mid year jam

We have come to the point of the year that is filled with concerts and business in the music education world. Add the business of testing season in the rest of education too.
Personally, I have a second grade concert next week. Sadly, the problem that seems to always arise is frustration, mess, and less attention to the children who are not part of the performance. My classroom has lost it's beautiful organization. Lessons are planned and taught but with less of the fire that drives me in the beginning of the year. I still love my students and all that I do. It could be the winter blues we all get from the dark days and cold weather.
I feel that every year I get a little farther into the year before all heck breaks loose. As my experience as a teacher grows, my ability to persevere into the toughest part of the year grows as well.

How do you get through the mid winter stress in your classroom?
Maybe I will send cookies to any commenter to help them finish their February.

Keeping concerts curricular

"Our concerts are a showcase of our curriculum" is written inside every program of my student concerts.
When I work with my students on a performance, I want it to be curricular. To me, this means that we are not sacrificing learning time for the concert. So often today we are testing kids. They can take a test but they are not learning. Just learning the performance music and then leaving it there is essentially the same thing.

When I teach my students music for a concert, it is first and foremost, appropriate to their developmental stage. There is note reading, instrument playing, movement component as well as a connection to culture/history. If the kids are just learning how to find notes on the staff, at least one of their pieces should be learned with the new method.

Second grade is on my mind right now because their performance is in two weeks. They are playing instruments on parts that they learned by reading the notation in standard form. They are also playing boomwhackers with a part they learned with a picture representation of the walking bass line.
All songs were read with a lyric sheet and on standard notation. Learning by rote might get them to know a song. Learning it and seeing it will help them create connections to future music.

Good singing can never be sacrificed. There is no such thing as not enough time for a warm up. With my 7 year-olds, it is just a few sighs and invisible slide whistles.
 
I am also lucky enough to work with art teachers who incorporate the concert theme into their curriculum. This year too, the second grade LA committee centered their thematic unit with the concert theme.

I keep a running record of some of my concert material here if you need any ideas.

Technology in my classroom

I love technology in education. I have fought to bring it into my room, because as is the case in many schools,   the music room gets left out. Luckily, I have a venue and a means of getting things into my room, slowly but surely. Right now, I have just received an IPad and earlier this year a SMART board. Here are some things I use regularly to quickly get the technology in the hands of my students.
For anyone who has cost restrictions or learning time restrictions, you need to know where to find resources that are ready to go. The app "Apps Gone Free" has been great for finding new apps at zero cost. I can try things out without losing all of my money. If you have the opportunity, go to an Ipad training session. It doesn't matter who runs it or if it is all review. Go to theses sessions and you will probably learn at least one new thing. I went to a session with Meg Ormiston and left feeling energized and ready to use what I learned.
For the SMART board use their exchange. You just type and click and download. Ta-Dah! Ready to go SMART lessons at no effort.
I could go for days on the new things I learn on both of these technologies. Mostly because I learn something new every day.