Holy smokes! How to sum up the last few months....umm...CRAZY would be a good start.
*Our school district is in the process of building two new elementary schools and one new high school. We are also reconfiguring our schools (elementary will now be K-5; middle school 6-8; and high school 9-12) and the boundary lines for schools were redrawn for the first time in many, many years. Consequently, each and every school is going to look and feel different next fall, with many students needing to leave and go to a new school. Staff will also look very different as well, not only because of the new schools and reconfiguration, but also because of the large number of retirements throughout our district. As of today, I'm still not sure if I'll be staying in my two schools, adding a third, or moving to new buildings entirely.
*Snow, snow, and more snow. We actually had a snow day on April 15! Our district has not called off school due to weather since 2008, so this was serious. 23.5 inches of snow later, and now we're looking at a make-up day because all of our "built in" days had passed us by since it was so late in the year. Has this not just been the longest winter ever? I never thought I was one to fall victim to Seasonal Affective Disorder, but this year--most definitely. I'm totally welcoming the sunshine and Vitamin D!
*We're moving! We sold our current house and bought a new one at the end of March. Talk about fast--we listed the house on a Wednesday evening and by Thursday at noon we had competing offers. We close on both properties and move at the end of May. Right now our home is a chaotic maze of piles, boxes, garbage bags, packing tape, and Sharpies. We can't move anything into the new house until after 4pm on the same day we have to be out of our current house. Heaven help me get through this without losing my mind!
*I'm going to be an auntie! My youngest sister and her husband are expecting their first baby later in the summer. The sweet little boy who's on his way will make my hubby and me a first-time uncle & aunt. Can't wait!
*Lesson plans/unit designs. So many ideas and things I want to do this summer! Hopefully between the move, settling in, and snuggling that new little nephew of mine, I can get some new packets and lessons put together.
Take care everyone and let's all just hold on for the ride that is the end of the school year!
Monday, May 6, 2013
Friday, January 4, 2013
In Praise of the Scotch TL901 Laminator
Oh, how I love my laminator! Love, love, love it!
I'm constantly needing to laminate things for work, and this little baby does the trick. It's much more durable than the laminating machine at work (don't you just hate it when your laminating starts to peel of f and then the kiddos pick at it and make it worse and then you end up re-doing everything anyway?...but I digress...) and I can easily set it up at home and laminate and cut while watching a movie or favorite TV show. It heats in only a few minutes and is pretty much foolproof to use. You just select the size laminating pouch that you need (up to 8 1/2" X 11"), slide your document or items in, place it in the feeder sealed-side first, and voila! Perfection!
I picked mine up at Target and purchase the laminating pouches (available in multiple sizes!) there as well. Happy Laminating!
Thursday, January 3, 2013
New Year's Resolutions 2013
Starting off the year 2013, I decided to categorize my New Year's Resolutions, and figured I'd post my professional resolutions here.
1. Make a lane change. In my district, your lane and step on the pay scale are dependent on your graduate education and on your years of teaching experience. Our vertical columns (or lanes) are BA, BA+15, BA+30, BA+45, MA, MA+15, MA+30, MA+45, and PhD. Built into the lanes are pay steps, which are based on years of experience teaching. My goal for 2013 is to make a move into my next lane--just 3 more grad credits to go! Totally do-able this semester--too bad lane changes can only take effect in September and in January. Ha! Oh, well, I can wait until fall :)
2. Examine my unit and lesson designs and work through them/redesign them to go even deeper within the curriculum. There are still certain areas where I feel like I'm only glossing over the topic, rather than digging deep and making sure my kiddos have a good grasp of the concept(s). This seems to be a constant for me.--I always have to remind myself to slow down and make sure they're really learning the material. I've gotten a lot better about formative assessments and letting them drive my instruction, but I always have to fight that little nagging feeling to "hurry up" and get through everything within the year.
So, what are your professional resolutions for 2013?
1. Make a lane change. In my district, your lane and step on the pay scale are dependent on your graduate education and on your years of teaching experience. Our vertical columns (or lanes) are BA, BA+15, BA+30, BA+45, MA, MA+15, MA+30, MA+45, and PhD. Built into the lanes are pay steps, which are based on years of experience teaching. My goal for 2013 is to make a move into my next lane--just 3 more grad credits to go! Totally do-able this semester--too bad lane changes can only take effect in September and in January. Ha! Oh, well, I can wait until fall :)
2. Examine my unit and lesson designs and work through them/redesign them to go even deeper within the curriculum. There are still certain areas where I feel like I'm only glossing over the topic, rather than digging deep and making sure my kiddos have a good grasp of the concept(s). This seems to be a constant for me.--I always have to remind myself to slow down and make sure they're really learning the material. I've gotten a lot better about formative assessments and letting them drive my instruction, but I always have to fight that little nagging feeling to "hurry up" and get through everything within the year.
