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 

How to Keep Kids Motivated to Play Recorders

About a year and a half ago, I wrote a post about teaching recorders by starting on E. It totally changed my beginning recorder program and truly made a difference in the tone of my beginning students. Two years later, I am still sold!

 My students cannot get enough of these squeaky little instruments. I am asked DAILY "when are we gonna play for belts?" It took me a while to figure out how to carve out time for individual testing for new belts BUT... this is my current strategy.

On the first week of the month, I set aside MOST of the class time to work on belt songs. I pair students up according to what song they are working on. For the kids who are several belts behind most of the class, they get to choose another student who has mastered a few more belts than they have and get "tutored"! THEY LOVE THIS - both parties, the tutor and the "tutee"!

All the kids are playing at once or taking turns with their partner. Yes! it is quite a cacophony BUT the kids are SO motivated to practice! When a student feels prepared to play for a belt, s/he walks up to me to perform. I usually have a waiting line. In addition to listening, I am always scanning the room to ensure that everyone is on task!

I LOVE the motivation this first week of the month generates and I want to keep it going. So I open my room up twice a week for a half hour before school to let individuals play for belts too.

How do you work recorders into your curriculum? I'd love to hear!

Happy Honking! Ellen

Don't miss this week's Musician in the Spotlight
 ...   Men and Women of American Idol. 

Be the first person to leave a comment below and I will send them to you for free! 

Visit my store at https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Harmony-In-The-Hood

How to survive interruptions to your plans

Half days. Early dismissal days. Teacher work days. Even assemblies. If you are on a weekly schedule (in other words, you meet with the same classes on the same day of the week), this can really throw off your attempt to keep all your classes on the same page.

After a couple of these days, you probably want to throw up your hands in frustration!

Relax! It's all good!

First of all, take a deep breath and remind yourself...you love this job! You chose it because you love working with kids, you love music, you want to share your love of your subject with your students, perhaps even inspire them. So...with your attitude realigned, let's talk about what is truly important and what you can let go of.

Adapt your lessons. If all your 5th grade classes learned "casting off" with Alabama Gal but 2 classes missed it, YOU get to decide what was important about the lesson and what could be dropped out. If you dance alot in music class and the 5th graders will be learning more dances incorporating "casting off", then that dance step is probably not one to skip.

So as you review last weeks' lesson with all the kids that learned "casting off" last week (kids LOVE repetition but change it up a little), teach Alabama Gal to the kids that missed it. And then like Elsa, LET IT GO!

If you try to cram all of the material you covered in 2 lessons with the majority of the classes into 1 lesson with the kids you missed, you will stress yourself out and the joy of the material will not reach your students. And isn't that the point?

We have the loveliest job! To teach kids how to connect to the beauty of music. Obviously music means a great deal to you or you wouldn't be in this business.
Don't forget WHY you are here!

To make a difference! This is all about ATTITUDE here!

On the surface, you may feel like you are just a break for classroom teachers. They may not realize that you actually have plans and standards that you are planning to teach. But quite honestly, we are ALL in our own little microcosms. Classroom teachers are focused on their plans and standards just like we are. Sometimes you meet some classroom teachers who "get it". They understand that we are actually teaching content. CHERISH THEM!

For the others who cannot see beyond themselves, be kind. People cannot understand what they have not experienced. Be patient with adults as well as kids. Again your attitude says so much about who you are.

And how people will accept your music program.

You can't do everything! Do what you can and remember to make it musical and joyful. That is what the kids will remember!


Hang in there! Ellen

Don't miss this week's Musician in the Spotlight
 ... the very sassy  Mariah Carey. 

Be the first person to leave a comment below and I will send it to you for free! 

Visit my store at https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Harmony-In-The-Hood

Moving Your Music Classroom?

©EduClips

The beginning of the year you set up your Music room just the way you want it.  It's organized and easy to maintain. You teach your students how to enter and exit in an orderly manner. Things are flowing the way you'd like and then...

there's a change in your space. It could be some kind of school construction or you could lose your room to a new section of first grade. This will require you to have a different space... now... just after you've gotten your students into a routine!

So... how do you set up a new space and keep similar routines? You realize that you cannot get everything in place before the classes start coming. The school schedule must go on. What can you make sure is ready before the kids arrive and what can you add little by little?

