea stuck in my head and at some point in May I decided that I wanted to try to run a half marathon this summer.  Up until this point, the longest I had ever run was nine miles, so I knew it was going to be tough.  At the same time, I also thought it was achievable.  As it turns out, I was correct.  I completed my first half marathon on July 13th and I was able to accomplish all of my goals for the day: finish, run it in under three hours and don't be last (a speed walker finished roughly ten minutes behind me.)  The process of training and running the race itself taught me many valuable lessons about teaching.

1.  Celebrations-I was in the back of the pack for the entire race and by mile six there was no one within a mile in front or behind me.  Yet, as I crossed the finish line, the other racers cheered like I had won the race.  We need to celebrate all of our students and their accomplishments, no matter how trivial they may seem.  We also need to build strong relationships with our students, so we understand how important little accomplishments may be to them individually.

2.  Awards-I received two medals from this race.  One for finishing and one for finishing second in my age group (you guessed it, there were only two females in my age group.)  I am not saying we need to hand out medals everyday, but we need to reward students for their hard work.  This can be as simple as a high five or a word of congratulations.  The important thing is that students realize that we are on this learning journey with them and that we are proud of their achievements.

3.  Individual Goals-According to my goals, this race was a huge success personally.  I finished in two hours and twenty five minutes, I was not last and I only had to walk once (during the steep hill portion.)  At this point in my life, I run between a ten and twelve minute mile.  Therefore it is pointless for me to compare myself to other runners.  I simply don't compare to those who run miles in under nine minutes.  I understand comparing students to grade level expectations, but we all know that people learn at different rates.  As teachers, we need to set personal goals for our students and help them reach objectives that make sense for them as individuals.  I will feel nothing but disappointment and frustration if I go into a race expecting to run seven minute miles because it is not a realistic goal.

4.  Hard Work-Long runs during training take time and planning.  Running everyday also takes effort and hard work.  Our classrooms need to provide an environment of coaching where students learn the importance of working hard every day.  Achievements are rarely made in one day, but it is constant effort over a period of time that leads to learning new concepts and skills.

Why I Teach...

During Teacher Appreciation Week I accepted a challenge on Twitter to write about why I teach in general.  I have previously written about why I teach music, but I think it is important to reflect and realize why I do the things I do.  Upon this reflection, I realized that I teach for many reasons.

1. Mrs. LaMont

-Mrs. LaMont was my band director during my junior and senior years of high school. She always encouraged me to go outside my comfort zone and to push myself as a musician. She used humor a lot and knew how to deal with my personality characteristics. I have never really like performing in front of people as a soloist (although I love playing music). As I prepared for contest, she would listen from her office or turn her chair away from me.  She was still able to help me without me getting super nervous. She was always willing to help and she would find someone to ask if there was a percussion concept I needed help with. 

2. Mr. Rosine 

-He was my band director during my freshman year of high school. During the summer I had moved from a town of 50,000 to one of 1,500. He was the first music teacher to tell me I was good at percussion. He is a person I grew to trust and while he lives down the street from my parents, he has often been a person I turn to for professional advise.

3. Coach Laura

-Coach Laura was my softball coach during 7/8 summer ball. I have always been exceptionally hard on myself. She pulled me aside during practice and talked to me about staying calm and the importance of not beating myself up mentally over mistakes. She helped me learn that making mistakes is alright and expected. 

4. Coach Clark

-She was my softball coach during my first three years of college. She is the coach who I try to mirror many of my coaching philosophies on. During my three years playing for her, I learned what real hard work looks like and the importance of perseverance. She cared about us as players and more importantly as people. I received a phone call/card on my birthday (as did every player), I received a graduation present/card and she sent flowers for my senior recital. 

My hope is to be a positive role model for my students. I have been blessed to have many positive influences and I feel it is my duty and responsibility to try to be the same positive influence for my students. 

