December Favorites 2019

The last "favorites" post for 2019- 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. Sing Along Updates

I wrote an entire blog post about this but I was so happy with the updates I made to my whole-school holiday sing-along this year. I added in songs for Eid and Lunar New Year, and they were both big hits with the students. This year the sing-along almost didn't happen at all because of snow, but thankfully we were able to reschedule it, and I'm so glad we did in spite of the craziness of running around to make it happen.

2. Advent Activities

Of course the advent activities I do with my daughters each day in December are always one of the highlights of the month for me. I made this little advent calendar back in 2014 when my daughters were almost 3, and we've been doing it every year since then. The best part now is that my girls remember and look forward to it when December is approaching! It was so much fun and so little work, honestly, which is the best part- it just keeps me from spiraling out of control thinking about all the stuff I have to do at work and helps me stay focused on being with my family when I'm at home.

3. Christmas Planner Spreads

I always love playing around with planner decorating- it's my way of keeping my scrapbooking and crafting hobby going- but it's especially fun in December because it's one of the few holidays I really enjoy acknowledging in thematic spreads. A lot of the sticker books I have collected over the years have specifically Christmas- themed stickers in them so I spend the rest of the year basically waiting for the chance to use them! You can read about how I decorate my planner in a way that still keeps my pages super functional in this post (with accompanying video):

4. Music Education Blog Posts

Here are some of my favorite posts I found this month! I share these weekly over on my Facebook page. Click the images to read each post:

I hope you all had a wonderful December as well and are looking forward to a fantastic 2020- can you believe it?!? Here we go to another new year!

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Mid-Year Reflection: Wins and Wishes

Now that I'm on break and have a chance to breathe, I'm taking a little time to reflect on how the school year is going so far. I always find it helpful to reflect on my successes and focus on my future goals and priorities while I have the time and energy to think about it with some proper perspective! So here is my mid-year reflection, if you're inspired to share your own I'd love for you to do so in the comments!

My "wins"

1. maintaining my vocal health

I won't say my voice is in top shape, but I can definitely still sing and speak in my normal range right now and that is HUGE! I am not kidding when I say this was my number one priority going into November / December this year. Last year I lost my voice for over a month (and barely had it for about a month on either end of that) this time of year and I was miserable- as in it was physically painful to do my job. I made sure to be more conscious of not pushing my voice both in and out of school, and I made a few deliberate choices in the interest of saving my voice as well: I said no to church choir, I asked my principal to buy me a megaphone for my outside duties, and I rested my voice as much as possible every weekend in the fall and winter. This is usually the worst time of year for my voice so I am celebrating my success, but I'm going to continue to be mindful through the rest of the school year so I can maintain my vocal health through the rest of the winter too!

2. including Ramadan/ Eid in my holiday sing-along

My whole-school holiday sing-along is definitely still a work in progress (read about that in this post), but I have spent a couple of years trying to find a way to include a recognition of Ramadan in a meaningful way that students would enjoy, and I feel like I did that this year. The students who celebrate Ramadan and their families in our school community were so happy to see themselves reflected in our preparations, and in some of my upper grade classes the students voluntarily started sharing about their fasting and other ways they celebrate and the rest of the class responded with genuine excitement and interest. It was the absolute best outcome I could have hoped for!

3. banner year for choir

I teach pull-out choir classes for 3rd-6th grade, and this semester was by far the best I've ever had with my choir classes at this school. I made a point of going around to individual students that I thought would be interested but hadn't signed up yet when the deadline was approaching this year, and got a tremendous response- my 3rd and 4th grade groups were the largest they have ever been, and my 5th and 6th grade group was double the normal size! Not only that, they were all incredibly motivated and focused- I was so nervous about having these giant groups but there were very few disruptions to rehearsal. In the 5th and 6th grade group in particular, every rehearsal was magical. We did challenging literature, singing in multiple languages, parallel harmony, and with dynamic contrast, and we had fun doing it. I really really really hope the magic continues this spring!!

4. parent communication

I finally got myself set up on ClassDojo by getting grade level teachers to add me to their classes, and it has been a fantastic way to communicate quickly and easily with parents. I've used it to communicate with individual parents when a child had a difficult time in class, but mostly I've used it to send little video clips of things we're doing in class, or send announcements to everyone when our concert got snowed out!

My "wishes"

1. lessons for self-contained classes

I almost put my self-contained special education classes in the "wins" too- I'm actually quite happy with how much I've learned as I'm teaching some self-contained classes that are completely different from any class I've ever taught before this year. But one of my goals for the rest of the year is to continue to learn more about the students in these classes and learn how to teach them more effectively- I know there's still so much more to learn.

2. pushing aside toxicity

This school year has been full of toxic negativity from other adults for some reason. I've had a few very difficult interactions with parents and seen a lot of colleagues treat me (and other "specials" teachers) like a lesser teacher. I'll continue to work to build respect for myself and my program, but the main thing I want to focus on is to not let that toxic negativity get to me so much! When I step back I can see that there are hundreds of parents that have lots of positive things to say about their child's experience in my class, and have had very productive conversations with me when there was a problem we needed to tackle. I also have plenty of colleagues who treat me like the professional equal I am. I want to learn to not let a handful of negative interactions affect my self-image or my mood.

How about you? Whether you choose to share publicly in a comment or not, this is an effective, easy way to take stock of where you are in the school year and get some perspective before heading into January. What are your wins and wishes?

