Renewal and rejuvenation over winter break

Renewal and rejuvenation over winter break

Looking ideas for rejuvenating over winter break? In this podcast episode, Emily Karst and I talk about renewing and rejuvenating over winter break. Listen to the podcast here: Links mentioned in the podcast: Emily's blog  Reading Grit Mindset The Girl on the Train Unbroken We Were the Lucky Ones One Day in December Woman in the Window Reflecting Lesson planning checklist Spirit Headspace...

Christmas and other winter holidays in the music room

Christmas and other winter holidays in the music room

Looking for fun activities during the winter holiday season? In this podcast episode, I discuss my favorite ways to celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa in the music room! Listen here: Links mentioned in the podcast episode: When oh When Lots of latkes song notation: Singalong blog post Editable singalong set: Games: Reading with Santa (download for free here) Santa's...

Learning Styles in the Music Room

Learning Styles in the Music Room

Looking for strategies to address physical, visual, and aural learning styles? In this podcast episode,  Katie and I discuss learning styles, strategies, and more! Listen to the podcast here: Links mentioned in the podcast: Walk and running card freebie Solfege Podcast: Music Teacher Coffee Talk Amy Abbott's body staff: Low Sol: Hands on knee Low La: Hands slightly above knee Low...

Differentiation in the Music Classroom

Differentiation in the Music Classroom

The term "differentiation" has been used more and more often in education lately. What does it mean? How does it apply to the music room? According to Carol Ann Tomlinson--an expert on differentiation-- differentiated instruction is defined as factoring students’ individual learning styles and levels of readiness first before designing a lesson plan (from this blog post from Concordia...

Giving students input for musical programs

Giving students input for musical programs

Looking for ways to give students input for musical programs? In this podcast episode, I discuss a process I used for giving my fifth graders input for their recent musical program, based on the book "To Be a Drum," by Evelyn Coleman and Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson. Listen to the podcast here: Links to blog posts about musical programs Links to songs Freedom Train (in this blog post) Banuwa Obwisana  Links...

STEAM in the Music Classroom

STEAM in the Music Classroom

Looking for ways to integrate STEM or STEAM into your music room? In this podcast episode, I talked with my friend and colleague Emily Anderson Karst about ideas for STEAM, coding, and more! Listen to the podcast here: Free resources: Instrument design worksheet Instrument design lessons by Emily Silent film project Links mentioned: Coding Websites: Scratch Music Website Code...

Giving students choice during centers

Giving students choice during centers

I've been using centers for several years now, and have really enjoyed the student-centered learning environment and the chance to work with students one-on-one. In today's post, I'm writing about something new I've been trying: giving students choice during centers! So why give students choice during centers? In my experience, students really love the ability to choose what they do, when....

See the old witch {A Halloween music composition activity}

See the old witch {A Halloween music composition activity}

Looking for a fun Halloween activity that gets students composing and practicing quarter rest? In this blog post, I'm writing with a favorite activity for students during the Halloween season...or any time! "See the old witch" is a fun singing game that my first graders really enjoy. Here's the notation: For the game, students sit in a circle, sitting down. One child is chosen to...

Classroom Management Strategies for the Music Room

Classroom Management Strategies for the Music Room

Lately, I've been blogging about classroom management strategies in the music room. Today's blog post includes a podcast episode with more ideas!Listen to the podcast, called The Music Room, in the iTunes Store, or here: Here are the links mentioned in the podcast episode:IG: www.instagram.com/mrsmiraclesmusicroomBlog posts:Star students in the music roomPoint system for the music roomTransitions...

Transitions in the Music Room

Transitions in the Music Room

Lately, I've been writing with classroom management strategies in the music room. In this post, I wrote about star students, and in this post, I wrote about a point system for your music classroom. Today, I'm writing about one of my favorite ways to keep students' attention throughout the lesson: transitions!I first learned about transitions when I began my Kodaly training at Capital University. In...

Point System for the Music Classroom

Point System for the Music Classroom

Today, I'm continuing my classroom management series to write about a great way to reward the whole class: a point system for the music room!Since I started teaching, I've rewarded individual students for exemplary behavior by choosing star students, but it wasn't until a few years ago that I began rewarding whole class behavior. I read this book, which is great read for any special areas team:In...

Star students in the music room

Star students in the music room

Looking for a great way to keep students engaged and focused during music class? Today, I'm writing my first blog post in a series about classroom management in the music room. This post will be about one of my favorite strategies: star students in the music room!So why choose a star student?I've used this strategy my entire career, and every year, I've seen students get so excited about the possibility...

Classroom Reveal 2018-2019

Classroom Reveal 2018-2019

After days of working in my room, I'm really excited to reveal my music room for this year!Here is a view of my room as you walk into it. Here's a panoramic view of my room:I decided on a forest theme this year, and I'm really loving the calm color scheme. Like last year, I really tried to be intentional to not cover every single wall with something, so that kids could learn in an engaging setting...