To Be Involved or Not....

After church this morning, my husband and I attended a P.U.S.H Meeting. Our church has been having these meetings for the last few weeks. Like many businesses and organizations our church is struggling financially. We discussed many causes and solutions to cure our budget issues, but for me it all came down to one thing... People are more involved when they feel like a valued member of the group. It is all about relationships.

During this meeting, I started relating these problems to issues I see in education. I was fortunate to spend the last two years working at a great school in Alaska. It was a small school in a small and tight knit community. Concerts at schools were public events and the community was very involved in the school. Teachers were also very involved in the school outside of regular hours. With such a small staff, everyone was needed to help run after school programs and extra events. My experiences in Alaska reminded me that people put more time and energy into things when they feel valued and respected. Like I have said in other posts, I am a firm believer that life comes down to relationships.

As a first year teacher at my current district, I feel compelled to be involved in extra activities. I enjoy coaching and being involved in duties outside of teacher, but it is also a way to keep my job. I am not saying that every teacher needs to spend the majority of their life at school. I am a big believer in balance. I am suggesting that all teachers find something outside of their classroom to be involved in. Our schools should be focal points of the community. Schools would be reaching out to the community and the community should be helping at schools. Like the old saying says, "It takes a village to raise a child."

Are our schools welcoming places where teachers, staff, students and families feel valued? Are they places where people want to be? Are we all working together for a common goal or are we expecting others to do the work? Positive relationships build amazing things!

Why Twitter?

I know professional development is vital to the success of our schools, but I usually dread inservice days. As a music teacher, I rarely find these meetings to be helpful or useful. I usually end up sitting there frustrated because I could be using that time much more wisely in my classroom. Ironically, I learned about Twitter at an inservice. I have to admit this inservice and the Love and Logic session I attended last year are the two best inservice experiences I have had during my career.

Professional development is important, but at the same time inservice days tend to do little to excite me or teach me new things. This is where Twitter comes in. Twitter is like working with an entire district of music teachers and tech specialist. Plus tons or creative and innovative teachers, principals and people in general. Twitter is usually the first place I go when I have a question. Through following other teachers and participating in chats I have learned a wealth of information.

I strongly suggest Twitter to all teachers. It is a great tool to learn and a place to get new ideas.

Books I Recommend...

These are educational books and resources that I strongly recommend all teachers read. They are listen in no specific order. I enjoy reading, so I would love any recommendations on books to read.

Rhythms of the Game by Bernie Williams
How Children Succeed by Paul Tough
Teaching with Love and Logic by Jim Fay and David Funk
The End of Molasses Classes by Ron Clark
The Essential 55 by Ron Clark
The Excellent 11 by Ron Clark
The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman
-I was given this book as a Wedding Gift and I found it to be exceptionally helpful as a wife and as teacher. It is not a book focused on education, but it is a great reminder that our students have different needs when it comes to praise.
Love and Respect by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs
-This is another book I received as a Wedding Gift. Again, it is not focused on education, but I saw a lot of parallels. Between how staff interacts and how teachers interact with students.

Class Dojo

I am piloting Class Dojo with my first grade classes. I am hoping that the extra positive reinforcement will be beneficial for them. I have decided to use only positive points and I have the points aligned to our class expectations. I am afraid that I will become to engrossed in tracking points that it will disrupt class, so I am curious to see how it goes. I explained to my students that not everything will be tracked and they will never know when I will write something down.

Class Expectations (based on the Love and Logic Philosophy)
1. I teach when there are no distractions or other problems.
2. I listen to students who raise their hand.
3. I listen to one person at a time.
4. Please treat me with the same respect that I treat you.
5. If someone causes a problem, I will do something
6. What I do, will depend on what happened and what the person is willing to do so solve the problem.

Expectations that earn points.
1. Participation
2. Raising your hand
3. Sitting respectfully
4. Talking in turn

My hope is the points will encourage my students to act the right way and will be a sign that I do notice how they act. I am curious to see how it works.

