Thriving Between Spring Break and Summer

Sometimes it can feel like the best we can do is try to survive in that time between spring break and summer vacation. Everyone has gotten a taste of freedom, the sunshine outside is beckoning, and everyone's mind is on the fun and relaxation they're looking forward to. But honestly? I love teaching at this time of year. I've thought a lot about what it is that helps me thrive at this time of year, and today I want to share some of what I think makes the difference.

1. No countdowns.

So many of us do it but I think we all know, wishing the present time away does not help us enjoy the here and now. Instead of saying- or even thinking- "5 more Mondays!" or "13 school days until summer!", I intentionally focus on the fun lessons and activities I'm looking forward to doing in this season- read more of my thoughts on this in this blog post.

2. Plan exciting lessons with low mental load

I've found there's a sweet spot for lesson content this time of year. Straight-up review gets boring fast and students catch on quickly when we're just filling time, but trying to push them to learn a bunch of new skills and concepts is more work than they're willing to do when they'd rather be playing outside. New and exciting material that applies the skills and concepts they've learned in fresh ways keeps lessons engaging without being overwhelming. I've written about how I do this in more detail, including specific examples, in this post:

3. Spread positivity with students

It can be hard to stay positive at the end of the school year when students are so distracted and hyper, but I've found when I force myself to find ways to dole out positive reinforcement, the results are quite dramatic and it's way less work than I thought. Plus it puts me in a better mood! Here are some specific ways I keep the positivity going with my students at the end of the year:

4. Spread positivity with adults

Just as much as spreading positivity with students can have a big impact on my own experience, so can spreading positivity with the other adults in my building! And it can have a big impact on the climate of the entire building, which will spill into students' moods coming into my classroom. It makes my job that much easier when the vibes are right in the rest of the school! I put a lot more energy into low-effort, low-cost ways to meaningfully build staff morale, and I really do think they have made a difference. I've compiled all my ideas in this post:

5. Self care

As much as I try to help spread positivity to others, it's equally important to intentionally care for my own well-being! The two biggest things I do to this end are 1) taking concrete steps to maintain a positive outlook for myself and 2) managing my own work load and stress levels by cutting myself some slack in all areas of my life. I've written about the specific, concrete steps I take to do each of these in these posts:

I'm not trying to sugarcoat how exhausting it can be to teach at the end of the year, or suggest that we should never vent or express frustration when we're frustrated. I'm just suggesting that, instead of only complaining and going into survival mode, we can take conscious, concrete steps to actually enjoy ourselves in this season (at least more often than before). What do you do to keep yourself going at the end of the school year? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

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Lesson Plans that Work Between Spring Break and Summer

Finding lessons that will keep students engaged after spring break is difficult. Younger students are antsy, older students are checked out. On the one hand you don't want to try to teach new concepts because they're probably not going to remember it by next fall anyway, but there's no way you can "tread water" and just review for 2 months without losing them either! I've found there's a certain sweet spot that keeps students engaged without going beyond what they can handle that works really well for me and my students between spring break and summer that I highly recommend implementing to make the end of the school year actually fun and not something to just hope to survive!

I've realized there are some common threads in all the lessons that I've found effective this time of year, no matter the age group: they take skills and concepts that are comfortable and put them in fresh new contexts. The lesson activities feel new and interesting but not intimidating. Basically I imagine the "zone of proximal development" shrinks after spring break- that space that is past the "I already know this and it's boring" but not at the "this is too hard so I'm checking out" still exists and is still what I'm aiming for, but it's a much smaller circle than it is the rest of the school year. 

1. Application instead of review

I definitely plan lesson activities that are "just" review at the end of the year as well, but I certainly can't do that for a full 6 weeks without students checking out! I've realized that what really works is essentially taking the skills and concepts I want to review and teaching students to apply them in different ways. This is where the units I do each spring on a specific culture's music work really well (see those plans in this previous post), as well as units I've done this time of year with older students on composition. These lessons definitely aren't just reviewing things they've already done, but they are taking those fundamental skills and concepts they've been working on all year and applying them to a new context and/or combining them in new ways. It feels new and exciting- kids go home saying "guess what I learned today"- but it doesn't require much mental stretch, it doesn't feel overwhelming.

2. New material instead of new skills

I learned early in my career that as soon as I give up on teaching and just try to fill time, even if it's fun activities, I start to see a lot more problematic and disruptive behaviors in my classroom. But that doesn't mean their brains are ready to handle, let alone retain, new learning! The key is to keep the "how" new, not the "what". So I'm taking concepts and skills they're familiar with already and applying them to new contexts, whether that's new genres like the music from a new culture, or new ways of contextualizing like composition projects that give students a chance to combine and implement concepts and skills in new ways instead of practicing them in isolation. 

Maybe this is a strange analogy but I think of this phase of the school year kindof like retirement: you want to still be productive and have meaning and purpose in life, but you don't want to work too hard- you want to celebrate the work you already did and enjoy the fruits of your labor and the relationships you've built along the way. 

I really believe there are a lot of different factors that can contribute to a positive experience between spring break and summer, and I know one thing that can hold teachers back from planning lessons like I've described here is the sheer burnout we feel from just being exhausted ourselves. One thing that can help is making our own mental and emotional wellbeing a priority- I've written about what I do to maintain a positive mindset for myself at the end of the school year in this post. And hey, the links above to my posts on music from different cultures and composition projects will take care of the lesson planning work for you! Here's to thriving in the final stretch between spring break and summer!

