World Cafe Conversation

What a successful year we have had together!  Every single one of the trainings this year has been exciting, full of information, and useable!  I'd like to share a few stats with you regarding trainings this year. 

• During the 2014-2015 school year the average number of teachers in attendance at the monthly district trainings was 17.  That's barely a third of the music specialists employed by the school district. 
• In 2015-2016 the average number of teachers in attendance at the monthly trainings increased to 28.  That's more that half of all the district music specialists. 
• When the 2015 school year began 40% of our music specialists were new.  Though we won't know how many new teachers we have until school starts in August,  right now it looks as if our teacher turnover rate has decreased to 23 percent. 
• What I assume that means, is that the trainings provided for you this year have been valuable and inspiring.  They have inspired you in your classroom and left you wanting more.  I also hope that these statistics mean you are feeling more confident in your teaching and enjoying your job more. 

I am looking forward to the new school year and all the fun it will bring.  As a classroom teacher you get new students every year.  Teachers work hard all year to build trust and relationships with those children and their parents and then start over again the next year.  But what I loved about being a music specialist was that I got to see the same kids and continue to strengthen my relationship with them, thereby reaching students through music in a deeper, more challenging way. 


May 12, 2016 was our final training for the year.  We had a great time discovering form and movement with Valerie and then got to have a round table (OK...rectangular) discussion and good things happening in our classrooms and challenges we still face. 

I love how you all answered these questions!  Every one has different strengths and weaknesses and we all interpret materials in different ways.  Some of us are visual learners, some tactile, some aural learners and some kinesthetic.  As I have worked with teachers in students this year I have forced myself to become more familiar with the resources provided each school by the district: USOE Songbook, Dance Activities, DMC and Making Music.  Pinterest, Teachers-pay-Teachers, You Tube and other sources like that have fantastic ideas!  Why reinvent the wheel when you can use a great idea provided you by someone else.  In my opinion, for music specialist who are not paid very much, teach all the kids in the school, and have very little prep-time the USOE Songbook is the most easily useable resource available to you.  It has great music in it, minus tracks are available on Utah.schools.gov website and each standard (Singing, Listening, Playing and Composing) are outlined with a simple lesson or game.  If you haven't fallen in love with this book yet, I challenge you to spend some time looking through it and becoming more familiar with it. 

Look at that!  Teachers expressing their confidence and sharing that with their peers.  When I was teaching recorder for the first time I would have loved to know who to go for help or when I pulled out that classroom set of Ukes ... I would have loved to know what chords to start with first.  It was all trial and error for me, but now I know that Gayle Bleak, Renee Tanner and Marci Low are amazing at Ukulele.  I know Janet Rawson, Jeanette Eggett and Kimberly Graff have amazing recorder programs.  I also know that if I wanted to teach a folk dance but couldn't interpret the actions from the description, I could call Laurie Allen.  It's important for us to know who to go to with questions.  Valerie and I are always happy to help with questions, but we aren't out there in the trenches with you.  I love the network of teachers we have created this year and hope that it continues to grow.

Can you see the starred items?  I didn't really notice them until I read over it a couple of times and then a light bulb went off in my head.  Most of you know that I have been working on some research and this research is centered around student behavioral engagement (classroom management) and teacher enjoyment (confidence in pedagogy).  In short, student behavioral engagement is improved when teachers implement routine, create a relationship of trust, and provide rigorous (challenging) and relevant (appropriate to age and what students are learning) lessons and activities.  .   

 In Ten Steps to Better Student Engagement, an article written by Tristan de Frondeville, Project Learning Consultant for PBL Associates, and published by Edutopia.org he talks about Cultivating your Engagement Meter.  De Frondeville says, “Be acutely aware of when your students are paying strong attention or are deeply engaged in their tasks.  Master teachers create an active-learning environment in which students are on task in their thinking and speaking or are collaboratively working close to 100 percent of the time.”   .”  He goes on to say, “Although it may take years to develop the repertoire of skills and lessons that enable you to permanently create this active-learning environment, you can begin by discerning which activities truly engage your students.”

