Music Around the World

I'm going into my 7th year teaching, and this is the first year that I'm really trying to have a "theme" for my classroom.  So, over the summer, I spent a lot of time on Pinterest, looking at different blogs, and just thinking about what my theme could be.  Then, I found this poster in my room: 

Sorry it's a little blurry.  The quote reads "Music may achieve the highest of all missions:  she may be a bond between nations, races, and states, who are strangers in many ways; she may unite what is disunited and bring peace to what is hostile."  -Dr. Max Bendiner

Now, this quote is way over the heads of most of my kiddos, but I love the thought behind it.  I was born with somewhat of a travel bug, and I absolutely love learning about different cultures and places, and I love traveling too.  I've lived in 4 different countries and now 5 different states, and have traveled to Europe, Africa, Asia, and a lot around the USA, Canada, and Mexico.  We're planning lots more trips, because my hubbie likes to travel as well!  Anyway, there is just a wealth of songs from other cultures that I would love to use with my students, so I used this quote, and the idea of the flags on the border, to come up with the theme "Music Around the World."  Not too original, but much more to the level of my kiddos.

My school went under extreme renovation this summer. They added a whole new office/teachers lounge area and several new classrooms - including a brand new music room!  I have more space than I did last year, for which I am very grateful. It's still not quite big enough if I want to do folk dancing or something with especially my upper grades, but we have a large room called the flex room I can reserve for those times.  Well, it seems that many schools in my district went under renovation, so on the first day of school, they were still not quite done with my room.

Here is a photo of me and my daughter, looking through the gaping hole in my door!  Luckily, they finally installed glass this past week, but we went through about 8 school days with no glass in my window, and the entire school was getting to hear singing and instrument playing.  I don't really apologize for that - I was just doing my job :)

 

A PEEK AT MY ROOM

 

Anyway, they are still not quite done with everything in my room.  I have a wonderful storage closet that doesn't have shelving yet, and I'm supposed to be getting a couple of bulletin boards.  Until then, I'm not really supposed to hang anything on the walls, so I've gotten a little creative with my decorations this year.  Here are a few photos:

This is my "WORD WALL" which is no longer on a wall - I had to put it on a cabinet :)

I made a couple of posters that go along with the theme - which I'd love to put on the wall at some point, but for now, they're on the white board.  I totally used part of Lindsay Jervis's theme Lindsay's theme for inspiration, but took a different direction with it.

I have great plans for an amazing bulletin board for this one - I was going to have string going to different countries of songs and composers we learn about this year.  Mozart is hanging out in the middle because I'm still developing an idea I have for a game called "Where in the world is Wolfgang Amadeus?" (based on one of my favorite shows/games as a kid - Carmen Sandiego).  Watch for an upcoming post about that one!

I am allowed to string things from the ceiling, so I printed out a bunch of flags in color, laminated them, and put them on string to form this little hanging banner with the theme.  My kids love this!

Here's a slightly better view, that also shows some of my cabinets:

I have storage baskets above my cabinets, which I sort by class.  Each class is making "Music Passports" this year - watch for a post about that later too - and I'm keeping all of their supplies and everything in these baskets - purchased at the Dollar Tree!

I have shelves for my instruments (sigh; I wish I had more).  My adorable 4-year-old daughter loves coming in and playing my xylophones :)

 

I use this bookcase to store "art supplies" and other random things - pencils, crayons, etc.

I have this little mailbox I found at Target a couple of years ago.  I tell my students that sometimes they might have a question that I might not have time to answer, or they might want to ask me something not in front of the whole class.  I keep post-its or scrap paper right next to the mailbox, and they can ask any questions they want to.

And finally, a view of the front of my room - white board, projector screen, teacher desk area in the corner, and a cute little music rug I use for so many things.

 

Anyway, I feel that this year I'm not quite decorated as much as I'd like to be, but I'm honestly just glad to have as much unpacked as I do.  Once I feel I'm more up-to-date, I will post more pictures.  This year is a work in progress!











Composerbook

Like many of you, I do a "Composer of the Month" type thing.  I used to HATE teaching about composers - because the students didn't seem like they really cared.  But, this year, I've tried something new and am mad at myself that I didn't do it before.  I have a bulletin board in the back of my room that has become my "Composerbook" board:

It's basically like a "Facebook" profile for a composer.  I put up pictures, general information, famous compositions, etc.  I left a place in the middle that says "Write on my wall."  The picture above is one I took before the kids started writing on the wall.  I really wish I'd taken a picture of that before I changed it - because the kids went crazy!  My school has a writing focus this year, where they are encouraging all of us to do more writing in the classroom.  This was one way I got to do it - the kids could ask a question about anything.  And when I say anything, I meant it.  The questions ranged from "How did you die?" and "What was your most famous song?" to "How much did wigs cost?" and "Did you like to wear lace?"  Post-its were all over the place!

I am also teaching musical concepts so much more - based on the composer the students are studying.  I will have more blog posts soon about specifics, but I introduced 16th notes, opera, and rondo form while teaching Mozart.  I taught letter names on the staff while teaching Beethoven (the students had to be able to play "Ode to Joy.")  I taught ti-tika (or ti-tiri) and tika-ti (or tiri-ti) while teaching about Bach (Badinerie).  I am currently teaching about Scott Joplin, but introducing syncopation to my 4th graders before we delve into our jazz unit.  The kids are truly connecting with the composers and becoming excited about them in a way I've never seen before.  It's truly great!