you are what you listen to...

Todd Hido is an artist who photographs American Landscapes. More specifically, he takes pictures of suburban neighborhoods at night using available light. His work is similar to Gregory Crewdsons’ with the main difference being that Crewdson creates narratives by the inclusion of figures and movie-like production qualities. Hido’s work seems to lack in any definitive narrative; they are void of people and feel very isolated. Todd Hido often takes his photographs from inside his car; this changes the dynamic and purpose of the work. As he isolates the subject-matter and shoots for long exposures the artist himself becomes isolated behind the camera. The photographs become ephemeral as they capture a moment in time that will never come again. Hido also has other works including portraits but is more known and criticized for his, often depressing, nighttime photographs of suburban America. www.toddhido.com/

1. Click "All Sizes" to see a larger version of the classroom. 2. Scroll over the different areas of the classroom to see the additional notes posted.

The modern interior can be seen from the simple design of the building. The white wall is dominated the whole interior. Even though the building is built in the late 90s, the new design is optimized by offering some larger spaces to support the OMICS needs.

Tips for setting up your student seating arrangements for cooperative learning, including options for permanent and temporary teams.

We've kind of been bursting at the seams with excitement over this particular home tour. I'm fairly confident that Kendra Scott needs no sort of introduction, I mean, chances are you're donning one of her colourful baubles as we speak! Once

An element of teaching that seems somewhat daunting to me is how to set up an elementary music classroom in a cohesive and functional way that will best maximize the students’ learning. I am …

Alida and Alex transformed their 480-square-foot home with small details, like tiny pops of color and upgrading furniture with new doors. It's full of pastels and personality!

Planner Setup Tip: Simplifying Weekly Lesson Planning. Organized Chaos. Setting up all of your elementary general music lesson plans for the school year in your teacher planner to make weekly lesson planning easier and faster.

One of my favorite magazines, Real Simple, had a design style quiz in the March issue. The visual quiz in the magazine is different than online, but both are fun to check out. (Although I would still recommend finding this month’s magazine. I prefer the print version myself. The room photos are better in the […]

It is that time of year again. Time when teachers try to savor the last few days of summer by dreaming about how they will set up the most beautiful, functional and perfect classroom that Pinterest h

It is that time of year again. Time when teachers try to savor the last few days of summer by dreaming about how they will set up the most beautiful, functional and perfect classroom that Pinterest h

Make the most of what you already have by switching up your seating arrangement.

Julia Berolzheimer Motivation Station: Making Your At-Home Desk An Inspiring Spot featuring a selection of desk accessories including notebooks, pens, and decor.

