hello world.
I know, long time no post. Like my friend Dana, I've tried to post meaningful things for the last month and a half but I haven't really felt like there was anything of importance. And being that I like to analyze things in my life, the fact that I haven't wanted to post anything is something to post about. Let me explain.
Teaching kindergarten and 1st grade general music, it's hard to feel like anything I'm doing is groundbreaking, interesting, or worth telling my loyal readers about. Not that what I'm doing isn't worthwhile or that I'm not into it, but it's just not something to record for all time on this blog. I think what this stems from is the fact that this is just a stepping stone in my career as a music educator. I know that I won't be in this district next year (unless something extraordinary happens) because I'm looking for a full time instrumental job and as of right now there aren't any anticipated openings. I would assume that most educators, like me, want to put their stamp on things and make a lasting difference wherever they are working, but I don't feel like I can do that in my current situation.
curriculum
During the original research project that Dana, Devon, and I did, we all grappled with curriculum issues; one of us had difficulties because there was no curriculum and I didn't like the book that the curriculum required me to use. Fast-forward to now and I have a curriculum that I really really have to follow. Being that my class is the first music class these students have in this district, I need to make sure what I'm teaching aligns with the curriculum so that next year they will be on the right track with whatever teacher they have. One thing I brought up in a department meeting was that the new kindergarten curriculum (since this is the first year of full day kindergarten, thus the first year of kindergarten music, art, and physical education) is pretty close to the 1st grade curriculum. For example, both grades need to be able to sing and identify sol and mi. It's hard to know how far my kindergarteners will go until I continue to assess them. Will they be able to do what the 1st graders can in terms of sol and mi identification? If they do, won't that mess up the 2nd grade curriculum because these students will be more advanced? Will that end up inflating grades and have all students end up being above grade-level (not that it's bad to have high achieving music students, but we want the curriculum to push the students, right)? I brought up these questions at a department meeting and no one knew the answer because we all have the same thoughts. It's just interesting that in real life teaching in a large and successful district, when I thought that teaching within the curriculum would be super easy, it has made me question long-term goals for these students...in a district I won't be teaching long-term...which brings us back to the issue of me feeling like I'm not leaving a lasting mark. Mid-year malaise? I don't know.
on deck
Sorry for that baseball reference - it's just now that the Giants are out, I'm counting down until my next sports disappointment, my beloved NY Mets. Because we lost days for Sandy, our district has school straight through January 2nd and March 23rd. No. Days. Off. Needless to say, lots of us teachers will be taking personal and sick days to alleviate the discomfort of that much school. For me, I'll definitely be taking off a few days to go to my state music education conference and for the NAfME All-Eastern conference. One thing I really liked from one of my instrumental pedagogy classes was the idea of a unit study. It makes lesson planning easier when it's in big chunks based upon the same idea. I just finished one that I used for all of December on The Nutcracker. The kids danced to, drew, listened to, critiqued, compared and contrasted, and watched performances of parts of The Nutcracker. It hit lots of national standards and was fun for them to learn little by little. Maybe I like it because it's like watching the next episode in a series - "tune in next class for the dramatic conclusion of the Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy!". But anyway, to get myself through this next long haul, I will most likely be doing a unit on Peter and the Wolf. I know I'll definitely do it for 1st grade, but I have to think about how I'll do it with the little ones.
Well world, I feel better having this all down on...paper screen. Happy New Year!! I promise to post more regularly from now on. Let's call it a resolution.
the "first" week back
We are gladly back in school after missing 9 school days! I missed 10 days actually because I had plans to go up to Boston to shop for a wedding dress. We were supposed to (as in before the hurricane) not have school on Nov. 8-9 for the teacher convention in Atlantic City, which was damaged during the storm. Because of the devastation of Sandy, the convention was cancelled and schools were in session. Since we had already made the hotel reservation and I booked an appointment at this bridal boutique, we went up anyway and I took the day off. So on Monday, it was my first time seeing the kids in 2 full weeks. Also, the week before the hurricane our district had half days for parent-teacher conferences. Having not seen the kids for full days/at all in a while, it was like the first week all over again! Some of the classes surprised me with how well they behaved - maybe it was that surprise and excitement factor that had them behaving so well in the first couple classes? For other classes, they were more out of control. The kindergarteners were the ones I thought I'd have problems with, but it was actually one first grade that was the most shockingly annoying.
