
Tuesday, June 28, 2022
New Lesson Ideas I Loved This Year
Tuesday, June 21, 2022
New Ideas I Loved This Year
I won't lie, this school year was so tough in so many ways. But as I look back, I'm pretty surprised at how many new ideas I tried that were a huge success this year! Today I wanted to share some of my favorite new ideas that I'll be taking into my teaching next year- I hope you find some new ideas to try out yourself!
Tuesday, June 14, 2022
My Favorite Song for Early Childhood
There are so many songs that are so much fun to sing with preschool and Kindergarten but my favorite by far is Miss Julie Ann Johnson. It's just a fun song to sing and because the students get to add their ideas we can sing it over and over again and it never gets old! Here's how I do it (my version is a little different than the ones I see commonly online) and how I use it to reinforce important skills in my early childhood classes.
I've tried over the years to explain my version of the song in writing but it's much easier for me to just demonstrate! Here's a demonstration of the song as I learned it and teach it to my students:
I love pulling this out at the end of the year with my younger students because it is a fun and easy way to get them singing, everyone can get a turn to share an idea (always a winning strategy with early childhood ages), and we can repeat the song every lesson for the last few weeks and it never gets old!
Besides just being a great way to have fun singing together though, I use it to practice various expressive elements, proper singing voice, and proper singing posture. When I first start teaching the song I have students just sing "oh" after each line so they can hear me sing the words, and I tell them I am looking for people using their best singing voices to decide the next part of the story. I also love bringing the song back at the beginning of 1st grade to reinforce proper singing posture, both singing and standing, by telling students I am looking for the students demonstrating appropriate posture to choose the next verse.
Once they know it well and can sing the whole thing with me, I'll throw in some expressive elements by asking students to choose a volume level, speed, or emotion to match whatever words the student came up with. I usually look for opportunities when students choose an idea that lends itself to that (for example I've had students suggest "she's never coming back" for the last verse, or say she's going to swim to another country that's far away, etc, which is the perfect time to get students to think about what sort of feeling or message they can convey with their singing).
I hope you'll try this one out with your younger students- it is definitely one of our favorites and a great one to start or end the school year especially!
Tuesday, June 7, 2022
Teaching Meter in Elementary Music
We spend a lot of time teaching different rhythmic elements, but meter can sometimes get lost in the shuffle. But in terms of music consumption meter is actually an important concept for everyone to understand- perhaps even more so than rhythm! All those jokes about clapping on 1 and 3 come to mind... Here are my favorite ways to teach meter in elementary general music class, including some general strategies as well as several of my favorite specific lesson activities.
General Strategies
The most obvious and frequent strategy I use for exploring and understanding meter is through gross motor movement. I have found Dalcroze techniques are so effective for truly getting the feeling of various meters! I've had students step on the strong beats and clap on the weak beats, or do a vine step for duple and a waltz step for triple- anything that helps students feel and demonstrate the strong and weak beats.
Another similar but less common strategy I use a lot is clapping patterns. I grew up doing clapping games and I love adding them to songs to get even my oldest grades singing with gusto while trying to do some kind of complicated clapping pattern. I usually will either have them clap their own hands or even pat their laps on the downbeat, with other variations of clapping each other's hands on the other beats, to get them to experience the feeling of the meter.
Conducting is another great way to explore meter, and students love getting the chance to really conduct! I first show them the conducting pattern for a specific meter and have them practice conducting with a recording, then I have them conduct with batons to make it feel more authentic. I love showing this video once they've got the basic conducting pattern to get them to explore the expressive elements and conduct with expression!
Specific Lesson Activities
Of course I try to mix in a variety of meters in the songs that we learn in class in general throughout the grade levels, but I always spend some time focusing specifically on triple meter in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade, and focus on other more unusual meters, especially 5/4, starting in 4th grade. Here are my posts my favorite specific lesson activities for each of those:
What are your favorite strategies for teaching the concept of meter and exploring different meters in elementary music class? I'd love to hear your ideas in the comments below!
Tuesday, May 31, 2022
5 Ways to Explore 5/4
Tuesday, May 24, 2022
Dance Playlist 2022
I love finding upbeat, school-appropriate, modern songs to use in my music classes for dance parties, slideshows, field day, and general merriment, and these last few years it has felt especially important to share with all the stress and negativity we're all dealing with. Here are my new picks for this year- be sure to check out my posts from previous years to find more awesome music my students and I love linked at the end of this post!
To make it easier to find all my dance party playlist songs in one place, I've put together a YouTube playlist with all of the songs from all of my previous year's lists including this one! Here's the link to the playlist.