I am in a new classroom this year and would LOVE to take you on a tour of my new space. This year I'll be teaching 3rd through 5th grade music. My room is much smaller than all of the rooms that I have taught in before, so I've had to reconsider what things are the most important to me and arrange my room accordingly. This is one view of my classroom from the door at the back of the room. I have chairs arranged in a style that Fred Jones would be proud of. This arrangement lets me be near any student in class with just a few steps. It also makes dividing for singing parts or creating small groups pretty easy. This is the other side of my room. I've set up a teacher corner where I have my teaching supplies, office supplies, filing cabinets and some personal space. There are more pictures of this area below. On many of the storage cabinets I have placed sets of posters. To some, it may look like there is just TOO much stuff up, but I have a plan. I am a big fan of workstations and I plan to set workstations up near the posters sets so that students will be able to use them as a reference. For example, this awesome set of elements of music posters (by Sara Bibee) would be a great place for students work if they are completing listening journals. I'm using a rock star theme in my classroom as our school theme is "stars". This is a set of tempo posters (love that glitter!) and below are some notation posters. They are part of my music symbols set. This would be a great place for a workstation that focuses on rhythm or composition. The notation posters will be a great reference. Get the tempo posters HERE. Get the music symbol posters HERE. Also on the storage cabinets is a set of dynamics posters and these ensemble posters in a rock star theme. The kids generally giggle at "sextet" and open house even a few parents! This is a great reference for students as we discuss vocal and instrumental ensembles. Get the dynamics posters HERE and the ensemble posters HERE. I'm loving this set of Rockin' the Standards posters using the new national standards. They are color coordinated so that even if I didn't place this in these obvious columns that you would be able to see which "I Can" statements go with each action. These may be more of a reminder for me. than my students at first, but I am okay with that. These are near my teacher's corner so they will be a great reference for me as I do my lesson planning. I'll also use this area to set up workstations so students will have more of an opportunity to read them then. This is my teacher corner. The bookshelf that has the rainbow material covering stores my office supplies (paper, binders, blank CDs, etc...) as well as a few teaching resources. The open part of it is where I have some supplies that students will use occasionally like bean bags, hole punches, scissors, etc... I don't want to put them in my writing center unless they need them to keep that area tidy. On my desk are two large rockers. These are from a set of clipart from Melonheadz. I used BlockPosters.com to create them at this size thanks to a great tutorial by Jena at Sew Much Music. Around my windows are some framed watercolor quotes about music. They were created by Melody Payne. The frames are inexpensive frames from the dollar store and are attached with Command Strips. On the side of my tall filing cabinet I attached some textured wrapping paper. The flower pots are a Pinterest project and are filled with fake flowers because I have a brown thumb. My collection of flyswatters is stored in a coffee can that I've covered in contact paper. We only use them occasionally so I didn't want them to be in a prominent place in the classroom. It is hard for kids to resist touching them. Okay...me too. Also in my teacher corner is a mini-fridge and microwave. All the comforts of home! I keep lots of water and Diet Mt. Dew in there. It is also night for evenings when I have to stay late for events. This is the front of my classroom. "Think Like a Musician" is a growth mindset bulletin board with a music twist. The other bulletin board is "In Music We Rock" which could double as classroom rules. This big pink flower was created with pink, paper bags and a bit of hot glue. Near this bulletin board is where I keep some of my more frequently used props, pointers, scarves, etc... The pool noodles are my steady beat swords. My daily points and performance assessments in music all use 3-4 point rubrics. These posters have the descriptions of what I'm looking for. Right now they are in the corner of the room, but I think I may end up moving them to a position that is a little closer to the students so that they can read them from their seats. You can get the small versions of these posters HERE. This is the first classroom that I have had that has had one of those long, skinny bulletin boards above the whiteboard/chalkboard area. Turns out that my music symbol posters look great there! They are also in a great position for me to use when teaching. A close up of those posters. The cool, black, disco looking balls are actually a border that I found at the teacher store. This is my PAWS corner. PBS expectation posters and my PAWsitive Effects of Music bulletin board go here. This will also be one of the areas that I use for setting up centers. This is one of my favorite bulletin boards! This is Music Rocks and is basically a music advocacy bulletin board. I used some pink, zebra striped wrapping paper as part of the background to add more interest. The sparkles that you see here and in other parts of the room were all part of a collection of 70s themed decorations I found at the teacher store. Outside my door is this cute little sign. It is created with disco ball paper plates (from the party store), some purple mesh (the kind that crafters use to make wreaths), letters I printed from my computer and tape. Simple, but eye catching! Pin these ideas for later!

La série Alpha Evo, gamme pro mais abordable de l'univers Focal qui constitue une évolution directe de sa précédente série Alpha, n'était pour le moment représentée que par deux modèles, Alpha 65 Evo et Alpha 50 Evo. La marque vient enfin d'annoncer de nouveaux produits : une enceinte verticale de plus grand format Alpha 80 Evo et une enceinte à disposition horizontale Alpha Twin Evo. En parallèle, le constructeur a également dévoilé un caisson de basses dédié à cet univers pro, le Sub One.

Organized Chaos: helping music teachers embrace the chaos of creativity through purposeful organization and simple ideas!

There is a good reason that Ansel Adams' name has stood the test of time through the years. As one of the photographers in history who gets studied the most, Adams' work continues to be used as an example to photography classes and studies around the world. One of the reasons why he is still revered around the world is because of how carefully his images were crafted and how

Name: Laura Magee, husband Jonny, and cat, George Location: Belfast, Northern IrelandSize: 1800 square feetYears Lived In: almost 2 years, owned I’m a fashion buyer and have spent most of my career living and working in London, but moved back to Belfast almost two years ago with the aim of finding a beautiful period property with lots of original features.

