For sale: One kindergarten class slightly used, almost trained and unable to walk in a circle

I tried to teach a dance today in kindergarten that I learned at a convention and is also in my favorite textbook GAMEPLAN.  It's in the kindergarten book so I tried it.

We (I) talked about counter clockwise and finally got them to show me the direction the hands of a clock move and then show me how they would move if they went counterclockwise.  Now they were ready to walk counterclockwise and first time around the circle, things went well.  I said we were going to walk for 16 beats.  One kid puts his head in his hands and says plaintively, "Oh nooo.  We'll be here all day and won't be able to do anything else."  "Don't worry," I said, "It won't take that long."  Apparently my kids' sense of psychological time needs some work.

Sixteen beats later they all turned at the same time and went the opposite direction.  I was encouraged.  We dd it again.  No problem.. Further encouraged, .I went to demonstrate the right hand star.  I was doubtful, but it said in my textbook that this was a kindergarten dance and  I have never been steered wrong by this book.....yet.

Ok, so we practiced raising our right and then left arms several times and then practiced putting right and then left arms into the circle.  I demonstrated the right and left hand star with 4 of the brighter bulbs in this pack.  They did fine.  Then I demonstrated how to walk to someone in the circle and swing them.  Chaotic event number one occurs.  All of the ones in the outside circle started begging, "Pick ME.  Pick ME." I put an end to that by saying, "1. Pick someone nearest to you. 2. Pick someone who is standing still." That left a choice of about 1 kid because the 4 little stars had somehow drifted over to the same side where they seized on the one child who was standing still.  (He was standing still because he was very involved in staring at invisible air molecules and always manages to be blissfully detached from anything going on the real world).

Finally it came time to put it all together.  They promptly forgot which way to go first, and then forgot when to turn, and then forgot to walk and not stampede, and then forgot right from left, and then the four new stars were not walking around in a circle,but instead had linked arms and were trying to go off in different directions like conjoined quadruplets trying unsuccessfully to separate themselves, until finally I stopped, had them sit down and tried to refocus.

They stood up and I reminded them to LOOK at the BACK OF THE HEAD in FRONT of you.  If you are looking at a pair of eyeballs, SOMEONE is facing the wrong way.  Several arguments broke out about whose eyeballs were looking in the wrong direction.

Finally all the eyeballs were looking in the same direction.  Wait, that's not entirely true.  They were all facing the right way, but I saw several heads tilted up, down and to the side, probably looking at the same invisible air molecules as quiet boy had been engaged with.  Two girls were busy chatting about their shoes.  One girl was braiding another girl's hair.  Two boys were poking each other. Another boy had discovered that there was some magic lint on the carpet and wanted to play with it.  Ah, the joy of teaching 5 and 6 years old, last class of the day in the late afternoon.  It was past nap time (mine and theirs).

I looked at the clock. 2:01.  Four more minutes of class.  Maybe we'll try again next week.

GMEA workshop notes

The idea for this workshop started to percolate after one of my fifth graders walked into my room and said, Ms Jove, we think music class is really lame."  I thanked him for his opinion and asked the class if they agreed.  Half of the hands shot up and several in the back of the room gasped, "I don't think it's lame." I surveyed the class and noticed that the ones who thought music wasn't lame were students I had taught for more than a few weeks.  In fact, I had had them for several years, a rarity at my school.  

I looked at the class and said that music was about to get more lame and announced that we were going to do a folk dance and HOLD HANDS--they had already caught on to take hands being the same thing, so that didn't work  They hated holding hands. They grudgingly slunk into a circle and looked like my dogs when I tell them it's bath time. 

I taught them a dance that had a triple circle with the middle circle going through the arches held up by the inner and outer circle.  At the end of class Mr. Lame-o came over to me and said he had fun and the class agreed.  (While I think it's important to listen to the students, it's also important to develop a thick skin.  After all, they don't ask their math teacher to teach them addition in fifth grade just because they know it.) I was feeling proud of my little, old, fabulous self because I had made a little inroad with the kids and when I excitedly told their teacher how I had won over Mr. Lame-O she said, "Well, you know he's moving tomorrow."  
 