So, what are your professional resolutions for 2013?
Monday, December 31, 2012
New/Updated Items in TpT Store
Just a quick "hello!" and note to let you know that I've updated my Documentation Helpers freebie on Teachers Pay Teachers and have also added a new product.
The "Documentation Helpers" now have more space for writing and a slightly different look to them.
The new item is entitled "Be an Effective Cooperating Teacher: Preparing for a Student Teacher". There are many great products available out there for creating binders, etc. for the student teachers themselves, but not as much for the cooperating teacher. I've included a couple of forms for observations; pacing guides for 8 & 12-week placements; and some handy checklists of "to-do's".
Well, that's all for now--just tomorrow left for winter break and I'm squeezing every second out of it that I can with my family :)
The "Documentation Helpers" now have more space for writing and a slightly different look to them.
The new item is entitled "Be an Effective Cooperating Teacher: Preparing for a Student Teacher". There are many great products available out there for creating binders, etc. for the student teachers themselves, but not as much for the cooperating teacher. I've included a couple of forms for observations; pacing guides for 8 & 12-week placements; and some handy checklists of "to-do's".
Well, that's all for now--just tomorrow left for winter break and I'm squeezing every second out of it that I can with my family :)
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Thursday, October 25, 2012
What We've Been Up To...
I have to say, even with all of the current drama swirling around the music program of my school district, this has been a great school year so far. Honestly, I'm loving my new school (H) and continue to love P as I have for the last 6 years. Here's some of what we've been up to so far this school year:
Kindergarten: The basics. We've been practicing steady beat, rhyming words, social skills, spatial awareness, etc. I love teaching K music! I'm always on the hunt for songs, games, and activities to work on those basic concepts and ideas with my kindies. My schools' PE teacher and I actually collaborate quite a bit with K to align what they're learning in each of our classrooms.
1st Grade: Steady beat vs no steady beat; the difference between beat and rhythm; loud and soft; fast and slow; and now we've just started with long sounds and short sounds. One of my favorites for introducing beat vs rhythm is using the children's book "Max Found Two Sticks". We read it and then I ask the kiddos if Max was playing the steady beat or something else. When it's identified that he's matching words or "playing the words," I introduce the term rhythm. Then I pass out a pair of rhythm sticks to each student (reviewing instrument procedure, of course--ha!) and then we read the story again, with the students playing the rhythms along with Max. They especially love it because I let them play the rhythms on the floor.
2nd Grade: Reviewing beat vs rhythm; reviewing quarter notes, quarter rests, and paired eighth notes; composing 4-beat and 8-beat rhythm patterns; review and practice with mi-so-la. I love using Artie Almeida's Mallet Madness books for practicing rhythm activities and instrument technique. One of my favorites for 2nd grade when working on quarter note, quarter rest, and paired eighth note patterns is her "One Potato, Two Potato" activity.
3rd Grade: Folk songs; Verse-Refrain Form (identifying, singing, and arranging); melodic direction; reviewing pitches of the pentatonic; practicing song accompaniment with barred instruments using chord, broken, and cross-over borduns. I like to use "Frere Jacques" to incorporate a lot of these concepts: Singing a folk song, singing in a round, accompanying the singing with various types of borduns, and introducing the concept of low "so".
4th Grade: At P, we've been working on their program, to be held Oct. 29. We're doing "A Kid's Life" by Jaconbson/Higgins. I'm loving it and so are the kids! At H, we've worked on "America the Beautiful" (singing it, memorizing the 1st verse, and creating our own illustrated book for the first verse); Theme and Variations Form with "America" and Ives' "Variations on America"; reviewing absolute pitch; Artie Almeida's lesson "Old Black Fly"; and now we've started a rhythm review and introduction of 16th notes.
5th Grade: At P, they're working on their program in conjunction with the 4th graders. At H, we've done a big unit combining with their social studies curriculum: Early US History-Civil War. We worked on a variety of activites with the Shaker hymn "Simple Gifts", "Yankee Doodle", and then learned a couple of songs from the magazine Music K-8 ("Declaration" and "We the People"). Sidebar: Do you use Music K-8 in your classroom? I love it! We then took some time to learn about spirituals (big lesson using "Follow the Drinking Gourd") and the Underground Railroad. Within that portion of the unit, we take a slight--but still related--detour to discuss major and minor tonalities. To cap it all off and bring it back around to music history, we watch "Bach's Fight for Freedom" and do the activities that go along with it. We'll be starting the rhythm activity that goes along with it next week.
