Don't let "that kid" take the joy out of teaching

"That kid". Most teachers have had or currently have one. A child who seems to take so much more attention, love, and energy than everyone else in the class combined. If you are a music teacher, or another specialist who sees multiple classes is a day, maybe you have a few of them scattered throughout your week.

As a teacher we WANT to help them. We think of countless interventions, talk to their classroom teacher, SPED teachers, counselor, their parents, and maybe even the principle trying to find ways to help that kid succeed in our class. Maybe you feel like you are really consistent, but you are constantly dealing with behavior issues with the same few kids. Or maybe you are trying out new ideas and strategies every few weeks to see if SOMETHING will work. It is exhausting. You lay awake thinking about what you can do different. Maybe you go home and cry. I've been there before.

Here's my advice: STOP LETTING THAT KID STEAL ALL YOUR TIME AND ENERGY.

Don't let "that kid" take the joy out of teaching for you. When we spend all our time focusing on one student, we can often lose sight of the rest of the class.

There are a lot of kids who DO care. So many kids cannot wait to get to music. If I miss the opportunity to make the most of it for THEM, I am doing those kids a huge disservice. 

I know we think, "If I can just get this one kid to do the right thing," then we will be able to get so much more done. 

We've all heard the saying, "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink." There are kids who are THIRSTING for your attention. They are ready to sing and play and learn with you. Lead them. Inspire them. Invest in them. The others may follow. Or they may not, but I can guarantee that you will no longer feel like a babysitter. You WILL feel like you are making a difference. You will re-find your joy and passion for teaching. Those kids who are ready will be right there with you.

I have found in my own classroom, when I spend all my energy on the challenging kiddos, I am drained. I have nothing left to give. If I invest that energy into the kids who are eager to learn, I am so much happier, and there are actually LESS behavior problems because those kids see everyone else having a great time and they want to be a part of it. If they are slowing you down, have them sit and learn by watching for a bit, but don't waste your class time dealing with it. 

Close your eyes and think about the kids in your class (or classes) who cannot wait to be in your room. 

Repeat after me. "This week, I am going to focus on them for a change". Don't let them fall through the cracks because you are too busy with the kids who aren't ready to learn. Invest in the ones who are.

Then report back and let me know how you feel about it. I feel my happiest teaching when I am thinking about how I spend my energy and focusing on the good!

Dazzling Discipline

I am linking up with Aileen Miracle at Mrs. Miracle's Music Room to bring you some ideas for Dazzling Discipline this school year.

Know your students names! This can be especially tricky when you are starting at a new school and have to learn the entire school ASAP. Since this last year I taught 1st-5th and this coming year they are adding PreK and Kindergarten to my mix, I will have to learn names for all of the PreK, Kindergarten and 1st Grade. I have a TERRIBLE memory and I know it can sometimes take a while, but you need to learn names just as quickly as you can. It is much more powerful when you are trying to connect with or correct a student if you are able to use their names. To do this I play lots of name games at the beginning of the year. Here are a couple of my favorites: 

Another thing that is a "MUST HAVE" in learning student names is a seating chart. Those first few times when they come into music I am singing hello to each student and looking at their name and the student when I sing and for some reason that seating chart really helps me to remember names based on their placement.

Be Ready for the Students 

This is not always easy when you have one grade leaving and the next at the door, but your room and materials need to be set and ready for the next group to walk in the door. If that means they are waiting in the hallway for an extra 30 seconds so that you can go to your computer and switch from the 4th grade slides to the 3rd grade slides and find the first song on itunes that they will be moving to, so be it. It is worth it to not have students sitting and waiting DURING class. 

I get all my materials for my morning up on my computer or set in my room in the morning before my classes start and I do the same thing over my lunch for my afternoon classed. Every second is important so having everything in place from the time students walk in the door will help you to not waste any class time. My board spots are numbered and I also have certain jobs assigned to a few of them, so that if I say "lights", "door" or "projector", that a student is on top of it and it is one less thing that I have to do. This also helps with multiple students volunteering to help do something.

Planning: 

Thing through each of the steps you students will need to do to be successful at a game or activity. I remember being in a workshop with Andrew Ellingsen and something as simple as telling us to point our shoes in the direction we were going to move in the circle immediately took care of anyone going the wrong way.

Lesson plans need to be well thought out, include a variety of songs and activities, and transitions should help weave you songs together and eliminate a lot of the talking or off task behaviors that can happen between songs.

Here are a few of my favorite transitions.

Music room rules and procedures: Last year I came up with a set of music room rules that spelled out "MUSIC". 

My rules are:

M - Make good choices

U- Use kind words

S- Show respect to classmates, teacher, and music (I love that this includes showing respect to the music, and it helps when kids think it's ok to sing less than their best)

I- Involve yourself

C- Care for our room and instruments

The rules are on posters that I display at the front of my room: 

Find them on my TPT store.

To accompany each of these rules I created a song based on a familiar folk songs. I display these using my projector at the beginning of the year and whenever they need the reminder until they are all memorized.

