The Score After 2 Innings

I'm a little excited for baseball season - can ya tell?!

So I survived the first 2 days at the new job! I love it! Doing rehearsals, small group lessons, lesson plans, etc. has been so intuitive for me.  Being up on the podium (or down off the podium which I did a lot of today) is so easy and planning time has greatly decreased because this is my comfort zone.  I love having an office all to myself. I don't have to go outside the building all day. People know who I am. It's like a whole new world! I also really like how the instrumental music department is set up in this school. The old cafeteria was turned into the band room (we still have the lunch windows behind cabinets to prove it!) so it's large enough for part of the room to be set up for the orchestra and half for the band day.  There are two overhead projectors, 2 computers, 2 whiteboards. The schedule is such that the orchestra has rehearsals when the two band directors are either on prep or have pullout lessons, which occur in the spacious (not being sarcastic, it's huge) instrument storage room. It's nice to always have kids in the room; there are only 20 minutes in the entire day when none of the 3 teachers are scheduled for anything. While the 9th grade band director teaches his band classes, I pull out his brass and percussion kids from rehearsal to do group lessons/percussion ensemble. He teaches his woodwinds by taking them out of their other classes.  The opposite is true for the 8th graders - he takes my woodwinds and percussion and I pull out my 8th grade brass from their classes.  It works nicely and we're very lucky to be able to have it scheduled that way. 

similarities and differences

I realized that it's almost 1 year to the day since I started student teaching. When you student teach, it's important to establish a good rapport with the kids. You should try to become a part of the program yet still make your own decisions and make your own personal statement.  Because I am coming into this job after the students have already established a routine with their other director, I feel almost like I did when I was student teaching...except now I get the whole 40 minutes to myself and don't have to share with my cooperating teacher! Haha.  I'm still trying to get to know the kids - by name and attitude equally. 8th grade is rough. So far, my take on it is that they act like kingergarteners most of the time but view themselves as hot stuff.  I had a discussion with one of my bands yesterday that ended in me calling them "boys and girls" and saying that I hoped I wouldn't have to treat them like the little kids I used to teach.  That class was great today, but the class that gave me no management issues (well few issues) was super chatty.  I mean it's probably because this is the week before spring break and I'm new and they're moody, but I need to figure out a way to get them to respect me a little more and act a little less like children. An obvious difference between student teaching and real life right now is that it's all me in front of the class. Logistics for the concert, getting info to the kids, making sure that everything is set for my ensemble, parent emails/interaction? Me. Thankfully I can ask lots of questions of my colleagues and the fact we share the room is great.  It's still daunting though that I have to write an email to a parent tomorrow. Also attendance and grading are things that have a new level of protocol that I have never dealt with; kids don't cut kindergarten general music like they might do in band and I only did 1 report card for the little ones. 

checking in on real life

Full-time pay checks are great and my bank account and I are looking forward to the first one. My sleeping, gym-ing, and eating schedules are all wonky now - partially because my job report time is now 7:15 when before it was noon (lol), and partially because I'm just beginning the 4th of 5 musicals I'm playing this musical season and that makes me sleepy. But as I mentioned in a status last week, I really can't complain about being tired when I spend all day doing what I love (aka music and eating). Oh and my wedding is in 4 months and my man and I are looking for places to live starting in June. WOAH. Look forward to more posts more frequently since I'm really into what I'm doing now!

This and That

Smart Board!

So my Smart Board classroom management strategy is working really well! Since it aligns with the strategies that the students are used to in their classrooms the kids picked up on it right away.  It was nice for me to be able to collaborate with the classroom teachers, steal a few ideas here and there, and come up with something beneficial for all students.  Also, anything that's on a Smart Board is fascinating to them! With the compliment jar on the screen for them to see, it keeps them focused on getting that "prize at the end of the tunnel".  I like that way more than the constant sticker giving.  

I guess my initial excitement and happiness with technology had to wear off eventually and that happened this week.  Our district has half-days this week for parent teacher conferences so I wanted to plan a short but rewarding Halloween-ish lesson. I have the "Sorcerer's Apprentice" clip from "Fantasia" on my flash drive as an mp4.  In this lesson, we can discuss the job of a conductor in an orchestra, the way the music tells a story, how music can be inspired by stories and art, etc. I got to the first school I was going to teach this lesson at early to test that I would be able to show the video on a school computer.  It played perfectly through Quicktime, so then I made the critical error of assuming that if Quicktime was on one school computer, it would be on all of them. Whompwhomp. It was incredibly frustrating to show up in a kindergarten room, tell them that we'd be watching a video clip and then having that clip not play because this particular computer didn't have Quicktime. Luckily, I lesson planned for a Plan B and had a recording of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" ready.  We instead did an activity where the students listened to it, drew what story they thought the music told, and then I shared the actual story.  It worked well and accomplished similar SWBATs, but still, it stinks when you have a cool lesson planned but there is a problem. 

Teacher's First Sick Day

I don't really get sick. I mean a seasonal allergy here, a sniffle there, but on the whole I'm not a sicky person. This weekend I was really busy and on Saturday night I thought I was just cold from being out all night, but ended up having the chills from a fever. I was still feverish on Sunday so my mom wouldn't let me go to school; she has a one day fever free before going back to school rule. That was awesome when I was a kid, but I felt so bad not going to school on Monday. I mean I teach a half-day every day from noon-3:15 which would make me fine to teach with some acetaminophen..but my mom said I shouldn't risk getting the kids sick which is valid...although I blame them for the random fever! Anyway, it was weird worrying about if the sub showed up, if they went to the right school, the right room, if the kids were behaving, if the plans made sense, yaddayaddayadda. But then I started watching a Frasier marathon and took a nap and it was fine. 

