General Music Classroom Budget

Columbia, Missouri has a history of being supportive of the Arts.  Because it is a college town, there are fine arts opportunities available to our schools and classrooms which will not be found in many districts of Missouri.  Each of our classrooms is outfitted with the Gameplan Music Curriculum, Purposeful Pathways Curriculum Resources, and the basic Musicplay Curriculum Resources.  Every music room should have 1-2 of each barred Orff Instrument and a variety of hand percussion instruments.  There is a district classroom ukulele lab for checkout as well as a keyboard lab.  Each school owns more or less physical items depending on a variety of factors including: the school budgets, PTA support, the focus or needs of the music teacher, grants written and the needs of the school.  Every elementary music specialist is issued a yearly budget  to continue furnishing the music room with music, instruments or programs each teacher sees the need for.  

Recently, I asked my CPS colleagues, what are the most important things they spend their budgets on and here are some of the responses I received:

1. First Steps in Music by John Feierabend

2. A nice Concert or Tenor Ukulele for the teacher, a teacher guitar.

3. A Cajon to have a handy place to sit in the front of the room and always have an instrument to keep the beat in the background.

4. Instruments! Instruments! Instruments! replacements for worn out hand percussion & mallets.

5.  I love my Kodaly resources. I use all kinds of charts and magnetic hearts for rhythm and solfege work.

6. Choir Octavos for music library

So . . . how do I spend my budget?  My room is blessed with instruments and I have the bad habit of purchasing every picture book or puppet I want from my personal budget.

Last year, I used my music room budget to purchase 5 soprano Kala Ukuleles for student use, a couple of choir octavos and a school pass for the Virtual Field Trip featuring Somos Amigos.

https://www.powayonstage.org/arts-in-education/artsed-onstage/virtual-field-trips/. 

This year, I will continue to add to my school ukulele set, replace some mallets, replace some maracas, add some egg shakers and add 2-3 more octavos to my school library. I am also going to make a point of doing a better job of keeping a running wish list with items of different price points for the music room. You just never know when someone might want to make a donation.

Behavior Management in the Elementary Music Room

 If you are an educator in a music room, you are well aware that classroom management in your school space looks different that any other space at the school.  During the first couple of weeks we are offered the opportunity to assess and reassess our students to establish the best procedures and relationships in our young musicians.

As you compose your procedures, routines and lesson plans for the year and for a unique community students, it is apparent that behavior management in a music room is its own art form. It is my hope you might glean some strategies here to help your classes run smoothly.

In my opinion it is quite important to keep your expectations simple.  I recently posed these questions to my colleagues in Columbia Public Schools:

What are the non negotiables in your music room?  What are your boundaries? What if you could only choose two rules?

My non negotiables are:

Be Respectful and always musical.

Here are some of the responses I received from my collegues:

Respectful, Responsible, Positive, Safe, Do Your Best

My focus this year is Kindness and all property must be treated with respect.

All children deserve to love their school experience

"Whole Brain" teaching rules 

NO negative talk, towards others or towards yourself!

Always be musical. Respect one another, do not disrupt the learning process. Take good care of our classroom and our materials.

In preschool, our three school rules are Be Safe, Be Kind, Be Responsible. Those are our non-negotiables.

If you could only choose two or three non negotiables in your classroom what would you choose?

I have chosen to stick with the Actor's Toolbox model I learned from Sean Layne in a Focus Five: Acting Right Arts Integration Professional Development.  With this model, I am able to utilize what I know about Social Emotional Learning along with the importance of simplicity. 

1. Control Body

2. Control Voice

3. Use Imagination

4. Concentrate

5. Cooperate

As you continue to evolve as a teacher and build your musical community revise and consider what simple expectations work for your community and feel authentic in your classroom.

Once you have decided what your non negotiables are, it is time to dig in to the work with your students so you and your students can be active musicians and creators. Here are a few structures to put in place to help your year run smoothly.

1. Teach and model and practice routines & transitions.  It seems to be a point which is obvious but as adults we don't always stay in this mode long enough for our students because we understand the expectations quicker due to life experience.  Students often only visit the music room once a week and the routines and expectations need to be calming taught, modeled and re-taught several times throughout the year. How should students enter and exit the room? How are instruments supposed to be played and respected? How do we show respect? How do we move through space? How do we ask the teacher questions? How do we respond to we respond to each other?  Be firm and consistent with these procedures for each student and they begin to trust you. Behavior is a learned skill that takes TIME and PRACTICE. Remember each transition in your room can offer an opportunity for musicality and a teachable moment.

2. Build Relationships. We see every student in our schools so in can seep to be an insurmountable task to know about each student but you can make each child feel important by making eye contact, speaking to them by name (keep a class list near by on a music stand if you need), be in the hallway before and after school if you are not on duty. Take the time to walk around the building and build relationships with other teachers and see the dynamics of each class outside of your room. This takes TIME but it will pay off.

3. Sing, Play and Dance.  The students did not come to your room to hear you talk.  Also much of their day is spent in a chair. This may be the most creative point of their day.  Transition through a variety of activities during the hour you have your students and give them the desire for more. 

4. Take time for Assessment.  Both you and your students need to know what your strengths and weaknesses are.  An assessment as a class doesn't have to be elaborate.  It could be as simple as asking the students what they notice about an activity.  It could simply be the teacher letting the students know what went well along with one goal or expectation for next time (keep it simple). If you provide quick assessments for you and your students throughout the year, you can better customize the material for each class so that it is not too hard or too easy . . . 

I hope these thoughts help you to jump into the year in a thoughtful and reflective manner. 

Musically Yours,

Elizabeth