About

Aileen Miracle

Archive

January 28, 2016

10 things they don't tell you about being an elementary music teacher

26 comments

Over the 17 years I have taught elementary music, I have learned so much about my profession, about the students, about music, and about education. Today, I'm blogging about the things I didn't learn from a workshop, from a book, or from a blog post, but instead just from experience! #1: You will lose your voice...and if you're not careful, you can damage it forever. My first year of teaching, I lost my voice EVERY single weekend. It shocked me how much I had to use my voice as a music teacher: singing, giving directions, managing my class. I wasn't expecting to barely be able t…

January 24, 2016

Guest Post: The Envelope Game for Beginning Band

No comments

I'm excited to have a guest blogger today! Tamarie Sayger will be writing about a game to help incorporate the  Kodály philosophy into the band classroom. You can read more about her at the end of this post; thanks to Tamarie for sharing her expertise! As someone who has been lucky enough to teach elementary music as well as secondary band, I love finding ways to incorporate Kodály philosophy into instrumental instruction.  Kodály training taught me how valuable different aspects of music education, other than just performance, are for children.  This article explains how I would use The Env…

January 17, 2016

Composing in the Music Room

No comments

So, you've taught students how to read music, using rhythm, solfa, and letter names, and now you want to have them compose. But where to begin? Just this year, I've really started delving into composition projects with my students, so I thought I'd share some ideas. Up until now, I think I've been so focused on teaching students how to read that I didn't feel like I had time to have them compose. However, after doing some reading on the subject and attending some great workshops, I realize that composition projects are doable in the general music classroom, even if you onl…

January 11, 2016

Fifth Grade Performance {Wangari's Trees of Peace}

4 comments

This past fall, my fifth graders performed a program based on the book, "Wangari's Trees of Peace," by Jeanette Winter (click the picture to view the book on Amazon.) The book is a really inspiring true story about a girl from Kenya who plants trees to replenish ones which had been cut down. It's a great story about perseverance and courage! Today, I'm blogging with a summary of songs and dances I used for the program, as well as scenery ideas.  I divided all of the text in the book into one or two sentences, with 26 or so narrators reading lines and music and dances inters…

January 09, 2016

Five favorite pins of January

No comments

Hope you have had a wonderful start to your year! Since it is January, I am posting my five favorite pins of this month. If you are a blogger, feel free to join the linky party by following the directions at the end of this post. Here are my five favorite pins this month! You can click on each picture to be taken to the original pin. #1: Snowman melodic activity I love this idea of breaking down a song into its parts: lyrics, rhythm, and melody! I've been trying to break down songs like this with my students, but I love this visual! #2: Teaching Music Backwards This is a really interesting art…

Page 1 of 1712345...17»Last