Have you ever had a day where you wondered why you even started teaching music in the first place? Perhaps in past years you were joyful and excited about teaching but over the months and years it seems a dark cloud is blocking out the joy you used to feel? Sometimes an event, or series of events can be so negatively impactful that it makes you feel like giving up and finding something else with which to occupy your days. If you know you truly love teaching music but have days where you just feel like you want to quit, then this is for you. 1. Identify the Source of Pain When you’ve reached a point where you feel like you’ve had enough and want to quit teaching, either altogether, at least j

Follow The Drinkin' Gourd was a song sung by African American slaves escaping to freedom on the Underground Railroad in the 1800s.The code-word "drinkin' gourd" refers to the Big Dipper constellation which slaves followed to find their way north to freedom. Download The Free GrooveTrack Here! Download The Free Sheet Music Here! Teaching sequence Introduce the song by singing one of the verses for you students. Use call and response to teach the first verse when the students have become familiar with the melody teach them the other verses or let them attempt to learn them on their own. Once your students are familiar with the melody and can sing acapella or accompanied by a single instrument

We all love teaching the subject that touched us the most as we were growing up, but every now and then every Elementary music teacher hits a wall, a plateau of sorts, and they feel like they aren’t improving anymore. The best way to handle this occurrence is to get some new influences in your teaching style. Below are 5 ways to quickly boost your music teaching skills. Trainings/Workshops/PLCs Local trainings, workshops and PLC’s (Professional Learning Communities) are perhaps the quickest (and usually the “free-est”) way to quickly boost your skill. This is because your music district or county offers many of these workshops. If you find that there are no trainings or workshops available i

Happy New Year everyone! Auld Lang Syne is a Scottish tune that is most commonly associated with New Years. Funnily enough few people actually know all of the words. Enjoy learning the words to Auld Lang Syne to the beat of this energetic GrooveTrack! Download The Free GrooveTrack Here! Download The Free Sheet Music Here! Teaching sequence Introduce the song by singing one of the verses for you students. Use call and response to teach the first verse when the students have become familiar with the melody teach them the other verses or let them attempt to learn them on their own. Once your students are familiar with the melody and can sing acapella or accompanied by a single instrument add th

Happy New Year! The start of a brand new year gets most people thinking about how to make the new year better than the last. Many people set New Year’s resolutions only to face the disappointment of seeing them fail within the first month of the year. So the question is: How can you set yourself up for success to get the most out of 2018? Reflection One of the best ways to figure out where you should be going is to look at where you’ve been. Reflection gives us a clear look, in hindsight, of the successes and, shall we say, “learning experiences” of the past year. Below are some questions that can give you a starting point for you reflections. Answering them will give you great insight into