Control and Scheduling

I've probably mentioned this before but I like to make lists, be organized, and in general be in control of my situations to the best of my abilities.  I compulsively check my schedule to make sure I'm in the right building at the right time even though I have my schedule memorized.  This week of half-days for the students made for some interesting scheduling conundrums.  Every building has different schedules - one of my schools has 40 minute specials and the other three have half hour specials.  It was difficult not knowing until a few days beforehand what my schedule would be.  One thing I've had to do my best at is remembering to not sweat the small stuff. Okay, so I might not have been 100% sure about which rooms I was teaching in or if my schedule worked quite right, but the important thing was to just go with the flow. It is pretty much opposite of what my normal organized self would have wanted, but in a school setting it's hard to be really in control of anything. I have 4 building principals who made the schedules who gave them to my supervisor and above him there are even more decision-makers.  The nice thing about not being in control, however, is it doesn't put a ton of pressure on me as a teacher to do much besides teach. 

Life.

We started our wedding registry, I got two credit cards, I'm going shopping for a wedding dress soon, we booked the photographer, and are getting engagement pictures taken sometime next week after this tropical storm passes!

Analog Girl in a Digital World

The title of today's post comes from a RX Bandits song. The real lyrics are "Analog boy in a digital world" but I'm not a boy...so sorry Bandits for taking artistic liberty. 

smart boards

I teach in a well-funded district that is lucky enough to have Smart Boards in almost every (if not all) classrooms.  Some rooms have Promethean Boards, but regardless, every room in which I teach has a Smart Board.  My wonderful alma mater JUST got Smart Boards and students there are now learning how to use them. A lot of good that does me now, amIright?! Most of the other teachers in the district have embraced their Smart Boards and do super cool stuff with them. This is where the title of this blog comes in - I felt kind of out of the loop technology wise, which is weird because as a "digital native" this should be second nature to me.  Luckily I attended one session at New York's music teacher convention where the presenter showed a lot of really cool activities to promote note reading, recognition of musical symbols, and even how to do a full-class dictation using this fun bit of technology.  I remembered key phrases (because I have a memory that likes to retain useless tidbits like what I did at my kindergarten placement test) such as the "move to back" function, how to lock things in place, and that there is a way to make an endlessly replicating object (which is called infinite cloning).  Those few things plus the fact that the Smart Board interface is very user friendly made it possible for me to make a classroom management tool on the Smart Board.  I'll post a picture of it in my next blog.  I was, as my colleagues can attest, a little too excited about what I made considering it's not fancy, but I hope it does the trick.  

It was important to me to tailor my classroom management to align with what my students have in their classrooms.  There isn't much of a difference between what the kindergarten and first grade teachers do in their rooms which was great for me.  Almost all of the teachers have some sort of system where the students get downgraded on a chart - such as moving from the green section of the chart to the yellow if they are on a first warning.  I decided to adopt this idea into my Smart management thing.  Fundamentally, I have an issue with the growing trend that we positively reinforce everything that a child does: "Great job, Jimmy! Thanks for blowing your nose in a tissue and not into Jane's hair! Here's a sticker." I'm sorry, but I don't think that kids should get in the habit of expecting a reward for everything he/she does.  Rewarding good behavior for a full class period is great because especially with the little ones to teach them that they need to sit and listen.  But, when I have a kid come up to me and say - and this has happened - "I just helped John tie his shoe! Can I have a sticker now?", well that's where I draw the line. Helping someone tie a shoe is something that a nice human does. While it is a wonderful thing to show kindness, kids shouldn't expect a reward each time they do anything. So, that's why I don't have a prize box (also because I'm not lugging a box of chotchkies between 4 schools) and instead have a compliment jar on my Smart Board.  I used the infinite clone feature to make a star that can be moved from the treasure box into the jar.  It works similarly to House Points in Harry Potter - if a student earns a compliment from me, like "Jenny, thank you so much for sitting with good posture during class today and singing more confidently than ever before", Jenny gets to add a compliment star to the compliment jar. Or, if the whole class is improving their steady beat keeping, I can compliment them as a whole and add a compliment star on behalf of all of the students.  When the class reaches the magic number (TBD) of compliments, they get a round of a game (probably Freeze Dance, because who doesn't love that?!)  Like I said, I haven't implemented this yet, but I have explained that it will be happening to the kids and they seem down with it.

r-e-s-p-e-c-t

Your welcome for giving you an excuse to belt some Aretha Franklin.  
As basic as this might sound, respect is something that we as teachers have to be cognizant of.  Teachers are usually pretty decent at being respectful and empathetic toward each other but we all, myself definitely included, need to remember that we have to respect our students and remember that they are still growing and learning.  When a kindergartener is being a pain, it's easy to think "what's wrong with this kid?!" (I know I do that about 10 times every class) but this student may have a rough time at home or something.  I have been constantly reminding myself that we need to respect our students and keep in mind that we need to guide them in the right direction.  Especially with the little ones, treating them kindly even when they're being irrational and "annoying" sets a good example that they should do the same when encountered with a similar situation.  

Just think - with every student you encounter you're looking into the face of a person who is just learning what it is to be a person, to be in school, to be a kindergartener, or even to be an 11th grader.  I hope that when people look at me, they respect my situation and realize that they're looking into the face of a girl who is still trying to figure out this adult world, and who has no more of an idea of what it means to be an adult than a 5 year old knows what it means to be a kindergartener.  We're all just passengers on this crazy ride called life and every single soul, young or old, is trying to discover themselves.

Think about it next time you want to snap at a kid. I know I will.