Almost April

April's "Be a Better Me" is all about teaching. It's appropriate because it's almost the end of the year. About this time of the year, I begin to keep my eye on the prize-- summertime. But that's really not the prize. The real prize is the amount of growth each student has made since the beginning of the year. In music class, it's about instilling the love and appreciation for the art and understanding how it relates to their lives. The prize is about the students-- not about me. So April is dedicated to becoming a better teacher.

Here is a list of things I need to do in order to improve my teaching (of course, this list is predominantly endless, every teacher can improve on their teaching-- this is just a simple "rough draft"):
1. organize better (CLEAN THAT DESK!)
2. plan (find a better lesson plan layout and implement next year!)
3. communication skills (including parents.... scary!!)
4. hold students accountable
5. use active learning (well, duh! This is quite easy in music class)
6. get kids motivated (band and choir could use some attention in this area-- the little kiddos, not so much!)
7. take courses to better my understanding (planning on taking Orff Level II this summer at Baker for graduate credit!)

I was going to try and make a list of ten, but I can't think of more. I'll list more as I think of them.

My first number to tackle is of course, number 1! I need to clean! I took mom's little handheld vacuum cleaner to school so I can clean out all the instruments. They are so dusty! They should call my room the Dust Bowl! I already took them all off the top of the shelf and windex'ed that nice and clean. I'm just working on the insides of the shelves. I want to get it nice and organized while I'm cleaning. The Sopranos on the top, altos in the middles shelves and of course, the basses on the bottom. This will make it easier to teach different sizes. I also need to COMPLETELY strip aways EVERYTHING on my desk, and basically start new. There are so many dust bunnies on my desk, it's making me sneeze! Piles and piles of papers and things that DON'T BELONG there! Becoming more organized and clean is one of the first steps!

I will try and take before and after pictures so you can see the progress (and by you, I mean cyber world... since I have no idea who actually reads this blog!).

Planning-- it takes time, and I feel like I'm out of the loop since I missed October, November and December. I have already done better with lesson plans and actually following them. Sometimes I mess up and decide I don't want to do a certain activity with a grade level, but for the most part I will plan better.

I have the best job in the world! I work with teachers who care, students who are respectable and accountable and a building that has technology that is out of this world. I will improve!





****These are pictures that I took at the beginning of the school year. They should not be considered when looking at before and after photos.****