Subject: Re: [MK8] Routines when teaching a la cart

Excellent advice from everyone! Our kids start on Monday, so this is ESPECIALLY needed today. May God bless us all this year with emotional and physical strength!


How many classes are you teaching?

Esther Davis
Fine Arts Teacher
Music Memory UIL Coach
Link-Up Recorder/Vocal Coach
J.L. Everhart Magnet International Baccalaureate






On Thu, Aug 27, 2020 at 4:36 PM Ann Wells wrote:

> 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
>
>
>
> > 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
> >

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