Teaching concert etiquette to our middle school singers is really important.  Doing so in a fun and engaging way can help their confidence and help them learn to respect the work they've done to get there. In this lesson, you will get-  *You will find a link to a 21 page set of ideas for this product. *The first part of this product is a single, 50-60-minute lesson plan designed to teach your students the main components of good concert etiquette.  You will watch a funny video that covers some of the main topics, and you’ll discuss them.  Then, I assign two activities ..read more

Who doesn't struggle with singers who sing with dead eyes and faces? Which middle school teacher has never had the thought "Why won't they just sing louder? Where is the energy?" Well, in this new "QUICK!" series lesson, I aim to help you find solutions! How can chorus teachers use this lesson? *You will find a link to a 27-page set of ideas for this product. *The first part of this product is a single, 50-minute lesson plan designed to set the tone for what this product aims to help you teach.  Step one is the process of helping improve your student's stage presence and ability to sin ..read more

Here is a link to my video about Apathy in the Chorus Classroom! Apathy is toxic to singing, and it is up to us to change the culture in the room.   We are the adults in the room!  So, I created this new lesson in my "QUICK!" series to give you ideas on how to begin to change the culture to a more positive one! How can teachers use this lesson? *At the beginning of this lesson, you’ll find a single lesson plan that can be completed in a 50 minute class that will help set the tone for starting the process of creating a positive culture in your chorus classroom.  Apathe ..read more

How can chorus teachers use this lesson? *At the beginning of this lesson, you’ll find a single lesson plan that can be completed in a 50-minute class that will help your male changing voices to understand what an “octave drop” is.  They will “feel and experience” what it is like to sing in tune where their voices “live” through vocal exercises.  They will listen to two videos of good pop male singers using chest voice and others using falsetto.  Video links included. *Also in this lesson, you will find numerous vocal exercise suggestions to help your male singers along ..read more

Unlock the Power of S-Cubed Sight Singing with MusicFirst If your school or district already owns MusicFirst, you already have full access to the S-Cubed Sight Singing Program for Beginners Full Curriculum. And even better? You have access to homework/practice assessment examples that I created two years after the original curriculum. MusicFirst is the ONLY company that offers both the curriculum and homework/practice examples. With MusicFirst's incredible technological capabilities, you have some of the most amazing assessment and teaching tools on the market at your fingertips! Y ..read more

*For beginners in your choirs, developing the ability to sing their parts independently is not easy, and we have to use a variety of techniques to help them be successful.  This lesson is designed to help you help your beginners understand part-independence through a variety of approaches including teaching what part-independence is, developing your own set of hand gestures to help them realize when the parts are incorrect or not in balance (and more), games to help with the subject and rehearsal techniques for you to use to help build their confidence with singing their parts independ ..read more

Some teachers cannot use school funds to purchase items on TeachersPayTeachers, so I often put my biggest bundles of work onto JW Pepper. If you've followed my work this summer, you know that I created two new very large bodies of work. As of today, my Nine Week Musical Bundle (Newsies/Sound of Music/Annie) and my New Chorus Sub Plans Bundle that includes several weeks of worth in it to help your non-music or music sub teach meaningful material while you are gone. Make sure to check them out as you purchase materials for the new school year on JW Pepper ..read more

For beginners, reading the choral octavo/score often feels like reading a science lesson in a completely different language.  They look totally confused, and they stop singing because of it.  This creates a lack of confidence that can be hard to overcome unless we address it early and with lots of different interactive activities.  In this lesson, you’ll introduce the topic of reading choral scores, and watch a 6 minute video that will clarify it even further because it has great visuals.   I’ve also included many misconceptions about reading scores that will help your s ..read more

You can enter this giveaway until Sunday, August 25, 2024 at 11:59 PM at the bottom of this blog post by answering two poll questions. This is the newest version of This Sound of Music Unit, and it includes more activities than my original version that can make it last up to three weeks. Created July 2024. The original was created in August 2023. Here is the link to the original version which does NOT include the extra 8 creative extension activities (extra quiz, creative writing, debates, character diaries, research project ideas and more). The deck has 5 slides, but it has links to Y ..read more

Developing beautiful tone in your choir is so important. Teaching the students to learn to listen and self-correct and self-assess is critical. In this lesson, you'll get- A link to a Google doc that is 19 pages long and includes a lesson plan to introduce the topic with ideas for guided and independent practice closing activity and extension idea and even homework if you want it, followed by ways to assess your students understanding of overtones, followed by specific exercises that encourage overtone production, followed by ideas on how to integrate overtone work into your class, followe ..read more