SET UP THE PHYSICAL SPACE the way you want. 

1)Are you setting up the seating in a semi-circle or in rows? Think about where you "present" most of your lessons: near the Smart board? next to your instruments? by the piano?

Do you have a "front" of the room where the students will face most of the time? If you use a rug or chairs or sit spots, decide where they work best and put them in place.

2) If your students bring their lunch boxes because they go right to lunch after your class, where should they put them? The special area teacher across from me has her students place their lunch boxes in a neat square (marked off by tape) in the hall outside the room. In the Music Room, I have a table and the kids put their lunch boxes under it.

Water bottles are commonplace in my school so I have a small area next to the table for them. I keep them separate so that a leaky water bottle does not get lunch bags wet. (Lesson learned from experience.)

3) Think about where you will set up your instruments (or at least store them).

©EduClips

Will your students move to this space or will you bring the instruments to them? If you teach different grade levels in a row, can your change what materials you are using easily or will you need to use the same stuff class after class (no matter what grade) because there is no time in your schedule to exchange materials?

NEXT, DETERMINE YOUR ROUTINES

After you've figured out how you are going to set up the physical space, think about how you will get your students in and out of the room. How will they move from the entrance to their place in the room? I use assigned seats for a few reasons: knowing where to sit creates better flow and less confusion. Now how will the kids exit your room? How will they gather their lunchboxes, etc?

Once you have your physical space and transition routines figured out, you can add your posters, silent teachers, etc. as time allows. Don't worry about getting that done right away unless you have the time.

The change in your Music Room will definitely affect your students. Most likely they will be taking it all in and not be as focused as usual. Go with the flow. Remind them of your classroom routines. Refocus them if necessary. It's almost like the first week of school all over again but they should respond more quickly.

Your classroom is a place where you spend ALOT of your time. Be thoughtful about how it will work FOR you.

If you have a topic you would like me to cover, please feel free to suggest it in the comments below.

Happy Honking! Ellen

This week's Musician in the Spotlight is country music superstar Tim McGraw. Be the first person to PM me on Facebook and I will send it to you for free! 

Facebook Link

Organizing Tips for Boomwhackers

Boomwhackers

artwork by Music K-8 magazine

- you know, those colorful plastic tubes that kids love to play! As fun as they are, these enticing instruments can be a challenge to organize and store.

Big bins can make this much easier. Separating them into 2 groups can keep them even more organized: diatonic (C-c) and chromatic add-ons (the sharps/flats).

When preparing for the week's lessons, try separating the boomwhackers according to which notes you will use and then put those in a smaller bin(s). For example, if your third graders will be using D-A for a steady beat (great as a substitute for a level bordun on an Orff instrument), gather those tubes and put them in a temporary bin or crate for use in class. In a different bin you will put the D pentatonic tubes for your fourth graders.

When teaching harmony, divide the I chord and the V chord boomwhackers and put in bins labeled as such for your fifth graders.

In an earlier post, I discussed the use of classroom helpers. When the bins are labeled by grade level, helpers can easily get the them for the class. Smooth set up and pick up during class - who doesn't want that??!!

Organizing is a HUGE way to give you more energy - both physical and mental. I would love for you to share with me how you organize materials. Why not leave a comment below?

Happy Honking! Ellen

Hispanic Heritage Month is in full swing! Here are a few products that promote Hispanic music...

There are TONS of Musicians in the Spotlight at https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Harmony-In-The-Hood 

Making the Most of a Few Instruments

Using hand instruments in the music room seems like an obvious activity...unless you don't have many instruments.

How do you give your students the opportunity to play when you only have a few instruments?

First, choose an ACTIVITY that can be performed with both BODY PERCUSSION (clap, snap, pat, etc.) and hand INSTRUMENTS. You can adapt an Orff piece from some of the myriad of resources available or from your text series. Change it up: substitute body percussion for each of the parts and these will later evolve into instrument parts.

Disclaimer: Make sure you REALLY like the piece because you are going to hear it ALOT!!

EX. You have 5 triangles, 5 hand drums and 5 sets of rhythm sticks.

