How to Keep Students Engaged During a Pandemic

Last week we continued with April is Jazz month! The kids are enjoying this music so much! Here's what we did... 

Would You Rather (our SEL section of the class): The week's question was Would You Rather spend a day planting vegetables in your garden or spend the day hiking in the woods? There was plenty of discussion about animals in the woods and how much back pain you would have after planting. Some students avoided the question all together by going into the woods, creating a shelter and playing video games. I wasn't quite sure that the answers were rooted in reality but I definitely got many answers that stretched the imagination.

Group Greeting: This month we continue greeting each other in Chinese, with "Ni Hau" and a hand wave.

Brain Hook-Up: More and more students are ready and in position before I even mention "brain hook-up". Love that!

Songs for Humming:  I choose students initially by pulling sticks from a cup. The sticks are "popsicle sticks" with numbers that match the numbers on the chairs. I keep track of the students who are chosen and before I choose those kids again, everyone else has to have had a turn choosing a song. The 2 students chose 1 song each from a group I selected from MusicK-8. This month's songs are Play That Music, Jazz, Jazz Is On It's Way, The Blues and All Jazzed Up.

Rhythmic Reading: we reviewed that notes are measured by beats not seconds. We double checked the length of each note in the sight reading example and then performed it on the chairs or using body percussion (snap, clap pat legs, stamp feet).

Body Percussion: Thank goodness for the talented people who post body percussion videos set to pop music. My students love them and I wouldn't know where to begin to create one. We grooved out to Bill Withers' "Lovely Day" which was also used in the film "The Secret Life of Pets"

We switched the order of the lesson around a little because it made more sense this way. The Instrument of the Week was the bassoon. The two video clips we watched were Dance Monkey and Game of Thrones. When I show these videos, I do not show the entire 2-3 minute video. We watch about 30-45 seconds of each. I post the links to the entire video on Canvas LMS which is the program our district uses instead of Google Classroom, etc. The kids who want to see the whole thing can watch at their leisure.

The Read Aloud was Mister and Lady Day, Billie Holiday and the Dog that loved her. Our town LOVES dogs - they bring them to every event - even to restaurants. So the kids were totally into this book.

So of course our MITS (Musician in the Spotlight) was Billie Holiday. We watched the first minute or so of God Bless the Child.

Savage Love (clean version) by Walk Off the Earth (one of our favorites groups!) was the Bonus Video . 

I hope you found some ideas that you can use in your lessons. If you have any questions, please reach out to me. We are all in this together.

Hang in there, Ellen

April is JAZZ Month

When I told my students that April is Jazz Month  - they cheered!! Gotta love that, right?
Last week, I taught a lesson about Charlie Parker and the saxophone and we all loved it! Here's how I broke it down...

Would You Rather (our SEL section of the class): catch a frog and enter it into a frog jumping contest OR make a kite and enter a kite-flying contest? LOTS of discussion here from loving frogs to finding them disgusting and more than I wanted to know. So much fun! I laugh ALOT!

Group Greeting: This month we are greeting each other in Chinese, "Ni Hau". The kids get a kick out these greetings and often greet me with one when I see them in the hallways.

Brain Hook-Up: to settle us down for the lesson. This is referred to in my post of  Teaching in a Pandemic part 1.

Songs for Humming: The kids chose 2 songs from a group I selected from MusicK-8. You already know I love that resource. The songs for this month are Play That Music, Jazz, Jazz Is On It's Way, The Blues and All Jazzed Up.

Rhythmic Reading: we reviewed that notes are measured by beats not seconds. We double checked the length of each note in the sight reading example and then performed it on the chairs or using body percussion (snap, clap pat legs, stamp feet).

Body Percussion: Because the lyrics in Sir Duke references jazz greats, I chose this Stevie Wonder youtube clip.

Read Aloud: Charlie Parker Played Bebop by Chris Rascha. I used this youtube clip.

This leads to a 

MITS (Musician in the Spotlight) discussion about Charlie Parker and Bebop. I played about 1 minute of this Charlie Parker clip. We had previously discussed George Gershwin and his Opera Porgy & Bess. This was a nice connection to make even though it wasn't bebop.

The Instrument of the Week was of course, the saxophone. We listened to this clip of Ed Sheeran's cover, The Shape of You. Throughout the video, there are alto, tenor, baritone and bass saxophones featured. Very cool! And if there was time, we watched the saxophone version of  This Is Me from the The Greatest Showman.

And finally the beloved Bonus Video High Hopes: Behind the Scenes

And that's a rap for the beginning of April. If you have any questions, please reach out to me. We are all in this together.

Hang in there, Ellen

Classroom Management during a Pandemic

 "Ugg! Classroom management....again?!" "Why can't I just teach?!"  "I spend hours creating great lessons! Why don't my students appreciate my hard work?" "Why can't they just behave??!!"

These are just a few of the comments that I have heard or even thought throughout my career. The truth is the kids are kids. They delight in getting away with something. They want to appear "cool" to their peers. Some of them may even be thinking about their rough start to the day or a situation at home. And honestly, some kids don't really care about music. <so sad>

So before you can teach anything, you have to have their attention. Thus classroom management. YOU need to get and keep their interest in your lesson.

As I have mentioned in my most recent posts, my students and I are spaced 6 feet apart so some of my usual management strategies have been adjusted. One of my go-to strategies is proximity - moving closer to students who need help with paying attention or need redirection. Having the teacher stand next to you can be highly motivating for students who are chatting with neighbors or playing with a toy. Now in my current classroom, having the kids spread 6 feet apart has helped a lot with side conversations. Still there are some situations where I do leave my chair in the front of the room and just walk over the inattentive students - usually for less than a minute - and that is within the guidelines of my school district. I continue the lesson without directing the rest of the class's attention on the misguided students. Their eyes are just following me as I move within the room.

If subtlety doesn't work, I will wait until a time when the class is not relying on me to directly deliver the instruction - during a video clip for example - and walk over to the inattentive students and quietly ask them to stop whatever is taking them away from the lesson. This is done discreetly so that the other classmates are not aware of it taking place. You've spared the distracted students their image by not bringing it up in front of their peers and most times, this does the trick.

However there are times when neither of these strategies work. In that case I stop the lesson and ask the offending students to meet with me away from the rest of the kids - out in the hallway but leave the door open or in your office (if you have one) or even up to your place in the classroom. Keep your voice low and calm. Ask if there is anything you can help them with. Comment on the unacceptable behavior that you see and be clear about your expectations. This is also the time where you want to add some accountability. If your school uses schoolwide consequences for poor actions, this is a good time to remind the offenders of those consequences and if the behavior continues, you will assign one. Then everyone goes back to their seats and the lesson continues without any further attention being brought to the disruption.

There are 2 important parts here.

1) Be respectful to the students whether they are respectful or not. Do not get emotionally involved - keep your cool. Speak in a calm but firm voice. 

2) If you say you are going to do something, you must follow through and do it. This is your credibility on the line. Kids will totally respect you if you keep your word.

Establishing clear class rules are essential for maintaining order in your classroom. I will discuss that more in another blog.

I hope you found this helpful. If you have any questions, please reach out to me. We're all in this together.

Hang in there! Ellen