Dem Bones Lesson Plan - Halloween or Health

The kids love this one, from 1st through 3rd, this one is fun! To introduce the book I sang the chorus using the phrase "dancing bones" instead of the traditional "dry bones. First I "read" the book by singing the song. I love using singable picture books in music class because it helps engage students in music and in reading. One of my classes clapped when the book was finished!

The song "Dem Bones" is a traditional African American spiritual.  I particularly like Bob Barner's book because the skeletons are all playing instruments!

On the second sing through I had the kids touch the place on their body that the song is talking about and invited them to sing with me if they wanted. It is an easy melody and they catch on very quickly.

Then we watched this video and danced along! I like this video because they changed the lyrics "Hear the word of the Lord" to "That's the way it goes" so I can use it in the public school classroom. I modeled doing some bone dances to get the kids thinking about different ways to move their body to the music.

There is nothing that really ties this book to Halloween specifically, so it could also be used when the students are studying the systems of the body. The book has facts about each bone in the song for further discussion and for those students who always want to know more!

Weather Song Lesson Plan - Special Education/ Special Day Class

What's better than music class once a week? Music class twice a week! The students in the Special Day Class at my school receive music instruction during with their classroom teacher and they also come for music as a special day class group. This group of eleven kids ranges in grades from 2nd-6th.

When I was in their special day classroom observing, the teacher was talking about how to know what to wear based on the weather. I thought this weather song would be a good tie in.

The first week I taught them the weather song by rote. I like how this video models teaching the song with the speaking voice first and then adding the melody. Afterwards, I sang and they sang back to me keeping a steady beat on their body.

I showed pictures of each of the types of weather that the song discusses using my iPad. When we were singing about sunny, there was the picture of a sunny day. I asked for which two we should focus on and we sang the ending phrase on just those two.

The second week I reviewed the song using half drawings. I wrote Sunny, Rainy, Cloudy, Snowy, and Windy on pieces of paper. Then I started a drawing of each one. As we reviewed the song, I used these for the new visuals. The students then finished the drawings in pairs, adding something to the picture that had to do with that type of weather.

I finished our review of that song on that day by singing the song again with student volunteers coming up to the board and pointing to the order of the pictures that occurs in the song.

Next week when we review our song, we will talk about how the weather is predicted and what type of clothing we should wear for each type of weather.

Clarinet Troubleshooting and Repair

This week I showed my elementary music teacher colleagues quick fixes for clarinet repair and thought I'd share here too!

Problem: No sound is coming out or the clarinet keeps squeaking.
- Check the reed! Kids are notorious for chewing on, maiming, or destroying reeds. Crooked reeds also won't play.
- Check the ligature! Ligatures that are too loose, too tight, too high, or too low won't be holding the reed on in the right place.
- Check the player's embouchure.

Problem: Some notes play, but others don't
There is probably a pad leaking or missing somewhere. Check everywhere! It might be a pad that isn't used a lot. It could also be a pad that is still attached, but where the membrane has worn off. If the membrane is worn, then air can leak through.
- If the pad is there, put a piece of teflon tape around it to hold the pad in place. If there is no pad, use a piece of silly putty as a makeshift pad and hold in place with teflon tape.

Problem: No ligature
- Rubber bands or hair ties work to get through concert night.

Problem: Loose or wiggling keys.
- There is a screw missing or loose. Screws often just come loose on their own. Invest in a dollar store eyeglass repair kit. The screwdrivers come in a variety of sizes so you can use the one that is the right size for the screw. When putting the screw back in, try your best not to damage the metal.
- A spring has come loose. Compare the none working clarinet to one that is working. There are many small springs that are simple rods. The rods need to be in the right place to apply pressure so that the keys spring back up.

Problem: Joints are too loose.
In older clarinets the corks can become very worn down. Use as much teflon tape as you need to get a secure connection. You will need to take it in to get the cork redone.

