Are you looking for Tips On How To Become A Professional Musician? Our professionals share their advice, tips and tricks on how to make it in the music industry.
Music teacher interview questions and tips (plus – how to answer the music technology-related questions!) Applying for a music […]
Lesson planning for music teachers can feel overwhelming and tedious. Planning lessons in music education is easier than you might think.
First year elementary music teachers face a lot of difficulties-- this is how to get ready for your first year!
The Music Teacher Administrators Love. A Music Teacher's Guide to Fostering Mutual Respect part 2: Music Teacher Qualities. Organized Chaos. Principal and administrator perspectives on what they think makes a great music teacher.
In this post, take some of my easy and affordable ideas for everyday tools for all music teachers that can make your life much easier.
On the first day of music class (and in fact, the first few classes), I recommend focusing on three goals:
Lesson planning doesn't have to be difficult-- with these tips, you can make lesson plannig easy, even as an elementary music teacher!
Music Teacher Job Search: Advice from Administrators. Organized Chaos. Tips and insight from principal and district administrator for music teachers applying for jobs. Everything from job search to resumes and interviews.
Three great tips for new music teachers to use on the first day of school! These will help you set a good tone build positive culture, and start to form great relationships with your elementary students.
Learn all about classroom management for elementary music teachers and take control of your general music classroom today!
What you put on your classroom walls should reflect what you teach. Read this article to get suggestions about what to post, how, and why!
13 Ways to Attract More Music Students Without Paid Ads If you teach music lessons, you might well be one of the lucky few who get to enjoy making a living by living your passion and sharing it with others. Assuming you can keep those lesson slots full. Whether a home studio, music shop, orContinue reading "Marketing Ideas for Music Lessons"
Learn 3 simple ideas for bringing improvisation into your piano studio, even if you’ve no experience with teaching this way!
After our school’s musical in March, my students are already buzzing about what next year’s show will be. To build on this excitement, I often do a series of musical theater lessons in …
10 Items Music Teachers Should Include In Their Planner. Organized Chaos.
Are you looking for new music teacher professional development ideas? These are my 5 favorite ideas to give you awesome training to use in your classroom.
Assess your students' musical progress in a fun new visual way. Help them focus on and value the process of learning using proven Growth Mindset strategies. Click the preview to learn more! Have fun grading in a visual way! ★ Use Stickers, Markers, or a Pen to assess National Core Standards. ★ Clearly communicate progress to students and parents ★ Define indicators of achievement as a class, or type them into the editable PDF directly. Help students develop a Growth Mindset ★ Attribute successes to one of 8 mindsets after they demonstrate progress. Match colors using the student-created legend at the bottom of the page. Pages print great in black and white. Includes 7 PDF grade-specific data tracking documents for K-6. Standards are aligned to the National Core Music Standards. Other music teacher resources that you might be interested in: The Ultimate Music Teacher Gradebook The Ultimate Music Teacher Gradebook has all the information you need to keep track of your general music classes (K-6) at a glance! Assessments, Seating Plans, Standards, Student Tracking, Planning and More - All on Two Pages! ♫ Music Baseball PowerPoint Game Bundle - Treble Clef and Rhythm Level 1 ♫ Rhythm Baseball Level 1 PowerPoint Game ♫ Treble Clef Baseball PowerPoint Game ♫ Treble & Bass Clef Baseball PowerPoint Game Bundle ♫ Elementary Music Assessment App for iPad & iPad Mini
Staying connected as a music professional helps you develop musicianship throughout your career, have access to more opportunities, grow and change with society, and be better prepared to meet the demands of the 21st-century music world. Here are 7 strategies >>
Write for the NAfME Blog SEARCH & FILTER Search Category Subscribe to NAfME Notes Subscribe to NAfME Notes, our biweekly e-newsletter, to receive highlights from the blog and other NAfME news in your inbox. Subscribe Now Write for the NAfME Blog Interested in sharing your experience with the music education…
Learn 5 music career lessons from studying accomplished professional musicians and use them to grow your own highly successful career in the music industry.
I’ve recently celebrated 18 years as a private music teacher. In that time, there have been many ‘ups and downs’, and after 18 years, I’ve definitely learnt a few things and I’d like to share some of them with you here. If you’re just starting out as a private music teacher, I hope they might […]
Are you sick of going through PD on subjects that have nothing to do with you? Do you want to improve your music teaching skills…
Making the Most of Your Lesson Planner. Organized Chaos. Teacher planner options and tips for music teachers.