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Keeping Positive: post-spring break teaching

I'm not quite there yet but I know in many places, teachers are coming back from spring break and saying to themselves, "oh boy, hang on tight because here we go". Teaching between spring break and the end of the school year can be wild ride, and it can make you dread going to work. Here are some things I do to take control of my mood and keep myself in a positive mindset.

1. Monitor your mood

The first step I have started taking more and more consciously during stressful times of year is keeping a close eye on my own mood/ stress levels. I can't do anything well if I'm overtired, stressed, or anxious, least of all handle end of year teaching. I have a regular year-round habit of sitting with a cup of coffee in silence each morning, and this is always my time to process and gauge where my mood is as well. It's important to find ways to stay in touch with your own mental and emotional wellness regularly- if you aren't a morning person like me with the luxury of slow mornings, printing out a poster that asks, "how are you?" and putting it somewhere you'll see it every morning (in the bathroom/ on a bedside table/ in your closet), designating something you wear every day to be a mental cue to check in with yourself (I have an elastic bracelet I wear for this purpose when I know I'm stressed), or asking a trusted friend to check in with you can be good ways to keep reminding yourself to check in.

2. Identify the source

If I realize I'm feeling stressed or anxious or dreading the day in general, I try to go through the list of things I'm thinking about/ preparing to do that day to identify more specifically what it is that's causing my stress/ dread. Sometimes it's one specific class that has been difficult to manage, a lesson I've planned that I'm not sure will go over well, a particularly hectic work schedule, or something totally unrelated to teaching entirely. Identifying the source of the stress more specifically makes it more concrete, gives me more clarity on how I can address and manage it, and often makes it less overwhelming when I realize it's not my entire life I'm dreading!

3. Make a plan

It wouldn't be an "organized chaos" strategy without putting a plan in place! Once I've identified what it is that's got me in a funk, I try to think concretely about how to address it. If it's a difficult class, I come up with a strategy to help the class go better. If it's a hectic schedule, I look through my day and come up with ways to make my life easier, whether that's ordering takeout for dinner or making some of my lesson plans less complicated. 

Writing it all out like this makes it seem like this is a long and involved process- it usually isn't. Because I make sure I'm monitoring myself regularly, I usually catch things before it gets too overwhelming, and it's not that hard to identify what's bothering me and come up with a solution. Oftentimes the whole thought process takes all of 2 minutes. Sometimes when things get really stressful I do have to take more time to work through the whole thought process- I might be processing what's going on and thinking through solutions the whole time I'm getting ready for work, getting the kids to school, and driving to my school. But it really does make a big difference in my effectiveness, especially this time of year!

If you're feeling like you're in the thick of it, I hope this helps you break out of the depressing "just survive until summer" mindset and find ways to get yourself in the right frame of mind to actually enjoy this time of year! I'd love to hear other things you do to make the end of the school year more enjoyable- leave a comment down below. 

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Designing a Unit on a Culture's Music

Every spring I look forward to the unit I include in every elementary grade level I teach, doing a deep dive into one culture's music. I've shared lesson plans for many of the units I've taught over the years from cultures all over the world, and over time I've developed a formula for what elements I include in each of these units. Here is that formula, which you can apply to any culture you may want to study in your general music classroom, to help students get as much breadth and depth as possible in the limited class time that we're given.

1. Travel videos

Whether it's an official video from the tourism bureau of that country, a vlog from a tourist, or anything in between, I find it really helps students get a glimpse of what the area is like when I can show them footage from different parts of that region. Nowadays I can find high definition, high quality footage pretty easily on youtube that is current, and I always try to find a mix of videos that show industry and agriculture, urban and rural, traditional and modern, and representative glimpses of all the different types of terrain they have. I like to throw in 1-2 minute clips into the lessons each day so students can picture what it looks like in the modern day.

2. Language introduction

This is something I started doing in more recent years and I don't know why I didn't do it sooner! When I am first introducing the culture to the students, if it is not primarily an English-speaking culture, I teach them a few basic words and phrases in the primary language(s). If I know it well enough I will teach them myself, otherwise there are, again, so many great youtube videos where you can listen to native speakers teaching you basic greetings and phrases in quick, engaging formats, including videos specifically for kids/ youth. I've found starting with some basic language introduction again makes them feel more immersed in the culture in general and also makes them more comfortable with the language when we start learning songs in that language.

3. Traditional instruments

I find instruments are such a great entry point for learning about a culture's music, and obviously the more distinct instruments will be the traditional ones from that culture (rather than the ones often being spread around the world in modern music). I use these resources to introduce what the instruments look and sound like, explore how they're used in context, how they work, and compare and contrast them with other instruments students already know.

4. Current music

Another great entry point for learning about a culture's music is the music that is popular today. I like to sprinkle in some different examples of music videos of songs that are popular now from a broad range of genres throughout the unit, and I always try to find some examples of fusion music, where traditional musical elements are incorporated into modern music, whether that's a traditional instrument, vocal style, or other musical element. It really helps students start to see how different cultures preserve and respect their traditions in different ways.

5. Children's song(s)

I always try to find a song or two that children in that culture around the age of the students I'm teaching would learn in school and/or play on the playground themselves. I especially look for songs that have games with them, whether it's a passing game, a circle game, or some type of movement to go with the song.

6. Traditional dance and/or instrumental piece

In most cultures around the world, dance is an integral part of their musical traditions. In many cultures, there are specific instrumental ensembles that are archetypal features of that culture's music. I often include dance in the younger grades and instrumental ensembles in the older grades, but sometimes I'll switch that up- it mostly depends on what the primary features are of that culture's musical traditions, and what is going to be accessible for the students. 