Problem: Joints are very hard to get together and apart.
Common in new clarinets. Use a polishing nail file to gently sand some of the cork away. Make sure you don't sand any of the wood, that you sand evenly, and that you only sand a bit off at a time.

Hope this helps!

The Power of a Positive Focus

One of the most powerful teaching tools that I have is maintaining a positive focus. I first read about this in one of my favorite books Managing Challenging Children by Gerard Gordon.

The real test of this tool comes on days like today when the classroom does not look anything like what you had planned for. When the 2nd graders came to my room today these are some of the things they were doing during the first five minutes of class: talking over me, shouting instead of speaking our opening chant, laying on the ground and not participating whatsoever, and turning completely around so they were not facing me.

When I first started teaching I did what most people do and talked about what was going wrong that I did not want. However, talking about these behaviors gives attention to the very students who are not doing what you would prefer. And what Gordon points out is what you talk about you get more of.

Today, instead of talking about all the students who were not doing the right thing today, I just started in talking about what they were doing right. Sometimes in those first fifteen minutes there were only five kids doing what I wanted. But I talked about them. I used their names, looked them in the eye, and told them using specific language what they were doing right. Brian is facing me. Sally made the T right after I said, "Time." Nguyen is patting the beat and her hands are moving right when my hands are moving.

It was like a slow magic. The last fifteen minutes of class were productive. Most students were engaged. No one was lying on the floor anymore and no one was talking over me. There is power in maintaining a positive focus. This class showed me that, if I can keep my positive focus even amongst chaos, productive and wonderful learning can take place.

App in Focus: Educreations

Apps in Focus is a series of blog posts that will focus on iPad applications I'm using right now in the classroom. 

First up is Educreations, an app that turns your iPad into a whiteboard.  I decided to try this one because it is FREE and had good reviews.

What it Does

Turns your iPad into a whiteboard. You can draw on it in different colors just like you can on a classroom whiteboard. However, you can also import pictures from just about anywhere. Tired of drawing staff lines? Just import one and then draw whatever you need to on top! 

The app also allows you to record while you teach. I tried it out, and it is very user friendly. You can record review material and post it online for students. You could also record while you are teaching a class so you could reflect later on how the lesson went. Videos can be saved privately or publicly. 

Using this app with the AppleTV in my classroom allows me to teach the whole class while walking around the room. I can check student work while teaching! It also makes whatever is on my iPad screen enormous. Very helpful for teaching bow hold!

If you don't have an AppleTV you could use this app using a document projector. This would have been wonderful in my previous classroom where I had a document projector but no white board!

What It Doesn't

Allow you to edit a lesson after you have saved it. You also can't edit the timeline of a recording. If you mess up while recording, you have to start over. This app is not for recording long lectures that need to be edited. 

The Lowdown

Free user-friendly application that turns your iPad into recordable whiteboard that can upload pictures from just about anywhere. Try it! 

That 4th Grade Class - A Day When Classroom Management Won

Classroom management. It's what principals want to know that you have. It's what makes new teachers quit because there is no worse feeling than a class who is not listening to a word you say and doesn't respect you. Trust me, I know that feeling. However, the best aspect about classroom management is the least discussed, that you can get better at it!

I have two 4th grade classes that I teach. At this age in the district all students learn violin. My first lesson with these two classes was like a study in contrasts. One class accepted me as their teacher and cooperated without any special classroom management needed on my part. The second class was quit different. They talked a lot. They were not respectful to the music stands. No one did anything way out there, but I knew I did not want to spend my year playing tug-o-war with the kids. And I did not want to feel that special feeling of a class out of the range of my influence.

The first thing I decided was that I wasn't going to try to figure out why the two classes were different. It doesn't really matter why. I decided I needed to teach that second group of 4th graders that the music room is a place where certain expectations need to be met. With that I was off and planning. What could I do to raise the expectations for behavior and reinforce that I was serious?

