'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.
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.
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
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.
This isn't an exhaustive list of quotes about music, but these are truly my favorite quotes about music. "I think music in itself is healing. It's an explosive expression of humanity. It's something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we're from, everyone loves music." - Billy Joel "Music is the shorthand of… Continue reading My Favorite Quotes About Music
Scales. The dreaded musical building block of the beginning band. You and I know how important scales are to being a great musician, but our students don’t. If you’re like me and you love scales (I seriously love playing scales) then you might struggle to also get students to practice the scale.
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.
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 