December Favorites 2018

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

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

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

2. Holiday music conversation

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

3. Advent activities

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

4. Music education blog posts

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

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

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2018 Rewind: Top Planner and Home Life Posts

I love taking some time for reflection at the end of each year, so today we're taking a look back at the content from 2018 related to planners and home life! If you missed last week's "rewind" post on music education content, be sure to catch up on that one right here. But life outside of the classroom is just as important to talk about as our work lives, so let's take some time to focus on all things planners and home life! I hope you find some fresh inspiration to get you motivated for 2019.

1. Fresh Start Challenge

I started off 2018 with the "fresh start challenge", and boy was it a great way to get my butt in gear and get some cleaning and organizing done without feeling overwhelmed! I picked some key areas that needed some attention each week and spent some short but focused time cleaning out those areas. If you feel like you need a kick in the pants for the new year, I think you'll find these will help you find some focus and inspiration to get you going! Click below to see the last post in the series and find links to all the other posts for different areas of your home:

2. Planner Quick Tips

When it comes to planners I have so much to say that the little tips and tricks I pick up tend to get forgotten. That's why this series was so much fun: lots of little tips that have made my planning more efficient, fun, and/or effective!

    

    

3. Music at Home

Some of my favorite parenting-related posts this year were related to the role of music at home! My daughters started taking instrument lessons in 2018, so that added a new dimension to music at home for us this year. These are ideas I still turn to regularly- if you are a parent of young children these are definitely worth the read!

4. Planner Tips Roundups

Planners have been one of my most frequent topics since I started this website in 2014, and it was high time I gathered those ideas into a central location! This past spring I shared two posts rounding up my top planner idea posts: one on setting up the planner itself, and one on using the planner. These are the best starting places if you're looking to revamp your planner system (whether you use the same one I do or not) or are thinking of getting started with one in the new year!

5. Meal Planning

Few things have been more critical to my survival as a working mother than meal planning! I've talked about my various systems here and there over the years, but this year I dedicated some time to specifically going through everything you need to know to get started with meal planning (or make your current meal planning more efficient)!

Those are some of the highlights, but there is so much more! If you want to catch up on my planner or homelife posts, you can always click on the categories at the top of my webpage to scroll through all of my posts for that category! What were some of your highlights from 2018? What are you hoping to focus on in the new year? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

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2018 Rewind: Top Music Education Posts

On this last full week of 2018, I want to stop and look back on all of the content we have covered this year on Organized Chaos. What a year it has been! Lots of opportunities to dig deeper into improving our practice as music teachers, as well as continuing to share practical advice for those aspects of music teaching with which many of us struggle the most. If you've missed any of the highlights below, this is a great chance to catch up on some reading! And if you're curious to find out which post was the most popular this year (and enter a giveaway!), stay tuned to the end!

1. Teaching Recorder

This series of posts is chock-full of all of my top tips for teaching recorder: everything from trouble-shooting all those squeaks and squawks to organization tips, logistics and teaching strategies. See all of my posts on recorder here:

2. Teaching Pitch Elements

I also wrote a series of posts on specific lessons for introducing new solfege pitch elements, practicing letter names, and exploring high and low. See all of those posts here:

3. Social Justice in the Music Room

This was possibly the most important series I have ever written. Please, please, if you have not had the chance to read these, I hope you will take the time to do so now. I received so much excellent input from experts in each specific area. We owe it to our students to do some hard thinking about how to do better for our most marginalized students!

4. Advice from Administrators

This year I also had the opportunity to do something a little new: interview administrators about issues relating to music teachers and share their insights with you in a series of posts on the job search process and advice for current teachers for improving their relationships with administration.

  

5. Elementary Choir

From favorite warm-ups to rehearsal procedures, concert organization and lesson planning, these posts on elementary chorus teaching were among my most-read this school year!

6. Most-Read Post of 2018


And... drumroll please.... the most-read post from this year? 5 things to stop saying to music teachers! This one clearly resonated with a lot of people. It can be so frustrating to hear these ignorant comments from others, but it's nice to know that I'm not the only one who hears these disrespectful remarks regularly, and I'm genuinely hopeful that people outside our field will learn from this post- I truly think they usually have no idea that what they're saying is offensive, and/or have no idea what our jobs are actually like!