A) You teach everyone the 1st part with body percussion. Have them perform it successfully without you. Then have them perform the 1st part while you play the 2nd part. Teach them the 2nd part.

B) Divide the class into 2 groups. Have each group perform 1 of the patterns at the same time. Switch the parts giving students an opportunity to perform both parts. Then have them perform their parts while you perform the 3rd part. Teach them the 3rd part.

C) Divide your class into 3 groups. One group for each part - all using body percussion. Give every group an opportunity to play each part while the other parts are playing along too.

D) Now you add the INSTRUMENTS! YIPPEE! Demonstrate the proper way to hold and play each instrument.

E) Five kids out of group 1 play their rhythm on the triangles while the rest of Group 1 supports them with body percussion. Five kids out of group 2 play their rhythm on the hand drums while the rest of Group 2 supports them with body percussion. And the same for group 3 and the rhythm sticks.

F) Perform the piece several times. Then WITHIN EACH GROUP those who were playing the instrument will SWITCH back to body percussion and those who haven't played an instrument take their turns. Again perform the piece several times.

G) Now the groups will ROTATE to the next instrument. Group 1 kids will now play the hand drum part. Group 2 will now play the rhythm stick part. And Group 3 will now play the triangle part. Again, only about 1/2 of the students will be playing the instruments, the rest of the group will still be doing body percussion. Then SWITCH with the group.

H) REPEAT this one more time so that each group of students will have played all 3 of the instruments.

Use the space of the room you are teaching in and separate the groups physically. When you are ready to have the students move to the next space (group), have a SIGNAL. For example, before giving directions about where each group goes begin with "when I clap, group 1 goes to where group 2 is, group 2 goes...etc." The clap is the signal that they should be waiting for. If your students move before your signal, stop the class, have them go back to where they started and wait for the signal again. FYI having kids transition with NO SIGNAL = CHAOS!

I hope this was helpful. I'd love to hear how this worked for you so please leave a comment below.

Happy Honking! Ellen

I just posted one of my BEST resources on TeachersPayTeachers. Music Terms & Vocabulary posters. - almost 100 posters! Just print and hang!

You can get it for free! Send me an email at harmonyinthehood.com and I will tell you how.

One reviewer wrote "This wonderful file will be great for all ages. The specific graphics will be helpful for students also! Thank you!!"

Another reviewer wrote "This will be a great starting point for me as I put together a unit on musical decades!"

Don't miss this great opportunity to get this awesome resource for FREE!

Smart Organization: the Smart board

Smart boards are a GREAT tool in the Music room! If you are one of the lucky ones to have a Smart board in your room or in the rooms where you teach, it can make your lessons flow and keep you on track.

If you have no Smart board BUT you do have a projector and screen you can use this same strategy using Powerpoint or Google Slides.

This saves you from hauling a dozen posters with you to every room you teach in. It's in the cloud or on your flash drive. Let's take a look at this amazing tool slide by slide.

1. The board is displaying a message for your students to read as soon as they enter your room, ie. What can you tell me about Mozart? Or can you name a percussion instrument and explain how to play it?

I love "would you rather"s. Rachel Lynette has a bunch of free ones.

After briefly discussing the responses, you continue with the next slide.

2. In this slide there are pictures that link to various song lyrics in Powerpoint or other Smart Notebook files. Each picture represents a song for a grade level so if you teach 5 grade levels then you have 5 pictures.

I totally LOVE Music K-8 magazine!
They have created the powerpoints for you!

3. Rhythmic reading can be slide 3 (and 4, 5, etc. depending on how many grades you have.) One slide for each grade level. Rhythmic passages that scaffold from one grade to another help to keep you on track when teaching multiple grades. Students read the rhythms with syllables, clap them, and even add hand percussion.

4. Following the rhythm slides are the slides that display the main activity of each of your lessons. These are the slides where you have different types of locomotor and non-locomotor movements for 2nd grade. Or on the next slide you might visually break down the 3 body percussion parts of the 5th grade piece.

Make it interactive. Have the kids come to the board and circle their choice.
Thanks to David Row at Making Moments Matter.

5. Nearing the end of your music lesson, you might calm everyone with a listening activity. Slides that introduce or review a certain style of music or specific composer.

