Idea for Next Year

Ugh....it's testing season.  While I'm quite proud of myself for coming up with quiet productive activities that travel to the classrooms, I'm over it!  For the first week I proctored half the day (with a very sweet class) and then traveled to each classes room for the 2nd half of the day.  This week I have 4 days traveling all day.  Not fun!

Alas it will soon be over.  While I've been traveling I've had some time to start thinking about changes I want to make for next year.  I'm starting small and will post more come June/July but for now a sneak peek.

I happened across this really cute duct tape in the dollar section at Target last week.  Cute isn't it?  I couldn't resist buying two rolls.  When I got home, I started to brainstorm ways to use it in my classroom.  And then I remembered seeing a pin using it on pencils.

I don't know about you but my pencils seem to grow legs and walk out the door.  To prevent that, I added little duct tape flags to the top of a brand new set of pencils for next year.  

Since the tape I had was a bit wide, I cut a short piece and then tore it in half.

Then wrapped it around the pencil and trimmed it a bit to look like a flag.

I'm quit happy with how they turned out.  The only thing I think I would change is the color.  Don't get me wrong, I love this tape it makes me happy.  I'm thinking that for organization purposes green, red and blue tape to match my risers would have been better.  It never fails one team is short 5 pencils because someone put them away in the other teams caddy.

One thing done for next year.  Seems crazy to think that way but this year is almost over.  Only 3 lessons left with my classes.  Once testing is done I'm hoping to post more lessons.  Hope your testing season is flying by!

UPDATED: Mrs. Q's Survey and Giveaway

***As teachers we are continually learning and that is definitely the case when it comes to me and Survey Monkey.  This survey is anonymous, which is perfect because those completing it can give me an honest opinion about my site.  However, that makes it difficult to give away something special.  While I know how many have completed the survey, I don't have the names of those who have.  Once you have completed the survey, please indicate by submitting a comment to this post.  I will work on my survey skills so that my next will be less confusing!  Thank you for your feedback.***

I can't believe it!  My blog is coming up on 1 year.  It seems like I started blogging just yesterday.  My goal in starting this blog was to network with other teachers while sharing some of the ideas/lessons that have worked in my classroom.  As I approach the one year mark, I'm wondering how my blog has helped others and what I can add to make it even better.

Here is a link to a survey I made using Survey Monkey:  Mrs. Q's Survey.  Please take a few moments to answer the 10 questions.

Sink the Ship Playing Card

All those who complete the survey will be entered in a chance to win a copy of my "Sink the Ship" Treble Clef Staff Game.  Winners will be announced in June.  Only 100 people will have the chance to fill out the survey.  Don't miss out on the chance to have a new game for your classroom!

Featured Product: April

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Where can I put my recorder?

My orff group each had the opportunity to play recorder in one of the songs for our Spring Musical.  All of them have shoestring lanyards so their recorder is hands free but that doesn't mean that they don't get in the way.  They were asking me what they could do with their recorder so that it didn't get in their way when moving from instrument to instrument.  So, I came up with this solution.

There were a couple of microphone stands I didn't need for the performance.  Some kids hung their recorders here or on the music stand they were using.  This was a great way to keep them out of the way when they had to move quickly.  We made sure they didn't get mixed up by using different lanyard colors.

WARNING:  If not introduced properly, you will end up with a mega knot.  I learned this during our first rehearsal.

Organizing Costumes

A couple of years ago, I did a huge production with a million costumes.  I needed a way to keep everything organized for my performers without taking up a lot of space in my room.  I found these rolling garment racks at Ikea.  I love them!!!  Here is the link to the product.  They were only $13.00 each, a great buy!

I have two and I use them every year to roll out into the hallway by my classroom.  Students get dressed in the hall and then come in for warm-up.  (My costumes always slip over their clothes.)  This keeps some of the chaos in my room to a minimum.

