Saturday, August 25, 2012

Teaching Music on a Cart?!

Hey, everyone!  Where do I even begin with this one???  So, I was just putting the finishing touches on both of my classrooms a little more than a week ago (Sidebar:  totally decided to go with redecorating my classroom at P with the animal print, and I love it!) when all chaos broke loose.

I actually went shopping with my mom Thursdsay morning (the 16th) to get a few finishing touches for my other classroom.  After shopping, we went to school and worked for the rest of the day to get everything completed.  I was so relieved when it was done, I think I actually said, "Wow!  I feel like a load is just completely off my shoulders now that this is done!"  Big mistake.

Fast forward about 24 hours.  I'm on our district's website looking for something, and I happen to see that there's going to be a special school board meeting that afternoon via conference call regarding the huge influx in enrollment in our city.  As I continue to read, I see that the classroom I had just finished shopping for and putting together was going to be turned into a general classroom.  As in, I had to move out of my room and onto a cart.

Long story (somewhat) shorter, the numbers in our school bounced around for about the next four days and I didn't have a definite answer as to whether I got to stay in my classroom or not until Tuesday, and we started with our kiddos on Thursday.  So, as of now, I'm still in my classroom (PTL!), but that could change if we have any more little ones move into our school zone.

So, I guess what I'm asking is this:  For those of you out there teaching music on a cart, please send some helpful tips, suggestions, strategies, etc. my way.  (For example, do you have a special cart?  Or did you just have to use any old cart they found for you?)  I do a lot with movement, dance, and barred instruments in my classroom, so I'm not even sure yet how I would begin to address those concepts without my own classroom space.  I just want to be prepared in case I end up needing to move out before this school year is over or at the beginning of next school year.

Thank you so much in advance!