Chorus Roster

Wow!  It's a hectic time of year.  Testing, spring performance in less than 3 weeks, Art show performance in a month, MIOSM, my evaluation, Aah!  I don't remember February/March being this crazy in past years.  I have a few lessons I'm planning to post about but I'm afraid they will have to wait until I have a bit more time to organize all my pictures, materials and thoughts.  For now, another Freebie!

This is my chorus roster.  I use it to help keep me sane.  I can see which kids are in which grade and which teacher they have.  (That was a lot of whiches!)  It's a great way to take attendance, sign-in/sing-out kids for events, and much more.  It's also a great document for me to use to help keep my classroom teacher's informed.  At the beginning of the year I send out the list of students who have completed a contract and submitted their fees and I repeat this process every few months.  My teachers appreciate this because it helps them keep track of where their students go at the end of the day.  I don't lose too many kids throughout the year but there are always a handfull, usually due to 5th gradeitis.

I have uploaded this document and you can request the file in the Freebies section of my blog.

Agendas

You know those earth shattering, eye opening moments when you think Oh My Gosh, why haven't I always done this?  Well, a few years ago I had one of these moments during rehearsal.  One morning I thought I would write an agenda on the board to help keep myself organized during rehearsal.  Over the years I've learned I can't keep one on my stand or in my hands because it very quickly gets lost somewhere in my room.

My rehearsal that day went so smoothly.  I felt like I was on my A game and my chorus was so well behaved.  They were never an awful group but always chatty, bubbly and full of so much energy.  At the end of rehearsal I remember thinking, "What was different today?".  When I realized that it was the agenda, I tried it the following week, and again great results.  

Now I don't claim that an agenda is the end all of managing a chorus or orff rehearsal but it is a great tool.  My kids know what we need to accomplish and they can see how far we have made our way through the list.  They are so proud when we accomplish everything and humbled when we don't.  This is because what keeps us from accomplishing our goals seem to be behavior problems.  

Agendas also help to define time for specific tasks, like signing in or asking questions.  I have 3rd graders in my group and a lot of gifted students.  If you know anything about having an after school group with these students, you know there are A LOT of questions!  I have started a policy of not answering questions about concert dates, attire, etc. until the end of rehearsal.  I usually leave about 5 minutes for this before packing up.  We fit in the questions we can, the rest are left for the next day or an email from a parent.  I have noticed that I deal with less of these questions throughout my rehearsal because it typically is part of our agenda for the day.

This has become an integral part of how I run my chorus/orff groups and I can't imagine life without it. The best part is, it takes less than a minute for me to do before rehearsal.

Chorus Sign In

I can't remember where I read this (I feel so bad, I would love to credit the source) but someone had posted about chorus procedures.  One that I knew I needed to improve upon was taking attendance.  I hate having to call roll, it wastes so much time, but I hadn't found another way of doing it that worked for me.

Over the summer I bought command hooks and clipboards and this week I attached them to the book cases by my back door.  When students arrive for chorus or orff, they have to sign in by putting a dot next to their name.  This speeds up the attendance process by a few minutes, which means more time to make music!

Next to each clipboard is a marker attached to the book case with velcro.  These markers are actually overhead pens.  My plan is to eventually laminate these rosters so that they can be reused from week to week.  I just have to wait a couple more days until all paperwork/fees are turned in.