Field trip!

There are only 10 days of school left!  You should all feel very honored since I have decided to provide you all a small tour of my classroom.  So here we go:

Here's my room set up for a beginner class.  Since I am a sub, most of the stuff in the room was up before I arrived.  But as I usually do, I added some of my own ideas. 

As I have said before, I had to decide what were the most important things I wanted my students to learn in the few weeks that I was teaching them.  1 of those things was rhythm reading, so we were sightreading rhythms every day (clapping and counting, then playing on concert F).  We started out in the book using simple rhythms that were repetitive, then graduated to rhythms that I would make up and write on the board every day.  On written tests, I would offer extra credit to students that made up their own articulation/counting exercise, and they were always excited to see their compositions on the board in class.  By the end of the 10 weeks, the students were able to easily sightread rhythms with straight sixteenths and could count sixteenth/eighth combinations by working through them.

Scales were also important to me, even though we only got through the 1 octave scales.  Most of these students can play all of their scales, but to earn stickers on the poster (which led to a variety of other prizes) students had to play the scales from memory at 80 bpm.  I'm pleased with the number that were able to do it, as well as the number that tried and can at least play the scale now even if they can't do it from memory or quite that fast.

The students that passed off all 8 scales are our "Scale Masters"!  They got cupcakes.

Around Spring Break I started that paper chain counting down the days...I really do like teaching, but I like sleeping in, too!

This cart is simply the greatest teaching supply I have ever bought in my whole 3 month career.  I noticed quickly that I was losing a lot of time just getting supplies into the room, or forgetting papers, or thinking of an idea while in the room but not having anything with me to actually do it, so I did some research and found this cart.  

On the shelf I kept my lesson book and notebook of lesson plans. I got tired of looking at the backs of my students heads while they watched the clock, so I took it down and put a watch around the top of the cart.

In the hanging folders, I kept assignments to pass out to classes as well as these notebooks.  Since I wanted to be able to occasionally work with small groups of students, I needed something to keep the others from eating each other, so I came up with these notebooks.  Every few days I would add a couple more worksheets and they are due at the end of the semester for a major grade.  Also with this cart, they never have to leave the classroom.  Saving trees!

In the drawers I kept a class set of markers, stickers, magnets, flashcards and other basics for the variety of music games I made up.

These students got to experience practice cards for the first time when I arrived.  That really made them adore me...so I tried to make it fun.  The class with the highest % of practice cards that earned a 100 gets a party this friday.  It kind of worked...if nothing else, there was a cross curriculum lesson on how basing this contest on % meant that Honors Band being the biggest class didn't make this contest unfair.

Proof to my students that I don't make them do anything I don't do myself.  A few of them got into this and would check it every day to see if I practiced.  

So there you go.  My first classroom.  Hopefully I'll be able to put up pictures in the fall of a whole new room!

22 days

One of the first things we learned in ed classes was that younger students learn best when they can be moving as opposed to just sitting and reading/writing.  Trying to be a good teacher, I have come up with a number of games that get students moving and reinforces our current unit: rhythm.  What's funny is that every time I go "I have a new game for us today!", half the class moans as if I told them fries would be permanently removed from the cafeteria menu.  About 5 seconds into the game, however, they all think it's the greatest thing ever.  Good thing I know they're not as cool as they think they are.

We have only 22 days of school left this year...I find myself being caught between hoping these 22 days fly by and wanting to ask students to stay after school and come in on saturdays to make sure they get all the instruction they need before summer break.  Next thursday is the last day for students to pass off scales (1 student has passed off all 8 scales already!), the next thursday is our spring concert and May 20th we start auditions for next year.  So really, I have 13 days left to teach as much as possible.  Now I understand why my teachers were freaking out while my dumb middle school brain was already on vacation.

My goal for these students is that they will know how to find pitches on the staff, count like pros and flawlessly use a fingering chart.  I realize I may be naive in hoping that with these tools the students will practice what we have done this year and teach themselves some new songs/scales over the summer, but I'm going to reach for the stars anyway.

Callyourmomaphobic

Things are going well in the land of middle school band.  Some of the 7th and 8th graders still wish I were their old teacher, but I'm learning to just live with that unchangeable fact.  The 6th graders and I are starting to develop some really good relationships.  I can feel the harsh exoskeleton I felt I needed when I started begin to fall off and we are able to work together much better these days. 

Classroom discipline is improving.  I am trying to keep things positive, so right now I have a competition between all of the classes for a party in the courtyard during their class the day after the concert.  To earn this, they have to be the class with the highest percentage of practice cards turned in that receive a 100.  The first one that counts is due Tuesday, so we'll see then how well this will work.  Next week I'll also be starting another program that I haven't come up with a name for yet (suggestions are welcome!) where students will start the day with 5 "coins" and if I have to call them out for disrupting the class, I take 1 away.  Students can exchange the "coins" they have retained for prizes such as pencils, Silly Bandz, restroom/locker passes, and extra points on an assignment (again, always taking suggestions!).

On the practice cards, students have to get a parent to sign it for us to accept it.  This has led to many students trying to forge their parents signature.  Unfortunately, these 12 year olds have the handwriting of...well...12 year olds, so it's pretty obvious when they didn't really have a parent sign the paper.  I have managed to brave an e-mail to parents to verify their signatures, as well as a couple other times for behavior issues.  But there is 1 thing I still haven't summoned the courage to do:

Call a parent.