the best laid plans, yadda yadda
I had a wonderful plan to do a fun composition on the Smart Board as a big summative assessment for steady beat, high and low (sol and mi really but we just call it high and low right now), and showing contour. This was supposed to happen after we did all of our spooky songs for Halloween, but then we didn't have school so I shifted things around. It's all about being flexible. Now I have to come up with another summative assessment project but that will be a good way to end out the calendar year. I don't give out grades for my students every marking period - just 2nd and 4th. It gives me time to be able to set a good foundation, get to know them, and give a more complete and accurate grade for each student.
halloween
I wasn't planning on doing a lot of baltantly-Halloween-themed songs; the only song I did that said the word Halloween was a cute little ditty called "What Will You be for Halloween". I added in between repetitions a place for the kids to come up and sing to the class what they were going to be using sol and mi. One little kindergartener came up when it was his turn to sing to the class and said that he doesn't celebrate Halloween. I did not anticipate this, especially because I had done this song with 6 other classes before theirs. This boy handled it like a champ, though. I asked him if he would sing the name of his favorite cartoon character and he smiled and sang "Spiderman". I was very proud of his reaction! He didn't melt down or make a scene. A few days later when I was leaving the building, he yelled my name and waved with a big smile (he's a huge fan of mine, nbd). His mother walked over and said very nicely how her son told her that we did a Halloween song. She wanted me to know that her family does not celebrate Halloween and to not require her son to sing those songs. I let her know that her son handled it so well and how this was going to be the only song we did specifically about Halloween. I assured her that her little boy was a wonderful student and acted very maturely in a situation that could have been iffy. That made her smile and helped comfort her fears. I have to make sure before I do any winter songs that there are no other issues, but this kid is a joy!
November has flown by. Next time I post, I'm sure it'll be about my favorite turkey tunes!
Happy Thanksgiving in advance in case my next post doesn't occur before the day of turkeys.
Today is the seventh school day that my district has been out due to the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. I think everyone knew that this "superstorm" had the potential to bring heavy damage to our state and the eastern seaboard in general, but it's really overwhelming to see exactly what the storm brought. In these difficult times, I think about my students and how they're coping. My kindergarteners and first graders are young and probably don't fully understand what happened, but children can pick up on stress in the home and can understand from the tone of voice of the adults around them that something is wrong. A lot of the district where I teach is still out of power. The lasting damages of Sandy in my area were caused by all of the trees that fell. I took a walk around my town on Wednesday (the storm made landfall on Monday night) and there were 100something year old trees that just uprooted. There wasn't as much rain with this storm as there was with Hurricane Irene but the intense winds were what damaged these old, amazing trees. A large portion of my district is still without power. It's a very sad situation because it's getting to be pretty cold at night - last night went down below 30 - and without heat it's obviously not easy to be comfortable.
My finance's parents have a house down the shore on one of the barrier islands. The ocean and the bay met on every barrier island (meaning the whole island had water on the ground at a point during the storm). Check out these before and after interactive photos. The one of Mantoloking is really breathtaking. Look closely and you'll see that there is a new inlet between the bay and the Atlantic there that wasn't there before. I've driven down those roads that no longer exist hundreds of times. We haven't been able to get down to the beach house to look at any possible damages because there is sand all over the roads, sinkholes in the towns, no power on the island, and houses in the middle of the roads. The town is slowly letting citizens back to the island, starting by bussing in 90 full-time residents and eventually letting everyone back to check their homes, recover what they can, and winterize the homes since there is no heat. I am cautiously looking forward to when we are allowed to go back to the house because it means that we can start to recover. We are so happy that the house is still there because it could have been so much worse. In the next town over, Ortley Beach, is being called the "ground zero" for damage in this area. All of these interactive photos are from the island where the house is.
