The first day of school for us isn’t like a classroom teacher’s first day of school. Where those teachers are seeing their kids for the first time, we are seeing kids that we have known since kindergarten ~ for the most part ~ AND our first day is actually our first week, as we do […]
In the last few months I have become obsessed with ADHD. I am convinced I have it (I need to be tested) and am always looking for ways to manage it! I was searching for all kinds of things on YouTube one day and stumbled upon videos that have proven to be quite helpful. They […]
Yesterday I was at a playground in an open mall here in GA with my daughter. She saw a wall activity where kids can flip a series of large tiles. Although another child was playing, she thought she would join in. He got angry at the intrusion and pushed her away. His mom immediately jumped […]
As the year comes to a close, we are all looking for simple fun lessons that still get in a bit of teaching but will hold the children’s attention as their thoughts wonder to summer activities ….as do ours! Here is such a lesson! I did it with my first grade and they loved it! […]
It occurred to me that my third graders may not be ready to play multiple parts at once, as I only started in January and their last music teacher left early in the fall. I looked at the rhythms they composed for the word tambourine and was looking forward to playing them simultaneously ~ must […]
Today my kindergarteners and I had a lot of fun with the Three Bears! Last class we associated each bear with a particular bass bar. For this class, I wanted to say the words “someone’s been eating my porridge” (etc.….) in a specific rhythm, as detailed in last week’s newsletter (Click HERE for lesson and […]
Like many schools, we are on Spring Break this week, but of course in the back of my mind, I am thinking about what lessons I will do with my students next week. The week before break I started a lesson with the story of Goldilocks and The Three Bears that I want to build […]
Today my school had its Spring Share. Every student from the little toddlers to the big 3rd graders presented what we have been working on in music. It was very relaxed ~ I started teaching at this school in January and we were out a lot due to snow (in GA, crazy, right?); but the […]
Thank you so much for your responses to the survey we sent out a couple of weeks ago. It came as no big surprise that our number 1 issue was time ~ we all face it on a daily basis! Unfortunately, we can’t change our schedules, but there are ways we can make our […]
Awhile back I wrote a blog called 5 Simple Ways to Create More Time in Your Day!. I was so excited about it that I created a whole session ~ Teaching Music Basics When Time Is Against You!! around it for the Texas Educators Music Conference! So, in this spirit, I give you 5 MORE ways […]