If you want to learn more about how I find resources for each of these categories, and how I check to make sure they are "authentic" to that culture, here is a previous blog post I wrote on that. If you want to see all of the units I've shared (11 so far!), this blog post has links to all of them. 

Of course this list is certainly not exhaustive! I'd love to hear your questions, and what other elements you include in your units, in the comments.

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Teaching Major and Minor

To be honest I was shocked to realize recently that I've never written a blog post on my favorite ways to teach major and minor- I love teaching tonality in my upper elementary grades! It's so much fun when they finally start to get it. They always seem to feel like they've unlocked the mysteries of the universe! Here are a few of my favorite ways to teach the difference between major and minor.

1. Demonstrate familiar songs in both tonalities

I think the easiest way to demonstrate the difference between major and minor is to take a song students already know that is originally major and show them what it would sound like in a minor key. When I'm first introducing the concept I'll play a few different major and minor chords and scales on the piano for them to get the basic idea, then I play something simple like "Twinkle Twinkle" in the original major key and then change it to minor (added bonus= students always think I'm a genius when I whip this out). I also use youtube videos that do this exact thing: I love showing the original "What a Wonderful World" and then this minor version by Chase Holfelder, and this compilation of major songs turned minor AND minor songs turned major by The Gregory Brothers (note: I don't show this whole video- some of the songs included in the compilation I'm not comfortable showing in 4th/5th grade- but it's perfect to show an excerpt). These videos are also a good opportunity to tease out what else besides the tonality they've changed to make them sound happy or sad.

2. Sing and play 2 similar songs

One of my favorite ways to really get students to experience the difference between major and minor, once they've got the basic idea, is to have them sing and play instrumental accompaniment with 2 songs- one major and one minor- with a similar theme. For example when I do this in the fall with 5th grade, we compare the song "Down, Down, Yellow and Brown" and "Autumn Leaves Are Falling". They're both actually songs meant to be done with much younger children, but that makes them perfect to learn both very quickly, and add accompaniment parts on barred instruments really easily, in one lesson to compare and contrast the two. I've done this other times of year with other themes, but the key is to pick really simple songs that can be learned quickly to get to the concept of tonality.

3. Listening examples

Obviously there's no substitute for listening to lots of different examples of major and minor tonalities. I actually like to take current songs students are familiar with from social media or the radio, but there are also really great collections on youtube like this one that I've used in sub lessons because it will play several in a row and give the answer after each one. Either way, I really try to find examples of minor songs that are fast and major songs that are slow, minor songs that have high notes and major songs that have low notes to try to throw them off and also get them to really focus in on the tonality and not just the immediate impression of happy vs sad. One great example is "Someone Like You" by Adele- most people will confidently say that song is minor but it's actually major! They don't believe me until I show them this minor version, then they hear the contrast. It always leads to really great conversations about why a composer would choose a major key for a song with those lyrics. "Panini" by Lil Nas X is a great example of a song everyone thinks is major but is actually minor.

These are all activities that I include in lessons starting in the middle of 4th grade into 5th grade, when we start getting into composing melodies in minor, and we continue to review with more and more complexity through 6th grade. I find that when I first introduce the concept they are easily thrown off if I play a minor chord on high notes or play a major song softly, but by 6th grade, my students are very good at distinguishing the two tonalities and it becomes almost second nature. If you want to see how I weave this concept into my upper elementary lessons, here is my curriculum set!

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Using Viral Songs in Elementary Music

How can we continue to include music that is "of the moment" in our music lessons now that trends come and go so quickly? And how do we really create meaningful lesson plans with these little snippets of songs that our students are most likely to recognize from social media clips that are under a minute? Here are some of my favorite ways to incorporate those viral songs from social media platforms into my elementary music classes.

In some ways it's harder than ever to keep up with the music our students are listening to because trends come and go so much more quickly, but in other ways I think because we have these little snippets of songs that go viral on social media, they can be a really easy swap for other song material we may have in an existing lesson plan.

theme and variations/ arranging/ remixing

My favorite way to incorporate viral songs and snippets from social media is as examples of arranging/ remixing, or to show a modern example of theme and variations. So much of the music that people are using in viral videos are edited versions of old songs, or edited versions of a currently popular audio. Once a song has been viral for a minute, there is usually someone who will compile all of the different versions of a particular audio people have done into one youtube video. So it's easy to take a few isolated versions to show examples of arranging/ remixing- have students listen to each and identify which musical characteristics were preserved and which were modified- and the compilations are a perfect example of theme and variations (since these compilations almost always start with the original).

use in place of folk songs

There has been a lot of conversation around removing many of the "folk songs" that had been passed around so much in U.S. American music education circles based on the discoveries that many of these songs come from questionable origins. The problem with that has been that it's way harder to reinvent the wheel than to keep doing what you were doing! These simple little "folk songs" are really convenient to use in elementary music lessons because they are short little songs that are easy to learn quickly and easy for us as teachers to find a song with a specific musical element in it that we want to teach. Good news: the songs (or snippets of songs) that go viral on social media are also short and easy to learn (and in many cases even easier than folk songs for students to learn, because half of them already know it)! If I stumble on a song I know could work well, I stop and think through the concepts I'm teaching over the next few weeks in each grade and see if any of them are embedded in that song (usually a specific rhythm or pitch element).

identify musical characteristics

This idea goes along the lines of the first 2 examples, but it's important enough to mention as a separate point that, since students are often at least somewhat familiar with this music, it's an easy way to give students practice identifying specific musical elements and characteristics, whether it's an instrumental timbre, a pitch or rhythm element, tonality, or expressive elements like dynamics, tempo, and articulation. They work great as examples and using them helps answer the question of "why does this matter" before it is even asked.

keep in mind...

