From: Ann Wells
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2020 17:35:52 -0400
So I've just finished my first week "a la cart" and it went pretty well,
especially once I abandoned my cute sandals (and even my sport sandals!)
and started wearing my tennis shoes. Here's what I ended up doing and what
I discovered after four days...
For my "Opening routine" I did the following:
1. I just told the students that while I was coming in and setting up, they
needed to be sure their desks were cleared off and everything put away, and
then they could look at my cart and see if they could find any clues
about what we might be doing in class (not that there will be any actual
clues, but I do have the greeting choices on magnet clips on the side, and
my Doctor Who-inspired "I'm the Teacher" sign (TpT freebie!), and baskets
with the books I'm using, and at some point there may be instruments, and
stuff like that. And they don't know that I haven't planted any kind of
clue on there...mwahaha...). And so far, most of the teachers have had them
clear their desks before I get there, so I have told them want them to
make sure their desks are clear, but with a few exceptions they haven't
needed to do that, they have just been sitting quietly at their socially
distanced desks with a kind of "I've been sitting in this desk too long"
glazed over look... :(
2. Once I was set up, we did a warm-up (simple steady beat echoing for K
and 1, without the song I would usually sing to go with it, sigh, and for
everyone else, I held up cards with movement cues and had them do that
movement in a steady beat to music - I'm using the IP track of MK8's Bright
Happy Day). I don't plan on it being the same every time, but there will be
some activity, whether it's movement or rhythm reading or whatever. I'm
thinking probably movement would be good more often than not for the
aforementioned eyes glazed over looks.
3. Then I called roll and let them choose a greeting. Last year I had four
greetings posted by the door, and they chose which they wanted as they came
in, and again as a goodbye when they left - things like handshakes, high
fives, waves, salutes, fist bumps, etc. I pulled all the "no-touch" options
from my card set and I chose three of them, which I'll use for a few weeks
and then change out with other things. When I called their names, they did
one of the three things (current options are wave, salute, or wink) and I
did the same back.
4. I kept forgetting, but my plan is to display the "musical message" (a la
Responsive Classroom morning message) while I call roll so they can be
reading while they wait, and after I finish greeting, we read the message
together, and then transition into the main part of the lesson.
For those familiar with Responsive Classroom, the parts of my routine
mostly follow the recommended opening routine in the RC for Art, Music, PE,
etc. teachers book.
The part of the routine I was most concerned about and was asking about was
the first part, but it really hasn't been an issue. I have just let the
students sit quietly and wait on me, and my prep has been fairly quick so
they haven't had to wait very long at all. I set up a google sites website
with each grade level's Google Slides presentation with
agenda/visuals/lesson resources embedded in it, and I used tinyurl.com to
customize a url I could remember easily. We (the resource teachers) had
asked that the computer attached to the smart board be available and a
browser open for us, so all I had to do was type in my tiny url and start
the embedded slides presentation. And the second day in each class (and
from here on out) was even easier because all I had to do was start typing
and it came up because it was in the browser history. So, except for the
first day when I realized that I had forgotten to make sure the sharing
settings on the embedded google docs were correct and had to go in on my
chromebook and fix it, and unless I had to wait on the teacher to finish
lunch count/attendance/whatever should have been finished before I got
there (just one teacher so far, but happened both days I was in her room!),
it didn't take me long at all to get things going. I have a bluetooth
speaker on my cart and my chromebook, both of which had sufficient battery
life for what little I was playing music and/or looking at my lesson plans,
so as long as I remember to charge things when I'm back in my classroom, I
shouldn't need to plug the cart in.
So far so good...thanks for all the ideas and advice shared so far, and
hopefully this will be helpful to my fellow covid cart-pushers.
~Ann in NC
Ann Wells - annmusic7@gmail.com
On Tue, Aug 25, 2020 at 4:20 PM J. Mattoon wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> For the last five years I've been in a small school with no music room, so
> I've had ages 3-6 together "a la cart", and K, gr1, gr2, gr3, gr456 and
> gr78 either in the lunchroom or the multipurpose room, depending.
> Question- what's the main reason that you want to do an entrance routine?
> Is it about maximizing lesson time? IMO, if the kids can handle just
> socializing peacefully at their desks, my advice is to let them. Don't
> cheat yourself out of having some time to breathe while you plug in the
> cords etc. It's good for the kids and there won't be any dead air. If the
> purpose of the entrance routine is about managing behavior by keeping them
> occupied, then I would go with a silent watch-and-copy (student-led) or
> breathe-and-stretch -- but keep in mind that while you're setting up, the
> kids might need to be spending time doing something non-musical -- like
> washing their hands. You have to read the room and team up with each
> classroom teacher, continually.
>
> Normally I'm really protective of my "music minutes" and one of my biggest
> goals is to squeeze the most musical action out of our time. But no matter
> what, sometimes I'm going to arrive and the kids are covered with cupcake
> frosting, or the wifi is down, or the teacher has to have a meeting in that
> space, so I'll save the super loud and the focused listening things for
> after they're done. Going room-to-room has helped me clarify the boundary
> between what I can and cannot control, which has helped me slow my roll for
> the better (I think).