Tuesday, May 17, 2022
Fostering Positive Vibes at the End of the Year
Anyone else feel weighed down by negativity as this ridiculous school year limps towards the finish line? From staff and from students, there is so much heightened emotion, stress, and just straight up exhaustion. Here are three concrete ways I am pushing back against the negative energy to do everything I can to promote positive vibes for my students and for myself through the end of the school year.
1. positive notes
I'm doubling down on recognizing students for positive things. I continue to give happy notes at the end of every lesson (info on that in this blog post), and I've started leaving secret messages on sticky notes for students to find in the morning as well (info on that in this blog post). I'm also making a point of reporting to the principal when a student who often struggles demonstrates genuine effort to do something positive, and make sure my principal talks to that student to let them know what he heard from me. Every bit of positive reinforcement is worth its weight in gold, now more than ever- not just for the students on the receiving end but for me too because it focuses my thoughts on noticing the positives rather than dwelling on the negatives!
2. routines
There's so much disruption to the normal routine at the end of the year because of state testing, schoolwide events, and concert prep. While I am all about changing things up and doing something new and different to hold students' interest, I'm also making sure I'm not letting go of our routines. I'm leaving more time than I have been for each transition, especially at the beginning and end of class, and making sure I'm not skipping anything in the interest of time. Every bit of predictability helps control the chaos for everyone! Here's more info on what I do at the end of class, and what I do at the beginning of class.
3. keep teaching
As much as I sometimes just want to throw on a play-along, or put on some music for freeze dance, and just call it a day, I find I deal with far fewer disruptive behaviors and a lot less negativity when I keep plugging away with teaching content. It's definitely not anything heavy but the students and I all feel more motivated when we all know there's actual purpose to what we're doing, not just killing time. Sometimes that means reviewing concepts we haven't practiced in a little while, sometimes that's starting to preview concepts they'll be learning in the next grade level, and sometimes it's working towards a class performance that I plan to videotape and share with families. Yes, I'm keeping it fun and light, but as much as I may not feel like it when I'm lesson planning it makes things much more pleasant when there is some kind of genuine purpose to what we're doing.
I know it's exhausting out there right now but I hope some of these tips can help someone find a little more joy at the end of this school year! We could sure use it, that's for sure.
Wednesday, May 11, 2022
The Secret Sticky Strategy for the End of the School Year
Things always start to unravel at the end of the school year, but this year the heightened emotions seem even more magnified than usual. I was recently reminded of something I did at the end of the school year years ago that I've started doing again this year, and it has already made a big impact in the first week since I started. If you're struggling to maintain a positive classroom climate, this is an easy strategy you might want to try!
I've been giving a "happy note" to one student at the end of every lesson for years now, and it has been a great tool for building relationships and positive classroom climate. I'm still doing that this year, but this past week I added another layer to that concept: the secret sticky note.
At the end of the day, or whenever I have a few minutes during planning, I write a short (maybe 2-3 sentences) note to a few students on a post-it note. It's not the student who got a happy note that day, but I'm starting with those students who are just always quietly doing what they need to do, or who I've seen making an effort in class. The notes usually say something like, "I just wanted to let you know how proud I am of you for___", or "You are so good at ___", etc and then end with something like, "You are an awesome person". I try to get one or two students each from a few different classes each day.
Before school starts the next day, I go to their homeroom and put the sticky note on their chair or desk where it's not in plain sight but the student will see it when they go to sit down. I don't say anything to them about it, but every single one of them has run up to me to give me a hug, or come in the next class proclaiming, "I am going to do an awesome job again today!"- it has been absolutely magical, and that energy rubs off on the rest of the class. I have no idea if they are telling other students about it and making the others motivated to receive a note as well, or if it's just the positive vibes spreading to everyone else, but it has definitely impacted more than just the individual students who have gotten a note from me.
I am keeping track of who I write notes to on my seating charts, so I'm hoping to get around to everyone before the end of the school year (we have a little less than 6 weeks left). Not only has it been a great way to encourage the students, but it has really helped keep my focus on the positive as well. Rather than spending all of my time outside of class following up on negative behaviors, I'm following up on the positive ones as well, which reminds me of all the great things that are happening in my classroom and all the things I love about my students.
This time of year can start to feel like you're just holding on for dear life- I hope this helps someone else end the school year on a more positive note!
Tuesday, May 3, 2022
3 Songs You Didn't Know Were American
Tuesday, April 26, 2022
Music Teacher Job Search
I know there are a lot of people getting into job search mode right now. Whether you're getting ready to graduate and looking for your first job, hoping to move to a different school or position, or even trying to decide if you should stay in music education or look for something in another field, here are some thoughts and resources for you to consider.
