In Need of Some Good News

I need to hear some really great news to get my day flowing down the right track...

And I can't figure it out, but why is it that the days that are the most frustrating are the ones that involve other adults?!! By asking a single question - that involves my choir contest and the new testing schedule (not my fault that they didn't look at the calendar) - I am accused of "sounding like this music teacher just doesn't want to go." Are you kidding me??

I've had some really great couple of weeks this semester, and I know I shouldn't be so upset since I wasn't there, but when something like that is said by someone who has zero interaction with me almost yearly - the actual music teacher they speak of - it gets frustrating!!

I know I do some great things, and I think I'm just in need of hearing the encouragement. I'm going to a music-related workshop this weekend and I'm planning to see and talk to some seriously amazing teachers that rock in their classrooms. Hopefully, after getting some awesome new ideas and tools, I'll be on my way to being a rockstar once again!

After my yummy glass of wine (or two) for the evening, I'm sure I'll be back on my best game! Glad I have a principal that will stick up for me in times when it counts! (She rocks!)

Happy President's Day!

At our school, we spent the morning with our district's version of professional development. Sadly, I was not as inspired and motivated as I usually am, but last year's keynote speaker may have been hard to beat. (That's right...it's a year later and I still remember how great he was!)

Anyway, we sat to endure about a 90-minute speech, and I think he may have lost most of his audience members within the first 10 minutes. I believe that he probably has some really great things to say and fun stories to share, but not one of us understood the "KEY" to his "KEY"note speech. He spoke about his students (no real reason found there...), his life-changing medical issue (never said how it has changed his life, but none-the-less...life-changing), his new job (no longer as an educator), but there was no real message. I think he has very good intentions, but I was sadly disappointed.

As for our break-out sessions, there were about 10 options to choose from in the first session, and 7 of those repeated themselves again in the second session. A music session was offered in the second session, and I was excited enough to share some great things I've designed and found online with my fellow colleagues. I really wanted to learn and write down what each of them had come up with, too! It needed to last longer than a 45 minutes! We have so much to share with each other! :)

After lunch, we were all happy to go back to our buildings and spend time working on things that need to be done. I made file folder after file folder! My creative juices were flowing! The best part was that I was joined by fellow super-colleagues once I moved my table to the middle of my classroom. The three of us talked and had a great time while working, and it was FANTASTIC! We probably would've kept working, but almost everyone had left and the lights were out! A few of my creations...

Here's the first: Composers

Each flower has a clue about the composer.

Add the small flower (which has the composer's name) to the correct clue.

Next: National Anthem

Put the lyrics in the correct order as the white stripes.

Last: Sail the Instruments to the Orchestra Family

Each sailboat has the name of an instrument.

Place the sailboats into the correct family of waves.

I came home to find my sweet puppies snuggled up to my hubby (who had the day off). Such a kodak moment to capture. :)

I would love to find some other great file folder games that relate to music! If anyone out there knows of any, please send them my way!

Seven Things About My Stylish Self!

I know there are many, many, many bloggers out there who are much more stylish than I... HOWEVER, I'd still like to share seven random things about myself, too!

1. My first year of teaching was at the exact same school that my mother taught at her first year! While I only stayed the single year there (K-12 music is tough! Props to those out there that can make it great!), my mom taught there for a couple more than I.

2. I could eat pizza everyday of my life...

3. I have been blonde my whole life -- until last June (and I'm sure I'll go back soon). I still get told over and over that I look just like the girl from The Big Bang Theory. She's cute! I'll take that!

4. In high school, I met my husband at the local pool. I was the hott lifeguard and he was the boy who threw me in! Haha We've been together for almost 10 years total now, and have been married for 2.

5. I didn't drink soda until I started teaching everyday. Now, I feel addicted to Dr. Pepper, but I limit myself to only one a day. (Should still give it up.)

6. I hate to admit it, but reality tv is what takes up space on my DVR. Jersey Shore, The Bachelor... Yes, please!

7. My job has become my life. I spend way too many hours there for what I get paid for. (But who doesn't?) I LOVE creating new ideas and collaborating with other fabulous music teachers for hours and hours at a time. I love to learn and can't wait to start my Master's in Music Ed. in the next year or so!

Music in Our Schools Month!

IT'S COMING!!!!