Since rewards and competitions are not looked upon favorably in my school, I have had a difficult time coming up with a good classroom management plan for my music classes. After 5 years (and of course with me getting to know the children better and being consistent throught the years), I think I have finally come up with something that works. I have 5 expectations (all of which can be summed up in the 5th and final expectation "always try your best"). I review the expectations every class for the first 9 or 10 weeks. I know that sounds a little extreme, but I have learned that children need a lot of repetition to really know and understand something. By doing this at the beginning of the year as much as I do, then towards the end of the year I don't have as many problems because the children know exactly what I expect. These are always posted in my room as well, right above the CD player. When I introduce them, I don't call them rules. I say "this is what good musicians do." I have 2 reward systems working together in my classes for students following the Good Musician Expectations. For individual students, I have a "Good Musician Award." I choose 1 student from each class each week to be the Good Musician. I tell the classes every week what I am looking for, and I am very specific. I say that I will not choose a student that is talking, not listening, playing or being silly, not making good choices, etc. I am looking for someone that is making good choices every single time. This doesn't really make it a competition, because all of the students are trying to be the best that they can be. I do the individual reward because I think it is important to recognize individuals for their hard work and good choices. I also think it is important to teach students how to lose with a good attitude because in life we don't always win every single time. So even though I don't call it "winning" the award, I stress the importance of being a good sport and congratulating the student that was named the Good Musician, and I tell them that even though they didn't get it today, that it does not mean they weren't doing a good job (unless, of course, they were not making good choices). After a few weeks, they get it. And of course, I always try to get around to everyone by the end of the year :) The second reward I have in my class is called "free choice music day." This is not a free day where the students get to do anything they want, but a day where I give them 3 choices of more fun activities and games that they can do instead of having a normal music class. I do this 3 times a year and my students really look forward to it. In order to participate in free choice day, the class has to have earned a certain number of awards. I give 1 award to the whole class every week that they are following directions and working hard. If they have not earned a certain number, then the class does not get to participate during free choice week and we have regular music class instead. I review the expectations with the class at the beginning of music every week, and let them know that I will not give the class the award if they are talking, being silly, not listening, not following directions, etc. If I have to stop teaching to address an issue with the whole class, I put a talley mark on the board (which can be earned back). If the class has any talleys at the end, they do not get the award. My consequences for not making good choices are very simple. For every offense, the student gets a strike. The 1st strike is a warning. I write down the student's name on a post-it note and stick it to the outside of the class folder. If that student starts making good choices again then I will mark it off. But if the student does not start making good choices, the strikes are: 2 - I speak to the classroom teachers about the behavior. 3 - I speak to the parents about the behavior. 4 - We speak to the principal about the behavior. I tell the students that we only have music for 40 minutes, and there is no reason that anyone should ever get 4 strikes in 1 music class. Classroom management is a process and of course I don't have it perfected (and I probably never will), but I think the most important thing I have learned so far are: Students have to be taught what they are expected to do and how they are expected to behave before you can expect them to do it. If you tell them that something is going to happen if they don't follow the expectations, then you better be prepared to do it because they will test you. Be consistent...don't adhere to your consequences just sometimes and ignore the behavior other times (or with certain students).

Race in the Music Room: Representation. Organized Chaos. Thoughts, concrete suggestions, and ideas for better representing marginalized races and people groups in music class. Resources and strategies for music teachers to be more inclusive in their curriculum, behavior management, resources, lesson content, classrooms, and more.

I saw this great poster floating around on Pinterest. The pin I re-pinned didn’t link to the author so I don’t know where this came from but it’s great! Do you have any cute idea…

Engaging Students in Meaningful Learning During Concert Season. Organized Chaos. Lesson ideas for keeping the learning going and staying on track with the standards and curriculum while in the midst of preparing for a performance.

So I found out in May that after 13 years of being a traveling teacher I finally get one building. So excited about that. However the t...