The other reason I thought about this workshop is because I have sat through so many workshops and while they were wonderful and the music was engaging and fun,  I knew from experience that if I went back and did those things with my kids they would not be happy campers.  And I know because I tried and fell on my face more times than I care to admit.   
 

I want to talk briefly about why it's important to include serious and authentic music in our lessons

1. My students, and probably most students today, come with a limited repertoire.. Mine come with a repertoire that consists of a subset of a subset of another subset of a genre, and  sometimes with a little church music thrown in. 
2.  My students do not know nursery rhymes, patriotic music, traditional Christmas carols, folk music, and by folk I mean their folk as well as other folk. They are not familiar with music from their own heritage. 
3. If you want your students to be able to create music, then their tool box has to include more than one tool, just like an artist’s paint palette has to include more than one or two colors. If  blue, a perfectly lovely and valid color, was the only one in your palette you'd be limited as to what you could paint.  Even Picasso gave that up after a while.  Or imagine only reading Dr. Seuss books. While Dr. Seuss is a wonderful author, if that was your steady diet, then you would write and speak in short rhyming sentences. If you had a vocabulary of 100 words you would be limited to express yourself in all but the most rudimentary ways. 
4. . We like what we know and if we only know very little, we will never be able to expand our horizons.

Years ago I taught in a very fancy pants private school in Atlanta. My students were from all over the world and came from affluent and privileged backgrounds. At the start of 8th grade general music I would ask them to bring in 2 pieces of music. One piece was something they loved and the other something they intensely disliked.  Except for the students who studied music privately, the majority invariably brought in one popular piece of music and one classical.  I will never forget one student whom I really liked—very smart and articulate (gossip alert: her father is the attorney general of Georgia. )  she brought in a piece she said she hated more than anything .  It was The Moonlight Sonata.  I tried not to look astounded as my jaw dropped down about 9 feet, but I said nothing.  For the pieces that they liked, I would sit there with my watch and point out to the class that the tempo was 120, and after a while the class would start chiming in, "Hey that's 120" (The powerful teaching tool called repetition.  Fox news does it all the time--except I only repeat the truth." Anyway, after playing through pieces they liked, the class did a rudimentary analysis and discovered that all not only did all those pieces had the tempos that hovered around 120, but also had meters in 4, similar instrumentation and similar rhythmic motives.   They were not able to do that with the the pieces they hated.  They found no similarities except that they all had said they hated them.  The following week I would collect their journals and most of them had written that they had limited musical experiences and wanted to expand their horizon (except for the kid who hated Moonlight Sonata.  She never budged an inch with her musical taste. If she goes on to follow in her father's footsteps, her steadfastness will serve her well.)  My current students may not be that articulate or even that aware of the need to expand their horizons, so I feel it’s my job to do that for them.

Last week I had given my third graders a few minutes of noodling time on the instruments.  This is a reward I have built into my lesson if the class has been exceedingly good and have finished the lesson for the day.  There are two rules: 1. Play like a butterfly not an elephant. And 2. No playing like kindergarteners with their hair on fire.  I was listening to see what they were doing and I heard some of them say things like, “ooh, this sounds good” and then I would hear some interesting melodic bits that were definitely not the stuff they were used to listening.  After a while they started listening to the others  playing and they actually fell into a little groove that was very inventive.  I wish I had recorded them because it was amazing,  I saw that they had incorporated a lot of new material into their music palettes.

Teaching in the Real World:

Quality Music Instruction for the Difficult-to- Engage Student

Toni Jové/Myra Wheat

I.       Introduction
II.     Who we teach 
III.    How to introduce classical (serious) music into your lessons:

1. If you want a recipe for immediate failure, make sure you require the students to sit still and
listen.
2. If you ignored step 1, you are already ahead of the game. Now you have to ignore students
who tell you that music is boring, i.e. you don’t play music we like (like = what we know). 

Patterned movement: using movement to reinforce formal structure and expressive qualities.