March has been recognized as Music in Our Schools Month and I have soo many great things planned that I don't think it will all fit into one month!! I am extremely excited about this month, and honestly, last year I didn't do much for this. My honor choir was part of the World's Largest Concert, but since we have zero time for that in our schedules this year, I didn't participate.

HOWEVER, I have so many fun things for my K-5 friends that they won't know what happened! I have made forms and printed out ideas from others and made myself an uber-organized bright pink folder to keep track of!

la, la, la, la, la.....

I made a short questionnaire for my fellow teachers and staff members to answer for Mystery Staff Member. I asked things like what they remembered from their music class, their favorite song, favorite music to listen to, any instruments they play, and their favorite musical experience, etc. I'll give the students clues, and they will only get one vote per class to turn in at the office. At the end of the day, I'll announce which teacher it was and which class (hopefully at least one of them will) guessed it right!

Today, I actually called our Central Kitchen Director and talked to her about changing the foods on the menu to "musical foods." Worked out perfectly that I called today, because they were going to print TOMORROW! (I think I would've actually been pretty sad if that didn't work!) But now the menu will have some great musical changes in their names! Our Director was nice enough to fax the menu to me this afternoon so I could think up the names by tomorrow morning. I've got some really fun things for them to find! They have "Milk" listed everyday of the month, so..... Why not have "Musician's Milk" instead? Our menu also includes Mozart's Mac & Cheese, Forte Fish Sticks, Tchaikovsky's Chili w/ Cheese, Tempo Tacos, and many more! I'm soooo very excited!!

My head is whirling with many, many more ideas that will go with it! March is also Play the Recorder Month so guess what a couple of classes will also be doing??? YUP! Recorder Karate is my absolute favorite! When I simply mentioned that we were going to play recorders, my kiddos lit up! They had so many questions about it and wanted to know everything about the belts and songs already -- one student (the sweetheart that he is) brought his recorder money today! I haven't even sent notes home to parents yet, mind you. Glad he's so on top of his game though!

I hope everyone is getting just as excited as I am about MIOSM! Enjoy your week and I can't wait to post more great ideas that come my way!

New Ideas!

I spent the majority of my afternoon designing new projects and getting them set up for action! (Yes...I was at school entirely way too late today, but it was all for a good purpose!) Mostly, I've been tossing around and trying out the idea of stations or centers in the music classroom. Here's what I've come up with:

First of all, I needed an organized way of keeping track of my student groups and what stations they have been to. I LOVE my new way of keeping track! I've been talking to another fabulous music teacher via email and I really liked her idea of naming each station (SmartBoard Swamp, Lyrical Land, Rhythm Ridge, Vocab Valley, etc.), so I've got it typed up and laminated into my folders to keep track. I put a piece of velcro underneath each one so I can move the groups where ever I need to!

Here's a visual:

Each moveable tab has a cartoon picture of the composer that their group is named after. I love my new group names: Beethoven's Best, Bach's Buddies, Mozart's Masters, Schumann's Showstoppers, Copeland's Crew, etc. LOVE IT! :)

I also taped a sheet protector onto the back of the folder to hold the paper that has each student's name and what group they're in. (Guess it could also serve as an extra pocket to store other station-related papers as well.)

Gotta get back to finishing the rest of my new folders and planning what the kids will be doing at each station! Hope everyone had a great day with students and their sugar highs! :)

The Valentine That Keeps on Giving!

What a way to start the week! I am soo incredibly exhausted - but in a good way! I missed my friends terribly, but had so much fun catchin up and getting our dance on with "Cupid Shuffle" and "Valentine Boogie" today! Yes, the same songs over and over and over for each class, but I am definitely getting my workout and burning calories for the day! (Or at least, burning the extra calories I took in from all the candy that came my way!)

Our new Puppet Tree was a HUGE success with my friends! It was the first thing they noticed that was different in the room! We also had our monthly meeting for the elementary music teachers in our district. There are way too many things coming up for me to keep track of! (Which is actually not true being that I'm so OCD about being organized and over-prepared...) But I fully intend to get my kiddos caught up with their fill of Valentine games since we missed so many fun things due to our snow days! Even though Valentine's Day is Feb. 14th, our classes will be singing and dancing Valentine's our way to Spring!