Resources I Use....

I work in a district that has a 1:1 iPad initiative for all teachers. Along with an iPad, I use a school issued desktop and a large computer monitor. At the moment, I do not have a projector in my classroom.

These are not ranked in any specific order...

1. Google Drive (App)-This is one of my favorite apps. It allows me to share documents easily and I can work from my iPad both online and off.
2. YouTube-music for lessons and uploading class videos.
3. Class Dojo-It keeps track of behavior.
4. Twitter-Some of the best PD has come during chats I have had on Twitter with other teachers and other music teachers.
5. Google-My school district is a google district. Along with the basics of email and calendar, I use Google Sites for my class webpage. I also use Google Calendar for my lesson plans.
6. MusiciansKit-I use it mainly for the voice recorder, but having a tuner and metronome is always helpful.
7. iTunes-At the beginning of the year I burned all of my curriculum CDs to my school computer and from there I out them on my iPad. I created playlists by grade level. It takes away having to change CDs and is a lot more convenient. I have a basic stereo with audio in that. Plug my iPad or laptop into.
8. Virtuoso-Having a piano that I can play while sitting on the floor with my kids is extremely useful. Plus, my kids think it is very neat that I have a piano on my iPad.
9. The Drum Dictionary- I teach percussion lesions and this app makes it very easy to show my kids rudiments of other percussion beats. They can see and the specific rudiment or beat.
10. Melody Street- A great way to introduce you get kids to the parts of an orchestra.
11. Evernote-I was recently introduced to Evernote and I am slowly using it more and more. Right now, I am mainly using it to organize articles and lesson plan materials.
12. Skitch- The ability to write on pictures is a great way to make tutorials.
13. Penultimate- use this app as a white board.
14. Reflector App-Anything on my iPad can now be seen on my computer screen.


Apps that I would like to start using more of in my classroom.
1. Haiku Deck-I have made slides about instruments and composers. It is a great way to easily find pictures about topics we are studying.
2. Rhythm Flashcards-I can see this becoming an assessment tool. It is also a different way to do rhythm reading exercises.
3. Rhythm Training-I can see this becoming another great assessment tool. It gives rhythm exercises for you to clap.
4. ABRSM Music Apps-They have rhythm, pitch and ear training exercises. I could see this becoming an assessment tool.

If I Was in Charge of a School....

I have no intention of going into administration, but this is my dream school (if money was not an issue and there were no state or federal mandates.)

1. Students would have music and art every other day on an AB rotating schedule.
2. Students would start using Kidblog in second grade.
3. Once a month there would be an all school talent show and art show during lunch.
4. Students would have PE everyday.
5. Teachers would observe each other and steal ideas from them to incoorperate into their own classrooms.
6. Observations would be about sharing ideas and getting better.
7. The lead learner (AKA principal) would teach at least one class a semester.
8. Students would have library three times a week.
9. The building would have big open rooms and the hallways would be colorful.
10. The hallways would be full of student work.
11. Each classroom would have a website.
12. Standardized tests would not exist.

This is my dream. I realize that it would not all be possible. What does your dream school look like?

At the End of the Day...

Today was one of those days that tries to shake my confidence as a teacher and I can't even name a specific reason. Its all the little things that mix together. This time of year is also a little stressful for specials teachers because the powers that be are trying to figure out our schedule, so we are often left in the dark about what/where we will be teaching next year.

I use the wall next to my desk as a place to put pictures students have given me. Over the course of this year, more and more pictures are covering that portion of the wall. This has become my positivity wall. It is a place where I can turn to when I have a "rough" day. It is a reminder of the positive things in my job.

At the end of the day, no matter how frustrated I get with the politics and the extra stuff of teaching, the only thing that matters and the thing that keeps me coming back each day and year are the kids. My positivity wall is a constant reminder of why I teach. The kids are what is important.