New to MusicFirst Elementary? This video will help you with the documentation found inside the curriculum!

The wise folks at MusicFirst Elementary (MFE) Powered by Charanga have crafted a treasure trove of docs to help you get the most out of their program. If you are new to the program, use this video to assist you with getting started!

• 0:00-:31 Introduction

• 0:31-1:05 Getting Started with MusicFirst Elementary (wonderful to read as the introduction to the world of MFE)

• 1:05-1:20 MusicFirst Elementary Summary (Data about MFE to share with administrators, families, etc.)

• 1:20-1:41 MusicFirst Elementary National Standards Alignment (Showcases how you are meeting each standard at every grade level)

• 1:41-2:15 MusicFirst Elementary Curriculum Design (Use the principles outlined in this document to enhance your program)

• 2:15-2:46 Scope and Sequence (You can use this to check the melodic pitch sets and rhythmic values for each grade level)

• 2:46-3:05 My Workspace: Setting Up Students and Yumu (see the full video here: https://youtu.be/p3f6_XCuqhc?si=9sL9he4RvB2H4LMO )

• 3:05-3:40 Musical Spotlights (You can use this to find extensions for lessons, outlines for teaching concert music, and as a springboard for other lessons and unit ideas)

• 3:40-4:11 Social Themes (Many Essential Questions can be found here)

• 4:11-4:36 Guided Questions Bank: K-5 (Use these as writing prompts and for writing samples in your older elementary music classes)

• 4:36-4:53 Documentation found at the top of each grade level

• 4:53-5:28 Learning Objectives and Content by Musical Element

• 5:28-5:40 Learning Objectives by Activity (In grades 3, 4, and 5, Music Notepad is added) 5:40-5:46 National Standards Alignment (Checklists)

• 5:46-6:06 Curriculum Map (Download and give to administrators)

• 6:06-6:29 Musical Progression Guide (Each song is listed by grade level, pitch set, rhythmic value, activity, and more)

• 6:29-7:40 Assessments (Checklists, Printables, and more)

• 7:40-8:18 Creative Tools (A brief overview of the documentation included with the creative tools)

• 8:18-end Conclusion
  

What to learn more?

Check out the 16 videos about everything MusicFirst has to offer and a deep dive into the curriculum and creative tools!

Elementary Music Valentine's Day Activities

Need a quick Valentine's Day activity for your elementary music classes?

Here is a list of activities!

I created this Wakelet that includes multiple activities to use in your elementary music classes on Valentine’s Day. It is labeled in five categories:

• Rhythm play-along videos

• Boomwhacker videos

• Valentine games

• Play-Along Videos with body percussion of iconic notation

• Lessons

Enjoy! And Happy Valentine’s Day!

Mind Brain Education: CTTL Elementary Academy Day 1

For the past few years, we have explored and studied Mind Brain Education (MBE) through reading Neuroteach, written by Glenn Whitman and Dr. Ian Kellener, through various webinars and conferences, took online Neuroteach Global (NTG) courses, and participated in a four-day deep dive provided by The Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning (CTTL). The latter is one that I have not had the opportunity to take. Many of my colleagues, who have taken all of the above, had advised me that once I took the four-day intensive training, all of the other pieces of the training would fall into place. I hesitated on participating in the four-day course for two reasons: 1) It is a four-day course in the summer that makes it challenging for a working mother of school-aged children to attend. And 2) I felt that a focus on elementary MBE would be more applicable. When I learned that this summer the CTTL would provide online elementary-focused training, I jumped at the opportunity to attend.

Some Takeaways from Day 1 of MBE

After the morning session focused on the learning environment and student well-being, I began to immediately see how the four-day deep-dive in MBE would fill in the gaps of my studies. Some quick takeaways from day one as an elementary music educator:

• Cognition and emotion are Interdependent.

• When children feel safe, they learn better. I think about this alot, especially if music was the subject that made a child feel safe, gave them a sense of belonging, and their school took out the arts due to the pandemic. I am proud to say that most schools where I am located understood the importance of the arts and kept them offered and running all this past school year.