• Use rhythmic motives from the piece and have the students accompany on classroom percussion instruments  
• Rhythm circle 
• Accompanying body percussion—an alternative to patterned movement if you are uncomfortable with that type of movement activity
• Sing along motives. My students hate to sing, but if it’s short and catchy enough, they will  join in: for example, singing Frère Jacques in the minor mode from Mahler’s Symphony No 1 the ground bass ostinato from Pachelbel’ infernal canon. And as an extra bonus, there are 25+ popular songs that use the canon (see the blog for the entire list) 
• . Melodic play alongs—use tone bells/ xylophones/boomwhackers/ whatever’s on hand. Find a  short melodic ostinato to play just as you would a singing part
•  Tennis balls or other types of balls for rhythmic practice

IV A.     Form; Nonlocomotor Movement activity: La Bastringue” (from the album – Legendary Down
          Home Recordings ) with paper plate
 B.     Form; Locomotor and Nonlocomotor Movement: Water Music Suite, part 2 – V. Country 
          Dance by Handel performed by the Consort of London
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMlvvKTnTHg)
 C.     Tempo; Music and Social Studies: On the Trail by Grofé- video and “burro rides” (from 
          youtube  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_7DA1G6tVs)
 D.     Rhythm, Steady Beat, Music and PE: Stars and Stripes Forever by Sousa (from Silver Burdett 
          Gr.  1 CD5) with tennis ball
 E.      Rhythm Reading and Playing: Anitra’s Dance from “Peer Gynt Suite” by Grieg (from John 
           Feierabend’s Move It!) with Rhythm Circle
 F.       Modified Folk Dancing: What to do when your students won’t hold hands Old Sock Stew  
           traditional Irish Dance with wooden spoons Haste to the Wedding (from album Chimes of   
           Dunkirk
 G.      Rhythm Reading and Playing: “ Sansaw akroma” (from Silver Burdett Gr. 3, CD 10)
           Heartbeat Rhythm Cards
V. Classroom Management Ideas: See attached
VI.  Stories from the Trenches

Special thanks to:

Lori Bolds, Principal, Harriet Tubman Elementary School

Jennifer Burton, Assistant Principal, Harriet Tubman Elementary School

Felice Margol, Fine Arts Coordinator, Fulton County Schools

Erin Wang, Fine Arts Support Teacher, South Learning Community, Fulton County Schools

 
Classroom Management Ideas

From one old chick

      

1.  Pick Teams - our students love to compete! Divide your 3^rd – 5^th grade classes into teams and   let them earn points for everything!  

After the teams are picked, I allow the students to choose their own team captains and team names. It really simplifies the classroom routine because I can call on the team captains to pass out materials, I can assign instrument parts based on teams;  team mates often help each other on tasks, when I have centers, the classes are already divided, and the students love it!

I keep a chart with the teams listed. I write each team’s score for the week on the chart, and I tell the teams their total each week. At the end of a designated time period (usually 9 weeks), I issue an award to the winning team in each class. I usually get winner medals in packs of 12 very cheaply at either Party City or Walmart, which I give to each member of each winning team. This builds both an extrinsic and intrinsic incentive to do the right thing.  Or, if you have access to a color printer, there are hundreds of templates out there in internet land.

Some tips: A. Let students pick their own teams, at least the first time. B. Keep the teams for at least 9 weeks. C. Never take points away from a team when they mess up, just give points to other teams. D. Try to assign an uneven number of students to a team, and try not to assign more than 5 students to any team. E. You may have one or two students who just don’t fit in anywhere. Encourage the students to work with them anyway.

2.  Be Positive – try to highlight the positive behaviors. You’ll be shocked how fast everyone follows to comply! For example, I might say, “I see 1, 2, 3 people sitting ready to continue. I see 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 students ready.” This works without fail.

3.  Be Firm – make your wishes known, practice the positive behaviors you expect, and then be concise about consequences. I will send a student to a time out area within the classroom after one reminder. If that student “gets it together”, I will ask if he/she is ready to come back to class. Because I know I am bringing that student back within the class time, I am more apt to send him/her to time out quickly.