Adjusting lessons according to skill and age comes with experience as well as trial and error.  Keeping the students engaged in your lesson also comes from study, experience and trial and error.  I think the most difficult thing about cultivating your engagement meter is knowing what positive student engagement looks like.  When I'm preparing to teach I ask questions like:

•   Is this relevant to the skills and concepts I want to teach and relevant to what they need to learn?
• Is this lesson challenging? 
• Why am I teaching this?  What do I want them to have learned at the end of the day?
• How can I make it more interesting and exciting for the students?

When I'm in the process of teaching my questions might look like:

• Are the students paying attention to me or their neighbors?
• Are the students more interested in what we are doing as a class or in goofing off?
• What can I do to get their attention?
• What can I do to keep their attention?

When I'm finished teaching I usually ask myself:

• Did all my students participate appropriately today?
• Did they understand the skill or concept I was teaching?
• Did they show me they understood or just say they did?
• What can I do next week to continue on from today's lesson?
• Was I confident in my teaching strategies?

These are all really basic questions we can ask ourselves to figure out if our lessons are positively engaging for the students. There are, of course, deeper questions we could ask but I would suggest that the more the students participate and behave appropriately, the more they are engage in your lessons. 

We all have different personalities and different ways to approach similar situations.  As I have visited classrooms this year I have loved seeing all the different approaches to behavior management.  Behavior seems to be one of them most difficult things to tackle in teaching, especially when you teach all elementary grade levels (K-6) and have to vary your approach according to developmentally appropriate learning abilities.  Here are my MUST HAVE'S....many are the same as you all have mentioned.

1. Post your class rules where the students can see them and refer to them often!  (Especially after winter break and as the school year comes to a close)
2. Encourage positive behavior with class rewards.  I love it when this class reward correlates with the school behavior plan and classroom teachers can support you with behavior management. 
3. Use 'watching turns' when students are having a hard time participating appropriately, but provide an opportunity for redemption.
4. Create a routine and STICK TO IT!  Children thrive on routine.  They also behave better when they know what your expectations are and what will happen if they don't behave appropriately.  Give yourself time to accomplish this.  It doesn't happen over night! 
5. Greet your students at the beginning of class and dismiss them at the end (I love a high five). 
6. Speak with the classroom teacher as much as possible regarding behavior.  You can do this by asking them to pick their students up at the end of class and just giving a brief report. 

One of the most commonly asked questions I got this year was, "Do I have to prepare a different lesson for each grade level?"  My answer is NO!  I say do what works best for you.  If you prefer to prepare a lesson for every grade level and that works for you then keep it up.  If it worries you, then prepare a lower grade and an upper grade lesson.  I had a recent conversation with a teacher about this who was feeling guilty about not preparing a different lesson for all the grades.  Her conclusion was that she could teach the same concepts and skills in each grade level, and probably even use the same music or activity to teach with, but might differentiate her instruction by using different words, asking different questions and allowing more age appropriate opportunities per grade.  There is no right or wrong answer to this question.  You do what works best for you.

This, again, is a skill that is learned through trial and error.  Introducing instruments into your lessons does create more noise and requires more strict management.  It also requires greater patience and understanding.  Not everyone in your class has to play an instrument all of the time.  Taking turns is OK and an essential social skill for students to learn.  Students model what they see the teacher do.  When you use an instrument, make sure you explain how you are doing it, how they should do it and then make sure you model it the way you should. 

I really enjoyed reading through these posters and reflecting on what amazing things have happened this year in your classrooms.  I have seen growth in personal and professional confidence, I have watched relationships be built between teacher and students and teachers and administrators.  I am always awestruck by the creativity displayed in your classrooms! Thanks for making this year so great!