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Janine's Music Room

Thoughts from a PYP music teacher

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Singing and Online Learning

Singing is central to music classes in primary school. But with many teachers going online, we are facing new challenges that none of us were trained for. In all of my music teacher circles, people are asking for tips on

Janine 28. June 20203. September 2020 Teacher Tips, Technology No Comments Read more

5 Great Circle Games from Around the World

As I wrote last week, I love to play singing games with my classes. Not only are they fun and catchy, but they offer a lot of teachable content. It’s up to you what you want to pull out, but

Janine 9. February 20182. April 2018 Group activity, Song, Whole class activity No Comments Read more

5 Great Circle Games for Your Music Class

Singing, games, and holding hands! I love playing circle games with my kids. And my kids love playing them. They love the catchy melodies, the movement, and the challenge: For some games, that’s the challenge of doing the right thing

Janine 4. February 201827. March 2018 Group activity, Song, Whole class activity 2 Comments Read more

15 Fun Ways to Learn About Rhythm

I’m totally immersing myself in the philosophy that children need to experience music and internalize it, understanding it with the whole body, before we start “teaching” the elements. In addition, we need to present the learning to our students in

Janine 26. January 201823. January 2021 Whole class activity 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

Don’t Teach

I’m trying to incorporate more singing games and play parties into my music lessons. They are a great way to teach not only singing, but beat, pattern, form, etc. They also develop social skills, like eye contact, holding hands, taking

Janine 2. November 201710. March 2018 Group activity, Song, Teacher Tips, Whole class activity No Comments Read more

Singing Games

I’ve just had a refreshing return to my roots! Today was the last day of a three-day Kodály course with Dr. James Cuskelly. It’s been fifteen years since I was really focused on the Kodály Method, but it was just

Janine 24. June 20151. December 2016 Thoughts, 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

Settling In

I have been in schools before where the classroom teacher quietly leads their class, single file, to Music. But more often than not, my classes now come running in, still engrossed in the conversation they had started on their way

Janine 30. January 20151. October 2015 Inquiry, Uncategorized, Whole class activity No Comments Read more

Do the Locomotion

I went through a big overhaul of my curriculum recently, digging deep into cooperative groups, more creative composition, and authentically student-led inquiry. I was well into it, however, when I stopped to reflect and realized that movement—which had once been

Janine 8. December 201422. March 2018 Group activity, Whole class activity No Comments Read more
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