6th Grade: "The Star-Spangled Banner" (singing it/memorizing the first verse; various activities and projects to ensure that they understand the meaning and history behind the song); a couple of dance activites ("Popcorn" and "The Hustle"); reviewing the musical alphabet, absolute pitch, and rhythms learned so far; building and playing major scales; and now we're working on playing Boomwhacker pieces based on the C Major Scale, incorporating note and rhythm reading.
Up next? The 4th and 5th grade program at P next week Monday and lots of fun Halloween songs and activities for the kiddos!
Kindergarten: The basics. We've been practicing steady beat, rhyming words, social skills, spatial awareness, etc. I love teaching K music! I'm always on the hunt for songs, games, and activities to work on those basic concepts and ideas with my kindies. My schools' PE teacher and I actually collaborate quite a bit with K to align what they're learning in each of our classrooms.
1st Grade: Steady beat vs no steady beat; the difference between beat and rhythm; loud and soft; fast and slow; and now we've just started with long sounds and short sounds. One of my favorites for introducing beat vs rhythm is using the children's book "Max Found Two Sticks". We read it and then I ask the kiddos if Max was playing the steady beat or something else. When it's identified that he's matching words or "playing the words," I introduce the term rhythm. Then I pass out a pair of rhythm sticks to each student (reviewing instrument procedure, of course--ha!) and then we read the story again, with the students playing the rhythms along with Max. They especially love it because I let them play the rhythms on the floor.
2nd Grade: Reviewing beat vs rhythm; reviewing quarter notes, quarter rests, and paired eighth notes; composing 4-beat and 8-beat rhythm patterns; review and practice with mi-so-la. I love using Artie Almeida's Mallet Madness books for practicing rhythm activities and instrument technique. One of my favorites for 2nd grade when working on quarter note, quarter rest, and paired eighth note patterns is her "One Potato, Two Potato" activity.
3rd Grade: Folk songs; Verse-Refrain Form (identifying, singing, and arranging); melodic direction; reviewing pitches of the pentatonic; practicing song accompaniment with barred instruments using chord, broken, and cross-over borduns. I like to use "Frere Jacques" to incorporate a lot of these concepts: Singing a folk song, singing in a round, accompanying the singing with various types of borduns, and introducing the concept of low "so".
4th Grade: At P, we've been working on their program, to be held Oct. 29. We're doing "A Kid's Life" by Jaconbson/Higgins. I'm loving it and so are the kids! At H, we've worked on "America the Beautiful" (singing it, memorizing the 1st verse, and creating our own illustrated book for the first verse); Theme and Variations Form with "America" and Ives' "Variations on America"; reviewing absolute pitch; Artie Almeida's lesson "Old Black Fly"; and now we've started a rhythm review and introduction of 16th notes.
5th Grade: At P, they're working on their program in conjunction with the 4th graders. At H, we've done a big unit combining with their social studies curriculum: Early US History-Civil War. We worked on a variety of activites with the Shaker hymn "Simple Gifts", "Yankee Doodle", and then learned a couple of songs from the magazine Music K-8 ("Declaration" and "We the People"). Sidebar: Do you use Music K-8 in your classroom? I love it! We then took some time to learn about spirituals (big lesson using "Follow the Drinking Gourd") and the Underground Railroad. Within that portion of the unit, we take a slight--but still related--detour to discuss major and minor tonalities. To cap it all off and bring it back around to music history, we watch "Bach's Fight for Freedom" and do the activities that go along with it. We'll be starting the rhythm activity that goes along with it next week.
6th Grade: "The Star-Spangled Banner" (singing it/memorizing the first verse; various activities and projects to ensure that they understand the meaning and history behind the song); a couple of dance activites ("Popcorn" and "The Hustle"); reviewing the musical alphabet, absolute pitch, and rhythms learned so far; building and playing major scales; and now we're working on playing Boomwhacker pieces based on the C Major Scale, incorporating note and rhythm reading.
Up next? The 4th and 5th grade program at P next week Monday and lots of fun Halloween songs and activities for the kiddos!
Some Answers, Many Questions
I'm home sick today (yuck), but decided this would be a good time to get you caught up with some of the big music issues going on in my district right now. I know I can't be the only one facing situations such as these. Let's get a dialogue going. Ready, Set, Read, Respond.
First, I'm very fortunate to report that I am not on a cart full-time at my one building. (Yet.) We are one first grader shy of me getting the boot from my classroom, however. At this point, they will be using my classroom 3 times a year to set up a computer lab for MAP testing. This means that 3 times a year, for about a week each time, I will be traveling from room to room on a cart. The first MAP session with me cart-bound went fairly well, but I felt like it could have gone better. I want to give a big shout-out and thank you to Danielle for commenting on my previous post and sharing her great ideas (and photos!) of how she makes the whole cart thing work for her. (You are awesome and I look forward to keeping in touch with you!) I think the next MAP go-round will definitely work out better.