I started our next class meeting outside of the classroom. Two things happened there. I told them that today they would have the opportunity to earn the right to play the violin.  The class could earn a star for doing various things in the classroom. If the class earned 10 stars by the end of the day, then we would play violins at our next class. I also started my expectations outside of the classroom. They were in two lines. They had to enter the room silently. The first line started walked up the ramp. I had them stop at the door. They started talking, so back off the ramp they went. I repeated my expectations and had the second line try. Success!

I kept repeating that to earn this first star they needed to be silent entering the classroom and what that meant. It included not making noise with their mouth, feet, or hands in any way. That meant silent. If I had said no talking, then some of the kids would have made other noises and that's not what I wanted. 

The room was ready for the students when they arrived with chairs and stands. The name tags were out on the stands so I could address students by name. It also meant that I sat them where I wanted them, alternating boy-girl-boy-girl. Each stand also had a pencil. It is really important to have the classroom ready. It showed that I was ready for them, even if they weren't ready for me.

From there I proceeded with a basic staff lesson about the names of the lines and spaces. The first thing I needed to do was get a handout to each student. I explained that I could have had these out on the stands before they came in, but that I wanted to give them an opportunity to earn a star. They could earn this star by not talking while I passed out the handouts. This included not talking even when I was no longer at the front of the room. 

For the entire rest of the class every direction was given as an opportunity to earn a star. I praised them to the skies when we earned one and I told them specifically why they did not earn one as that happened. Any amount of talking would negate earning a star. I focused on specific students who were doing specific things that were helping us earn stars.

It was amazing! They learned I meant it. I was not going to put violins into their hands until they showed me they could be respectful to one another so we could learn. They learned that they could be quiet as a class and get to work. They learned that music class is different. They learned that I have high expectations and that I will teach them how to meet those expectations. They learned what success feels like. 

Because at the end of the 45 minutes they had nine stars. They could earn the last one by exiting the room silently. After they were lined up outside they so wanted to know if they had earned the last one. And they had! For the first time that day my face broke out into a huge smile. They had done it! So many of them smiled too. I raised the expectation for their behavior and they met that expectation. 

I tried something different and it worked. This time. It doesn't always work because every group of kids is different. That's how group dynamics work. But you don't have to accept a class that is not meeting your behavioral expectations. Try some new things. And praise yourself for trying. You've earned it.

1st Movement Lesson Plan for 1st Grade!

Today I taught my first movement lesson plan. Not hand gestures to go with a song or dance movements to go with a song, but kids listening to music and responding with their body. 

Objectives were for students to hear and respond appropriately to the differences of high/low and fast/slow. In addition, I wanted to set up expectations for behavior during movement activities for the rest of the year. 

I began with the students sitting in a row facing me like we have done for several weeks. The specific parameters I gave them were where they could go in the room, where they couldn't go, and how they would look when they were in scatter spots. I showed them how to appropriately make sure they had enough room. I modeled everything while walking around the room. I also made it clear that once in their spot, they were going to stay there. No locomotor for our first movement lesson. 

The most important instruction was that they should move when they hear the music and they should freeze when the music stops. This helped them focus on the music and on the lesson instead of getting distracted.

I then sang "Find your own space" (d-m-s-d) to release them from the carpet squares. They ran. I had them all walk back to their carpet squares. We reviewed our classroom rule to walk and not run. Then I sang the cue again, we tried again, and were successful. 

I played the piano alternating between low and high. After the first two examples, I gave them the specific direction to make it look different if the sound was high or if it was low. Some wonderful responses came as a result. Then we did fast and slow. I reinforced to stay in one spot, but explore different movements with the body. I periodically commented on any expressive movements that I saw that were really nice or that showed risk-taking.

This simple lesson plan on exploring movement with basic building blocks of music was really successful as a first lesson in listening to and responding to music as well as a first lesson learning about finding our own space in music class. I was blown away by the expressive quality of their movements and can't wait to plan more movement lessons. Yay!