July Favorites 2020

This July is definitely not like other July's.... I am never one to completely unplug from school in the summer but this year in particular has been full of reopening committee meetings, curriculum re-writes, and general sitting around worrying about how in the world this is all going to work. But there was still plenty of family time, outdoors time, and some good progress towards a sense of what "school" could look like in the fall (which is always a good thing). Here are some highlights from this past month, taken from my Instagram photos!

1. Virtual Conference

One of the highlights of the month was definitely presenting and participating in the Music Crew virtual conference! I presented 2 sessions, one on curriculum planning for the upcoming Year of Insanity, and one on diverse cultural perspectives in general music, and I thoroughly enjoyed the conversations that came from both of those. I also learned a ton from watching the other presenters- I got so many great ideas for distance teaching for early childhood classes, google slides hacks, and more! If you didn't get a chance to see the sessions yet you can still access all of them for free here on Facebook.

2. Curriculum Work

This may sound silly if you don't know me well, but making some concrete progress this month on my curriculum planning to prepare for the upcoming school year has been a major highlight for me because it has helped ease so much anxiety. I wrote a whole blog post about what I did here if you missed it!

3. Teacher Community

I know, this doesn't look like a happy picture. I definitely wasn't happy when I took it. But as I was working on clearing out my classroom to get it ready to be used by someone else while I go on a cart, I shared the process on Instagram and was so encouraged by the response I got from the teacher community! It was another reminder that we're all in this together, and I ended up feeling so much better about my situation and the prospect of the school year after reading the responses!

4. Articles I Read

I love finding articles from other music education blogs to read and share every week on my Facebook page- here are the ones I read and loved this month (be sure to click on each image to read the full posts)!

That's it for this month! Honestly there was a lot I didn't capture in a photo- the lazy days at home, time with extended family, hikes, and spontaneous trips to the ice cream store- that I loved in July too, that I can't forget about either. In the midst of the crazy there is plenty for which to be grateful. I hope you have those moments of joy to look back on as well.