Posted in Classroom Tech, Education Resources, Music, Student Engagement

Wake Me Up When September Ends

Posted on by Anna

Check it out, I am posting a month later! (better than a year later, right?)!

Two weeks ago, I introduced my students to music centers. Remember that these children had never had a music education before last year. I wasn’t comfortable with using centers when I was still learning how to teach music but now that I have a year under my belt and my students have a rudimentary understanding of the basics, I felt centers were finally doable. Let’s take a look at some of them:

Listening Center

Hiding in the back of one of my closets was a Califone 1218AVPS-01 8 Person Stereo Listening Center with Headphones Jackbox and Carry Case:

I have no idea how old this thing is. It’s somewhat yellowed compared to the picture, but each headphone was still wrapped in cellophane pouches. This became my listening center. I plopped a CD of instrumental music in the donated boombox, hooked this baby up to it, and attached 6 of the headphones. Then I included some clipboards, manila paper, and crayons. The objective was for students to draw/color what the music made them feel.

Rhythm Games

  • Rhythm Dice: I found a few sets of these tucked into the back of a drawer. To get more, or to make different sets I figure I can make my own in the future. A quick search of Teachers Pay Teachers leads to several free downloads of different centers to use with these dice.
  • Rhythm Pie: I created this resource (available on TPT) to provide a tangible manipulative for students to make the connection between fractions and note values.
  • Rhythm Race: I found this board game on TPT, and it’s a huge hit with students of all grades.

Instruments

For this station, I pulled a few bins of non-pitched percussion instruments out (maracas, castanets, guiros, and jingle bells), and let the students explore what sounds they could make with them. My two rules were that they can’t bang them on the floor, and not to hit them so hard that they break.

Quaver

This last station is where my SHARP screen is. I pulled up the interactive activity we were working on in Quaver and instructed students how to compose measures in various meters. They would then grab a set of rhythm sticks and tap out the rhythm they created. I stationed myself at this center as it gave me a good idea of who struggled with the task of reading and playing 4/4 measures made up of quarter notes and rests and barred eighth notes.

How did it go?

I’d say that on the whole, my first week of music centers went pretty well. Students have been asking when they can do centers again, so…pretty successful!

And now to take you full circle to the title of this post. Here’s one of my favorite mashups by DJ Cummerbund just because I can:

Posted in Education Resources, Music, Personal Journey

A Whirlwind of a Year

Posted on by Anna

I can’t believe it’s been a year since my last post, and I apologize sincerely for waiting so long to post again. Please forgive me.

But what a year it has been! I had the chance last year to explore many new experiences, and I’ll share a few with you as I begin my second year as the Music teacher for my campus.

Let’s start out with what I started out with. A box of 30 pairs of rhythm sticks in pretty rough condition, a plastic bin of about 50 cheap plastic novelty tambourines, a small set of basic elementary handheld percussion instruments, 3 sets of preschool music kits, and that’s pretty much it.

The set of “instruments” left in the closets

Through donations, purchase orders, creativity, and a lot of schmoozing, I managed to procure more instruments. I’m still building a collection, but so far we have quite a few. Pictured below are my handmade “TicTac Maracas”, generously donated Boomwhackers, and the lovely digital piano purchased by the district. There’s also the Orff instruments behind the piano.

Perhaps the best event of the year, however, was TMEA. The Texas Music Educator Association holds its annual convention every February in San Antonio. I spent this amazing week exploring music vendors, attending clinics, and listening to some of the best student performances Texas has to offer. I even got to meet Quaver!

My students were SHOOK that I got to meet Quaver!

By the end of the school year, over 700 students gained at least a functional understanding of the foundations of music. The secondary campus band director is quite grateful that her incoming 7th graders will at least understand the concepts of rhythm, beat, and basic notation.

I’m excited to start another year, and can’t wait to introduce recorders to my older students!

And I promise I’ll try to post more often!

Posted in Music, Personal Journey

Portents of Doom? Or of Positive Change?

Posted on by Anna

Last October, I wrote about burnout. I had been feeling the pressure from teaching a STAAR-tested subject coming back from the pandemic and felt I couldn’t take much more.

It turns out that even with a chaotic school year, things seemed to start falling into place, and now I’m teaching…drumroll, please…

K-6 Music!

Wait. English Language Arts and Reading and Social Studies for most of your career and now you’re teaching music, you ask? Well, it makes sense if you were to take a look at my background.

It all started back in high school. I was a choir nerd. By my Junior year, I had decided that my future career would be teaching high school choir in my hometown of Small Town, Texas. Big dreams, huh? I applied to Baylor University, was accepted because I was 5th in my class of 71 students (top 10%), and auditioned for the School of Music.

