I’m officially on summer break and I’ll be honest, I am relieved. As a music teacher, I have concerts to plan and parents to contact about ensembles and all the other end of the year craziness that is part of teaching to begin with. I am also a crazy person and like to have big… Continue reading Summer Break Plans for Teachers
Category: planning
How to Drill Fingerings in Beginning Band
Teaching our beginners new notes is so important, but also so challenging. If they're brand new then they might still be learning to read a fingering chart and maybe they're still learning which colored in circles mean which finger get pressed down. It's hard. So keep reading and I'm going to tell you my no frills tips for making sure students know their notes and fingerings.
Advice for Beginning Ensemble Directors
There's so much that you need to know as a beginning ensemble director and if you're a brand new teacher it can also seem very overwhelming. I'm going to give you three tips that I wish I had learned faster as a new teacher and that have honestly helped me stay sane. These three tips… Continue reading Advice for Beginning Ensemble Directors
How to Make your Music Field Trip Easier
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?
How I Organize My Teaching Materials
If you're like me and teach all the things then you definitely have a lot of "inventory" in your classroom. It's taken me well into my third year to figure out how to organize all of my stuff so that I have a more functional classroom, so today I am sharing how I organize all the things so that you hopefully don't take as long as I did to get organized.
Long Term Planning for Performing Ensembles
If you’re reading this then I bet that you’ve heard of long term planning and want to know more. That was me a few months ago and I came to the conclusion that no matter what I needed a long term plan for each of my classes for the next school year. I teach middle school band, choir, and music history at my school. I knew my first year of teaching performing ensembles at this school that my students would have a very minimal, if any knowledge of music.
Displaced Pedagogy 