There are 2 important notes we need to keep in mind with all of this that are hopefully self-evident but worth mentioning: 1) obviously not all viral songs are appropriate for elementary-aged students, and 2) the only way to realistically be able to quickly swap in songs in our lesson plans as they are trending is if you have a solid foundation in concept-based lesson planning/ curriculum. Simply put, if you know what the purpose of an existing lesson plan is- if you know what concepts/ skills you're wanting students to learn through the song/ activity- you can easily identify those same concepts/ skills in other songs as they come across your radar and use that instead of the song you have in an existing plan. If you don't, that process will take hours of reinventing the wheel to figure out where you can add in a new song, and that's not something any of us has the time for!

If you want to learn more about concept-based curriculum writing and lesson planning (which, quite honestly, is my answer to many struggles we face in effective elementary music education), I highly recommend this free series I've compiled. It walks you through the entire process from the ground up with all the free templates you need to create a curriculum for yourself, or make sense of the one you have: 

I'd love to hear your thoughts, questions, and lesson ideas you've tried! Leave a comment below or email me to join the conversation!

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Accountability Without Escalation

Kids want to know, when they do something wrong, that they can recover. I've found that it's important for me to remind myself of this truth lately to help keep me responding in constructive ways while also holding students accountable for their actions. Here are two concrete strategies for de-escalating a situation and helping students to solve problems, while still acknowledging and holding students accountable for problematic behaviors: one for classes as a whole, and one for individual students.

Whole Class Response: The Reset Count

There's a good chance you've heard of this strategy or seen another teacher use it- maybe, like me, you used to use it and forgot about it- but I pulled it out with a second grade class a couple of weeks ago on a whim after not using it for a few years and it has been amazing. When there are a lot of students that are "off" in one way or another (a bunch of kids start calling out at once, kids are playing instruments when they're not supposed to, they're all distracted, a bunch of them are not controlling their bodies, etc), I say something like "wait a minute this isn't right, I gotta turn around and count to 3 and when I turn back around I'll have my star students back", then turn away from the class, count to 3, then turn back around. I have done this when I seriously thought there was maybe 1 student who actually heard me, and it still worked- and it turns a situation into an opportunity for them to get each other back on track instead of me telling them to. This one works best with younger students but depending on the age, I would recommend it up through 3rd grade at least.

Individual Response: Whoops

Sometimes the answer is as simple as me saying "whoops!" to assure a student that you don't hate them while acknowledging that whatever happened wasn't right. So imagine a student goes to the bathroom in the middle of class and when they return, comes running back into the room and crashes into their chair, swinging their arm and hitting the person next to them in the process. One response I have given, in my moments I am less proud of, is something like "what do you think you're doing running in here, you know you're supposed to walk, look what you did- you hurt so-and-so! you need to say sorry, then you need to go sit out and don't you ever ask to leave the room in the middle of class again!". That generally results in the student getting angry, and often ends up with them getting more escalated, leading to more problems I then have to address. A whoops response, in my better moments, goes more like "whoops!", then I wait. Most of the time the student will apologize to the other student, apologize to me, then walk themselves back over to the door and enter the room appropriately (sometimes they don't and then I point out what happened, and again, they are usually much more likely to apologize on their own). Then everyone moves on. The same response works when a student blurts out something rude, plays an instrument without permission, etc- and this strategy I find effective at all ages.

Neither of these are groundbreaking new ideas, but they can be life changing, and when patience runs thin it's important for us to remind ourselves that these responses will always produce better results long-term than immediately "coming down hard" on someone (and believe me, I'm saying this to myself just as much as I am to others!). 

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3 Advocacy Resources for Music Education

It's sad that this is still something we have to fight for, especially after everyone proclaimed newfound appreciation for the arts during the pandemic, but in the United States and in many other countries around the world, music teachers are continuing to face lack of respect for music as a school subject. In honor of Music In Our Schools Month® just starting, today I want to share 3 resources to use as reference in advocating for the importance of music education.

First let me be clear: I am intentionally not calling these my 3 "favorite" or the 3 "best" resources because there are so many great ones out there. There are piles and piles of published research studies showing the positive impact of a strong music education on students and student learning that I have used over the years. Don't miss those if you have access to educational research journals etc to look for specific articles and studies! But these are some more general resources, most that have many different specific resources that can be used as effective advocacy tools and references, and are available online to anyone without an account, so they are good ones to keep bookmarked and are my current first stops when I'm looking for material.

1. NAfME

Obviously one of the primary purposes of the National Association for Music Education is to advocate for the importance of music education in the United States, so they are a good starting point for advocacy references, especially in the US. Some of my most commonly referenced resources in recent years have been the Opportunity to Learn Standards, and their publications on Title-IV-A funding, but there are lots of other excellent resources that can help you navigate and leverage current legislation at the federal and state level on their advocacy page.

2. Bigger Better Brains

This is an Australian-based organization but they have done an amazing job compiling, and keeping up with, current research on music education specifically. Their whole site is worth exploring, but their page on research updates, which you can scroll through to see the latest updates and search by specific topics, and their social media (I follow their facebook page), where they post shareable, high-impact advocacy graphics (if you're a music teacher on social media you probably saw some of their graphics getting passed around in the last couple of years, like the "this is not a (fill in instrument name)" series) are my top 2 go-to sources for reference material.

