Why this Book?: I had sent out an e-mail to my staff asking for some of their favorite picture books and this one drew my attention. This was my first year in this school, district, and state and the concert I was planning was for my 5th graders. This particular group of 5th graders were, well... interesting. I had 3 classes with approximately 30 students per class. One class was incredibly invested in music class, wanted all the songs and games, and willing to try anything. My next class was almost the polar opposite - very passive in their music making and interest. The typical "too coo ..read more

Why These Themes?: Every year I look at the specific classes and what they're particular interests may be and how could I challenge them. Doing this allows me to make additional connections with students by showing I take an interest in their interests. It allows us to look outside the realm of traditional concert music and to be able to appreciate and perform many different styles and genres.  Rehearsing for the Concerts: My school runs specials on a 4 class rotation. However, I see the same class for 3 days in a row and then rotate to the next rotation. Our concert was scheduled at th ..read more

Why this Book?: Ever since the inauguration for President Joe Biden, I've been inspired by Amanda Gorman. The poem she presented truly resonated with me and I knew that this book would have the same power. The illustrations are absolutely gorgeous and the text is short, to the point, but full of interpretation. It allowed students to have a discussion on change and moments in history that are associated with this change. It also allowed me to dig deep on songs that have historically significant importance. I also love that the author, Amanda Gorman, is a young person of color and that my s ..read more

What is an Informance?: Informances focus more on students demonstrating the process of their music making opposed to a final product. An informance will very much look like what you do in a typical class with students. Some informances are organized to occur during the school day where parents are invited into the classroom. I've always done them in the evening in place of a traditional grade level concert to allow working families to attend. I personally do this approach to concerts for my younger elementary students (Kindergarten - 2nd grade) and switch to more traditional concerts in ..read more

Does the idea of concert planning completely overwhelm you? Are you looking to create your own concert programs around a unique theme? Well, you're definitely not alone! When I started teaching in 2015, the pre-scripted concert programs you could purchase from Music K-8 were a literal life saver. Over the past few years though, I wanted to challenge myself to create a concert program that was unique to my students, facilitate discussions on topics that were relevant to our current situations, but didn't take so much time away from class. I'm here to reassure you that you can create a memor ..read more

About the Song and its Source: If you have not purchased Canta Conmigo! by Dr. Rachel Gibson, add it immediately to your next order. She is absolutely brilliant and truly an amazing resource for authentic music from Spain, Nicaragua, and Guatemala.  I learned this song through a session that she presented at an OAKE conference a few years ago. Again, if you have not attended a conference, this is also high on my list of recommendations. It's in Chicago this year!  Teaching it to Students: If you're anything like me, trying to incorporate authentic music from cultures and la ..read more

It's nearly the end of the school year, which can be very exciting! However, that also means that state exams are about to be administered. That, usually, is not very exciting.  I have taught in schools where the specialists in the building were utilized as test administrators, canceling those classes for a day or period of time, as well as teaching as if nothing was happening, with the expectation of keeping the noise down. Here are some suggestions for navigating lesson planning during the upcoming testing season: Take Your Classes Outside I know this can be easier said than done ..read more

Welcome back for part two of synchronous teaching online.  From August through September 30 my school was completely online learning. I had 20 minute periods with each grade level.  We have three rounds of grade levels (in the previous post I mentioned that grade levels that had 4 rounds of classes doubled up so that one of the three rotations actually had two classes in the meeting.  We did a weekly rotation, which means we saw the same kiddos for a week and then we rotated.  We saw them Monday-Thursday with this schedule and t ..read more

Thanks for joining me again as I discuss my second scenario of teaching elementary music during COVID-19.  My last post talked about March-May of 2020.  This two part post will address my "set up" and how/what I taught when we started school at the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year. My district in Colorado, along with many others, started the school year 100% online.  That is the teachers and the students all met online for instruction.  This was 2/3 of the school day.  The other third was asynchronous assignments that were pushed out via SeeS ..read more

What a whirlwind the past 13 months have been?!!!  I believe I have seen about every teaching situation possible this year. In this series of blog posts, I'm going to share with you my teaching scenarios.  I'll talk about how I adapted my teaching and how I kept the joy of music making my number one priority, When we shut down last March, I had just returned from the OAKE National Conference in Portland, OR where I was the cochair.  I remember sitting at dinner with some dear friends from Washington and they talked about how their schools were closing for quarantine.   ..read more