First the topic that seems to be on so many teachers' minds right now: do I even want to continue in music education or look for a job in another field? Do I just need to find a better school/ position or do I need a complete career change? I wrote the post below in 2019, pre-pandemic. I absolutely think it's important and completely legitimate to think through whether you want to remain in teaching in the current pandemic environment, and what teaching/ school has become, specifically. But I also think it's helpful, in terms of discerning whether you maybe just need a break/ need to find a different school environment or if you're cut out for teaching entirely, to think about it through a pre-pandemic lens. No, I don't think all of our current struggles are temporary and things will magically go back to pre-pandemic life, but I also think it's helpful to think beyond the pandemic to what is really at the "core" of music teaching in thinking this through. That's a long explanation to say, as I re-read this post now, I think this is a helpful, concrete framework for those who may be pondering whether to stay or leave the profession:
For those who are looking for a music teaching job, whether it's your first one or you're looking for a different school/ position, here are some specific tips on some of the most common questions I hear: questions to ask the interview panel in your interview, and how to write a philosophy statement for your resume or job application.
Tuesday, April 19, 2022
Science of Sound in Elementary Music
I recently got the chance to design a few brief lessons on the science of sound for my 6th graders and I am really excited about the resources I found to share with students! I'm hoping to expand these lessons more in the future, but today I wanted to share some of what I used in my lessons.
I have done a few one-off lessons here and there, but for the most part I haven't really ever taught my students specifically about the science of sound. This year I happened to have a couple of lessons between units so I decided to throw it in, and it went really well!
We started off by learning about Evelyn Glennie, the Scottish percussionist who is hard of hearing. After watching her perform a concerto, I explained to students that she mostly plays by feel rather than by hearing! She has some wonderful videos talking about how she feels vibrations, and we watched a short excerpt of this video to help students see what that's like. After talking about their prior knowledge around soundwaves, vibrations, etc we watched the first half of this video, and I asked students to look for examples of soundwaves in the video as they watched:
Tuesday, April 12, 2022
3 Lessons to Teach Triple Meter
After working on triple meter with a few different grades recently I was reminded of how much fun it is to teach! If you're looking for some new, fun, engaging ways to teach triple meter, here are some of my favorite lessons.
1. Tinikling
I do a unit on music from the Philippines with my 3rd graders every year, and one of the reasons I do it is so they can review triple meter with Tinikling! If you haven't heard of it, Tinikling is a traditional dance from the Philippines that looks like this:
Tuesday, April 5, 2022
Korean Music in Elementary Music Class
Although I use music from a variety of cultures and traditions regularly in all grade levels throughout the school year, I spend about a month focusing on the music from a particular culture in each grade. I think it is so important for students to have the opportunity to really experience and appreciate the music (and, by extension, other elements) of a particular culture rather than always just including cursory overview lessons in elementary music (such as a "world music" lesson where students listen to, perform, or otherwise learn about music from a bunch of different cultures all in a short period of time). It can be difficult, however, to teach music from an unfamiliar tradition at more than a surface level if you as the teacher don't have experience with the culture yourself! I hope that these resources and ideas will give you the courage to delve deeper with your students- it really is a valuable learning experience for both students and teacher when you do!
I'm bringing back this series I started back in 2016 to share some lesson ideas for another country I shared with my 4th graders last year: South Korea! In the past I have focused on China with this grade, but students were so interested in Korean culture because of K-pop groups like BTS. If you haven't seen my previous posts on music lesson ideas for music from other cultures, I'm including links to all of my other articles with focuses on other countries / cultures around the world at the end of this post so be sure to read to the end.
Tuesday, March 29, 2022
Colombian Music in Elementary Music Class
Today's I'm bringing back this series I started back in 2016 to share some lesson ideas for another country I'll be sharing with my 1st graders this year: Colombia! Obviously with the Encanto craze I couldn't pass up the opportunity to change up our usual focus on Bolivia with them this year. If you haven't seen my previous posts on music lesson ideas for music from other cultures, I'm including links to all of my other articles with focuses on other countries / cultures around the world at the end of this post so be sure to read to the end!
Tuesday, March 22, 2022
(more) YouTube Channels for Elementary Music
Tuesday, March 15, 2022
Female Musicians for Women's History Month (and beyond)
I honestly have never been intentional about doing anything to specifically recognize Women's History Month in my classroom because it falls at the same time as Music In Our Schools Month, but I have been making a conscious effort for years to make sure female musicians of all types are represented in the examples I share, and this year I have been working with my district music department team to highlight some female artists this month. Here are just a few of my favorites to highlight with elementary and middle school students!
She wrote the score for the movie "Encanto" and was recently nominated for an Academy Award.