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Janine's Music Room

Janine's Music Room

Thoughts from a PYP music teacher

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Children Need to Play

I’m sure that I’m mostly preaching to the choir here, but more and more research is coming out with a clear message about childhood: Children learn through play. This is how human beings are programmed to learn. And yet, more

Janine 15. February 20179. April 2018 Thoughts No Comments Read more

Making Mistakes

I recently dedicated some time to closing some of the 86 tabs I had open, and I finally had a chance to read an Edutopia article that I’d opened long ago. As inquiry teachers, and certainly as music teachers as

Janine 23. September 201620. October 2016 Inquiry No Comments Read more

Context, Not Drills

There is a lot of debate about homework these days. When I was in school, homework was pages of multiplication problems, or reading a text and answering simple recall questions (usually worded identically in the question and the text, so

Janine 9. February 201615. February 2016 Thoughts No Comments Read more

Questions and Student Inquiry

Today I just want to share an article I read. I’m not a huge fan of Alfie Kohn in general, but I think what he has written about getting down to truly essential questions, and encouraging thoughtful questioning from students,

Janine 14. September 201526. July 2020 Inquiry No Comments Read more

Assessment for/as/of Learning

Assessment is a big part of teaching. Without assessment, we don’t know what to teach (at least, we shouldn’t). We must constantly monitor and adjust our teaching to keep learning on track. Formative assessment and teaching are directly linked; neither

Janine 2. July 20151. December 2016 Assessment No Comments Read more

What’s on your Walls?

Many PYP schools have guidelines about what should be on the walls, but it is worth stopping to reflect once in a while about what you are doing with this valuable teaching space. That’s right: teaching space. I’ve found that

Janine 6. May 20159. August 2015 Thoughts No Comments Read more

Part II: Using Socratic Questioning in Music

(This post follows on with examples of how Socratic questioning might move an inquiry forward in Music class. If you haven’t read it yet, start with Part I: The Framework to get an overview of the method.) Socratic questioning provides

Janine 20. February 20155. August 2015 Inquiry, Whole class activity No Comments Read more

Socratic Questioning (Part I: The Framework)

Socrates was one of the founders of Western philosophy, and is often credited for saying that true knowledge is knowing that you know nothing. His method of elenchus involves breaking down a problem into a series of questions. In contrast

Janine 16. February 201529. June 2015 Inquiry, Whole class activity No Comments Read more

“Sitting Beside” Your Students

Another interesting moment at the weekend’s workshop: I learned that the word “assessment” has its roots in Latin. That’s no surprise, given that a huge chunk of English words have their roots in Latin. What is a surprise is that

Janine 20. November 201418. July 2015 Assessment, Thoughts No Comments Read more

Questioning for Thinking and Learning

Let’s face it: Despite the research, many public/state schools are clinging to standardized testing in a desperate attempt to easily measure learning and make comparisons. As many schools (unwillingly) turn their focus to memorizing facts and “teaching to the test,”

Janine 9. November 201418. July 2015 Inquiry, Thoughts No Comments Read more

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