It’s not just Enrichment, it’s Essential. 

Schools are bolstering their education programs to address what is being called “learning loss”, but the longer school years and high-dosage tutoring are missing the point. Sometimes it feels like we’re only treating the symptoms of  “learning loss” but not addressing the cause. I think a holistic arts education for each individual learner is needed…

Continue Reading

1

I quit teaching a week ago…

I quit teaching a week ago, and I was surprised. There have been so many immediate changes that have had such a big impact on my life in such a short amount of time. I want these posts to serve as a journal for me as I navigate my way through this transition, chronicling any…

Continue Reading

Musical Story Time – An Arts Integration Unit

Combine disciplines with this fun and engaging arts-integrated unit. We take four classic children’s books, and read them aloud, then add in a musical concept and re-read the stories integrating our new musical skills. Whether you’re trying to incorporate music into your story time or stories into your music time, these will interest and involve…

Continue Reading

2022 Student Podcasts are now LIVE!

Student podcasts are now LIVE on Spotify! As part of a 7th & 8th-grade elective students planned, created, and produced their own podcasts. They’re simultaneously silly, serious, and sensational! From the latest chisme to a gruesome murder, we’ve got everything covered. Listen to those and more here!

Playing with Purpose

This half-day, hybrid face-to-face/virtual workshop will explore the use of LEGO® as a flexible medium for designing, building, prototyping, and performing with musical instruments. We start from the position that musical instruments can be used for far more than solely playing music. Instruments can also function as a means of exploring, teaching, and collaborating in…

Continue Reading

How To: The Making of a Winter Concert video

The world has gone through some unprecedented changes in the last 2+ years, education included. Yet we’re still asked to replicate lessons, ideas, and events as if there wasn’t a global pandemic happening. The Winter Concert, an annual mainstay in almost every school, is a great example of this. Many music teachers are being asked…

Continue Reading

The Winter Concert is LIVE!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, our annual winter concert. This year’s concert looks different from last years, which was different from the pervious year. It’s been an evolving process but I was so happy with how this year’s show turned out. We ended up producing a pre-recorded video with a live premerie…

Continue Reading

Ludo: A Music-Themed Board Game

I created a variation of a classic board game themed around music and the instrument families to use in my classroom. Ludo, Sorry, Parcheesi, etc are all basically the same game that we’ve all played in one form or another. They’re easy to learn, fun to play. This printable game is perfect for music centers,…

Continue Reading

What My Students Learned From Playing Dungeons & Dragons

As part of my school’s Summer Learning Program, we offered a variety of teacher-led clubs that included basketball, recycled arts, ukulele, as well as Dungeons and Dragons. It was an awesome experience to watch the same group of students grow over the duration of the club. It was such a slow, holistic growth that it…

Continue Reading

How Summer School Re-kindled My Love of Teaching

    For the first time in my 15 years teaching career, I decided to teach summer school. I was leery about taking on the extra work when I should be unwinding, but I could not be happier with my decision. It was a total breath of fresh air that reminded me of why I…

Continue Reading

1 2 3 13
Skip to toolbar