Baylor University Logo

My intent was to get my Bachelor of Music Education in Vocal music. I actually failed my first audition as a soprano, took private voice lessons for two semesters, auditioned again as an alto, and was finally admitted. Unfortunately, life had something else in store for me. It turns out that taking 17 hours of challenging classes in a single semester was a bad idea. Yeah, I was young and stupid, and I crashed and burned. I ended up transferring to the University of Texas at Arlington my sophomore year, and got my BFA in graphic design. I quit performing, and only sang in my church choir. For years.

One of my favorites from church.

Fast forward to now. I don’t wish to go into details, but suffice it to say that my campus has not had a solid music education program in a very long time, and our students are quite lacking in basic music knowledge.

After a few heartfelt conversations with my amazing principal, she offered me the position this year. As it turns out, a music certification is not required to teach elementary music. A teacher with a Generalist EC-6 certification (as I have) can teach not only the core classes but art, music, and PE as well. As I already have a music background (even if not the degree), I’m definitely able to teach the subject.

Now I have a new type of pressure to give me sleepless nights. My husband pointed out to me that I’m basically starting a new job. I get to build a music program from the ground up with limited supplies (and no classroom instruments!). I look forward to this challenge and will be sharing as much as I can about my new journey.

If you’re still reading this and would like to help out a developing music program in a Title I school, please check out my Amazon Wishlist. It’s automatically set up to deliver items straight to my campus, and our students will be forever grateful.

Posted in Mental Health

Burnout is real

Posted on by Anna
Photo by Adonyi Gu00e1bor on Pexels.com

Wow, when the school year started, I was feeling a bit overwhelmed and a touch burnt out. This year is my 5th at my current campus, and I’ve taught Social Studies and ELAR the entire time I’ve been here.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love my campus, admins, colleagues, and students. I’ve been very blessed to teach here and I want to continue. However, according to the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (NCTAF), nearly 50 percent of new teachers leave the profession within their first five years. I’ve made it to year 7 total, so I guess I’m beating the odds.

But the burnout is getting stronger and I absolutely loathe that feeling. I’m dreading the idea of another year of teaching the same ELAR curriculum, using the same poorly designed textbook full of typos and misinformation, increasing unnecessary interference via state legislation into educational requirements and of course, the STAAR.

It seems like my students are tested more and more every year. 5th grade is considered a critical year for learning in the great State of Texas, and these high-stakes tests seem to be the be-all and end-all pushed on our students who are trying to navigate the transition between childhood and adolescence. Don’t forget we’ve got beginning of year testing, interim testing, district benchmark assessments, and TELPAS to navigate as well.

Before I let this post become a rant about testing, let’s get back to the original purpose. All of these issues lead toward burnout. In addition, we’re all trying to get back to a sense of normalcy post-pandemic and the mental toll on our students and teachers is enormous.

What shall I do, then, to fight back against this burnout? My first step is to request to teach a different subject next year. I’m optimistic, and I’ll keep you updated on the results.

The second is to pour a little more energy into this blog. Writing can be a cathartic outlet for stress; if I manage to help someone else by sharing my thoughts and experiences, all the better!

Posted in Classroom Tech, Education Resources, Student Engagement

Tech in the Classroom

Posted on by Anna

Welcome to my inaugural post! The first topic we’re going to cover is tech in the classroom.

dancing robot
Photo by Pavel Danilyuk on Pexels.com

Some teachers hear the phrase “Use technology in your classroom” and teach as though the technology is the lesson. Unless you’re teaching a course or unit on learning how to use a particular piece technology (e.g., robotics or CTE), that’s probably not quite what your admin expects.

The challenge then becomes “How do I incorporate technology into my lesson to enhance student learning?” I will be writing a series of posts on doing just this.

To begin with, think of another tool you use in class. Maybe math manipulatives such as base 10 blocks. If you’re teaching a lesson on place value, the manipulative is not the learning objective. You could use counters, money, or base 10 blocks to teach place value, but the most useful tool to visualize it is probably going to be the blocks. This doesn’t mean you can’t use other manipulatives as well or in place of the blocks, just that they will be more effective.

students using an interactive whiteboard at CeBit 2007
Interactive whiteboard at CeBIT 2007

The same thought process can be applied to incorporating tech in the classroom. Let’s look at the most used piece of technology you probably have available – your Smart board/projector. My campus moved from SMART boards to SHARP touchscreens a couple of years ago, but the premise is the same. The students are likely used to this device, as they have probably had one in every classroom and every grade. This is what you use to project videos, interact with, and use a document camera with. I’d never have a lesson designed for the sole purpose of using this technology just because it’s available, but I incorporate it into my lessons because it is the most efficient way of displaying information for students to see.

Think of another piece of technology that you have available in your classroom. How do you incorporate it into your lessons to make learning efficient, fun, and engaging?

Stay tuned, and I will share some more Tech in the Classroom ideas in later posts.