3. John Hattie

I am assuming this will be the least-known resource for music education advocacy material within music teacher circles, and he has far fewer resources specific to music education advocacy than the first 2 I've mentioned (especially available free online), but I am incredibly excited to have come across his materials this school year and really want more music teachers to know about him and take advantage of his content! If you haven't heard his name before, John Hattie is the person who wrote "Visible Learning" (and its sequels/ companions), a synthesis of thousands of meta-studies, that has become one of the primary resources school leaders reference for best practices and school improvement. I guarantee most administrators today know who he is or are at least familiar with the findings from his publications. What many people don't know, though, is that he started as a music teacher! Because he is so widely known and respected in the broader field of education and educational leadership, I think it is so powerful to be able to reference him and his research to advocate for music education specifically. He has several research articles on music education- most you need an account for- but the one thing I love sharing most as a "sound bite" is this video where he is responding to the question a school principal asked about the effect of music, art, and physical activity on student learning:

For someone like me who strongly believes in advocating for music education for its own sake rather than the impact it has on student learning in other academic areas, this one little video has been a dream come true!

I hope these resources help you when you are looking for ways to advocate for the importance of music education. There are so many more I could mention here, of course, but if there are specific references you've found particularly helpful in your own advocacy I'd love for you to share them in the comments for all of us to benefit!

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Co-creating Success Criteria with Students

There has been research published in recent years that shows that students learn better when they know what they're supposed to be learning, and have a clear understanding of what successful demonstration of learning looks like: knowing the learning target and the success criteria. School leaders, including in my district, have started requiring all teachers to post written learning targets and success criteria, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who didn't get clear guidance on how to do it effectively, especially in the elementary music classroom. I shared some general things I've learned about how to share learning targets effectively in this previous post, and today I want to focus more closely on one of those points: co-creating success criteria with students.

First a little background knowledge: learning intentions (or "learning targets" as many have come to refer to them) are the "this is what we're learning about today"s. The success criteria are the "this is how we'll know / show we've learned what we were supposed to learn"s. Whether you are being asked to explicitly state and/or write them for every lesson, if you have a solid understanding of your curriculum then you probably could pretty easily identify what the learning intention and success criteria are for any given lesson. For example, today my second graders are learning about the 4 orchestral instrument families, and when they can accurately name the 4 families when they see pictures of each group of instruments, and describe the characteristics of each family, they will have learned what they were supposed to learn in that lesson.

One of the key points that I learned from my deep dive into educational research on the topic of learning intentions (particularly from this book) is the importance of developing success criteria together with your students. When I was first reading about this idea my reaction was, "they want me to do WHAT?" (insert eye roll here). It sounded cumbersome, time-consuming, and not realistic for actual classroom teaching, particularly elementary school and especially music. But the more I read and started to wrap my head around what they were saying, the more I realized I was actually already doing this a lot- sometimes verbally and sometimes written- and had been for years. 

All we're saying is that, instead of pre-writing success criteria up on the board and telling students what they should do by the end of the lesson, we review prior learning and guide students to be able to describe a concept or how to do a task correctly together through discussion as a way to check for understanding and serve as another way for students to grasp the concept further. So I put dry erase frames to write my learning intentions with success criteria the district-mandated way at the front of the room but down low, where it was out of the way but still visible:

Then I added a whiteboard I already had on-hand to the wall in a more prominent spot right by where I teach, more at eye-level for the students, to write the *actual* success criteria/ lesson intention as we go throughout the lesson (I figure if I decide to stick with this formula, which I think I will, then I'll order something bigger to keep in the front of the room for this purpose- this is a little small obviously but it does the job for now):

The lightbulb moment for me was when I was doing a 5th grade composition lesson. At the beginning of class I explained the composition task: writing a 2-measure minor melody in 4/4 time on the treble clef staff. Then I asked students to point out what they needed to remember in order to write a good melody. They recalled using la as the starting and ending note, pointed out the pitch bank they had on the sheet that showed which pitches they should use in their melody, and said they needed 4 beats in each measure. As we discussed, I wrote each item on the whiteboard. Ta-da! We co-created our success criteria, and now they were ready to do their composition and understood what to do! At the end of the assignment I referred back to our list and they checked their work to make sure they had done everything successfully before turning it in. 

Once I saw how this process could work seamlessly with the way I already teach (while taking it a step further in being more conscious about pointing out the success criteria and writing it for students to see), it became much easier to see how this could work with other elementary music lessons. Another example would be a lesson where I'm introducing 2nd graders to half notes for the first time. At the beginning of the lesson I told them they were going to learn a new rhythm today, and by the end of the lesson they should be able to tell me what it is and show me how to clap and say it. I just wrote "new note" on the board and left the rest blank. Once they learned the song that had half notes in it, instead of me having to tell them to listen for a new rhythm they didn't know yet, they immediately told me they knew what the mystery note was: it was those long notes! I showed them what a half note looked like, they figured out it was 2 beats by clapping the rhythm of the song while walking on the beat, and then I asked them what I should write on the board for the new note and they were able to tell me easily. Telling them at the beginning that they were learning a new note, and writing that on the board, had their brains looking for an unfamiliar rhythm from the beginning and they grasped the concept faster.

If you are in a school or district that is asking teachers to share success criteria with students, I hope this helps give you some more concrete direction on how to do so effectively in an elementary music setting. And if you aren't being asked to share success criteria, I hope you'll consider implementing this strategy in some lessons when it makes sense and see how it goes- I think you will notice a difference! Another key, related point worth mentioning is that not every lesson should have success criteria. If you have the freedom to do so, only use this when it makes sense- don't feel compelled to do it every time.

What questions do you have about success criteria in elementary music? What strategies have you been using in your classroom? I'd love to hear your thoughts and questions in the comments.