Since many of our students are used to someone giving them numerous reminders, they are often shocked to be sent so fast. If I have a student try to argue with me, I simply tell them they have to go anyway and I will discuss it with them after class if they wish. 

Occasionally, I will have a student who cannot help but disrupt the class, even from the time out area. In that case, I have them leave the room and go (with an escort) to another designated classroom. I have a “swap procedure” set up ahead of time with another teacher.

4.  Give a job to the students who are challenging--- sometimes, we have students who just want any kind of attention they can get, even negative attention. If they can get our attention through more positive means, they usually settle down. Putting them in charge of something is a great way to give them positive attention. Since I’m an “old chick”, that usually means helping me with technology! I’ve also had great success when I ask them to help another child.

5.   Don’t Hold Grudges – again, my status as an “old chick” comes in handy here because I usually forget about the “problem children” from one week to the next! I try to start fresh each week and not remind the students who’ve had problems about their behavior from before.

Since I have bus duty and lunch duty, I’ve also been able to get to know many of my older students outside of class. Having a conversation about anything not related to my class and showing an interest in them as people goes a long way towards encouraging better behavior!

From the other old chick

1. Know your kids. Just because you have the same skin color or share an ethnic background doesn’t mean you KNOW your kids. For many of us it’s hard to imagine the life of poverty and chaos our students come from. If you’re interested: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/341/6149/976 
2. There isn’t one answer to any problem; all you can do is develop a large bag of tricks to pull from. I have to be upfront about some of my prejudices—I don’t do food rewards or anything more costly than a sticker. I don’t think kids can do long-term reward goals very well, so I do mostly short term ones. I don’t punish the group for the individual behaviors. That’s unfair to the ones that are behaving. And I don’t yell. I have a stern voice that can be heard in downtown Birmingham, but I don’t yell. It’s not effective. The students get enough of that at home. Also, if I were to yell, they win. I get plenty frustrated and there are days when I want to give them a dope slap upside the head, but I save that feeling until I get home and share it with my husband while he has his head phones on.
3. One size doesn’t fit all. In my school we have classes that are grouped academically. The behavior strategies I use for the higher classes are not the same as for the lower classes. It's like with my two dogs.  Sadie is president of the Border Collie Book Club.  We discuss literature and politics.  Alice is the president of the cute girls Border Collie Club.  She is pretty and wags her tale a lot.  When Sadie does something wrong, I have a heart-to-heart discussion with her.  I tell her I am disappointed that she chose not to follow our house rules and should not pee on the floor.  Sadie counters with an excuse like I forgot to walk her and please give her another chance.  We agree to continue the discussion later on.  With Alice I say, "No!  Bad Dog," and walk away.   With the higher classes, I can do time outs and warning...the usual fare. But with my lower classes I have to use much more praise and less time outs. Many of them don’t understand why they’re in time out. I label the time out area a reflection or cool out and send them there to do just that. It’s less intimidating. I have one class of 30 3rd grade special ed—3 EBDs from self-contained classrooms, unmedicated ADHDs, and low, low EIP students. Half of the special ed are actually in 3rd grade and half are in 4th grade. The 4th graders are not low enough where they aren’t aware that they in the wrong grade level and it causes all sorts of acting out behavior. It’s also the class that’s the most transient, which is not surprising. The$ 99.00 move-in apartment specials brings in a fresh crop at least twice a month. It literally took all class period one time to teach them to walk in a circle. I have to chunk everything into 5 minute segments and make sure I keep the energy level on hyper drive. If I’m not vigilant, someone will be punching someone else within seconds. To be perfectly honest, I am not always successful; it’s a work in progress. I have invented thousands of jobs so that they can all be “helpers,” everything from picking up paper off the floor to opening and closing the classroom door when entering and leaving.
 4. Many schools are encountering an uptick in something called Defiant Behavior Disorder. This is a very difficult one to deal with because the student thrives on argument and negative reinforcement. Some things to consider:
A.  Choose your battles.  You have to learn to overlook small behavioral infractions even though they might grate on your last nerve fiber.  I had a student who refused to take off his hat in the building. His teaacher said to let it go, but I could tell it really bothered the teacher--not because he was a stickler for rules, but  because it sent the wrong message to the other students.  I took the student aside and asked him if he watched South Park.  He said he did so I said, "You know, with that hat on you look like Cartman, so that's what I'm going to call you when you wear that hat.  He laughed.  He took the hat off and I said, "Michael."  He put it back on and I said, "Cartman."  We played this game a few more times.  He finally said, "I like being called Michael."  I said, "I don't think it's fair that you don't have to follow the same rules as the rest of the class, Michael."  The hat went back on. "Ok, Cartman.  He took, the hat off in my class, which brings me to the second point.
B. Use humor, not anger.  