Thus the title of this entry.

See?

Ok.

It's nervewracking to even think of calling a parent!  What if they don't speak english?  What if they have a thick accent and I can't understand them?  What if they are convinced that anything I say is a conspirancy created by another student against their dear Johnny? 

Can I please just text parents? 

There really should be a college course in calling parents.  Or at least a seminar.  Or maybe it should be part of student teaching that you have make at least 3 phone calls home that semester.  Either way, I feel more prepared to teach Greek than to dare phone home.

I realize the day will come when I need to just bite the bullet and dial 10 digits, but hopefully it won't be today.

Spring Break!

Education professors and my student teaching mentors told me that students brains are generally useless the week before a break...well at least I now know they aren't liars.  My students weren't bad, but they were as fidgety as a 4 year old with chicken pox.  I managed to teach actual lessons monday-thursday, and then on friday we combined the beginner classes and played band ball all day (Band ball is just some game that the other band director made up and I'm pretty sure the rules change every 5 seconds...).  It really only takes 1 person to run band ball, so I reorganized and put away all the solo and ensemble music off to the side so I could still keep an eye on my woodwinds.  It was funny to watch how they responded when the other band director said the same things I say to them every day.  They were sad to discover I wasn't lying about having to play in time with the metronome.

I just returned today from visiting friends in Oklahoma for a couple days.  It was interesting to sit around with the same people I went to college with and instead of discussing ways to get away with stuff in various music courses, we were talking about our own classrooms.  2 of us are teaching and 1 is student teaching and it was kind of comforting to realize that we all have similar issues when it comes to classroom management.  Along with sharing our frustrations, we shared ways we have dealt with these problems.  Some of my students may be in for a surprise monday...

She turns into crazy lady!

Today was kind of an unusual day.  The head band director was gone for the first 4 classes with some of the honors band students and string orchestra at symphony orchestra UIL, so I was essentially running the classes myself with some classroom management help from another sub.  Because of the situation, I had to combine the beginning classes.  The brass are not used to me, so they kept trying to get away with playing wrong notes and making up their own rhythms.  At one point I stopped the class and asked the woodwinds, "could you please tell the brass what I think of people adding notes and intentionally playing wrong notes?"  Their response..."she turns into crazy lady!"  Not the answer I was expecting...but it's pretty accurate.  I've got them trained.

I. Hate. Standardized. Tests.

TAKS starts this week.  Fortunately, we lose just 1 day of testing this week, but we lose 6 more before the end of the year.  7 days total of lost instruction.  Which famous education researcher missed the day where the professor covered importance of actually having the opportunity to learn?

Ok.  I'll get off my soap box.  For now.

The other band director is awesome, and quite the Shirley Q. Liquor fan.  At least 12 times a day I hear her ask students "How you durrin?" and it makes me laugh every time.  She found some Shirley Q. Liquor albums in her office, so we will be spending some time soon listening to those soon.

Things are getting better at my school.  I'm trying to be really consistent and true to my word with my students, which I'm pretty sure makes some of them hate me, but as long as they hate me while practicing and bringing their reeds to class everyday, I don't care.  It's more important to me that they learn how to be responsible than whether or not they like me.

In one of my classes I still have some classroom management issues.  If anyone has any brilliance to offer for this situation, I'm all kinds of willing to try almost anything.  This is the class I posted about earlier that I arranged their room with the exact chairs and stands they need.  It's better than before, but we need to start moving fast through the book and I can't afford to lose 20 minutes every day in getting them back on task.  Especially when I'm going to lose 7 days already this year...

Don't worry.  I'm not letting myself back on the soap box.

I have just 1 more thing to say.  Even with feeling like I'm running uphill a lot of the time, I still LOVE my job!  I get the opportunity to work at a school that is fortunate enough to still have music programs and I get to spend all day teaching the thing I've spent most of my life studying.  I'm pretty lucky.

Setting the pace

I survived my first full week as a band director!  Well, we have a contest tomorrow, so I guess this week isn't over yet.  My students are getting used to me, so I'm starting to be able to relax a little more in my classes and not be all angry and stern all the time.  I have 3 beginner woodwind classes that I teach every day.  2 of those classes quickly figured out that I am their teacher for the rest of the year and I won't let them get away with being insane.  1 of them however, hasn't passed the insane stage yet.  Since I don't want this class to get far behind, or cause me to have an aneurysm, I figured drastic measures needed to be taken.  I teach my classes in a side classroom, but both of the beginner classes meet together then split up.  One day this week, I told my students they would be lining up quietly before they came in my room.  Then when I brought them in the room, I had the room totally cleaned except for exactly 11 chairs and 11 stands, all at least 4 feet apart from each other.  How I wish I could have taken a picture of their faces as I placed them in their new seating arrangement.  It was priceless.  And let me tell you, since the day I did that, I have had little trouble with them talking out of turn or generally not paying attention.  They still sit in that arrangement, and probably will for a few more days, and then I'll go back to something more familiar, but will have this memory for them as a reminder of what will happen if things get out of control again.

While I'm working really hard to be firm and consistent with my students, I was really excited today when a student offered me some candy.  The creatures are inviting me into their club!  I also got my official box in the front office.  I can hardly wait for my first faculty meeting announcement to groan over :)