Every year it almost feels like a rat race to get a new wave of students interested in joining band, choir, or orchestra. It feels like all the stress is on impressing the young elementary students on your recruitment concert tour. Or maybe you’re a high school director and you’re stressed about making the pep music and the concert band music sound good to get those middle schoolers to become freshmen in your program.Â
'Tis the season! Between spring concerts, adjudicated performances, graduation concerts and everything else, you may have forgotten about recruitment. Or maybe you haven't forgotten about recruitment, but this is one of your first recruitment events that you've put on and you're stressed out. I've got you! This is only my 2nd rodeo, but I learned a lot from my first.
There’s a whole lot of stuff that goes into being a band director. And the problem with having a whole lot of stuff is knowing what to do with it! My old classroom didn’t have any built-in storage and was quite literally a big box with four crooked walls, so I had to get very creative when it came to storage.
Student recognition is quite literally what it sounds like. It’s praising a student for doing the right thing and making an effort to go above and beyond. I’m not saying to praise students for doing exactly what is expected of them, because I disagree with that too, but I am saying to look for students going the extra mile and make sure that they know you see them and value that.Â
An opening routine is a set of procedures that students do at the beginning of class to get prepped and ready for new instruction. They can either be simple or they can be elaborate. If you have an elaborate opening routine I suggest writing it down and displaying it somewhere in your room for students to see.
Field trips can be stressful. You have to coordinate budgets, calendars, and all the people so that the day goes well. As the lead adult in the room you also have to select and coordinate all the other adults helping you chaperone your groups. You know you need to give your chaperons certain things so that the day runs smooth and you want prepared chaperones that your students enjoy, so what do you do?
I have three weeks until I go back to school for inservice and four weeks until I see students again (yikes!). So I’m starting to think about my own classroom setup and what I need to put up on the walls. If you are a new teacher and don’t know what you need then I recommend that you keep reading to gather some ideas.Â
There are so may ways that Canva can be used by music teachers, or teachers in general. These are just a few of my favorite ways to use Canva in my job and I'm sure that you or I will find even more ways too!
"The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and the Horse" was recently gifted to me by the mother of a close friend. She is the type of woman who radiates warmth and positivity and who makes you feel like you are being wrapped up in a soft, fuzzy blanket the entire time you are in her presence. She wrote a darling note in this book and I'll be honest, I almost cried when I read it. I held back the tears welling in my eyes because I was at said close friend's house kicking off the summer and I didn't want to be emotional.Â
So you have a set of rhythm flashcards. When you teach students how to read rhythms you might start with the flashcards and chanting so that students only have to focus on one thing at a time. You only use your flashcards for group sightreading. The students are getting tired of flashcards, you’re getting tired of flashcards. What do you do?Â
Displaced Pedagogy 