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How to Give Intangible Gifts

Maybe you've heard about the idea of giving experiences instead of things, but you just don't think your children will buy into the idea. Maybe you'd love to do it but have trouble coming up with concrete ideas. If you're looking for "last-minute gift ideas" you don't have to fall victim to all the retailers scrambling to get you to buy more stuff to clutter up your house (and your life)- here are my suggestions for giving intangible gifts that everyone will be excited to give and receive!

There's a lot of gift-giving happening in my life right now. My family celebrates Christmas, and my twin daughters have their birthday the beginning of January. It's a lot to think about all at once! But luckily it's also the time of year when I'm most anxious to purge my house of all the clutter, which means for the last several years I've been focused on making sure I don't add to the clutter by giving my kids a bunch of toys.

I think the key to helping kids get excited about an intangible gift the same way they would about a shiny new toy is 1) making sure they still have something to unwrap, even if it's just a piece of paper that has a note about the gift, and 2) giving them time to adjust to the idea. I wouldn't worry if they are clearly a little disappointed with an intangible gift initially- I find once they actually have a chance to experience those gifts they realize how fun it is!

Another way to help children get used to the idea of giving experiences over things is to suggest that they give intangible gifts themselves! Here is a post I wrote on how I do this with my young children. I find it's perfect because the children can actually give it themselves rather than having to have someone else pay for it because they don't have their own money.

With all of that said, there are so many great ways to give intangible gifts- click each post below to read specific ideas that have been favorites in my family:

I hope this gives you some ideas that will make your next gift-giving opportunity more meaningful! If you have stories of how you've given intangible gifts (to kids or adults!) we'd love to hear them in the comments :)

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One-Off Music Lessons That Don't Waste Time

We've all been there: one class is ahead of the rest of the grade level, it's the last day before a vacation, you're stressed/ tired/ sick and can't think straight to teach a regular lesson, it's a weird schedule day and the kids are spinning in circles, there's a last-minute change and you can't do the lesson you had planned... Whatever the reason, we all have days when we need to step out of our regularly-scheduled sequenced curriculum and do something different for one class period. Sure, you could throw on a movie or pull out some worksheets. But those types of classes can result in lots of behavior difficulties (and no wonder, the students are usually bored!). Here are my favorite ways to use those "one-off" class periods in meaningful musical ways.

These ideas are ones that don't require too much thinking on my part, don't require advance planning to set up, can be done with large or small groups, and keep students engaged for an entire class period.

1. instrument merry go round

I actually use this activity as a part of my regular "curricular" lessons as well, but it's a good one to pull out when I want everyone to stay focused and engaged but I know they're going to be antsy. I have every student pick out one instrument (usually I limit their options to small percussion on specific shelves in my room) and bring it to sit in a circle on the floor. Then I tell them to play when my hands are open, and stop when I close my hands. If they play/ don't play at the wrong time, they're out for the next round.

Once they get the hang of starting and stopping, I have them leave their instrument on the floor, stand up, and move over one spot around the circle. Then they pick up the new instrument and repeat. Keep going around the circle and switching instruments! The great thing about this is I can use it to review a variety of concepts. Instrument names and playing techniques are obvious ones, but I can also teach dynamics by having them play louder/ softer when I hold up dynamic symbols or move my hands bigger or smaller, review instrument classification by calling out certain types to play on different turns, or practice rhythms by having them echo patterns instead of starting/ stopping. Lots of ways to change it up!

2. Musication

I purposefully save videos from this awesome YouTube channel to use only for this purpose so that I know students won't get tired of them. They are most well-known for the play-along videos for Boomwhackers and hand chimes with color-coded notes, but there are also play-along videos for percussion (which is great for large groups and younger students), and even chord play-alongs (which I use with ukulele but could also be done with guitar, piano, etc).

One other pro tip for these: you can slow down or speed up the videos on YouTube without distorting the sound by clicking on settings (the gear icon at the bottom of the video) and selecting "playback speed". This is a perfect way to keep classes engaged and "up the ante" by repeating the same song but speeding up each time! Of course switching the parts/ notes they're playing is another great way to change it up and keep everyone on their toes.

3. posters

I don't do this often but every now and then, especially if I'm under the weather and I don't think the students will be too high-energy, I'll have the class make posters to hang up on the walls. Sometimes I'll have them make posters for an upcoming music event to hang up around the building, including reminders about concert etiquette. Other times I have them make posters about something they're learning: instrument families, a musical element, music vocabulary, etc. Bonus: it's great to have student work to actually display on the walls because most of our student work isn't visual, and administrators (and kids!) love to see that in the classroom!

4. soundscapes

There are so many ways to do soundscapes- I've written an entire blog post just about all the ways to do them here- but the most basic one I pull out most often in this scenario is to write down names of places on slips of paper, fold them up and have students draw one from a jar, and then have small groups come up with a soundscape to match that scene using only their voices and found objects they have in the room. So for example if a group has the beach, they may make the sounds of waves by flapping a piece of paper, seagulls with their voice, beachballs getting hit by hitting a chair, etc.

If you're reading this right now and thinking ha, I wish I had a sequenced curriculum laid out for me that I could even stray from in the first place! Don't worry, you're definitely not alone- I talk to so many music teachers every week who are planning their lessons week by week or even day by day from scratch! You can get my complete curriculum with all the plans and materials for the entire school year for K-6 general music here, or learn exactly how to make your own in this free e-course here.

I hope these lesson ideas are helpful the next time you find yourself in one of those situations- I'll be using a few of them this week after I finish my concerts and try to finish the week until our vacation!

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