The origin story of the Happy Music Teacher!

In this episode I share what my classroom was like during my first few weeks of teaching and believe me, it wasn’t pretty. But I figured it out, and I want to help you figure it out too!

My three secrets to figuring out how I wanted to manage behavior in my classroom:

1. Read Harry Wong’s “The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher”
2. Watch other teachers. 
3. Trial and error

Episode quotes:

[4:10] I knew things needed to change and I knew they needed to change right away. And I am not a person who is going to allow myself to be frazzled or overwhelmed or upset for very long before I do something about it. That's just my personality. I am all about being happy. So above all things, I am going to make myself happy in any way that I can, of course, without damaging anyone else because that would make me very unhappy.

[10:27] What happened next is I continued through trial and error and I developed as a teacher, I developed my behavior management, I developed my systems, I developed my structure, and I began to realize that having a structure in my classroom was a really big deal and having a step-by-step process that I could follow was a really big deal.

I’ll be running a FREE masterclass on Saturday March 4th at 10:30am EST to tell you my secrets for successfully engaging your students with special challenges. Click here to join me (or get the replay): https://storiesthatsing.net/freemasterclass 

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Five Steps to Start the Second Half of the School Year Off Right

1. Get back into the routine with a fluffy lesson.
2. Review your procedures and transitions - inside of an actual lesson if you can. 
3. Revamp and change the things that aren’t working - transitions, lessons, whatever. 
4. Review your seating chart and make changes if needed. 
5. Make a plan for the rest of the school year. 

Today’s tip: Teach a rest position for when your students are using instruments but not playing them so they can listen to your instruction. 

Links:

The Music Teacher Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/themusicteachergroup 

Laura Mackenzie’s Planner:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehappymusicteacher/ 

Sign up for my newsletter: https://www.storiesthatsing.net/lessonplansampler

7 Types of Lesson Plans to Make the Second Half of Your Year So Much Fun

1. Review Transitions and Procedures by incorporating them into your lessons. 
2. Icebreakers
3. Form lessons
4. All play around the circle using Orff instruments
5. Review the last skill you were working on before break
6. Do a movement activity that teaches a music skill
7. Use body percussion or hand games. 

Today’s tip: Body percussion and hand games help your students work on hand-eye coordination, a skill they are still developing in the elementary grades. 

Links:

Examples of transitions and procedures:

Link to lesson you found on Teachers Pay Teachers:

All Are Welcome lesson plan:

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