My first year teaching, the art teacher was getting rid of these clear plastic bags.  They are similar to bags that a media specialist would use for books.  They slip over hangers and have a little pocket to put each students name.  This helps students locate their hanger and clean up after the performance.  Since we give multiple performances during a concert series, it keeps me from having to reorganize after each event.

The only thing I don't like about this set up are the wheels on the rolling racks.  They aren't permanently attached, so they have a tendency to come out.  I used a bit of hot glue but it doesn't permanently resolve the problem.

Fixing Barred Instruments

If you haven't seen this video, check it out, because it is a great resource.

A few weeks ago, I was working on a couple of broken pegs but I didn't have the tools listed in the video.  My wonderful husband spent about 20 minutes helping me figure out how to repair the instruments and they are good as new.  Below is what we did.  To complete this yourself you will need a small screw, a screwdriver, an adjustable wrench and some wood glue.

We started by centering a screw on the broken peg.

Then turned it a couple of times into the plastic.

Then used a wrench to pull it out.

After removing the bit of broken peg, I squeezed a bit of wood glue onto the replacement peg and pushed it into the hole.  This worked for me but please be careful when repairing your instruments.  You can purchase replacement pegs through West (click here).

African Style Masks

Spring Break is over!  A bit of a bummer, I was really enjoying my PJ's but it was nice to make music with my kiddos yesterday and today.

Before the break, my chorus and orff group performed "Look Behind as well as Before".  It's an African Fable and my kids absolutely loved putting on this performance.  In the story there are 5 animals; the Wildcat, the Snake, the Frog, the Ant, and the Fowl.  In Randy and Jeff's Gettin' Outta Town, there are recommendations for how to costume the kids, as well as images of suggestions for masks.

Here are the masks I created for our performance:

The Frog and The Ant

The Wildcat

The Fowl

The Snake

Normally I like to have students create every aspect of the performance.  They are included in decisions about movement, form, costumes, props, etc.  This year was the first year I have done a March Chorus/Orff performance, so my timing wasn't quite there.  Needless to say, I made some of the decisions myself.

These masks were very simple to make and would be a great project for kids.  They could make decisions about color and what geometric shapes to use for the detail.  I used poster board cut down to squares and some scraps of construction/card stock I had leftover.  After having them laminated, I used an X-Acto Knife to cut eye wholes.  Using a hot glue gun, I attached sunglasses to the back so that the performers could wear the masks.  You can see an example of this here.  My masks are specific to the fable we performed but would be a great jumping off point for other African stories.

Here they are on the performers:

Glockenspiel Stands

I have had many people ask me where I found the glockenspiel stands for my classroom.

I've tried and tried to remember what they were called but couldn't.  Well, this weekend my husband and I were working around our house and made a trip to Lowe's for a few supplies.  I happened across the stands and actually bought one for some home organization.

Great news, they have them at both my local Home Depot and Lowe's and they are priced at $5.98 each.

Spring Break is Here!

I can't believe there is only one more quarter left to this school year!  I'm on Spring Break this week.  I'm working on posts from my musical and a few others.  I may get them up this week but most likely by next.  Here's a list of posts to come soon:

• African Style Masks
• Movement Win
• Fixing Barred Instruments

Featured Product: March

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Look Behind As Well As Before

Our spring musical came from Randy and Jeff's Gettin' Outta Town Publication.  There are 3 short stories to be performed with orchestration.  My original plan was to perform all 3 stories at our spring concert but after some extra performances were added to our schedule at the last minute, we ran out of time.

My art teacher buddy helped me create this display outside the cafeteria!

I have several posts related to our spring concert, so look for more to come soon!

You know it's performance week when....

your counters look like this!

The perfectionist in me is having a really hard time with this mess.  The Musical will be over soon and hopefully my room can go back to some semblance of normal!  :)

Musical pictures coming soon!