Music Teacher Job Search: Advice from Administrators. Organized Chaos. Tips and insight from principal and district administrator for music teachers applying for jobs. Everything from job search to resumes and interviews.
In this blog post, I will discuss implementing what you learn at music education conferences in a way that makes sense for you.
If you're teaching music on a cart, you need as much help as you can get! We're talking tips, lessons, games, activities, and more!
The first 4 weeks of beginning band (or orchestra) are a pivotal for developing relationships, expectations, and laying ground work for success. Read more!
Elementary music teacher importance isn't talked about enough. Music teachers...you matter and are impacting the lives of your students.
When’s the last time you stopped to think about your childhood. I mean, like really stopped to think about the challenges, the good times, the awkward moments, and everything else in between. If you haven’t done that in a while, stop right now and close your eyes and think about the happy memories and the […]
Do you ever look into a music vendor catalog and see pipe dreams instead of possibilities? These days I feel like it is a constant battle to get funding for the instruments, resources, technology, and professional development that we all desperately need. Even if you teach in an affluent district where money […]
Do you have a talent for making music or a fine ear? Here are seven of the best places online to turn your musical sensibilities into an online job.
There are several benefits of planning music for students for an entire year. My formula on how to pick music for the year is included in this post.
A few days ago a received a letter from a reader: I teach 4th and 5th grade beginning strings and orchestra. I absolutely love your website and use many of your ideas and tips! I am wondering if you have any advice on classroom management within orchestra rehearsals. I have 60 fifth graders who have been playing their instrument for about a year and a half. I am mainly having trouble at the beginning of class. Oftentimes there are about 15 kids lined up for me to tune their instruments, kids asking me a million questions about going to the bathroom, getting a drink of water, calling their mom before the end of the day, etc. At my school, the kids have orchestra every other day for 40 minutes during the last period of the day. After I've gotten around to tuning many out of tune instruments and tending to my needy students, 10 minutes have passed before we begin warming up. My orchestra teaching colleague has suggested having the kids immediately find their seats and not ask any questions, not ask to be tuned and never use the bathroom during orchestra (unless it's an extreme emergency). I followed her advice recently and it seems to have gotten a bit better but there are so many instruments horribly out of tune during rehearsal and kids who still call out to me with all of their needs and it's a bit overwhelming. I am still very young and soft spoken and have a difficult time putting my foot down so that may be the main issue. If you have any insight on how to address needy 5th graders at the beginning of orchestra and would be willing to share, I would greatly appreciate your help. Here are my TOP 6 tips for classroom management: TIP 1: Find a management plan that fits with your personality. Classroom management is a big topic. There are so many ideas and methods for classroom management, but I believe to be successful in this area you must stay true to your own personality and style. Several years ago I went to a great conference session about establishing ‘pin-drop quiet’ rehearsals. There was some useful information and I thought I’d give it a try. I experimented with the procedures as taught in the session, but quickly discovered that those procedures were not true to my personality. I didn’t have fun while doing it and my class felt different. The tone wasn’t what I wanted for my class. That method might work for some, but it just wasn’t right for my own personality. We all tolerate various levels of ‘noise’ or chaos. I happen to be able to tolerate a high level of chaos, but only when I have complete control. Sometimes a room of 50-60 beginners can get loud. That’s not abnormal. I don’t expect pin-drop quiet all the time. But I do expect students to follow directions, be quiet as required, and work hard. My personality is not that of a stern disciplinarian. I don’t mind having some laughter and fun – and of course focusing and getting to work. My classroom management suggestions come from that frame of mind and I hope some will find it helpful. I recommend teachers try lots of different ideas until they find one that fits with their own style and vision. I enjoyed reading some books about Whole Brain Teaching (WBT) in regards to classroom management. You don't have to be mean, but you do have to be in charge. You're the boss. Expect students to do what you say and follow procedures. TIP 2: Keep them busy I believe most classroom management issues occur when students are bored. They get bored when they are waiting, they get bored when they are lost, and they get bored when they are not sure what they are supposed to be doing. To ease the burdensome feeling of being bored, they creatively find things to do. It’s not hard to find things to do while holding loud instruments and sticks. The first step to great classroom management is well-planned, fast-paced rehearsal with highly efficient use of time. I try to keep my students so busy they don’t have time to act up. While creating lesson plans, think about what students can be doing during ‘down’ times, like tuning. Or when you’re working with another section. I keep students busy during tuning with bell-work activities. Sometimes these are just rhythm or