Despite the difficulties that the shore is facing, we all must be thankful for certain things. NJ is a strong and resilient state. The cleanup and rebuilding have begun already and people have been donating their time and energy to help others. One of the most inspiring things that happened after the storm was a small gesture by a church down the shore. My cousin Amanda got married the Saturday after the storm hit. Her house, the church, and the reception hall were all without power. I was the cantor for the mass and used everything I ever learned about breath support to make sure people could hear me! But more importantly, the ceremony was beautiful. It was a little chilly...but absolutely beautiful. The reception had to be postponed to next year and we were expecting to go to the church hall for cake (not the real wedding cake but a sheet cake), but when we all walked in, there were appetizers, drinks, hot food, a dessert table, and a someone with battery-powered iPod speakers. It was a complete surprise to everyone. It made the day even more special. Those small gestures are something that will get everyone through the tough times.
I look forward to seeing my students again and pray that they will recover from this disaster.
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!
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.
long time no blog
I've been trying to think of what profound pieces of information to impart upon the world of the interwebs over the last two-ish weeks. All I keep thinking is that I am just pushing forward and that I haven't really had time to process what is important to take note of. Despite this, I'm going to put some of my thoughts down on paper laptop.
opinions of the faculty room
I'm sure we all, as current/potential music educators have heard to stay away from the faculty room! All those teachers do is complain about their kids, about administration, it's crowded, you don't know anyone, yadda yadda yadda. During student teaching, I never set foot in the faculty room (mostly because we ate pie during lunch in the middle school band room and I'm not one to miss out on a baked good) but I did when I substitute taught during semester breaks. That was a little bit of a different experience because almost everyone in the faculty room was a parent of a friend or was my teacher when I was in school, so it was more of a "How are you?!" type situation than a listening to complaining situation. I don't have a classroom or space to call my own in any of my four schools and since I travel so often and that means I spend a lot of my prep times in the faculty room. I have found that it is very important for me to have face time in the faculty room because no one really knows me anywhere. I think that for any new teacher, especially music teachers who touch so many students, it is important for you to get a sense of the school community, chat with other teachers, and let them know that you exist when you're in the faculty room. Yes, sometimes I do overhear a lot of jibberjabbercomplaincomplain, but also sometimes there are cookies and bread with spinach artichoke dip. You take the bad with the good.
observation
I was observed for the first time. It was fine. Real people observations are different than student teaching observations. When we got observed for student teaching during undergrad, we got instant feedback; our junior year student teaching supervisors gave us written sheets along with the discussions we had in the car on the way to/from the school and senior year, our supervisors met with us as soon as we were done teaching to give feedback. With this observation of a kindergarten class, my supervisor left as soon as I was done teaching and that was it! I know that I will have a post-observation meeting with him, but hey, I think it went well!
based on our old data...
Okay, that was a very brainy heading. I'll explain. When my two research buddies and I coded our data from our junior student teaching, one thing we discovered was that at one point or another we all felt like we had no idea what we were doing. To some extent, I still feel like I don't know what I'm doing. The one thing that I have to keep reminding myself of is that my kindergarteners and first graders have never had music in the public schools before, so sticking with the basics for a while is just fine for them...and me! Some of the other teachers in my district are very well versed in Kodály and that's how they work their lesson plans. I, on the other hand, had an overview of different methods that included Kodály but that wasn't the main focus. I'm very happy that I've had a big overview of methods because it's helped my bag of tricks, but I still feel a little like my skill set isn't up to par. One other thing that has made me feel a little like I don't know what I'm doing is the fact that there are a lot of general music teachers in the 8 district elementary schools, but we aren't covering concepts at the same times. For example, I've already started with rhythm sticks, jingle bells, and tambourines with all of my students but other teachers save that for later. I talked to my mentor teacher about this and she said to just try it and if it fails, then I know for next time. It's nice to hear that there is some leniency and that me wanting to try things is okay. I like that I still feel a little like student teaching, that I can learn about what works as I go and I don't need all the answers.
My dad once told me that he feels like he shouldn't have gotten paid for his first few years of teaching because he didn't know what he was doing. I thought he was joking, but now I know it's not an exaggeration because I feel the same way! For some reason, I thought that having a job would mean that I felt super confident about everything I was doing - like a job gave me this treasure chest of knowledge that I was unaware of until then. Nope.
last but certainly not least, lesson planning
Writing plans for general music is way different than lesson planning for beginning band lessons or high school band. I can very easily open up Essential Elements 2000, turn to the next page, know what will be difficult, and say SWBAT within two seconds, or even open up a score and know what passages you'll have to work. While the general music teacher editions are full of tons of information and well laid out ideas to teach the kiddies, I don't want to do everything in the same order as the textbook editors want to. I mean, yeah, we all start with steady beat and high and low, but I've been taking time to get songs from different kindergarten and first grade books across publishers. It also takes a lot of time to tailor the lessons to the short attention span of 5-7 year olds. The lessons are so full of different activities that it inherently takes longer. In any lesson planning situation, it behooves you to plan extra just in case but with the little ones, it's especially true. I'm starting to get more in the flow as get to I know my students, their interests and abilities, but lesson planning for general music is a different beast.