>
> Because the a-la-cart situation is made of curveballs.... Think of the
> times in your past when you've adapted well to a last-second curveball, and
> thnk of what preparation or attitudes made that adaptation possible? For
> example (this story takes place at my former school where I had a music
> room, but still fits what I'm trying to explain): One day we had some water
> dripping from the ceiling. We totally *crushed* that opportunity - the K
> kids were finding the steady beat of the drips resonating in the trash can,
> we were moving our hands to the tempo of the drips, doing focused listening
> and seeing if we could echo the sound of the drips... I really believe that
> teachers' proudest moments from this year aren't goign to be the planned
> moments, but the ones where we "steered into the skid" a little bit and
> improvised and have fun.
>
> My two cents,
>
> Jean in MA
>
> On Tue, Aug 25, 2020 at 1:00 PM Febinger, Nikki
> wrote:
>
> > Thanks for asking this. I am in the same situation and was looking for
> > EXACTLY what you described -- a class routine that they can do by
> > themselves for the 1 to 2 minutes it will take to get set up. I love
> this
> > list -- MK8 literally saved my life when I transitioned from being a high
> > school English teacher to an elementary music teacher!
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: MK8-talk joshuaisd.org@lists.musick8.com>
> > On Behalf Of Ann Wells
> > Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2020 7:47 AM
> > To: MK8 Mailing List
> > Subject: [MK8] Routines when teaching a la cart
> >
> > Hi, list friends...
> > I am going to be on a cart this year, at least for the first part of it -
> > haven't lost my room or anything, minimizing kid (and theoretically,
> germ)
> > movement is the name of the game for now. Hopefully later in the year
> > things will change!
> >
> > At any rate, I have a specific question - I'm very interested in
> > Responsive Classroom and even last year started incorporating things from
> > it into my teaching. Right now I am trying to set up a beginning-of-class
> > routine but I am not envisioning how that is going to look when I am
> coming
> > to them rather than the students coming to me. I have the Responsive
> > Classroom for Art, Music, and PE book, but all of the discussion and
> > examples of opening routines revolve around how students enter my space,
> > and even though it acknowledges and mentions the fact that many special
> > area teachers travel to classrooms, it gives no examples of how RC looks
> in
> > those situations, which is frustrating for me. So, finally, after all
> that
> > background, my
> > question: What can I have the kids do while I am coming in with my cart
> (I
> > hope...don't actually have one yet but I think the principal is getting
> > them for us?) and pulling up my website on the classroom computer and all
> > that? I plan to set up a website with all my display resources - google
> > slides presentations and whatnot so I don't have to worry about logging
> in
> > to every computer etc., but that will still take a minute and we all know
> > the kids get squirrely when they're waiting on us to do things like this.
> > In my classroom, I'd have the daily message and maybe a warmup activity
> or
> > a Think-Pair-Share question or a rhythm to practice already displayed for
> > them to do when they got settled, but when I come to them, they will have
> > to wait on me to get that displayed.
> >
> > Also, although I haven't been told by anyone specifically that I *can't*
> > sing with my kids, I am not planning on singing based on my understanding
> > of the science (or at least playing it safe considering how much we
> > actually don't know...) so having some kind of opening song we can do
> while
> > I set up isn't an option either.
> >
> > Ideas, anyone? I'm finding a lot of advice/pointers/etc. about teaching
> on
> > a cart, but nothing specific to routines/managing behaviors/preventing
> down
> > time.
> >
> > Thanks!!
> > ~Ann in NC
> > Ann Wells - annmusic7@gmail.com
> > |=============================================|
> >
> > Hosted by Plank Road Publishing: https://www.musick8.com List
> > Administrator: list_admin@musick8.com To send a message to the list:
> > MK8-talk@lists.musick8.com
> > Subscribe/unsubscribe: https://www.musick8.com/html/list.php
> > List Archives: https://www.musick8.com/listarchive/list_archive.php
> >
> > User Options:
> > http://lists.musick8.com/options/mk8-talk/febingern@joshuaisd.org
> >
> > Visit our Music Teachers' Forum: https://www.musick8.com/forum/
> >
> > ________________________________
> >
> > Email Confidentiality Notice: This email message, including all
> > attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and
> contains
> > confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, you may
> > not use, disclose, print, copy or disseminate this information. Please
> > reply and notify the sender, delete the message and any attachments and
> > destroy all copies.
> > |=============================================|
> >
> > Hosted by Plank Road Publishing: https://www.musick8.com
> > List Administrator: list_admin@musick8.com
> > To send a message to the list: MK8-talk@lists.musick8.com
> > Subscribe/unsubscribe: https://www.musick8.com/html/list.php
> > List Archives: https://www.musick8.com/listarchive/list_archive.php
> >
> > User Options:
> > http://lists.musick8.com/options/mk8-talk/mrsmattoon@gmail.com
> >
> > Visit our Music Teachers' Forum: https://www.musick8.com/forum/
> >
> |=============================================|
>
> Hosted by Plank Road Publishing: https://www.musick8.com
> List Administrator: list_admin@musick8.com
> To send a message to the list: MK8-talk@lists.musick8.com
> Subscribe/unsubscribe: https://www.musick8.com/html/list.php
> List Archives: https://www.musick8.com/listarchive/list_archive.php
>
> User Options:
> http://lists.musick8.com/options/mk8-talk/annmusic7@gmail.com
>
> Visit our Music Teachers' Forum: https://www.musick8.com/forum/
>
|=============================================|
Hosted by Plank Road Publishing: https://www.musick8.com
List Administrator: list_admin@musick8.com
To send a message to the list: MK8-talk@lists.musick