Music Education Blog Carnival!
The music education blog carnival is a monthly post hosted by different music bloggers. Each blogger selects a few music posts written the previous month (in this case, July, 2016) and shares why they selected it. I had a lot of great posts to choose from! This has been a very fun post for me to put together. In the end I chose an overall theme of "back to school" and "new beginnings". Enjoy!
You can go back and read previous carnivals:
September will be hosted by Pitch Publications.
Find out more about the blog carnival and how you can host one on Mrs. Tanenblatt's blog.
Getting Organized
Organize Volunteers with Less Work. Jen over at noteworthybyjen.com shares her positive experience using a website called signup.com It's a great way to organize your parents and other volunteers for anything from a cast party, fund raiser, or refreshments after a concert. Really anything you would need a volunteer for. Jen's screen-grab walk-through of the process will be helpful for anyone using the site the first time.
10 Tips for New Music Teachers. Aileen Miracle's post at "Mrs Miracle's Music Room" is a great shout-out to new music teachers. From planning ahead to remembering to smile, these tips will help you get started on the right foot.
Technology Integration in the Elementary Music Classroom. This article is worth bookmarking because it has a lot of helpful links on how to use Smart Boards and iPads, as well as a few helpful websites for getting organized. Amy Burns shares on Mustech.net.
Making it Work: Long Range Planning. LeslieAnne Bird over at "Teaching with Orff" shares a few tips on how to make a master, overarching plan for the school year.
The Traveling Piano Teacher: 13 things I always take with me to teach music lessons in a student's home. This one stood out to me because I've never been a public school teacher, but I have taught private lessons and have primarily done so in student's homes. It didn't take me long to realize that I needed to take certain items with me, and gradually I put together my own little travel bag. My student's loved the little games I packed with me. Amanda Smith's post over at "Modern Music Teaching" would have been very helpful for me when I started out because she has a regular suitcase full of goodies.
First Day of School
What's Your Name? Beginning the School Year. One of the first things you will be doing is meeting your new students, and when there are a lot of them, remembering their names can be tricky. Aimee over at "O For Tuna" has put together some fun singing games to help break the ice and help everyone learn the new names. These would be great for any kind of youth gathering.
1 Simple Trick to Distribute Parent Letters on the First Day of School is another tip that can help any school teacher, although music teachers are especially equipped for the task. Maria shares on "Music Teaching and Parenting.
Something Extra
Simple Ideas for teaching composition in early elementary. Elizabeth over at "Organized Chaos" has put together some excellent tips for teaching composition. I love how she uses manipulatives to help new students compose before they have to write- it's a great ice breaker to get young students started.
What I've Learned as a Full-Time Teacher-Author and Blogger. Jennifer over at the Yellow Brick Road shares her experience as a music-teacher turned blogger/creator. Hey, that's kind of like me! Anyone interested in starting a music blog will benefit from hearing her story and her list of resources to stay organized.
At What Age Should I start my Child's Music Education? This one is for parents of young children, particularly ages 0-7 as Rob Young over at Preschool Prodigies gives a few suggestions for music education at each of these ages.
I always love reading the carnival because I find a post or two that I haven’t seen yet that is totally AWESOME. This month was no different- thank you so much for your efforts in putting this together, and thanks for the shout-out! 🙂
I liked the Traveling Piano Teacher post a lot. I was a teacher but never on the go or for music, but my brother is a traveling guitar teacher. He had some conflict about the iPad suggestion. He only takes paper notebooks to do record keeping because the younger students get so distracted by even the sight of an iPad. He’ll use his phone to pull up song examples on Youtube and Spotify, but he never lets it leave his hands. Anyways, thanks for the round-up!