December Favorites 2018

The last "favorites" post for 2018- crazy! Of course December is always a fun-filled month so it's hard to choose, but here are some highlights from the past month, told through some of my Instagram photos. Come follow along for some inspiration, and share your own favorites in the comments!

1. Concerts, assemblies, and field trips, oh my!

December is always a crazy busy month for me and this year was no exception! I don't have any pictures from the concerts and programs themselves to share but this corner of my planner with the 4 additional to-do lists (on top of the regular to-do list I have on the opposite page!) sums up the craziness that was December. Sure, it was overwhelming at times, but for the most part I honestly enjoyed seeing my students' success so much this year- what a great way to celebrate all of our hard work! And seeing them genuinely enjoying themselves while performing was amazing. And yes, it's also a highlight to be able to check all of those off of my list and pat myself on the back! ;)

2. Holiday music conversation

Related to all of those aforementioned events and performances: the thought-provoking conversation I had with some very wise educators on Instagram about the place of holiday celebrations in schools and in particular, the way Christmas is centered over other holidays in most US American classrooms. I am most certainly not done with this conversation and hope to continue to think and listen and share. If you didn't see it yet, I saved some of my posts on the topic to my Instagram story highlights (you can see them on my profile page). I'd love to hear your thoughts on this as well!

3. Advent activities

This is always my top highlight for December: doing little Christmas-related activities each day leading up to the 25th with my daughters. And each year is more fun as the girls get older! If you don't know what I'm talking about here's the blog post where I shared my list of activities I planned for this year along with a description of how I made the super simple advent calendar I use each year.

4. Music education blog posts

I love finding great ideas from other bloggers to share each Friday over on my Facebook page! Here are all the amazing posts I shared this past month- if you haven't yet, be sure to read them all:

What were some of your highlights from December? What are you looking forward to in January? I'd love to hear about them in the comments. I hope you found some fresh inspiration amongst my "favorites", and I wish you all the best in the new year!