These are just a few of the highlights from this past year's content on music teaching- you can find lots more by searching through the archives on the website's sidebar on elementary music class openers, lesson ideas for the first day of school, finishing the school year strong, and SO much more! What were your favorite post(s) from 2018? What content do you hope to see in 2019? Leave your answers in the comments at the bottom of this blog post for a chance to win a $10 gift card to my store! Be sure to enter your email address here after you leave a comment so I can get in touch with you if you win :) Giveaway closes at midnight EST on December 31st:

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The Right Way to Play Freeze Dance in the Classroom

I'm going to go ahead and claim it: I am the master of freeze dance in the classroom. After running the game with my students from preschool through 9th grade over many years of teaching, I have figured out what rules and procedures help the game run most smoothly and keep everyone having the most fun. Ready to learn all the tricks of the trade?

The biggest key to success is setting up the rules before you start. Here are the rules I always tell students when we play freeze dance / musical statues:

1. When the music is playing you dance. When the music stops you freeze. The last one moving is out of the game and must go to a designated area.
2. Throughout the game, whether the music is on or off, whether you are out or still playing, your voice must be off. It's not fair if someone else can't hear the music stopping because of your noise.
3. For your movement to count as "dancing" you must move your feet and only your feet may touch the floor. Otherwise it's too easy to stop and start.
4. You cannot touch any other person or thing, and you must stay in your spot- you cannot move around the room while you are dancing. It's not safe.
5. If you forget any of the rules above, you will be out in addition to whomever is the last to stop moving- there can be multiple people out in one round.
6. I am the Almighty Judge. You may not argue with the Almighty Judge, and you may not attempt to become a judge yourself. Any attempts to usurp or argue with Almighty Judge will result in banishment.

Once the rules are established the rest is a matter of holding students to those rules. I have found the best way to see a room full of dancing children simultaneously is to look at the middle of the room and pay attention to my peripheral vision. Make sure to position yourself in a place where you can control the music and see every player at the same time.

Besides the rules above, there are a few other things I do without telling the students that help prevent tantrums:

1. I don't tell them in advance, but the first round is always a "practice round". I keep track of everyone who is breaking the rules- usually the shy kids who aren't moving, and the excited ones who are talking or laughing- and when I stop the music the first time I call out all the people who would have been out if it was the real deal. I tell them this is their warning and then remind them that from now on, if I call their name, they are out.
2. I make the first *actual* round of dancing the longest- I don't want the first person to be out after just a few seconds! And the second round is always the shortest, so that the first person isn't out on their own for very long. The rest of the rounds I keep relatively short, but varying the length of course.
3. After the first few rounds, if the students aren't too rowdy, I actually encourage those that are out to dance silently in their seats while they watch. It allows them to continue enjoying the music instead of feeling like they're missing out. It's important to keep them seated though, so you don't get confused while you're judging!
4. There are always a handful of students who figure out ways to "dance" with the least movement possible. I allow anything (as long as they're moving their feet) for the first few rounds, but after that I'll start pressuring them into changing up their moves by telling them not to be "boring". If they continue to barely move, I'll sometimes tell them that if they don't start moving more I'll decide they're out.
5. I keep a CD with lots of upbeat dance songs (find some of my favorites here) in my sound system at all times for this purpose. I like to change the song each round rather than playing and pausing the same one over and over- different students are more comfortable dancing with different types of music so I try to include a variety.
6. I model "laughing it off" for students- if they lose their balance I will wink at them, sigh, or otherwise try to make light of the situation in a fun way, like "oops, guess that just happened" as I call their name. I find that helps, especially for those that tend to have trouble with losing, to "save face" in front of their peers.

Now that you know all of my top-secret strategies for running Freeze Dance successfully in the classroom, it's time to get dancing! Be sure to check out the link above for some modern, upbeat music you can use in class for games like this. 

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