• Pleasant emotions are where we strive our learning environment to be, versus unpleasant emotions (like students feeling judged, they notice others progressing and they feel that they are not, the nonverbal body cues from teacher, etc). In music class, how do we correct a student who makes a mistake and plays a song incorrectly? Do we tell them how to correct it or do we give them opporunities for them to own the song and correct it themselves?

• “Promising Principle 1: Understand the link between emotion and cognition – dedicate time to activities that are shown to increase well-being, such as read alouds, singing, journaling, art, and movement.“

  • I love that singing is included in this!

• When students who don’t feel like they belong are questioning if they are safe, then their active, working memories and their executive functioning skills are attacked first.

From The Center for Transformative Teaching & Learning ©2020 https://www.thecttl.org/

• One of the best quotes to hear from your student is, “My teacher gets me”, not “my teacher likes me”. Though the latter is a nice feeling, the former means that the student understands why your music classroom is a place where they feel safe and will thrive.

Memory is the residue of thought – Prof. Dan Willingham

• Lessons – who is doing most of the thinking? Me or the students? Am I taking away of their memory being fully functional if I am doing most of the thinking?

• Learning happens when you think hard. So where in your lesson will your students think hard? And how do you get thinking hard at the top of your agenda? In music class, I attribute this to my youngest of students when I remember that when they are learning, I am not to sing with them. They need to have that independence as they learn to sing. When they have mastered a simple song, then I can sing with them.

• What does the research point for the cultivation of habits for lifelong learning?

  • Value – is it worth the student’s time to learn?

  • Expectancy – Can they do it?

  • Costs – What are their barriers when learning and how can they overcome them?

The latter is why we learn how students learn. No matter what subject you teach, having and understanding this knowledge will help your classroom be a learning environment for student well-being as well as helping students develop habits for achievement and lifelong learning.

Want to learn more?

I will continue blogging my thoughts on this deep-dive. However, the best place to begin is to check out https://www.thecttl.org/ and to read Neuroteach. Finally, if you can ever catch a session presented by Dr. Missy Strong about music and neuroplasticity, I would highly recommend attending it. I have attended a few of her sessions on this topic in the past, and it helps me to understand how students learn music from the youngest of ages.

Mind Brain Education CTTL Elementary Academy Day 2

The Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning (CTTL) continued its elementary academy for the second day, with us further diving into Mind Brain Education (MBE).

Mind Brain Education (MBE) Mythbusters

We started the day by deciding whether statements about the brain and how children learn were true or false. This was done in small breakout rooms and it was a lot of fun. Trying to discuss and determine each statement was challenging and surprising. The CTTL has a deck of 52 cards with statements (Photo source: https://schoolstore.saes.org/shop-cttl/face-the-mbe-facts-a-neuro-mythbuster-activity-card-set). Out of the 12 that we worked on, we had two where we determined were one way but were actually the other way. The two that surprised some of us were, “Adolescents are better at multitasking” (this is proven to be true) and “In the always-connected-to-technology world students are now growing up in, attention spans are getting shorter” (this is proven to be false). It is an interesting game to play with your colleagues as it leads to healthy debates and discussions about the statements.

Students tell us how they learn

One of the best parts of today was listening to a variety of students, ages 6-11, talk about how they learn best in their classrooms. Many of them, regardless of age, had concurred that these items were essential:

• They liked it when the teacher made learning fun (this was perceived as games or projects).

• Hands-on projects were a lot of fun (the two kindergarten twins liked art as well as math because they could make things with their hands).

• They did not like it when other children were loud in class as it distracted them and then, distracted the entire class.

• They liked breaks in their schedule.

• They liked knowing their schedule.

• They liked having time to get the work done.

What does this mean for elementary music educators?

