Notes from the Music Room

A Note from Cheryl

There’s just something about August, isn’t there?

Whether you’re getting ready for your very first year of teaching or your 40th, walking back into that music room gets you thinking about all the things you want to do differently—or maybe just a little better—this year.

We start thinking about songs and lessons and instruments and all the fun things we want to do with our students. But before all of that, there’s something else we need to think about:

How is this classroom actually going to work?

Where will the kids go when they come in? How will they get instruments? What happens when we move from one activity to another? And how can I set things up so I don’t have to give the same directions 47 times a day?

Those little decisions may not seem very exciting, but they can make a HUGE difference in how your year goes.

Because the goal isn’t procedures.

The goal is making music with kids

Good procedures just make it a whole lot easier to get there.

— Cheryl

Cheryl’s Corner

Let me take you back to my very first year of teaching.

I was teaching in a small rural school in northern Montana—kindergarten through 12th grade! I spent two days a week at the elementary school and three days at the combined junior/senior high school.

Now here’s an important piece of the story: my degree was in theatre, not music. I had a minor in music, but I had done my student teaching in theatre.

So there I was, on my first day of elementary music, ready to teach music to children.

And then the children arrived.

My first big realization?

“Oh! The kids are supposed to enter the room in a LINE!”

Seriously. I didn’t know!

Nobody had taught me how to get a class of elementary students into a music room, where they should go once they got there, or what they should do next.

I knew how to teach.

I knew music.

But I didn’t yet know all those little things that make a classroom actually work.

And that was the beginning of a whole lot of learning.

This Month’s Teaching Tip

Walk Through Your Classroom Like a Student

Before the first class walks through your door, take a few minutes and pretend you’re one of your students.

Seriously. Start outside your classroom door.

Where are you supposed to stand? How do you enter? Where do you go once you’re inside? Where do you put your stuff? What happens if you need an instrument? How do you get from one part of the room to another?

Then keep going.

What happens when it’s time to put something away? Where do you go when the activity changes? And what happens at the end of class?

You may be surprised at what you notice.

Sometimes what looks like a behavior problem is really a procedure problem. We haven’t made it clear enough, practiced it enough, or thought through what we’re asking 25 little bodies to do all at the same time.

So before you change the consequence or get frustrated with the kids, take another look at the procedure.

Ask yourself: “Have I set them up to be successful?”

Sometimes one small change can make a HUGE difference.

Try This Monday

Start with What They Need on Day One

You don’t have to teach every classroom procedure on the first day.

In fact, please don’t!

Instead, think about the first few things your students need to know to have a successful first day in music.

Start with questions like:

• Where do students line up before music?

• How do they enter the room?

• Where do they sit or stand?

• How will you get their attention?

• What do they do when you give a direction?

• How will they line up and leave at the end of class?

That’s enough to get started.

Teach those procedures just like you would teach a song or a musical skill. Explain them. Model them. Let the students practice them. And if they don’t get it quite right the first time?

Practice again.

You can add the rest of your procedures as you need them.

Your students don’t need to know everything on Day One. They just need to know what they need to be successful on Day One.

Resource of the Month              

Want to Go a Little Deeper?

If you’re working through your classroom procedures, routines, behavior management—or just trying to figure out how to make your music room run a little more smoothly—this is exactly why I wrote Lessons from the Music Room: A How-to Guide for the Elementary Music Teacher.

It’s not a book of songs or lesson plans. It’s about all those other things we’re expected to know as music teachers—but that someone may have forgotten to teach us.

The practical stuff.

The stuff I certainly didn’t know when those first elementary students showed up at my classroom door in Montana!

You can learn more about the book and how to purchase it at:

www.lessonsfromthemusicroom.com

Cherylism of the Month

“The goal isn’t procedures.The goal is making music with kids.”

Good procedures simply give us more time to do what we came here to do—teach music!

Before You Go...

If there’s one thing I hope you take away this month, it’s this: You don’t have to have everything figured out.

I certainly didn’t!

Start with the procedures your students need right now. Teach them. Practice them. Watch what happens. And when something isn’t working, change it.

That’s what good teachers do.

And if you know a music department, district, or group of teachers who could use some help with classroom procedures and behavior management, I’d love to work with them.

My presentation, The Successful Music Room: Developing Your Classroom Procedures and Behavior Management, can be adapted for professional development with music educators in your district.

You can find me at www.lessonsfromthemusicroom.com.

Here’s to a great start to the school year—and lots of music-making!

— Cheryl