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Learning Targets in the Music Room

I've had lesson objectives posted on my wall for years now but this school year was the first time I was required by district administration to post detailed "learning targets" in a specific format, including success criteria, for every lesson. After doing a lot of my own research on the topic and a lot of trial and error, I have found some solutions for ways to share learning intentions and success criteria that I believe are actually helpful for student learning (not just a way for my evaluator to check a box). Here are the most important things I've discovered for making learning targets meaningful in the music (and, honestly, every other) classroom.

*this post contains affiliate links*

First a word about language. When my district administration announced the requirement this fall for all teachers to post "learning targets" I started doing a lot of research on where this initiative was coming from, and it's clear to me that all of the educational researchers who have promoted this practice use the term learning intention, not learning target or lesson objective. So although I have included the other more commonly used terms in the introduction and title so everyone knows what I'm talking about, I use "learning intention" when I speak and will be using that term in the rest of this article. They refer to the same idea but I think the word "intention" does a better job of communicating what we're trying to do.

1. Use pictures with younger students

What is the point of posting written learning intentions for students who can't read yet? Instead of writing them out like I do for the older grades, for Kindergarten (and self-contained special education classes) I created cards with images that show the concepts I cover in those classes and the ways students would demonstrate their learning, and post those instead.

My research indicates that written learning intentions and success criteria are not something that educational researchers recommend for early childhood. I have not seen anything that shows they have any positive impact on student learning for younger students. But if you are required, like me, to have them for every grade including preschool/ Kindergarten, adding pictures makes it possible for students to understand and connect with the posted learning intentions without having to spend so much of our short class times on the reading itself, and can serve as a great visual for referencing the concepts during the lesson.

2. Use the learning intention to pique student interest

Telling a class, "today we are going to learn about dotted half notes" doesn't really get students excited. But "today we are going to find a mystery new note" can spark their curiosity and get their brains focused on figuring out what the new note could be and trying to find it, which is exactly what a good learning intention is supposed to do! I've realized I don't have to be pedantic to write an effective learning intention that fits what my administration wants to see but more importantly, improves student learning.

3. Expand as you go

Adding to the learning intention and building success criteria together with students throughout the lesson is by far the most effective (this is something pushed consistently by all the educational researchers I have been learning from). In the previous example, I would start the lesson with the learning intention of discovering a mystery new note. Once students find a note in the song that is 3 beats- something they haven't studied before- I reveal what it looks like and what it's called and add it to the posted learning intention. If the success criteria is to correctly write a 4-beat rhythm including half notes, it's better to review with students what makes a successful composition and write those points on the board as you discuss them rather than having them written out in advance.

Those are my top 3 tips for making learning intentions useful for students in the music room, but obviously there is a lot to be said about how to actually do each of these concretely. I'll be expanding more on these to show you what I do in future posts, so if you have any questions please leave a comment!

If you would like to do your own reading on the educational research behind learning intentions and success criteria, what has been shown to be effective in improving student learning, and see more specific examples of how to do this in different types of lessons in different subject areas, I highly recommend this book as a starting point: Unlocking Learning Intentions and Success Criteria by Shirley Clarke

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Accountability Without Power Struggles

It's no secret we're dealing with more disruptive behaviors in the classroom than ever before. It can be tough to navigate as a teacher, and it can often feel like we're fighting a losing battle. Today I have a simple strategy to share that I've found myself using more and more frequently in the last couple of years that I've found to be very effective.

Dealing with escalated students who are being disruptive and disrespectful can be very difficult, especially when you teach elementary music, because

-class time is so short that one incident can derail the entire lesson, and there isn't enough time to properly address issues to prevent them from happening again,

-behaviors that would not be as problematic for the class as a whole in other subjects, like refusing to participate, are much more problematic in music where students rely on each other for success, and

-with hundreds of students to teach it's difficult to build enough trust with each student or learn how to most effectively respond to each individual student when they are having a hard time.

One thing I learned fairly early in my teaching career is to avoid public power struggles as much as possible. The problem with that is if you don't hold students accountable in the moment when they do or say something disruptive or disrespectful, other students may not get the message that the behavior is unacceptable, and more importantly, if one student is being disrespectful towards another student, the student who was treated badly won't feel protected or vindicated, and the problem festers rather than the relationship being mended (side note: there are far too many times when we are asking students to "just ignore" things that they find offensive or hurtful because it's easier not to have to get the other student to make amends- telling students "it's not a big deal" is not a solution either). 

Having a private conversation when the student is calm is definitely the most effective way to truly address a problem and work on finding solutions to prevent it from happening again. The key, though, is to make it very clear in the moment to everyone that you are going to do that (and then actually do it). Making a mental note to myself to talk to them later isn't enough if the other students who saw it happen, or most importantly if other students were hurt, don't know that it is being addressed and not just ignored to avoid a bigger blowup. 

There are a few ways I do this, depending on the situation:

-Say to the specific student out loud, "we will talk later", have them go sit away from the group, and write a note on my seating chart

-Say to the class, "I'm going to start keeping a tally of how many times people are calling out" and add a tally next to their name on my seating chart

-Say "I'm going to write this down so we can talk later" and write down the exact words a student said

Obviously writing things down is important for me to be able to remember what happened and who I said I wanted to talk to, especially if I'm in the middle of back-to-back classes and I know I won't be following up until later, but I've found it's really helpful for making students more aware of what they are doing and realizing that they are indeed being held accountable (it's not just an empty threat), and also for the other students to realize when I say I will deal with it later, I really will. 

It's also important to note that I'm writing these down to myself privately, not up on the board publicly- the writing itself is not an embarrassment tactic or a punishment in and of itself, it's genuinely a strategy for accountability. And once I do this a few times in class, I don't even have to say the words- students know exactly what I'm doing and what it's for when I go write something down. So it quickly becomes a silent way of holding students accountable, removing even more of the power struggle element in the moment.