note-reading worksheets. Bell-work can also be little practice exercises – like running through finger strengthening drills, bow games, or plucking a certain passage of music 10x perfectly. When students are waiting for me to finish tuning, they know to finish bell-work and it put all of their music in order as listed on the board. Sometimes I check and give points for following this procedure. Once my rehearsal begins, there is no time for students to act up because my pacing is very fast. While students are playing, my brain is constantly assessing and determining what I’m going to do next. TIP 3: Don’t be afraid to adjust and change. This year I started some very large classes of beginners – 55-60 in each class. One day I had some bellwork for students to pick up as they entered the classroom and it was taking forever for students just to get through the door. I had inadvertently created a traffic jam. Students couldn’t pick up papers fast enough so there was a huge line of students trying to get in the room – then trying to get in line to be tuned. It all look way longer than I wanted and I realized there was too much chaos for my classroom. It was chaotic because entering, picking up work, getting tuned…it all took too much time and students were left WAITING….which is a classroom management no-no. I talked to my class about it and said, ‘It seems like the start of class was really chaotic today.’ I saw students nod their heads -they wanted a smoother start and so did I. We spent a couple minutes talking about how we can set up faster and how we could distribute necessary bellwork more effectively. (I now ask students who come to class early to pass out bell-work.) Students appreciated having their voices heard, and the next day we started some new procedures that were a better fit for such a large class. Classroom management is moldable and changeable. If something doesn’t work, you can change it right then. You can establish new procedures, revise old procedures…you are the master. Students like routine, but they can also learn and adapt to new routines. TIP 4: Establish procedures. Procedures are the heart of classroom management. Students should always know what to do and how to do it. What do you want students to do when they enter? How should they act when they enter? What is your tuning procedure? How should students act during rehearsals? What should they do if they have a question? You and your students should be able to answer all of these questions. One of my favorite ‘rules’ for my class (after tuning) is - NO ONE GETS UP. I don’t want students out of their seats, ever. My classroom is so packed it is very unsafe students to try to move through the group. Since I don’t allow students to get up, there has to be a procedure for them to get papers they need, get tuned, etc. It cuts down on chaos when students stay put. Here’s a list of basic procedures I use in my classroom: TIP 5: Tuning in 5 minutes or less. It can be daunting to tune a huge class of beginners, but I believe it can be done quickly. I give myself 4-5 minutes total for tuning all 55-60 students. I have students line up as they enter the classroom and get out instruments– violins on my left, viola/cello on my right. I can fly through the whole class in record time. For me, that is fast and easy. But everyone is different. If you don’t want students to line up, you can to go to them. I’ve done this too, but I think it takes just a little longer. Some days I like to go to them because then students can pluck the strings while I make the adjustments. Then students are involved in the tuning. Just before Christmas I spent a week and taught my beginners how to tune themselves and established a new tuning procedure where they tune themselves. It’s pretty great! Read more here: https://orchestrateacher.blogspot.com/2017/04/how-to-teach-students-to-tune-in.html https://orchestrateacher.blogspot.com/2017/04/how-to-teach-your-beginners-to-tune.html TIP 6: Establish student-led procedures for the start of class. Teaching orchestra is high energy, busy, and tiring. Last year I was feeling exhausted after teaching a full day of 400+ students. I didn’t like the feeling of starting each class as an exhausted, tired teacher. I decided I needed to give my students more responsibility so I didn’t have to feel so drained. I’ve been experimenting with having students start class and lead the group though tuning/warm-ups and it has been AWESOME! It frees me to help students, watch how students are playing/focusing, and gives me a moment to think. Here’s how it works: I allow a student to be a ‘leader.’ As soon as the bell rings, the leader stomps loudly on the podium – a signal to the class to go to rest position and listen. The leader plays 4 long open A’s and the class echos the open A’s while tuning. The leader then repeats the 4 A’s, and the class echos/tunes. I’m free to move through and help students if needed. Once a student is in tune with that string, they go to rest position. When most of the class is in rest position, the leader goes to the next string…etc. This tuning procedures only takes 2 minutes. Next, the leader goes through the warm-ups I outline on the board. I get to watch and observe my students and assess their progress. I take over after that – mentally ready to do my best and reach my students. I hope this is helpful! I’m passionate about teaching and maintaining a well-run orchestra classroom. I’m not perfect and I make mistakes, but I enjoy the problem-solving process and love the thrill of helping a group of students to discover new abilities and talents. I believe in my students. They want to do well, they want to sound good, they want to be their best selves. I am just one of their life-guides to help them discover the power in themselves for goodness. Your class will rise to your leadership.
