A tale of two kindergarten classes

This is the first year I've taught as young as kindergarten, and it's been a bit of a classroom management challenge. I talked to the kindergarten teachers and got some suggestions before the year started, and I've been using a preschool curriculum (with modifications to hit more of the standards), so I feel like I'm teaching appropriate to the level. One of the classes has been fabulous all year long. The other two have given me and the art teacher plenty of trouble. Lately, though one has been rapidly improving. A comparison:

• Both changed the configuration of the classroom--doesn't that just make it feel better?!
• The unimproved class is still using the same clip chart from the beginning of the year; the improved class has completely revamped their discipline system
• The unimproved class's teacher very rarely communicates with me on discipline; the improved class's teachers have emailed me to give feedback (I asked for it) and explained their new system and how I can use it.
• The unimproved class's teacher starts music class with a talk to her students on how rules stay the same for "specialist" teachers as for her--and while she says this I see students making faces and playing around. The other class's teachers use more age-appropriate language and a significant amount of sign language to communicate expectations.

This school has a tendency to hire mostly inexperienced teachers, and so discipline is difficult when I only see the students forty minutes every week. But I wish the other kindergarten teacher would take some cues from the other two. I try to keep class moving and quickly move on to new activities, but it's very difficult when I have to stop frequently to give new directions.

Has anyone else experienced difficulties with teaching the little ones? Is there anything that has worked for you?

Potpourri

• I've been having a lot of trouble with one particular kindergarten class. They are a gigantic handful for me and the other specialist teachers. I try my best to keep class engaging, and follow through with the classroom teacher's discipline system, including rewards, but am still feeling at a loss. If anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear them!
• I've been listening to pod-casts on my way home. Some interesting ones talked about Arabic music and 20th Century American music. The music education pod-casts were too short!
• Today one of the teachers I work with was accused of shaking a student while she was working with a small reading group. The music teacher and I were both in the room when the alleged shaking happened (it didn't). She was so upset by the accusation, and it's frustrating that this student is not going to have reading intervention anymore because his mom chose to believe him. More troubling is how this fourth grader has learned to lie about being abused to get out of having extra work.
  

A fun book, needs more thought

I recently checked the book Rubber-Band Banjos and a Java Jive Bass: Projects and Activities on the Science of Music and Sound by Alex Sabbeth from our school library. It's a collection of activities rated by difficulty, designed to teach students about the science of sound. The project which really appeal to me, however, are those in which students create their own musical instruments. This book has a project to create a guitar, complete with frets, a banjo, a French horn-type instrument, and of course, some percussion instruments.

My special ed class complete their tambourine project last week. They all really enjoyed it, and seem to get a lot from having their "own" instruments, which they created. I'm really glad that I had some help thinking of these projects for them. Unfortunately, there were parts of the project which didn't work very well. I'm wishing they had been tested out better. First, the students were supposed to paint the pie tins which would become their tambourine (they did this with the art teacher). Except the paint didn't stick well to the plates. Even after she sprayed the tins to try to seal them, much of the paint is falling off. Also, the project involves using tape to attach a string around the side of the plate. Except the tape isn't sticking very well, either. I will continue to use the projects in this book, but I think next time I'll test them out better first.

How to make teaching "a la carte" easier for music teachers

This is the first year I haven't had any kind of a classroom, at all, and have to go from classroom to classroom for EVERY class (I technically don't have a cart, either, but since I don't have any instruments, there's not as much to lug). Anyway, here are a list of things that would make it easier on me:

• Leave room on the whiteboard, and have some markers nearby
• Give me a seating chart, and try to give me updated ones as seats change. I know you think I should know all their names by this point, but I teach 400some students, and the way I remember names better is by seeing them written out in order of seating.
• Have your working boom-box somewhere accessible. It's awkward when I have to uncover it from a bunch of papers. If I email the principal that yours isn't working, don't tell her it's fine because you have a new one if it doesn't actually play from an ipod, like the old one did.
• Don't talk and giggle with other teachers in the back of the room, especially if we're listening to music and I've just given a lecture about silence.
• Don't pull students to do work, just because you think you can. How does it look to the other students if they can just randomly miss my class for yours?
  
• Let me handle management, but give me the tools to do so. Let me use your clip-chart, but don't interrupt me to scream at (y)our students.
• I have a few minutes to walk from class to class. I like to take some of this time to prepare my items, get my bearings, etc. If I'm 5 minutes early, please don't teach your students to leave their other work right away and be ready for music class, especially when I often drop off my things in your room and then run to the restroom.
• If I'm early, don't check your clock, and then ask my what time my clock says. I don't have a clock. I just walk to your room when I'm done with my old class and then start getting ready. You don't arrive at school right when your start time is, and I don't like to, either.

• Let me start on time, and return so I can leave on time and get to my last class.

Is there anything other music teachers can think of that would make it easier when you go from class to class? I have noticed teachers adding my vocabulary to their word walls, and I think that's a fabulous way to be on the same team.

I work for the kids, not the administration

Well after all the time I wasted over my break lamenting that I would have to go back, it turns out it felt really nice to be back. As hard a time as I have with the administration of the school, I actually see them very little. And it was good to see my students again.

This year has been the first year where I taught students as young as kindergarten (or any grades below 4th since student teaching) and, while it's taken a lot of adjustment, you can't deny that those kids are cute. I love my 2nd graders, who enjoy music so much they all sight "ahhhhh" when I tell them my time is up. Another good experience for me is that I have a self-contained special education class, which I see four times a week. I love getting to know those students so well, and it allows me to try things with them which I don't feel like I always have time to do in other classes. Although it can be difficult finding out what will work for all of them (there's quite a span in terms of their abilities) it's a treat being in that class. Plus, the way the teacher structures and interacts with the students creates an atmosphere which feels good as soon as I walk in the door.

I did force myself to discuss future shows with my principal, but overall it was nice to find that my feelings for the way the school is run didn't stop me from enjoying my job. And how can you not like your job, when your job is to make music with children all day?

How to make a music teacher re-consider

• Don't provide materials (I have no instruments...just "First Steps in Music for Preschool and Beyond" 150 Folksongs and 150 Rounds books)
• Don't provide a place to work (I share an office, which is actually a closet with a water-test valve and I don't even have a key to it)
• Don't tell them anything (I found out they changed the date to my concert from a 2nd grader)
• Don't give any feedback until between the dress-rehearsal and the concert, and then tell them everything they need to change in the few hours before the show

I'm dreading my vacation ending.

I'm back...

Well it's been a while. A lot has happened since my last post. Last year I bought a condo, then received notice that I was being laid off the next month. Since then, I got engaged, lost my job, accepted a part-time job an hour's drive away, and got married.

While home life is going great, and for now I think we'll be able to keep the condo, the new job is far from ideal. I was torn between taking an only part-time job so far away and just staying home for a while, but thought I would learn a lot from the new place. It's a charter school which is part of a huge system which gets great results which it attributes partly to the great professional development it gives its teachers. Unfortunately, I found out after I was hired, that that doesn't include music teachers. Nor do I have much in the way of materials, respect, or information about what's going on at school. As my 3-week winter vacation is coming to an end, I am dreading going back. My last day before break was terrible (probably will be another post). I'm continuing to apply for jobs when they come up, but for now I'm trying to stick it out for just this school year.