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Thoughts from a PYP music teacher

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How to Respond to *Those* Emails

You don’t need to be in teaching for very long before you get one: the angry parent email. Resist the reaction to send an anger-fuelled message back. Parents come and go, but your reputation will follow you forever. Here’s how to respond.

Janine 28. November 201930. March 2020 Teacher Tips No Comments Read more

Surviving your first year of teaching: 15 tips

Teaching is hard. Teaching music is both exhausting and exhilarating. Your first year in a school is bound to be challenging, maybe even make you question what on Earth you are doing there. Just breathe: It’s totally normal. You have

Janine 5. August 201930. March 2020 Teacher Tips 2 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

Classroom management from the first minute

I start every year thinking about changes I’m going to make to improve my classroom management. I have so many colleagues whose calm, quiet, relaxed personalities spread to their students. I think I need to accept that my energetic and

Janine 1. August 201824. August 2018 Teacher Tips 2 Comments Read more

I Have Found It: A Digital Portfolio Solution

I have been through several attempts at digital portfolios, but last year my school introduced me to one that has my interest: Seesaw. So today I thought I’d share some of the reasons I find it effective with my students.

Janine 7. March 20189. January 2019 Teacher Tips, Technology 2 Comments Read more

20+ Questions to Guide Inquiry-Based Learning

A teacher new to PYP asked me recently, “How do you do inquiry in a specialist class?” I remember how confused and overwhelmed I was when I first landed in a PYP school. I was the only music teacher there,

Janine 26. February 201827. March 2018 Inquiry, Teacher Tips 1 Comment 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

Dynamic Displays

Do you find it difficult to display all the things you’d like to for your many classes? Try using your interactive whiteboard or projector as a dynamic display for each of your classes. Create a desktop-sized graphic that can be

Janine 2. October 201722. October 2017 Teacher Tips, Technology 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
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