Classroom Pictures!

Welcome to our music room!  Before we get to the class pics, I have to show you my new toy!  As part of an Apple pilot program with several Title 1 schools in our district, our teachers were given MacBooks and some were even given iPads/iPod Touches!  How great is that!  No iPad for this music teacher (at least, not yet!), but I'm thrilled with my MacBook!  I can't begin to tell you how much easier it is to get work done on this compared to the ancient desktop in my room!

I have to say, though, it has been a very long time since I've seen this logo in a classroom.  Isn't it pretty!

Now for the class pics.  Forgive the unfinished-looking bulletin boards.  They are awaiting kids' work and class names (part of my reward system).

Instrument Alley (channeling my inner JK Rowling . . .)  Thanks, Leigh!

Word Wall

My "I Will . . ." statements posted just outside my door.

 Some fun 2nd Grade compositions from the first week of school.  I am so proud of them for remembering their 1st Grade concepts!!  This next week we'll add body percussion and eventually perform it as an instrumental piece!

(yes, it's crooked.  yes, I had to fix it.  #OCD)

Check out some other great classroom ideas at Teaching Blog Addict's Classroom Photos Party!

Pinterest Linky Party!

Hi, I'm Melanie, and I'm addicted to Pinterest!  Especially now that so many teachers have joined and are contributing!  Talk about an amazing learning community!  If you're already on Pinterest, click my "Follow Me" button (and pay special attention to the "Teacher-y Things" page).  If you're not hooked yet, check out the Pinterest Linky Party over at Michelle's Math in the Middle blog.  I'm sure we'll have you convinced in no time with all of these great ideas!!

As my friend Tina says, "Sharing is caring!"

Enjoy!

Ready or Not, Here They Come!

My lessons are done and reviewed, my classroom is the cleanest it will be all year, my brain is full of new ideas and strategies from a full week of PD, my clothes are ready for tomorrow, my hair is freshly cut (oooohhhh menthol scalp massage at Tangerine Salon . . . .), my cutest lunch box has been rescued from the pantry floor, and my teacher materials are packed in my bag by the door.

Yep!  I'm ready!  Bring on the kids!!




PS - Check out this GREAT free clipart from Discover Education!  (Isn't that the cutest little backpack?!)

I Will . . .

We had a wonderful staff development day at Burks - maybe one of the best I have been to yet.  Our brilliant principals started off the day tugging on our heart-strings (and especially mine) by showing a couple of clips from Mr. Holland's Opus.  It's only my favorite inspirational movie of all time (runners up include Sister Act 1 and 2, The Sound of Music, and Mary Poppins).  I have never watched that movie without crying, and now that I'm in my fourth year of teaching music and have watched dear friends get cut due to budgets it just hits me even harder.  Thanks for the sob fest, Pam and Garry!  You definitely know how to get my attention!  :)

Gets me every time.

We also revisited and reaffirmed our belief statements and mission statement that we wrote for our school two years ago.   It is very nice to see that those statements are still true and speak to what we believe as a staff, and what I personally believe as a teacher.  Afterwards, we discussed what it looks like to live out those beliefs in our classrooms with our students.  We were challenged to create our own set of "I will . . ." statements and post them outside our doors.  These will serve as reminders to us and allow students, parents, and staff to hold us accountable.  I wanted to share mine here.  

Why I Teach Music

Taken from the the Do-Re-Mi Blog.


Why Teach Music


Music is mathematical.
It is rhythmically based of the subdivisions of time into fractions which must be done instantaneously, not worked out on paper.


Music is a foreign language.
Most of the terms are in Italian, German, or French; and the notation is certainly not English, but a highly developed kind of shorthand that uses symbols to represent ideas.  
The semantics of music is the most complete and universal language.


Music is history.
Music usually reflects the environment and times of its creation, often even the country and/or racial feeling.


Music is physical education.
It requires fantastic coordination of fingers, hands, arms, lip, cheek and facial muscles, in addition to extraordinary control of diaphragmatic, back, stomach, and chest muscles, which respond instantly to the sound the ear hears and the mind interprets.


Music is all of these things, but most of all, music is art.
It allows a human being to take all of these dry, technically boring (but difficult) techniques and use them to create emotion.  That is one thing science cannot duplicate; humanism, feeling, emotion, call it what you will.


That is why we teach music.
Not because we expect our students to major in music,
Not because we expect them to play or sing all their life,
Not so they can relax,
Not so they can have fun,
But so they will be human,
So they will recognize beauty,
So they will be sensitive,
So they will be closer to an infinite beyond this world,
So they will have something to cling to,
So they will have more love, more compassion, more gentleness, more good, in short, more life.
Of what value will it be to make a prosperous living unless you know how to live?
That is why we teach music.


author unknown

Warming Up for 2011-2012

      Instrumentalists have a routine they go through when preparing to play a rehearsal or performance.  Getting the horn out of the case, checking its parts, cleaning and oiling (if necessary), and then playing a series of notes/scales/passages all to make sure they are ready to join the group and play their best.  Whether it's conscious or not, most musicians have their own little routine that they go through each time they prepare to play.  It's their warm up.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                              I and my fellow teachers are in the middle of our "warm up" routine right now.  Most of us have been in and out of our classrooms for the last couple of weeks by now, even though our contract days officially started this past Friday.  Beginning tomorrow we have a week of professional development with a little time thrown in for classroom prep and lesson planning.  We each have our own routines that we go through as we prepare to give our best to the kids who will come through our doors in just one week.  This will be my third year at Burks Elementary and I am thrilled that I've been here long enough to establish my "warm up routine".  My instruments are clean (no more killer dust-bunnies in my xylophones!), my bulletin boards are almost finished (minus a little laminating I'll do tomorrow), and my books are organized.  All I need to do now is organize my desk and get my first weeks of lesson plans finalized and submitted!  I'm nearly finished with my warm up and I'm ready to play!  Let's get this school year started!




(x-posted to http://melaniecstewart.weebly.com/blog.html)