By the way, when I first taught "Valentine Boogie" I had a plan where students would tell me things about the holiday (colors, etc.) and then we'd spell the word together. HOWEVER, I had a boy think of this song ALL ON HIS OWN!!! I had these colors up on the board:

pink

purple

red

white

and homeboy comes up with a song!! It's to the tune "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes"...

Pink, Purple, Red and White,

Red and White!

Pink, Purple, Red and White,

Red and White!

Will you be my Valentine?

Pink, Purple, Red and White!

I heart him... :)

Classroom Pics

After I hauled my new Puppet Tree up to the room today, I realized that I hadn't ever posted any pics of my colorful classroom! Just for fun, here's a couple of visuals of where I spend the majority of my time away from home...

My brand new Puppet Tree in action!

Taking a trip with Mr. Maraca -

we mark places on the map that Mr. Maraca has taken us on his travels.

We learn a dance, a song, and about the cultures on our way!

Our seating arrangement...

Students come into music and find their seat on the risers.

They are dismissed and called by their family name.

Top Row = Woodwind Family

Middle Row = String Family

Bottom Row = Brass Family

And yes, despite the fact that I am absolutely TERRIFIED of real frogs, the cartoon ones turned out pretty dang cute! :)

DIY - Puppet Tree!

YAY!!! I enlisted the talents of my hubby this afternoon, and we've done work! I saw a great really great idea on another blog I love to check out daily (yourangelofmusic.com), and discovered some really fabulous tips and awesome pics!

On her blog, there are quite a few pictures to give you kind of an idea of what she's working with in her classroom and what she's already finished. (Fabulous, I know!) But I was actually drawn to her Puppet Tree! (Just one photo among many, many others...) Like her, I've been experimenting with the idea of puppets and, while I do have quite a few, I don't use them as often as I could. The reason? Most of them are tucked and shoved in together in a plastic drawer behind my desk! I just don't have any other place for them!

So...here's what we've come up with. Online, most puppet trees run anywhere from $50 (for a 4-footer) to $129.99! Well, instead of spending the extra cash on a tree, the hubby and I made a 5-foot tree out of PVC pipes for approximately $55!! (Was a nice "bonding" experience, too.) :) Here's the final product:

Pretty wonderful, huh? We've got to get a board to go underneath the bottom - just so it's a little more sturdy - and get it up to my classroom! I did "decorate" with colored masking tape (comes off very easily, but I couldn't decide if I wanted to leave it plain white or not), although, most colors will be covered up by the actual puppets. But I love it! I think it'll be perfect in a corner of the room!

I'd love to hear about any DIY projects that you've been working on!! I can't wait to do another again soon!!

I am bound and determined to make this next week worthwhile! I've got big plans for tomorrow - including: lesson plans (re-do what I can and incorporate what they may have missed this week into next week - yikes!), get my 4th grade friends ready to dive into Recorder Karate, decide and present a spring program to my Kindergarten friends (any great suggestions are welcome!), and present a couple of great convention ideas to my fellow music colleagues here in town.

Whew! Glad I got most of my house work finished today. Guess tomorrow will be a full day of school work and projects! I'll be back with classroom pics (since I noticed that I've never actually posted any of them on my blog, and a few projects we've completed. Hope they'll be of use to someone else out there!

Y'all have a good one!

Celebrating the Snow Day!

Hopefully, this will be the last snow day for a while here, because it's day three-in-a-row and I am missing my friends! Now that I've been hanging around the house for so long (thankfully, I was able to get out yesterday morning), I've finished laundry, dishes, taken out the trash, and I started and finished an entire book - all yesterday!

Today, I decided to post a couple of fun pics. The snow was almost up to my knees and it was actually a little higher in the back yard. (We had to stomp down a few paths for the puppies, or they would just be buried in snow!)

Me knee-deep in our front yard.

Our backyard winter wonderland.

I will say that the only one of us who's enjoying all of this indoor company and relaxation is Pete. :)

Happy Snow Days!

Teaching Journal

I'm thinking that my snow days are numbered, but I have probably spent the last couple of hours online checking out some fabulous teachers' websites!! I mean, these teachers are phenomenal!

They do some really creative and ah-mazing things! So much, that I've got a notebook full of notes that has pages and pages filled with awesome activities! (I'll modify them for music, of course.)

Which brings me to my problem... Where are all of the fabulous music teachers? I'm having the hardest time finding the incredible, wonderful, fantastic music teachers out there. Are there any in the blogging world? There have to be tons, but I would love some help finding them! If you are one or you know of one, please send the comments my way!