So, how many of you are getting the squeeze or have already lost your rooms? Do you feel like a valuable part of your students' education team or are you made to feel like a babysitter while the "real teachers" meet in their PLC's? I'm fortunate to feel like I'm a valuable team member, but music teachers in other buildings in my same district are made to feel differently.
Second, our district passed a bond issue this September allowing us to build 3 new school over the next few years. 2 elementary schools and 1 high school, to be exact. This will also have direct implications on how general music is set up in the district. Currently, our students K-6 receive 60 minutes of music instruction each week. The music teachers of the district have been pushing for years (around 35, to be exact) for students to receive 90 minutes of music instruction each week, to be on par with what students in other districts around the state receive. With a new high school on the horizon, it looks as though our middle schools will soon be moved to a grades 6-8 set up rather than the 7-9 that they currently are, and that the 90 minutes might actually become a reality.
In addition to the "minutes" issue, an additional, but related, debate that is raging is this: Should the 6th graders still receive general music, even when they're moved up to the middle school? If so, how should it be structured? My concern is that general music would become the "dumping ground" for those 6th grade students not currently enrolled in band, choir, or orchestra; and I do not want to see that happen. Not fair for the students, not fair for the teacher(s). My opposition has stated that since 6th grade currently receives general music instruction, why would we want to take that away from them and give them less music opportunity? My response to that is, give the children 90 minutes each week from K-5 and they'll actually be getting more.
Adding another twist to this, our state legislature, in their most recent session, eliminated language in the century code mandating school districts to include music and art instruction in the curriculum. While our superintendent has very clearly stated she has no intention of eliminating music, the ultimate decision is not up to her--she can advise the school board, but they will have the final say in the matter, should a motion to remove music instruction be made. Am I wrong to think that we, as a team of music teachers, need to tread (somewhat) lightly and choose our battles very carefully?
OK, that's where I'll leave things (for now--ha!) I'll be back later with some specifics as to what's been happening in my classrooms so far this school year.
First, I'm very fortunate to report that I am not on a cart full-time at my one building. (Yet.) We are one first grader shy of me getting the boot from my classroom, however. At this point, they will be using my classroom 3 times a year to set up a computer lab for MAP testing. This means that 3 times a year, for about a week each time, I will be traveling from room to room on a cart. The first MAP session with me cart-bound went fairly well, but I felt like it could have gone better. I want to give a big shout-out and thank you to Danielle for commenting on my previous post and sharing her great ideas (and photos!) of how she makes the whole cart thing work for her. (You are awesome and I look forward to keeping in touch with you!) I think the next MAP go-round will definitely work out better.
So, how many of you are getting the squeeze or have already lost your rooms? Do you feel like a valuable part of your students' education team or are you made to feel like a babysitter while the "real teachers" meet in their PLC's? I'm fortunate to feel like I'm a valuable team member, but music teachers in other buildings in my same district are made to feel differently.
Second, our district passed a bond issue this September allowing us to build 3 new school over the next few years. 2 elementary schools and 1 high school, to be exact. This will also have direct implications on how general music is set up in the district. Currently, our students K-6 receive 60 minutes of music instruction each week. The music teachers of the district have been pushing for years (around 35, to be exact) for students to receive 90 minutes of music instruction each week, to be on par with what students in other districts around the state receive. With a new high school on the horizon, it looks as though our middle schools will soon be moved to a grades 6-8 set up rather than the 7-9 that they currently are, and that the 90 minutes might actually become a reality.
In addition to the "minutes" issue, an additional, but related, debate that is raging is this: Should the 6th graders still receive general music, even when they're moved up to the middle school? If so, how should it be structured? My concern is that general music would become the "dumping ground" for those 6th grade students not currently enrolled in band, choir, or orchestra; and I do not want to see that happen. Not fair for the students, not fair for the teacher(s). My opposition has stated that since 6th grade currently receives general music instruction, why would we want to take that away from them and give them less music opportunity? My response to that is, give the children 90 minutes each week from K-5 and they'll actually be getting more.
Adding another twist to this, our state legislature, in their most recent session, eliminated language in the century code mandating school districts to include music and art instruction in the curriculum. While our superintendent has very clearly stated she has no intention of eliminating music, the ultimate decision is not up to her--she can advise the school board, but they will have the final say in the matter, should a motion to remove music instruction be made. Am I wrong to think that we, as a team of music teachers, need to tread (somewhat) lightly and choose our battles very carefully?
OK, that's where I'll leave things (for now--ha!) I'll be back later with some specifics as to what's been happening in my classrooms so far this school year.
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