Why We Do What We Do

From one of my 3rd graders this week...

"Thanks for everything you have taught me"

Priceless.

Form

I could not teach my lesson on Form to my 4th graders on Monday because I didn't have any 4th graders to teach! I understand that homeroom teachers need certain things from their students and taking away their resource time is the only way to do this. However, it is very frustrating when I have to just cancel my lesson to accommodate them.

The two students I did have got to play on my computer at Chuck Vanderchuck. (awesome website!)

2nd grade made a form grilled cheese to learn ABA form.

Kindergarten learned about echo and got to even practice their spelling on the board!

1st grade learned about Call and Response. For this song, they had to move the scarf around during the "call" section of the song and throw the scarf in the air during the "response".

Planning Binder

I have been working on putting together a lesson plan binder this year, but it has become so much more! It is my life line to work! The state is requiring every teacher to complete an evaluation binder to show that we are in fact effective and efficient teachers. So what I have done is kind of get my plans organized around the county pacing guide and the SOLs for music. That way I can just make copies from my lesson plan binder to put into my evaluation binder. 

So here is the cover:

 Table of Contents: 

*Year-long Planning Guide *Weekly Lesson Plans *Schedules and Calendar *Music SOLs *County Pacing Guide *Student Assessments

 I am trying to really organize what I do and when I do it so that I don't leave anything out! So I have four things to think about each month: Topic to teach, Instrument for lower grades to learn, Holidays to sing about  and when I do Rewards.

 The county calendar so I can know whats going on.

 I teach at two different schools, so I was sure to have my schedule for each so that I won't get lost! I teach 7 classes for 45 minutes at one school and 8 classes for 35 minutes at the other. Annoying for planning.

 The Music Standards of Learning for K-5

 Music pacing guide for my county.

 We had to make our own assessment that would be given to the students 3 times throughout the year as a way to show that students are indeed learning what they are supposed to in music class. This was a very long and annoying process considering I was coming up with six tests all on my own. 

On the left you see an example rubric that I used for K and 1st grade. 

On the right is the 2nd grade assessment with simple matching and multiple choice.

One Thing At A Time

I am loving my new method of teaching one topic across all of the grades! It is working so well!!!
Not only am I not going crazy as I try to organize my thoughts, but I am able to quickly remind students what we did last year to cover the same subject. I love seeing that little light bulb go off in their heads as they make these connections. I even had one of my 5th graders tell me "I think I'm getting music more this year than ever".

I was trying to think of some examples from the past two weeks (Tempo and Dynamics) to post on here, but really the things that have been working the best came from a book! The Music Zone has a bunch of songs to help students remember various topics. The songs are fun and catchy and really stick with the students. They have topics at all levels and each song comes with an activity or a game idea. I will definitely be getting The Music Zone 2!