After reading Educating Esme for the billionth time, I decided to start my own Teaching Journal. This thing is filled with awesome ideas, pictures I've glued in (yes, the real ones and printed ones), things I love to do in my classroom, things I want to do in my classroom, bulletin board ideas, classroom theme ideas (tons of those out there), personal scriptures and quotes that motivate and support music and me, plus about anything else I can get my brain excited about! Highly recommend you start your own Teaching Journal if you haven't already!

Snow Day #3

Yes. It is stay-at-home-snow-day #3. Luckily, my hubby isn't able to drive to work either, so we've spent the day sleeping in, eating leftovers, playing with our sweet puppies, and getting some much need (and much deserved) rest and relaxation!

However, I came across this great song! OK, so it's our state song and I wish I could take credit for the lyrics, but I did see them on a friend's post and thought I'd pass them along! (Yes, I realize they left out a short part of the song...but you get the idea.) :)

SNOW-klahoma

Where the cold front's sweepin' down the plain

And the piles of sleet,

beneath your feet,

follow right behind the freezing rain!

We know we belong to the land

But it sure could use more salt and sand.

That's why we say - WHOA!

We're sliding the other way - YIKES!

We're only sayin' you're slick as snot, SNOW-klahoma!

SNOW-klahoma,

SNOW-K-L-A-H-O-M-A,

SNOW-klahoma, SNOW-K!

We got the phone call at noon today (pretty early for our district) that Snow Day #4 will occur tomorrow. I do plan to get a few educational/classroom things done here at home. At the very least, I'll get my lesson plans edited - since some of my classes will only have music once this week and last week. (How am I ever going to catch them up?!)

Just keep singing... Just keep singing...

Cello!

Quick story or two... I have some of the sweetest kindergartners this year. So sweet that when I ran into one today at Wally World, he crossed across the main isle, into oncoming cart traffic, nearly getting himself knocked over by some cart driver that must've been in a hurry (it's just days after a snowed-in city...people are everywhere and there's barely anything left that stocked, I get it). ANYWAY, my sweet student ran over to me in a hurry, grabbing a great big bear hug, and heading back to his father and sister. Apparently, they argued if it was really me or not since I have him this year, and had sister last year (with my blonde hair). She's off to middle school this year, but she was also a very sweet girl. Must run in the family, because they're both really awesome kids!

Yesterday, (more kindergartners, I'm seeing a pattern here) we were playing an instrument matching game for the last couple of minutes in our class time on our Smart Board (thanks be to nyphilkids.org!). My sweet gem saw her classmate turn over a string instrument and immediately turned to her neighbor, waved frantically, and sang "Cello!" as if she was greeting us all again! I do believe that it may have been the cutest thing I witnessed that day.

These are the sweet stories that get over-shadowed by un-ending amounts of paperwork, irritating colleagues, last-minute interruptions (4 times in a 25-minute class...I mean, seriously??!), and the dreaded stench of cat urine. Yes, my first class of the day was exposed to this smell and it did not leave my room until I left for my second school of the day...yuck.

Sounds like I'm exactly where I'm meant to be...

Spider Ball Mania

After two Snow Days... I feel like I was playing catch up with all of my classes! But I will say that my absolute favorite lesson this week was with Kindergarten - 2nd. We started by tossing around my "Spider Ball" (a medium-sized ball of yarn I threw together about 3 years ago...works for almost everything!). I would sing a student's name on so-mi pitches and they would sing back.

Musical Mimi: "Hello, Student."

Student: "Hello, Teacher."

I had each one echo back "Hello, Teacher" to me so I could grab a quick vocal assessment, but you know they thought the whole idea was to catch and throw the Spider Ball back to the teacher! They thought it was hysterical!

But our favorite song for this holiday seasons is the "Valentine Boogie!" We had us a pretty great time, and we're gonna boogie through the next week to get back on track! :)

Meet the Teacher!

Time for a party! I LOVE reading blogs…love it. All kinds of blogs. That’s A LOT of readin’! You can definitely start to feel like you “know” the people you’re reading about even though you’ve never met! Anyway, I’ve been obsessing over “teacher blogs” for a while now and would LOVE to get to know YOU better! So let’s have a “Meet the Teacher Party”!!!! First off, here’s a little bit about me…

Yep. That’s me. All 25 years of me. Been a blonde my whole life until about 8 months ago. I’ve been married for 2 1/2 years to a crazy wonderful man who puts up with all of my after-school-"prepping"-time.