Sometimes these strategies alone aren't enough to get the lesson back on track or handle the problem- in that case I may end up needing to have the student go to the office, or with a support staff, instead of staying in the room. Even in that situation, these strategies help communicate to the students that I am the one handling the situation rather than passing it off, because I will be circling back with them, and that having them leave the classroom is not the "punishment" in itself but a way of deescalating. 

I'm sure this is something many of us already know and do, but with behaviors escalating, more people getting sick, and patience running thin, I thought this was an important reminder for everyone. Is this something you do a lot in your teaching? How do you stay on top of everything with so many students and so little time? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

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Teaching Older Beginners

What do you do when your older students haven't been taught the concepts you would normally expect them to have learned when they were younger? Maybe you just took a new job and there hasn't been a certified music teacher in that position for a while, or maybe you teach in a school where the students don't even get to start music class until they're older. Today I want to explain my approach to teaching general music to older beginners.

One of the most common questions I get is some variation of this: do you have any lesson ideas for teaching Kindergarten concepts to 6th graders? I just started a new job and my older students have never had music class before, so I need to start back at the beginning with everyone. 

The short answer: no you don't.

There are a few different music education methodologies out there that give us a general sequence for introducing fundamental musical concepts in the elementary grades. Whether it's Orff, Kodaly, Music Learning Theory, or something else, the sequence that is laid out in each of those is based on what concepts are appropriate for each age. Regardless of their previous musical background, your 6th graders are just as developmentally ready for the 6th grade concepts as any other 6th grader. Of course any skill takes practice, and practice takes time. And you need to understand beat to understand the divisions of beats- concepts build on each other. But the concepts that are age appropriate don't change based on their background knowledge- they change based on their overall development.

But obviously you can't just jump straight into eighth-sixteenth note combination rhythms if the students have never seen music notation before. So what's the answer? 

2 things: review, and modeling.

Review

The good news about any sound general music curriculum is, there is A LOT of review built into it. Because it's assumed that usually students are not getting music class every day, all year, music curriculum is spiraled (meaning concepts are revisited repeatedly with increasing complexity) and it's always assumed that students will need to review constantly to retain things they learned. 

For older beginners, they're just going to need more review more frequently, and treat it less like "you should know this already, I'm just reminding you" and more like "let's practice the fundamentals". Songs that would be in a 6th grade lesson on sixteenth-eighth combination rhythms probably also have quarter notes, paired eighth notes, and steady beat. You just need to point those out more explicitly and focus most of your practice on those fundamental concepts than you normally would, throwing the new 6th grade concepts out there without expecting them to grasp them as quickly.

That brings me to the second component:

Modeling

No, 6th graders who have never had music class before are not going to be independently reading sixteenth-eighth combination rhythms right away. But their brains are developmentally equipped for the concept. If the lesson in the curriculum resource you're referencing says students should be counting and reading the rhythms independently, have them echo you reading them instead. If they are supposed to be independently composing a syncopated rhythm, talk through it as a class, model how to write it, and have them copy yours to create a rhythm together. 

Think about it this way: when you get a new student who moves into your school mid-year and never had music class before (or even just hadn't been exposed to specific concepts you already covered before), you expect them to need some extra support from you or a peer, you make sure to explain things to them more, but you still give them the same work and you expect that they'll catch up eventually. You're certainly not going to put them in another grade level's music class because you can't! Most of the time they aren't going to be your top students academically- at least not right away- it's all about making sure they don't get frustrated by assuring them that you understand they are catching up and that you will help them whenever they're unsure. What I'm talking about is essentially just applying that same philosophy to an entire classroom. 

If you are looking for an appropriately sequenced general music curriculum that includes all of that review practice, I have designed the Organized Chaos K-6 Curriculum to do just that, and I have used it successfully with my students for decades. What are your thoughts on teaching older beginners? Have you ever been in this position, and what did you find worked for you? Let me know in the comments!

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Managing Centers in Elementary Music

I love using centers in my elementary music classroom but it took me a while to figure out how to run them efficiently and effectively in my short, 30-minute class periods. Now they run like clockwork! Here's how I manage the logistics of centers to keep them running smoothly.

1. Group size

I've found groups of around 4 students to be the ideal size for making it realistic for everyone to feel like they had a turn but also having the critical mass to make it feel like a fun group activity. I determine the number of centers I'm going to have based on how many total students I have in the class so they will be split up into groups of around that number. 

2. Setup

I keep materials for all of my favorite center activities easily accessible and put together so I can quickly pull out the ones I want. Before class I try to think through the best locations to put each station around the room so that the ones where students will want to be able to hear themselves the most are next to quieter ones. I don't set out the center materials in their planned locations beforehand though- I've found it works best to have everything ready at the front of the room, and at the beginning of class, quickly explain/ review each center activity with students from the front of the room, and then place the materials out in their assigned locations around the room as I go, so students can see everything and hear the explanations more easily.

Once I explain and show what they are doing at each center, I number off the students (based on the number of centers I have) and then tell each number group where to go for their first center. I tell them they should start right away when they get to their station, warning them that each rotation will be quick, and tell them that when the lights turn off they need to stop and clean up immediately without going to another station.

3. Running the centers time

I rarely, especially in the younger grades, create a station that requires my ongoing presence. I try to make them all self-managed so I can circulate, monitor, and keep my focus on managing any group dynamic issues rather than running the activities themselves. For any centers that require students to take turns, I try to keep an eye on who has had a turn and, if I reasonably can, make sure everyone gets a turn before I tell them to stop. 