Talent Day

Over Thanksgiving break I happened across a post by Jennifer at In My Music Class about Talent Days.  I loved the idea and wanted to incorporate this idea into my classroom.  So for the past week or so, my kiddos have been sharing their talents during our lessons.  This has been a great addition to our MIOSM celebration this year!

I've been surprised!  I wasn't sure what to expect since this is the first time I've had kids share their talent in this format but my kids have done an outstanding job.  My 1st graders have been super sweet helping each other perform.  I have had many an improvised performance, as well as some rehearsed.  You know "Chopsticks" taught by Grandma.  :)  My 2nd graders have been very proud to sing songs from their Patriotic Performance (the 2nd grade team does this performance each year and it is so sweet!).  3rd grade seems obsessed with dancing while 4th grade is obsessed with recorder.  My 5th graders have been the toughest group, you know they are very cool at this point in the year.

I think the best thing about this has been seeing my kids support each other.  We have 3 self contained ESE units at my school and even though I stressed the importance of our yellow rule, be respectful, I was a bit nervous about how my kids would react to a couple of our performers.

One 3rd grader, who is bigger than me (she looks like she could be in 7th grade), chose to dance for us.  While for me, it was a beautiful childlike performance I knew it would be hard for my 3rd grade group to understand.  She had no music to dance to but that didn't matter.  Her eyes were closed as she spun and shook her hips to the music in her mind.  To my surprise, no one laughed or made a face.  They sat so politely and at the end roared with applause!  Kids are amazingly kind and understanding.  It was one of those special moments!

After those who wanted had performed, we wrote performance reviews.  We only had enough time for the kids to write one each, so I made sure to write one for every child who performed.  The kids loved reading the reviews written by their friends.  See the form below!

You can request this document in the Freebies section of my blog.

Lamination

I am running short on time, my musical is this Thursday.  So after school today I stopped by Office Depot to have the masks for our performance laminated.  I always take items that are important or will be handled a lot to an office supply store because our school lamination, while free, is not the best quality.

Well, my stop today ended up being a disappointment and a waste of time.  After waiting in a really long line to even speak to someone, I was informed of their lamination policy.  I've had laminating done at Office Depot before but it's been awhile.  Before they will laminate your items, they make you sign a waiver saying that they are in no way responsible for things that don't turn out to your liking and you have to pay up front.  Well, knowing that my performance is this Thursday and the masks that I made were constructed using cut paper, this was not a waiver I felt comfortable with.

Needless to say, I did not have my items laminated at Office Depot.  There is so much that can go wrong with lamination and much of it because of the person using the machine.  I'm upset that Office Depots thinks their policy is the solution.  This is one of a string of disappointments I have had with their print shop.  It would seem to me that better training of employees in this section of the store would resolve problems thus negating the need for a waiver.  And end rant there!

Not to worry....my masks did get laminated by a very friendly and helpful employee at Staples!  Just thought I would share my experiences and save some of you the headache of dealing with silly policies.  I'll post pics of the masks next week along with other photos from our spring musical.

Celebrate the Arts!

3 years ago we kicked off our celebration of the arts with a special teacher video.  I wrote a parody on Celebration and our staff all gathered one afternoon to learn the song and record a video.  Our staff really got into this, dressing in silly hats and adding funny dance moves!

You can request the entire powerpoint in the Freebies section of my blog. 

Here is an instrumental karaoke track I found on YouTube.  This would be great to use with your own staff.  

We played our video the first day of the month and then replayed it every Friday.  The kids LOVED it!

MIOSM

Happy Music in Our Schools Month!!!

This is the first time in 4 years I am celebrating during the month of March and I'm so happy to be celebrating at the same time as all of my colleagues.  When we opened our school 4 years ago, our state testing was administered in March.  So, out of respect for all of our colleagues and students, we scheduled all of our celebrating for April.  This year we were finally able to shift things back to March.

As you may know, March is also the month when our art teacher friends celebrate Youth Art Month.  Mrs. M, our art teacher, and I decided that it was kind of silly for us to host two separate celebrations and that if we joined forces we could have a huge more impactful celebration.  So together we started our annual "Arts in April" celebration.