Singing the songs is so much more joyful and memorable than sitting there on the first week of school and talking through your classroom rules. Then later when I see a student not making good choices, I only have to hum or sing "Make good choices, make good choices...." and they get themselves back on track.

I have them available in a bird theme as well:

Find them on my TPT store.

Routines: From day one we practice all of the music room procedures. It is important to set the expectations, and be firm in your expectations. My first year I was a real softy. I got walked all over because I did not follow through with my consequences each time. There can be no exceptions. When something is not as you expect it should be, students need to be reminded of the rules and procedures and practice again until they accomplish the task appropriately. Most classes get the idea pretty quick that THEY would much rather play then practice entering or transitioning quietly.

When you are having repeated behavior problems from a student...

The first step is to remain calm. Under no circumstance should a child ever see you escalate because of their behavior. It truly just fuels the fire. 

When I start to see something going astray, here are some things I do:

1) Move closer to the area where the issue is. Sometimes proximity will be enough to correct it. Tapping a student on the back may be a good reminder as you are walking around the classroom.

2) Make eye contact with the student and with the students around them. If one student is trying to pull in more, you can often make it stop by giving a stern eye to the students who they are trying to engage with.

3) Verbally acknowledge the appropriate behaviors you are seeing from others.

4) Give a verbal cue to the offender. Whether it is just their name or a reminder of what they should be doing.

5) If the behavior continues, I give the student two choices I can live with "You may participate appropriately with the group, or you can learn by sitting out and watching others participate appropriately. You pick." Then I turn away. I do not stand and wait for their answer. If they choose to participate appropriately, I may say something like "Good choice" a few minutes later where only they can hear it.

6) If the student does not make a choice, it then becomes my choice and it may not be the same for every student. This is where you really have to know your kids. For some kids it may be sitting out, for others it may be a visit with their classroom teacher, or a phone call home.

On my summer "to do" list is to read this book

I think that it will give me some great tools to add to my classroom management toolbox.

What are your best strategies for Dazzling Discipline? I'd love to hear them below!

Music Room Organization {Part 1: Digital Files}

Let's face it! Music teachers have a LOT of STUFF! Our rooms are full of instruments, sound equipment, puppets, books, manipulatives and that doesn't even scratch the surface of keeping everything organized on our laptops!

On my Facebook page, I asked for some topics to blog about and one teacher requested that I write a post on how I keep all my visuals organized and ready to use without wasting too much down time!

For today's post, I am strictly going to show some ways that I (try to) keep organized so that I can quickly find what I need for each class, especially when you have classes with zero break in between and so that there is as little down time as possible DURING the class. I don't know about you, but I only see my kids for 30 minutes twice a week- each second counts!

To start off with I have anything and everything that I would ever need at school all saved to an external hard drive.

I bought two of them on sale during Black Friday.

I have several reasons for doing this, and it may or may not be something you want to look into. 

1) If anything should happen to my computer, I can take this and hook it up to ANY computer. I've had to borrow my PE teacher's laptop for a day when mine decided not to work. Having all my files stored on an external hard drive was a life saver and meant that I could continue on with my lessons as planned.

2) It gives me a permanent back up of all my files that I create or download from other TPT music teachers. (I also store many things on dropbox and google drive). I'm just SO terrified of losing my things.

3) I store a TON of clip art that I use to make all of my files, so I really need a lot of storage space.

To start off with, I save to that hard drive in one main folder with several sub folders.

Click to enlarge

Within this main teaching folder are many, many sub folders organized by concepts. I also have a big one titled "Songs" which I will explain in a minute.

So, say I am working on my lesson planning for teaching half note, I pull up my half note folder and it has ALL of my digital files for that concept.

Click to enlarge.

I start by going to my concept plan.

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(snapshot taken from my concept plan for half note, available in my Songs and Games to Teach Half Note) Here I have outlined all of the songs I can use and I make a column that says teaching materials where I list any resources I have created (or collected) that I don't want to forget. I haven't made visuals for all of the songs on the repertoire list, so I make a note of what songs I do have those digital visuals ready to go.

I use my concept plans, my notes from my Kodaly Certification, the American Methodology and Yearly Plans while writing my own plans, but this organization on the digital end helps me figure out what songs/activities I can plug where. If you don't have those materials, I highly suggest you look into them. Another thing that you might find helpful in your long term planning is my Jan.- May Planning Guide

It includes song lists by grade level as well as rhythmic and melodic concepts mapped out for when I plan to prepare, present and practice them (from Jan-May). I hope to make another set before back to school for Aug.through Dec.

Once I have my plans done, and the school day is upon me, how do I transition between files for each class/grade?

In the morning I see 4th, 3rd, then 5th, so I go to my lesson planner before school and I see what digital files I will need for the morning, and have them all pulled up so they are ready to go and I can quickly move from one to the next while my kids are singing.

If they are all songs, an easy way I have found is to have a folder that has all my song visuals. I just go to that folder and type in the song title and poof! There it is! That way I don't have to dig through all my concept folders. 

Song File contains ALL my song visuals in ABC order

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Quickly find what I need by typing in the title.

