In too many classrooms, students aren't really thinking. It's time to try something different.
Teaching Canon Singing. Organized Chaos. Strategies for introducing canons in elementary choir or general music lessons.
Cooperative Learning is a great strategy to use in every classroom. It doesn’t matter the age or ability of the students, cooperative learning can be…
Looking for fun ways to teach phrasal verbs? Are you an English native speaker, but struggle to explain or teach phrasal verbs to your students? Read this post for 5 fun ways to approach this difficult grammar topic!...
The way teachers collaborate over student learning, resources, and content are indicators of effective co-teaching. Learn how to evaluate your co-teaching.
Suggestions for teaching vocabulary by analyzing word parts.
Song Index
Teaching as a profession is a tough but rewarding job. Teaching is a very social job. Through teaching one discovers the habits of other people, their ideas and points of view. Teaching extends w…
Rounds are an amazing way to get students of all ages to start singing in tune, build part independence, and improve aural skills. Below you will find 10 rounds that can be used for warm-ups in choirs from elementary age to high school. In the elementary setting rounds can be used in the general music classrooms to help prepare students for two part music. Additionally rounds in middle school and high school can be used to focus on intonation or other key concepts. Plus students highly enjoy t
Best Strategies for Teaching Dynamics. Organized Chaos. TONS of lesson ideas for teaching students to respond to, perform, and create with dynamics, from kindergarten through elementary and middle school ages.
Teaching Letter Names of Notes on the Staff (part 1): full class games and strategies. Organized Chaos. Lots of games and teaching strategies to help students learn treble and bass clef letter names on the staff.
A few weeks ago, when I posted my lesson plan template, I was asked to show how I would actually use this template in planning. With that in mind, I've included a version of a lesson that I teach often. In this plan I refer to form books and mapping, both are tools used in ETM to help students develop both self-actuated and traditional music symbols. ETM refers to music education training and resources provided by The Richards Institute of Education and Research or Education Through Music. "Let's Do it Again!" is a collection of folk songs and song experience games collected and developed by the Richards Institute. For more information about ETM and the research done by the Richards Institute, please feel free to check out the information I've provided here. ETM
As part of their lessons, the girls are taught how to change a tire and check tire pressure, how to check oil and coolant levels, how to handle a car crash, and more.
Have you ever wondered why you have the same eye color as your parent? Traits are inherited by the transmission of genes from parents to their young.
Kids and young adults need extensive practice in strengthening their executive functioning skills. Executive functions are the processes in our brains that help us accomplish all tasks from beginning to end. We use them when we plan our day, organize our materials, begin a chore, focus on important
Song Index
“There are two TA’s: the one we care trained to think in and use in understanding our clients, which is not simple, and the direct language we use in speaking to clients, which is simple.” – William Cornell How can I teach TA to new clients?? That is a challenge. Even though TA is simple […]
Interactive notebooks, math, Blog, teaching, high school, interactive student notebooks, standards based grading
Curricular Charts
a blog for music teachers
I recently had a great discussion with some educators about bell-to-bell instruction: the expectation that students are fully engaged in learning tasks from the first minute of the class period to the last. The conversation took place in the live chat during a session in the 40 Hour Teacher Workweek Online Summit. (You can still … Continued
One of the most important elements of teaching is providing students with plenty of opportunities to actively engage in learning with their peers. This blog post covers my favorite cooperative learning strategies that I have used in my classroom. These activities can be used across all subjects and several grade levels (3-6+). Bonus: I created […]
There are 3 things I'm certain of. 1. We have all seen this post/image in blog/pinterest land. Creating your own lesson plan book! [click photo for original post] 2. We all added this idea to our to-do lists. 3. We were all in tears when we realized there was no template available for this idea. There was one 1 thing I was uncertain of. 1. Can I make a template for this myself? Well, I am now certain that I can do it. Because I did. I made my own lesson plan book. Do I love it? ABSOLUTELY! I feel like it's my baby. No more writing in everything, EVERY. WEEK. and drawing those lines EVERY. WEEK. Here's how it turned out. Sorry for the horrible lighting in the pictures All ready to be filled in! First I created a template for my lesson plans on word & was sure to change my settings to legal size paper. After some time of aligning, tweaking, and typing, it was time to print. I had to babysit my printer through this process--maybe you won't have to. I then fed the paper back through the printer so that I could get double sided pages. Next, I had to create my front cover & back cover. Legal size too!! I purchased some legal size laminating pouches to use with my home laminator for my front and back cover. All pieces ready to go to Staples! Final step--drive 2.3 miles to your local Staples, Office Max, or Office Depot with all of your pages carefully placed on your lap & get your book binded for around $5 if you wait, or around $2 if you come back later! I am seriously so in love with this thing! It turned out so much better than expected and will be such a time saver to not have to write in all the schedule info and lines every week. NOW for the best news--you can buy a template for yourself! It's a word document so you can edit it, but I suggest googling and downloading the font "PlainPrint" so that the font does not show up funny! When you purchase this template, you will also receive 3 editable cover options to choose from. Just edit and print your favorite one! Here are the options included: Google and download the font "Champagne & Limousines" for the font used in the title pages. These too are editable to your preference, I just included my information to inspire you! Here is a close up of the schedule template and the page I made to go right after my cover page. No, we won't be eating snack right after lunch. That header up there also includes nap/quiet/bathroom Sorry this post is super long! I just had a lot of detail and information to share with you! Click here to purchase this kit/templates on TpT! P.S. I will be participating in the TpT back to school sale, starting tomorrow! Go add this item to your wishlist now! :)
Read How We Organize Ourselves Unit Overview by Five E Energizers on Issuu and browse thousands of other publications on our platform. Start here!