These tips will help new and first year elementary music teachers have a successful beginning of the school year.
This article was inspired by a book that is not your normal “band director” book. This is a behavioral economics book based on scientific studies of why things ‘go viral.’ If you want to improve retention and recruiting in you music program, this article will give you some great tips!
Looking for a way to supplement your income or a way to work from home? Teaching private music lessons is a great way! You get to set your schedule, and often times it’s minimal hours per week, but can still produce a good income. Can You Be A Teacher? Not anyone can teach. You don’t have to ha
Music Teacher Job Search: Advice from Administrators. Organized Chaos. Tips and insight from principal and district administrator for music teachers applying for jobs. Everything from job search to resumes and interviews.
Teachers learn a lot going from their first year of teaching to their second... Find out what I am doing differently in my second year of elementary music!
Normally I would have done a classroom tour at least a month ago, showing how I've set up my space to get ready for students and another year of music-making. This year I have no room to set up because I am on a cart for the first time ever as we open in a hybrid model in the midst of this pandemic. I'm new to this myself and tried not to spend too much of my own money on something that is so subject to change, so this may not be the perfect model of what everyone "should do" but I'm making it work! First of all, my district has not (yet) actually provided me with a cart to use for cart teaching- they are hoping to be able to order something but for now I am using what I happened to already have in my classroom from last year. So if things seem unnecessarily awkward, it's because it is! Still, I am lucky to have this cart that I bought last year to store composition and other miscellaneous student supplies: Originally I took all the bins out, thinking I would want the bigger shelf space for things like my laptop, a keyboard, etc. But I quickly realized that while the large lip around each shelf is very helpful for keeping things from falling out, it makes it very difficult to reach things that sit low inside them! So the bins made a comeback and I'm using the ones on the top shelf to store things when I'm rolling, and serve as a shelf when I'm stationary. Besides my computer, I keep all the things that are most essential to teaching on the top shelf (plus a minion for good measure): a clipboard, my voice amplification headset, and a small bluetooth speaker. I didn't realize how helpful it would be that the cart is metal- I am able to attach things to the sides with magnets, like the laminated copy of my class schedule that I have stuck on the top shelf so I can keep track of where I'm supposed to be when. The middle is where I plan to keep different things I might need for a particular lesson. I found that a mini keyboard fits perfectly into the shelf, and since I do tend to gravitate to the piano for quick demonstrations of concepts or to accompany a movement activity, I wanted to make sure I could take it when I want it. If I have other instruments or supplies for a specific lesson I'll take out the keyboard and use the middle shelf for those. That shelf also has the power strip, which I had no idea how badly I would need until I started trying to plug everything in! Most of it can run without being plugged in, but I am paranoid and want to make sure I can plug things in in case the battery runs low in the middle of the day. On the bottom shelf I have an extra Chromebook (again, because I am paranoid- I want to have a backup plan in case my laptop freezes, which is not uncommon for my dinosaur machine), an extension cord, tissues, basic first aid kit, hand sanitizer, a walkie talkie, and a box with some basic office supplies like sticky notes, pencils, and paper clips. This is all admittedly a bit of a mess to look at from the back, but I brought back the one poster that I took home during distance teaching this spring from my classroom and attached it to the front to hide the mess: If you're a first time cart teacher like me I hope this gives you some ideas! And if you have your own ideas that have worked well for you please share them in the comments. We're all going to need to learn from each other more than ever this year! If you're looking for more ideas for pandemic teaching, here's the page where I'm organizing all of them:
These tips will help new and first year elementary music teachers have a successful beginning of the school year.
First year elementary music teachers face a lot of difficulties-- this is how to get ready for your first year!
The 1st day of music class can be really exciting, or terrifying-- for the teacher I mean! Find tips, tricks, and activities for the 1st day of music.