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At lunch I close out of all my 3rd-5th files and open all my 1st and 2nd. 

How to transition during/between classes:

Since all my files that I need for a class are already open, all I have to do to transition between files, is hover over the PowerPoint of PDF icon at the bottom of my screen, depending on what kind of file it is, and select my file. I always try to do this when my kids are busy doing something else. Say we were at the board to read and clap the rhythm for "Who's That Tapping At Your Window?", then we went to the circle and played the game, as my kids are going back to the board and I am transitioning to the next song (and file) I can have them sing "Who's That?" and assign soloists or if the next song is one they know well by memory, I have have them sing it while I pull up the slide. They are not sitting there waiting for me because it takes them more time to get to their spot than it does for me to switch files, and I can quickly make the switch to Rocky Mountain.

Click to enlarge

I hope this helps give you some ideas on how to organize your digital files. Later this week, I hope to blog about getting manipulatives organized for each class period.

If you have different/more efficient ways of organizing digital files, PLEASE feel free to share! :) We can all learn from each other! Either comment or link up below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Listen to Myself Challenge

I'm linking up with fellow Kansas blogger, David, from Make Moments Matter to take part in the Listen to Myself Challenge.

He shared this article, 5 Things to Say to Your Class Every Day and challenged us to think about the things we are saying to our students. So below are the things I try to say, want to avoid saying, and things I need to say more often.

#1 - Compliments

Compliments go a long way with kids. They want to know that you are more than just their music teacher. You are a person and when you compliment them or notice new things about them, you are acknowledging that they are important people to you. I always try to take the time as kids are coming into my room to assess their moods, say "good morning" or "good afternoon", but going even farther to say "I like your shirt," "Did you get new shoes?" or "I like your new haircut!" can really brighten their day. I challenge you to find three kids to compliment on their way into your room every day.

#2 Avoid Escalating Bad Behavior

I have a hand full of kids who can easily be set off and a situation can go from bad to worse in a matter of seconds if not handled in just the right way. In some cases I have had to learn that it is not "my way or the highway," but I can keep things more calm in my room if I remove myself from the situation and give the student a moment to calm down, whether that is in my resting spot, out in the hall, or with another teacher.

I need to remember that sometimes there are just other things going on in these kids' lives that are contributing to these behaviors. I had a student who was really disruptive in class a few weeks ago. After class I pulled him aside and asked what was going on. He said he hadn't had breakfast that morning and he was late for school so he couldn't eat at school and he was just so hungry. I know this is a family that we always have to make sure the kids eat breakfast because they are not getting enough to eat at home. Instantly my attitude about the whole situation changed. I sent him to the nurse to get some crackers and he came to my room to apologize after school. Sometimes it is hard to remember it is not always a conflict with the student and myself, but that it could be something totally unrelated.

#3

I want to try this week to celebrate the musician in each of my students. So often when a student sings or plays I don't make a big deal of it because it is just normal and second nature to my kids. Last week, my first graders were playing "Doggie Doggie" and one said, "____________ has a beautiful singing voice." I said "Wow! Yes she does!" I feel like it is so important to recognize the musician in every student to give them the courage to want to sing and play both with the class and alone. 

I challenge you to listen to your teacher self. What do you like/don't like about the things you say to your students? What changes are you going to try to make?

A special treat for you- for Veteran's Day my entire store will be 15% off. My brother in law served in Iraq. I need to remember to take a moment today to thank him for volunteering for a job that I would be too scared to do. Make sure to thank a veteran today.

You can check out my newest games- Steal the Bacon. I learned about this game from Linda Wood, who posted it in the comments on my facebook page requesting that I make cards for the game. 

The cards look like this: 

Just print, cut down center, and laminate to last forever!

Game directions: 

Set up: Set up two rows of chairs facing each other (like longways sets). Students are seated in chairs facing the row across from them. Each side is one team. Students number off the teams from opposite ends of the rows, so that each child knows their number. Rhythm pattern cards are scattered in between the rows allowing plenty of room to run. Teacher claps/says/or plays a rhythm pattern and then says a number. The students on both teams with that number run in to get the correct rhythm pattern; however, there is only one card for each pattern. They must get the correct rhythm pattern and get back to their seat before the other player can tag them. If tagged, the other player gets to “steal their bacon” and take the card back to their line. Continue until you clap/say all cards and then the cards for each team are counted. You can have some kind of reward if you choose to. Students whose numbers are not called cannot leave their seats. If a student leaves their seat to “help when their number is not called the other team automatically wins the “bacon”.

This game would be great for your upper elementary and even middle school kids- I've even made a few sets for older beginners! :)

I have sets for the following concepts and I'm working on more!

Ta and Titi

Ta Rest

Half note

Tiri-Tiri

Ti-Tiri

Tiri-Ti

Syncopa

Tim-ri

Or if you are interested in several concepts, you should check out the money-saving bundle: 

Steal the Bacon: Bundled Set

I love how the internet connects us in this way to people all over the world! I'd love to see where you are reading this blog from. Comment below with where you teach!

Happy Veteran's Day,

Lindsay