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Janine's Music Room

Thoughts from a PYP music teacher

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formative assessment

Energize your music class with these Kahoots!

I know I’m really behind the times on this, but I discovered Kahoot! this year, and my music classes can’t get enough of it! After I use one to review a lesson, they always ask for more. If I say

Janine 2. May 202214. July 2022 Assessment, Technology No Comments Read more

Easy assessment of music concepts—even for a sub!

The chaos of pandemic-year teaching sure compelled me to streamline my assessments! When working with early childhood classes, a lot of the learning is focused around contrasts in four main concepts: duration (long and short), tempo (fast and slow), dynamics

Janine 30. July 202114. July 2022 Uncategorized No Comments Read more

Recorders—at school or at home

Despite many jokes about children playing the recorder, music teachers know that the recorder is an accessible first step towards playing other instruments. It can be difficult for a small child to play a melodic instrument. String instruments require left

Janine 25. January 20213. February 2021 Assessment, Uncategorized No Comments Read more

Are choice boards really that great? (Yes!)

Choice boards have exploded in popularity, especially with the expansion of online learning. They allow for differentiation, creativity, and student agency. You can use them to practice skills and concepts, build inquiry projects from them, or just use them for

Janine 9. August 20203. September 2020 Teacher Tips 2 Comments Read more

Easy Classroom Hack for Recording

With this brilliant hack, the students aren’t self-conscious, and their individual voices are captured on the computer, louder than the other voices in the room.

Janine 14. November 20191. January 2020 Assessment, Teacher Tips, Technology No Comments Read more

10 Tips for Using Learning Centers in Specialist Classes

I’ve been experimenting with learning stations, or centers, in my music classroom. I’m always intrigued when I walk into classrooms that are set up with exciting experiments, games, and other provocations for learning. But a long time passed between admiring

Janine 16. September 201820. July 2019 Group activity, Teacher Tips No Comments Read more

4 Easy Tricks for a Quieter Classroom

Music teachers have an amazing tolerance for noise. All primary school teachers deal with the calling out, the obliviously loud voices, and all that, but the music classroom multiplies that. After all, we don’t usually sit at desks—maybe not in

Janine 18. January 201811. March 2018 Teacher Tips No Comments Read more

Exploring Musical Expression using Carnival of the Animals

One of the most important concepts we teach is communication through music, or what we might call musical expression. Music, I emphasize to my students, is not just here to entertain you or fill the silence at the grocery store.

Janine 19. November 201711. March 2018 Assessment, Group activity, Inquiry, Whole class activity No Comments Read more

Metacognition and Student Reporters

These ideas can be used in any class, or any subject, but arose as a solution to a specialist situation. Specialist teachers have such limited time with students—and so many students—that getting an overview of students’ learning becomes a perpetual

Janine 9. March 20179. March 2017 Whole class activity 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
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