Now it's time for one more small tidbit of information. If you don't have time to work out in the morning before school, do an activity with your students that incorporates a workout. For example, the song "I'm Tall, I'm Small", I had students squat down when they sing about being small and then jump up when they're tall. After doing that approximately 50 times on Monday and 50 times on Tuesday, my legs were KILLING me yesterday. Win.
Where to begin, where to begin...
I think I'll start with my favorite story from teaching thus far. A teacher dropped off a class to my room and didn't tell my why this kid was crying bawling out loud. Apparently, he missed his mom. Then about 15 minutes into the class, one other girl goes "I miss my
mom, too!" and also starts bawling. Then 5 minutes after that, a third
child goes "They're crying and it's making me think about my parents and
I want to see them, too!" and so now I have 3 children crying out loud.
I decide to do the Hokey Pokey as a review (because it was too ironic to sing "If You're Happy and You Know It") from last week and while
all the kids are having fun, between versus all you hear is
"WAAAAAAHHHHHHH".
I try to find one thing to make me laugh in every day so I don't go nuts and this incident has provided me with a good chuckle each time I think about it (but obviously I didn't laugh at the little ones).
What I learned this week...
dealing with difficult students
I have a student who has been having a lot of issues in school - this student is disrespectful, destructive, won't listen to anyone, shows no real emotion/remorse when they do something wrong. I was speaking to my mentor teacher about it and she said that I should write everything down that this child does during my class that is inappropriate so that if Special Services needs facts from each teacher, I have written documentation.
when you have a problem, provide a solution
Okay, that's super vague so I'll explain. I teach in four schools, as I have mentioned before. In 2 schools I teach the students in their classrooms, in one school I teach in the general music classroom while the full-time teacher is on prep time, and in the fourth school I teach some classes in the general music class while the full-time teacher is on prep and in the instrumental music room while the string and instrumental teachers are not in the building. In this fourth school, we discovered that there is a scheduling issue - the full-time general music teacher, string teacher, and I all have classes at the same time but only two rooms in which to teach. It doesn't take a math major to realize this is an issue. Since, as I said, I spend a lot of time teaching in not-a-music room, I went to the principal and asked if I could teach the two conflicting classes in the classrooms to clear up the space issues. The principal said "Sure! It's very easy when you come in here with the solution to the issue you are bringing up." My supervisor had the same attitude when I brought it up to him. So, if you have a problem, don't go to your supervisor/principal and complain without first thinking through the options.
Tales of a travelor
I have to be on top of the procedures for 4 schools, which can be confusing sometimes. For example, on Tuesday, I accidentally ended a class 10 minutes early because their "bell schedule" is different than the other schools. By the time I realized it, the teacher had already moved on to the next activity so it's not like I could have run in and said "Time for more music!!" I just chilled in the hallway until the art teacher was done with my next assigned class. I felt kind of dumb, but now I'm sure I won't forget the time again! My name still hasn't been on any of the 4 lists typed correctly (in some places not typed at all). All issues aside, I like my travel time because I can get some fresh air, eat my "lunch" (food bar), and listen to the classical radio station. It keeps me on my toes. I think the second week will be a little easier (especially because it's only a 3 day week)!
Gettin' paaaaaid
My school districts split up each person's salary into 20 equal paychecks, received every two weeks. It works out well; some weeks you get "overpaid", some "underpaid" but at least it's a reliable check each payday. Today's check was definitely one of those overpaid checks because we've only had 7 school days instead of 10 in this pay period. But hey, I liked the number I saw! Getting that check made it all real. Today was especially real because as soon as I celebrated my paycheck, my dad brought up the things I need to start paying for, being a salaried woman and whatnot. Kind of a buzzkill for my big moment, but whatever.
Onward and upward!