Or again make it interactive

Now you have reached the end of your lesson. Your students exit your room and you start the presentation all over with the next class. If you have different grade level classes every period, this can really save your brain! 

It's all contained in one place. 

It goes in the order YOU want the lesson to go. 

It is highly visual in a class that is basically auditory. 

It gives your students something to look at while learning and listening.

Does creating this presentation take time every week or every 6 days or however your schedule falls? Yes it does- the 1st year! Is it worth it? ABSOLUTELY! Just like writing plans or creating lessons takes time, it is an investment in your future as a teacher. The beauty of these presentations is that once you've made them, you can use them next year and over and over. It bears repeating - it is totally worth your time.

If you do something different that works for you, I would LOVE to see it the comments below!

Happy Honking! Ellen

2 ways to create calm transitions in your classroom

When I first started teaching I was so concerned about music content and materials that I didn't really consider transitions or even protocols for activities. The kids behaved so calmly in the halls with their classroom teachers but once they came into my room, they forgot all about that.

I told myself that was OK because I teach music, right?
And music is a noisy subject, right?

But honestly it felt chaotic to me and it kinda wore me out. I didn't realize that having structure, procedures and protocols for behavior in my classroom didn't make me a control freak. It made me a good teacher.

I needed to take charge. After all this was MY room and I wanted to be comfortable in it. When I'd ask the kids to be "good", that wasn't specific enough. So I decided that my music room needed some FORMAL routines for pretty much EVERYTHING.

I created a step-by-step protocol for entering the room and exiting the room.
Posters of the entrance and exit routines were hung in the front of the room for visual cues.

 

And then we PRACTICED them a few times in each class and not just at the time of the transitions. I made sure that transition looked and sounded like I wanted it to. And if the behavior slipped once in a while, we would review the expectations and do the transition again and get it right.

LINING UP

I also chose CALM activities that came right after entering and right before leaving in order to make the transitions smoother.  For example, you will notice we do "brain hook-up" right after sitting down.

Later on I even added a poster listing the order of the activities in the music class so students could anticipate transitions.

Having the students know the expectations gave them a point of reference. They knew how they were supposed to enter, exit, hand out materials, collect materials, etc. And when they were ready, I assigned leadership roles to students to give them more influence in creating our classroom atmosphere. See my earlier blog on JOBS.

By giving students guidelines to follow, they knew what I wanted them to do and that made a world of difference for me.

Happy Honking! Ellen

How to Create Recorder Tutors

As I mentioned in my previous post (Recorder Belts...), I started using recorder belts to motivate my students to practice the recorder. It had a bigger impact than I expected. Actually all the kids wanted to do was play recorders - all the time! As much as I love these squeaky instruments, there were other songs/dances/activities that I wanted us to sing/dance/play.

Also after a while, I had a wide span of levels that all these kids could play. Some were just emerging while others were quite accomplished. So...I created Recorder Tutors. During each class, I chose a few students who were afraid to play in front of the whole class or who needed some extra attention and paired them with another few students who had mastered a higher level. Of course, EVERYBODY wanted to do this but I found it worked best with just a few.

So while the rest of the class participated in an entirely different lesson, tutorial tooting was happening.

 

I set them up in my "office", each pair on a music stand. The white packet of songs had letter names underneath the notes. These were for practice. I didn't let the students earn belts unless they could play the song without letters. If the tutor felt that the student was ready to play for a belt, they removed the white packet and used the yellow packet (no letter names). I even gave these tutors the authority to award belts. Very big deal to them!

This became so popular that tutors and "tutees" came to the Music Room at the start of the day before I had classes to play. I LOVED how much confidence was generated with this strategy! Both the tutor and tutee felt special and progress continued WITHOUT the teacher (my ulterior motive)!!

Side note: I no longer refer to playing on the recorder as tooting since that word now has the connotation of a certain bodily function and creates quite a round of  laughter when used. I call it HONKING. So as I tell my kids as they leave me...

Happy Honking!

How a Routine can Save your Sanity

After 15 years in the Music Room, I thought "I've got this!" Yes my urban school had definitely evolved into a different place - kids were tougher, teachers were more stressed, high stakes testing was in place. But hey, I was still happy in my little classroom. Until it hit...

