10 Steps to Start the Year Off with a Bang!

It’s your first year in a new school, or maybe it’s your first-year teaching music, and you are already overwhelmed with the endless lists of things to do.  The thought that keeps popping up in your mind is, “What did I get myself into by accepting this position?”

Take it from a veteran teacher of over 35 years, you can do this.  Everything will work out great in the end.  The important thing is teaching the children to love music and love making music. 

To be successful, you’re going to need to get organized.  I am a list maker, and a planner.  The bigger the project, the more planning is necessary.  To get your year off to a great start so that you begin with a BANG instead of a whimper, just follow these steps to a perfect year.

Here's your first step!

Step 1:  Organize your room and take inventory.

As soon as you can, spend a day in your room discovering all the wonderful things that your classroom has or doesn’t have in it.  If there isn’t an inventory of instruments, start one.  Include how many of each instrument you have and what is the condition of those instruments.  This will help you plan your lessons, and help you figure out how many turns it will take for everyone in your class to get a turn on something. 

Once you have that list, the next step is containing everything, so you have easy access to it and the students have easy access to what you want them to have access to.  Are there bins to put each kind of unpitched instrument into?  Do you have bookshelves or a storage room with shelves?  Labeling what is in each bin or box and where it goes is the next step.  You want to be able to ask students to go get an instrument and then return it to the place where it came from in the room.

Wait, there are more steps coming!

If you can't wait, please go to my website, https://www.lessonsfromthemusicroom.com/

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