If you are reading this as an elementary music educator, you are probably not surprised at all by this information. The elementary music classroom is a hands-on classroom, with a variety of learning styles used like movement, hands-on playing of instruments, singing, etc., it does have a routine and pacing, and it gives the students the opportunity to work as an individual, as well as an ensemble.

However, our biggest challenge this year was that what we knew the students needed (all listed above), is what we could not give them in the traditional sense due to the pandemic. Therefore, we adapted and I feel like we succeeded to the best of our abilities. The only way an elementary music educator could not succeed is if the school took the arts program out of the school due to the pandemic. If that happened, let’s hope that the arts are coming back because, as I heard from our students today, they crave a time where they can move, where they can work in a group, where they can have music in their day, where they can use their hands to produce something fun and cool, and music classes and the arts check all of those boxes.

Want to learn more about Mind Brain Education (MBE)?

I will continue blogging my thoughts on this deep-dive. However, the best place to begin is to check out https://www.thecttl.org/ and to read Neuroteach. Finally, if you can ever catch a session presented by Dr. Missy Strong about music and neuroplasticity, I would highly recommend attending it. I have attended a few of her sessions on this topic in the past, and it helps me to understand how students learn music from the youngest of ages.

Mind Brain Education CTTL Elementary Academy: Day 3

The Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning (CTTL) continued its elementary academy for the third day, with us further diving into Mind Brain Education (MBE).

Focus on Reading

Dan Willingham led an excellent deep-dive session titled “Everything Scientists Know About the Teaching of Reading.” This talk was divided into Decoding, Fluency, Comprehension, and Motivation. Dan spoke to how children learn to read and the myths about reading.

As an elementary music educator, I had the following takeaways:

• Aural language is observed everywhere in every culture. And, children learn it without any instructions. So, spoken language is a natural process.

  • If you replace “spoken language” in that sentence above with “singing”, I feel that we have read the research that it too, would be a natural process.

• Fluency develops through practice.

  • Again, there is a connection of singing and learning to read. And singing to a beat with patterns enhances the fluency.

• Teaching reading is not just a matter of teaching the mechanics of reading…background knowledge fuels comprehension so curriculum matters!

  • This was a very interesting statement and eye-opening one for me. It reminded me that the students needed a connection in order to comprehend what they are reading.

  • This can translate to bringing in more supportive reading activities into music class to reinforce and enhance the skill.

  • It also reminds me that music for my students is similar in the way that when they understand the song, and the lyrics they are singing or the show/movie the song comes from, they have a better connection to it. When my fourth graders study the Revolutionary War, and then we learn the educational version of “My Shot” from Hamilton, if I address the lyrics in a way that it relates to what they are learning in their classroom, it means something more to them. Plus, they perform it with a lot more feeling and heart.

• Consistency of the curriculum is key across schools because of student mobility.

  • For the music classroom, this means that how reading is being addressed and taught in the classroom, should be consistent in the music classroom.

Q and A about Reading

Dan ended the talk by answering questions that the teachers had about reading. There were some answers that made me stop and think more about the topic.

• When asked about ebooks versus textbooks for students (tech vs text), Dan felt that though the tactile cue of placing a bookmark into a book is meaningful to a child, having an ebook does not affect their comprehension.

• When asked about if learning to read at a young age is better than an older age, he states quite matter of factly that if your child learns to read at the age of six and another child learns to read at the age of seven, then your child will be reading one year longer than the other child. However, that will not affect them when they are 12 or 15 years old. Plus, it also means that they might have missed out on something at the age of six because they were focusing so much on learning to read at that moment.

• Finally, learning to read at an earlier age does have the benefit of the possibility of seeing a struggle that can be intervened sooner than later.

Want to learn more?

I will continue blogging my thoughts on this deep-dive. However, the best place to begin is to check out https://www.thecttl.org/ and to read Neuroteach. Finally, if you can ever catch a session presented by Dr. Missy Strong about music and neuroplasticity, I would highly recommend attending it. I have attended a few of her sessions on this topic in the past, and it helps me to understand how students learn music from the youngest of ages.