LOVE.THEM. I’ve been teaching for 3 years {what?!}. The first year was serious chaos, but I taught music to all grades K-12 in a small school. Who knew that elementary would be my favorite?! (Actually, every music professor I had me pegged...elementary music for sure.) I’m the oldest of 3 and, seriously, I love my siblings like NO other. That's them up above.

I’d tell you a little about them, but that’s a WHOLE other post in itself. I graduated from the Oklahoma State University {GO POKES!!!!} with the hubby. I love Dr. Pepper, scentsy smells, collecting cookbooks, scrapbooking, spending time with my family, John Wayne, and I LOVE Jesus.

Now for the Q & A

Q: What would you be doing if you weren’t a teacher?
A: I would probably be working in a church as a music director or teach Sunday School. (Still a teaching job...does that count?)

Q: What are your hobbies?
A: Learning...yes, I'm a nerd and I'm proud! When there's time, I also love scrapbooking!

Q: When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A: I always played "teacher" when I was younger, but watching my parents teach in the system, once I was in high school -- there was no question! I was not havin' any of that! Got to college, and figured out that it must be what I'm here for.

Q: What are your guilty pleasures?
A: Queso! Give me a cup of queso and add some chips and salsa...I'm all yours! I'm also addicted to shopping and reality tv. (Both things I need to stop anytime now...)

Q: What is your biggest fear?!
A: This is EASY. Frogs, failing, and getting kidnapped. Pretty sure in that order. TER.RIF.IED.

Q: When you’re on vacation, where do you like to go?
A: Somewhere sunny! Jamaica for our honeymoon was a-mazing! The cold just doesn't do it for me.

Q: What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
A: Be yourself….goofy and all; Pray about everything, worry about nothing; Don’t worry about what other people think about you…the ones that matter don't care, and the ones that care, don't matter.

Q: What do you value most in others?
A: Honesty….whether it’s being honest about something or being true to yourself! Kindness and loyalty are right up there, too!!

Q: If you could choose one of your personality traits to pass down to your kids, what would it be?
A: My sense of humor?! HA! I’m no comedian, but I sure can (and love to) laugh at myself and see the comedy in most situations :)

Q: If you could have lunch with anyone in the world….living or dead…who would it be?
A: Jesus and John Jacobson. And then I’d like to have a “teacher related” lunch with my bloggy friends Mrs. Mimi and more! :)

Now tell us one random thing about yourself:

I have two pugs - Wrigley and Pete. Wrigley we've raised since she was a puppy for almost 3 years not, and Pete's already 3 and we adopted him just over a year ago! They are like my kids, and their sweet faces get me everytime!

Wrigley

Now it’s time for YOU to join the party!!!! Here’s what you need to do: Write a post titled “Meet The Teacher”. Start with a brief “biography” and then copy & paste the Q&A {using your answers, of course!} Copy the web address of your “Meet the Teacher” post and come back here & link up! It would be GREAT if you could visit at least 3 other teachers…get to know a little bit about your fellow bloggers…and leave a comment!!!! Don't forget to grab a button when you link up!

Snow Day!!

Wow! Our weekend was soo beautiful! It was between 60-70 degrees outside - no exaggeration, but today we've been in a blizzard!! Most schools declared that school was closed last night... We were informed at 6:15 this morning (time to go back to bed? Yes, please!) and I was happy that we got our next call by 2:00 today. Yes, tomorrow will be closed as well, and no teacher is looking forward to making the days up (mostly, because we don't have a day in the schedule unless you count Spring Break...and no one wants to make up a day during that week).

Since the weathermen have been preparing us about this storm since about Saturday or Sunday, I was ready! I left school Monday with quite a few little tasks to tackle on my list! I've made the few things I can and finished the four projects for my sweet Kinders, and I'm loving the break! I'm thinking the only problem now may be the fact that I'm out of projects and I have an entire day to choose to rest or be productive tomorrow. How 'bout making it a day to be inspired? I'm thinking Freedom Writers, Ron Clark Story, Mad Hot Ballroom, etc. School-Themed Movie Marathon! (My hubby's really not going to be into this...) :)