At the end of October 2018, the IB's Primary Year's Programme released the much-anticipated new digital resource, "PYP: From principles into practice" (available on My IB's Programme Resource Centre). This digital document helps educators working in PYP schools better understand the PYP's framework for international education, full of the PYP enhancements. Reading through this new document and exploring the teacher support materials will be an essential first step in deepening PYP teachers' understanding of the enhanced PYP. When I hear, read or experience something for the first time, if I have the chance to create something, I find I understand the new content better. To better understand the contents of "PYP: From principles into practice", I thought it would be a good idea to create digital content in response to what I read. To begin, I read the first section of the new digital resource on Learner Agency (IB, 2018). Afterward, I created different forms of digital content, using different digital media to synthesize my understanding of what I read. I ended up created 7 different digital products: a voice-over screencast, a podcast, a vlog, an infographic, a mindmap, a presentation, and a blog post. All the same content, just presented in different ways. Thumbnails and links of each are below, along with notes about what digital tool I used to create each. Creating these gave me the opportunity to explore ideas about learner agency and in sharing them with you, I hope you're able to grow in your understanding of learner agency, a new term, yet familiar concept to the PYP. Voice-over screencast created using Google Slides & Screencastify Podcast created using Anchor.fm Vlog (Video blog) created using Flipgrid Infographic created using Google Draw Mindmap created using Creately Presentation created using Google Slides Blog post created using Blogger After reading different sections of the new digital resource and exploring the teacher support materials, "PYP: From principles into practice", what will you create?
Whether you're brand-new to block scheduling or you've been doing it for years, these strategies will have you handling those 90 minutes like a boss.
Learn about types of accommodations for special education students in math, reading, writing, homework & tests, and organization. Download a free printable!
Organic Chemistry Acid-Base Chemistry Acid-Base chemistry is a big topic in organic chemistry. Most reactions you will look at within the scope of the course will have some acid-base aspects to them. So, it’s essential that you pay close attention to this topic. There are three major theories that we see in a typical general...
For the first 10 years or so of teaching music I was free to use any lesson plan template that I chose. I'll admit that mostly I just made my music plans fit on whatever was available. Then around the time that I really started thinking about what would be most useful for me and really playing with templates, my school district handed down a required online template. I used dutifully used that template with as much success as could be expected and had actually made plans on asking for a special exemption this year when much to my delight and relief we were told that we didn't have to use the "mandated" template any longer and that several templates would be suggested, but that we were to focus on using lesson plans that worked for us. HALLELUJAH! And there was MUCH rejoicing! So - I took all of my favorite elements of what I liked and got rid of what didn't work for my class and came up with my own template. I write in the cells that are open and I highlight the parts of the template that I need for the lesson. My favorite part of the template is the bottom where I can make notes about the needs of individual classes. I am leaving this in spreadsheet form so that hopefully you can edit it to meet your own personal needs. Let me know how it goes. If you run into trouble or are unable to edit the form, please let me know and I'll gladly send you the file. Due to damage to the file, here is an updated version in a PDF form. Feel free to print. UPDATED TEMPLATE HERE! July 2014
This bumper selection features everything from sport to geography and history
Elements that Compose: . function. Lab Test. Lab Test. Lab Test – Two Types. function . function. Positive Negative. Positive Negative. Positive Negative. Macromolecules Graphic Organizer. Carbohydrates. Lipids. Proteins. Nucleic Acids. Elements that Compose:.
Give students a visual to assist them in advocating for themselves while self-assessing, and keeping students engaged in their learning.
One of the most important elements of teaching is providing students with plenty of opportunities to actively engage in learning with their peers. This blog post covers my favorite cooperative learning strategies that I have used in my classroom. These activities can be used across all subjects and several grade levels (3-6+). Bonus: I created […]
When we ask students to review each other’s work and give feedback, we often hear…“Why did you do that?” or“It’s just wrong.” or“It’s good” (even when it’s not). Teaching students to give effective feedback is hard and takes a lot of student practice. And then more practice. If you are using project based learning in ... Read more
It is a big enough challenge helping our students to become independent learners but this is no longer enough. We need to take them further so they can develop into interdependent learners. In ou…
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Teaching Canon Singing. Organized Chaos. Strategies for introducing canons in elementary choir or general music lessons.