Here is a list of some of the fun things we have done to celebrate the arts at our school:

• Special Video Presentations:  Each year varies a bit but some past videos have been of Teachers talking about how the arts are important in their lives and special arts related songs. This year one of our 4th grade teachers volunteered to work with students in recording arts of their culture.  

• After School Events:  We try to host our two large productions during this month long celebration (school wide art show and spring musical).

• Buttons:  Students create art work celebrating the fine arts.  We then had color copies made and turned them into buttons for our entire student population and staff.  

• Colors of the Rainbow Week:  Each day of the week is a specific color of the rainbow (ex:  Monday-Red, Tuesday-Orange, etc.).  Kids and staff where that color to show their love of the arts.  We get great participation from our staff because if they where the color for the day, they can wear jeans!

• Guest Performance:  Whether it's the middle school jazz band or traditional african drummers, it's great to invite guest performers in for the entire school to experience.

I have more MIOSM ideas to share with you.  Look for more posts later this month!

To Do or Not To Do

Fad's and Pop Music are a tough battle to fight in the music room.  To include them or not to include them.  It's a tough decision that can be swayed depending on your school, how you intend to use it and your community.  I'm sure you have heard of the Harlem Shake.  It seems it is everywhere and it was a recent topic of discussion with a few colleagues.

I happened across this article on NPR and found it a bit enlightening.
Harlem Shake on NPR

I also happened across this short video on YouTube.

Some words of caution with this trend....

The words at the beginning of the track "Con los terroristas" translates to with the terrorists.  

Since I live and work in area with lots of Latinos, I have also been told that this phrase comes from a Puerto Rican song from a few years ago.  I haven't been able to confirm through research the truth behind this but if true, the song that they are referring to is all about gang life.  

As with any trend, be careful before including it in a lesson/activity and make sure it has a valid place in your classroom.  

Every Kid, Every Time

At the end of the 2011 school year I came to the realization that I had not been doing a good enough job reaching all of my students.  Yes, I planned lessons that were engaging and had activities that would reach a number of learning styles but there were kids who I felt were slipping through the cracks.  Now this may seem like a drastic statement but with as infrequently as I saw my students, it really felt like I could be doing more to reach my painfully shy kids.  While I knew they were getting the information because they could always demonstrate the skills, it sometimes felt like weeks since I had said their name or spoken a word to them directly.

I was ashamed of myself.  I felt terrible about not, if anything else, knowing these kids better.  Let's face it, this is a tough one as a special areas teacher but I knew I could do better.  So, going into the 2011 - 2012 school year I made a plan.  During a lesson, I would in some way recognize or talk to every child in each class.  I knew it was an ambitious goal, especially when my lesson is cut short on early days (Wednesday in my district school let's out an hour earlier) and I thought it may impact what we were able to get done.

Initially some of my fears were correct, my lessons were a bit disrupted but most of that was because I was adjusting and the kids were adjusting.  Over time, we all got used to this new addition to our classroom routine.  It caught some of my shy kiddos off guard.  At first they resisted the idea that I may just call on them for any number of reasons.  I started off slow with this.  In a lesson it may have been just to get the lights.

Now that I've been doing this for over a year, I'm starting to see the difference.  My kids are more confident.  They know that I want to hear from them and that we won't laugh if they are unsure about something.  I feel as though I know them better as people and musicians.  And more and more kids are offering answers and asking questions.

I didn't do anything radical, I just made one simple change but what impact it has had.  Some of the ways that I try to get to everyone every day are:

Asking them to help with a task (running and errand, getting the lights)
Answering a question
Demonstrating a skill
Sharing a musical experience related to what we are learning
Complimenting them on behavior
Greetting them and saying goodbye

These are things we do everyday and it really isn't hard to make sure that every child is included during every lesson, even in a small way.

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.

Featured Product: February

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