How to Teach Beginning Harmony

I'm continuing my series on teaching part-singing today with my method for getting students singing in harmony for the first time. If you missed them, be sure to catch up on my previous posts in this series on teaching canons and partner songs (linked at the end of this post)- those two steps absolutely need to be mastered before you start working...

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Tax Documents Organization

Documents that I need for my taxes are starting to show up in my mailbox. It's times like these when the magnitude of adulting hits me the hardest- how in the world am I supposed to keep track of this stuff? Last year I used a simple system to keep all of the documents I needed to file my taxes in one place and it worked really well, so I wanted to...

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Teaching Students to Sing Partner Songs

Last week I went through my process for teaching canon singing, one of the first steps in part-singing. Once students have mastered canons, it's time to move on to partner songs! Today I will be going through my teaching process for teaching students to sing partner songs for the first time. 1. When to start I save partner songs for 4th grade....

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My Top 3 Tips to Help Make Laundry Easier

I know some people despise laundry. I don't hate it, but it's definitely a nuisance, mostly because it's such a time commitment, what with the loading, stain removing, unloading, drying, folding, and put-awaying. Since having my twin daughters my laundry loads have obviously gotten way bigger, and I've developed a few ways to help make laundry a little...

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Teaching Canon Singing

One of the first steps in learning part-singing is through canons/rounds. I love teaching students how to sing in canon- their faces just light up when they are first able to sing in two different parts without my help!! Here is a step-by-step walk through of the teaching process I use to get students singing canons for the first time. First, a...

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Fostering Empathy

Empathy. I've been thinking about empathy a lot lately for a variety of reasons, and today I wanted to talk about fostering empathy as parents. I've always been very conscious of wanting to encourage my daughters to be highly empathic people. I'm not a psychologist or parenting expert, so these are just my personal thoughts on how I think empathy was...

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Music Classroom Organization

With the New Year still fresh in our minds, a lot of teachers (including me!) have organization on the brain! I've shared quite a few organizational tips on this blog over the years- it is half of my name after all- so today I thought I would share some of my favorite organization tips for the music classroom. I hope you find some fresh ideas in this...

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Small Ways to Fight the Winter Blues

Now that the holiday season has ended, many of us are heading into that dreary time of year when it can be hard to maintain a positive disposition. Whether you struggle with Seasonal Affective Disorder or just have a mild case of the winter blues, here are a few strategies that can help lighten your mood in the winter months (and beyond!). *this...

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