It's the Final Countdown

This summer has been the first one since 2011 that I have not had to move, drive 3200 miles (Alaska to Wisconsin) or have any other huge life change (AKA marriage).  Without these big events,  I have been able to enjoy my time and use this summer as a time to recharge and have my passion for teaching rekindled.  As I sit down to type this, I have thirty days left of my summer break.  I am excited about all I have accomplished this summer and I look forward to doing even more in the next month.

Summer Goals

1.  Modern Lessons- Thru Twitter I discovered the website Modern Lessons.  It contains many free online classes on a variety of topics: social media, tools for teachers, technology and business tools.  I have completed one of the classes: A Must-Have Guide to Google In Education and I am currently working thru two other classes: How To Make A Professional Online Resume and Introduction to The iPad in Education.  I have found these classes to be very useful and full of helpful information that I can transfer to my classroom.

Final Goal- To finish three more lessons: The Beginner's Guide to YouTube, Integrating the iPad Into The Classroom and How To Make A Professional Online Resume.

2.  Google Apps Training Center-I decided against paying to take the tests, but I am still reading thru all of the test preparation material.  I work in a Google Apps District, so I have found the information to be helpful.  I thought I had a pretty good grasp on how to use Google Programs, but these training modules have helped me expand my understanding of the programs.  I have finished the Google Apps in Education and Gmail Modules and I am currently reading thru the Calendar Module.

Final Goal-Finish the last 4 modules: Calendar, Drive, Sites and Other Tools.

3.  Book A Day Challenge-As I have mentioned in other posts, I am a self-professed book worm, so this challenge just gave me justification for reading everyday.  Since May 22nd I have read 59 books.

Final Goal- Read 41 more books to reach 100 for the summer.

4.  Run Streak-I originally started this when it was the Runner's World Holiday Run Streak.  The goal was to run a minimum of one mile per a day between Memorial Day (May 27th) and Independence Day (July 4th).  One July 4th, I ran my 100th mile during the streak and decided I wanted to keep going until school starts in the middle of August.  I realize that for a real runner, 100 miles in 43 days is not that impressive, but for me, who has had a hard time sticking to running programs in the past, it has been a huge accomplishment.

Final Goal- Run 76 more miles to reach 200 miles for the summer.

5.  Spending Time with Family/Friends-Summer and time off are both great excuses to spend time with my family.  During the course of the school year, these relationships often play second fiddle to school/coaching commitments.  Hiking, biking, golfing, family vacations and weekend trips have filled my calendar this summer.  It has been a wonderful time!

What are your goals for the final weeks of summer vacation?  How to you rekindle your passion for teaching and the field of education.  Summer is a great reminder that we need to take care of ourselves so we can truly serve those around us.  Enjoy the rest of your 2013 Summer!

Using A Blog As A Professional Portfolio

I have been planning on creating an electric portfolio using google sites. The other day I read a blog post about how a principal aligned his blog categories to Administraion Standards. This idea allowed me to create a portfolio without having to update an extra site. I teach in Illinois and my district is transitioning to the Danielson Model. Therefore, I have organized my blog posts by the four domains of Danielson. 

Domain 1: Planning and Preparation 1a Demonstrating Knowledge of Content and Pedagogy 1b Demonstrating Knowledge of Students 1c Setting Instructional Outcomes 1d Demonstrating Knowledge of Resources 1e Designing Coherent Instruction 1f Designing Student Assessments	Domain 2: Classroom Environment 2a Creating an Environment of Respect and Rapport 2b Establishing a Culture for Learning 2c Managing Classroom Procedures 2d Managing Student Behavior 2e Organizing Physical Space
Domain 3: Instruction 3a Communicating With Students 3b Using Questioning and Discussion Techniques 3c Engaging Students in Learning 3d Using Assessment in Instruction 3e Demonstrating Flexibility and Responsiveness	Domain 4: Professional Responsibilities 4a Reflecting on Teaching 4b Maintaining Accurate Records 4c Communicating with Families 4d Participating in a Professional Community 4e Growing and Developing Professionally 4f Showing Professionalism