C.  When disciplining the student make sure not to do it in front of the class and use short, declarative sentences, “Please sit down.  Thank you.”  And walk away. 

D. Never discipline the students in front of their peers.  Actually, this goes for all types of kids.  Who likes to be called out in public? Would you want to be called out in front of your faculty?  I use a non-verbal warning cue or a look and if the behavior continues I approach the student and tell them quietly what I want.  I keep it short and to the point—no lecturing.

E.  Develop a relationship with these students—something as easy as saying , “Hello__ I like your new sneakers.”  I recently found out that I am part of our school’s reward period—if the students get x number of positive stickers they get to eat lunch with me.  Go figure.  I can’t even get my husband to want to do that.

5.   Establish a routine.  When my students enter my room I start my class immediately.  They walk into my room in a circle and I start in different ways.  Generally by the time my students reach my room, which is located in the bowels of the building, they have had several squabbles like who cut in front of whom, an actionable offense requiring the intervention of the military and they want to tell me who started which argument.  I don’t have the time nor inclination to intervene so I just start and they forget about what they were doing.  Thank goodness for short term memory problems.

6.  Use non-verbal cues.  These students hear enough “ don’t do this” and “do this” all day long.  I ring finger cymbals—once for standing silently, twice for sitting silently…etc. There are days when I will say nothing when they go to the instruments and they watch me and then do what I want them to do. 

7.  Game day.  OH my.  This is my best motivator.  Once a month I dedicate a chunk of time to playing music games that have skills I will use later on.  Students that have been to the time-out area have to sit out a designated amount of time.  This way individuals who are disruptive don’t take away from the rest of the classes’ rewards.  If an administrator walks in for an evaluation trot out the  research that shows that music games address all of the intelligences.    It’s a powerful incentive that costs nothing, with the added benefit of teaching inter and intra personal skills.

8.  99% of the time ( I pulled that statistic from absolutely nowhere) the acting out behavior is not personally directed at the teacher.  Remind yourself of that when your blood pressure soars through the roof.  Even though many of them look and act tough, they’re still children and children need positive adult interactions, something many of them don’t experience at home and they are seeking validation through unproductive means.  Redirect!

9.  Make a game of it:  Sometimes I play opposite day.  I will say, “Run to the instruments.  Pick up your mallets and bang them on the floor. Murder your recorders (that’s what I call it when they bang them on the floor for reasons I can’t quite fathom.  Boredom, I guess) 

10.  Review your class rules and expectations A LOT.  With my transient population I have to do this every week.  I generally ask the students to tell the new one(s) what the rules and consequences are. 

11.  Many times classroom behavior problems are our fault. Pacing is important as is checking for understanding.  When children don’t understand something they quickly disengage and invent jobs for themselves that don’t include learning.  I do a play-by-play rewind after a bad day and I’m never surprised at how many things I could’ve done to make class go a little better.  I also film my more difficult classes.  The mistakes I make are often clearer when I watch as an observer.  The students know they’re being filmed (even when the camera is off) and all I have to say is, “Well, just let me send this video clip to your father/teacher/principal.” 

12.  Sometimes it’s not our fault.  Take a mental health day