When I decide it's almost time to switch, I give students a 1 minute warning so they know they need to wrap up what they're doing, then I turn off the lights when it's time to finish. I always make sure every station is put back the way it was before I tell them, with the lights still off, where they will be going next, reminding them not to move until the lights turn on. Then I make sure they know they have to walk (or else they will have to go back and try again), and turn the lights on so they can all move at once to their next center. I always try to leave a few extra minutes at the end of class to have students bring the materials back to the front of the room and line up the same way we normally do.

4. Logging

Since each class only does centers a few times each school year, it has been really helpful for me to keep track of which center activities they do each time. Each time they do centers I keep most of the activities the same to cut down on the explanation time but I always make sure to include one or two new ones to keep it interesting.

5. Center activities

I have tried a lot of different center activities and I do like to change them up, but I do have some standard centers that I do in almost every grade, pretty much every time (each class usually does centers around 3 times a year, so not very often):

Grades 1-6

-Instrument dice (roll 2 dice, one with instrument names and one with 4 beat rhythm patterns, then play the rhythm they roll on the instrument they roll)

-Chromebooks (chrome music lab, note letter name games, groove pizza, mario paint, incredibox, etc)

-Instrument exploration (I pick one instrument they don't get to have "free play" time with often- keyboards, ukuleles, glockenspiels, collection of unusual small percussion)

-Kaboom rhythms (draw a popsicle stick out of a jar and clap the rhythm on it correctly for a point, but if you get a "kaboom" stick you lose all your points)

Grades 1-3

-Reading (I have a bookshelf with music-related books and old music express magazines)

-Rapping (one person picks out different mini erasers and lines them up, the rest of the group "raps" the sequence by saying the name of each mini eraser shape on the beat)

Grades 4-6

-Truth or dare (choose to take one card from either the truth deck or the dare deck- truths are music facts/ questions, dares are music tasks- here are the printable cards I use)

Those are the ones I use most regularly but there are tons of others I use that my students and I love- you can find lots more center activity ideas (and more detailed explanations for the ones mentioned here) in these previous blog posts:

I hope this helps make it a little easier to run centers in your elementary music classroom! If you have any questions about anything please leave a comment. I'd love to hear your favorite center activities and tips for managing as well! 

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Music In Our Schools Month® 2024: "I See Me in Music Education" Song Bracket

This year the theme for Music In Our Schools Month® (MIOSM®) is "I See Me in Music Education". I have been doing a "musical March madness"-style song bracket, where students listen to different songs each day and vote on their favorites, for several years now, and for the last several years I've tried to tie the songs into the annual theme NAfME chooses. Since the 2024 focus is on "me" I decided to choose songs around the theme of self identity / being yourself.

As I have done the last few years, I'm going to be setting up google slides files with the songs for each day embedded in the slides so that classes can vote in their homerooms. If you want to see how I organize the logistics so classes can vote every day regardless of whether they have music that day or not, check out my 2021 MIOSM post (and definitely let me know if you have any questions, I'm happy to help). Doing it in slides was such an easy way to have all the songs organized and make it easy for the homeroom teachers to report their class' vote rather than having to email me every day! I don't have the rights to share the song files, but you can make a copy of my slide templates and add the audio files yourself by clicking on the image below- here is a tutorial on setting it up in slides using the templates:

In my song lists each year I try to include songs from different genres and time periods, representing artists of different backgrounds and including different languages, and this year is no different. You'll find a blank slide template in the slides file linked above: I use that to show the lyrics in their original language and in the English translation for songs that are not in English. 

In the past I've always just shared all of the songs in a long list but after getting many requests over the years to see exactly what order I put the songs into the bracket, I'm sharing the songs in their scheduled order this year. 

3/1 This Is Me from The Greatest Showman vs I Believe from A Wrinkle in Time
3/4 I Am Me by Willow Smith vs I Don’t Know My Name by Grace VanderWaal
3/5 That’s OK by D.O vs Be Yourself by GoodLuck and Boris Smith
3/6 Man In the Mirror by Michael Jackson vs My Way by Frank Sinatra
3/7 By Myself by Alvin Garrett vs Who I Am by Alan Walker, Putri Ariani, & Peter Elias
3/8 Tomorrow (A Better You, Better Me) by Quincy Jones vs Greatest Love of All by Whitney Houston
3/11 Brave by Sara Bareilles vs Broken & Beautiful by Kelly Clarkson
3/12 Будь Собой by Ната Волкова vs Se Tu Misma by Da Ink
3/13 Who I Am by Wyn Starks vs Bet On Me by Walk Off the Earth
3/14 Within You Without You by the Beatles vs True Colors by Cyndi Lauper
3/15 Video by India Arie vs Whatever by Oasis
3/18 Just the Way You Are by Bruno Mars vs The Way I Am by Charlie Puth

One thing to note: for this year's school calendar there are so many weekends, and (at least in my school district) a day off on the 29th as well, that it's hard to fit the normal bracket into the month of March. I honestly haven't decided which way I want to do it yet myself because although I don't like finishing after the month is over, I know students have told me they don't like having to pick between 3 songs in one day, and there would be more 3-song days with the shorter option. Here are the 2 different ways you could structure the bracket this year (the numbers show the dates in March):

I'm excited to see how the students respond to this year's playlist, and I'm curious to see which song wins out in the end! What are your plans for Music In Our Schools Month® this year? What are other songs that fit this theme? I'd love to hear more suggestions in the comments below. If you're looking for more ideas to use for MIOSM®, here are all my posts on the topic.

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