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

From: J. Mattoon

Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2020 16:20:10 -0400

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
> 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
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