That year I had significant groups of students who just seemed to test me ALL THE TIME! The lessons that I had planned for them were constantly interrupted and I felt like I was losing control of some of my classes. I dreaded them!! And of course so did the P.E. teachers, art teacher and even their classroom teachers!

I managed to get through 2 more years like that. I would worry all summer about the behavior of certain kids and how I was going to handle them. It was haunting me and basically I was burning out.

So by February recess one year, I was at my breaking point. With a really tough schedule and some challenging kids, I'll be honest - I wasn't sure how long I was going to be able to force myself to go into school. Yeah...it was bad. BUT...I was determined to WIN this "battle". I re-read Harry Wong's " The First Days of School" and decided that it was time for some SERIOUS structure in my classroom. My students needed a new seating configuration, new routines and a no-nonsense teacher. They got it.

Fast forward to now. I essentially have kept the same routines from that year - tweaking here and there. I've added elements from "Teach Like a Champion" and wholebrainteaching.com but the ROUTINE is in tact.

So here it is...

Threshold
     (I greet everyone of my students as they walk in to my room - a hand shake, a fist bump or a hug)
Brain Hook-Up
     (In order to get the class focused within my room, we start with a few seconds of that - link to video)
Sing
Rhythmic Reading
"Lesson"
SQUILT / Musician in the Spotlight
     (Super Quiet Un-Interrupted Listening Time)
Earned Game Time
     (based on WBT scoreboard strategies)


This super structure allows the kids to be less stressed and more in control of themselves by making it predictable. A poster with each step is posted in the front of the room. The students are also leaders in most of the steps (see my previous post). And ...it saved my career.

JOBS!

I have used student jobs for over a decade now. I decided to create them in order to give my students some ownership of the Music class thereby hoping to have the kids more invested in my class. And...it worked!

I will tell you up front that initially this is an investment of time on the teacher's part. Because special area teachers rotate through TONS of classes, selecting students to fill the jobs can take a bit of time.

In my room, every class has a brain hook-up leader who begins each class. After that the computer operator goes to the laptop and scrolls through a powerpoint of the lyrics of the day's song along with the iPod person who starts and stops the song.(At least I'm no longer using cd's.) Next the rhythm master leads the students in clapping a written rhythm on the smartboard screen. As you can see, the kids have many leadership roles.

Choosing jobs can take a long time if you choose the kids themselves based on cooperation, good behavior, etc. I have done that. I have also pulled sticks out of the can (popsicle sticks with chair numbers on them) and let fate decide. Sometimes that makes me very nervous but I have found that kids really step up and generally do a better job than I expected. Win-win!

How many jobs you choose is of course up to you. I try to involve as many kids as possible so if I can, I have a job for everyone. That doesn't always work though. Currently I have up to 30 students per class so my solution is to switch jobs at the end of the quarter or semester. That way EVERYONE has a job sometime during the year.

Here is the template that I use. Yes, I update it all the time - adding jobs that I think would work well and taking off ones that don't get used much.

job template (word)      or      job template (PDF)

Do your students have jobs within your classroom? How you decide who gets which job?

Great reads -part 3

As I continue my reading suggestions, you have probably noticed that they are not about content. You already learned that in college. THIS is the stuff you probably didn't learn there... Management. And quite honestly, you can know all the content in the world but if you don't have management of your students, you'll never be able to teach them.

*Doug Lemov's Teach Like a Champion: 49 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College

This book is great for short, easy to apply strategies. One of my favorites is "Threshold". I greet my students at the beginning of every class. I shake their hands and smile and make connections, ie. notice a hair cut, great colored top, a recorder brought to class. Some kids prefer a fist bump and that's fine ~ really it's about making connections. I had one student tell me it was the highlight of her day and she looked forward to it every music class.

These 49 techniques were gleaned from super successful teachers - Lemov did not think them up. Again more resources from this book are available at their active Facebook page and website (www.teachlikeachampion.com ).

Teach Like a Champion is full of strategies that can be implemented immediately. Some are super simple ie. threshold, and others are more involved. Many of the techniques are focused on the general classroom  BUT as I mentioned before, take what you like and adapt it. You are creating your own organized environment with routines and procedures that manage student behavior.