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This was posted in our Facebook group this week, and there were many teachers who are in similar situations and posted suggestions. So - thank you to all who posted in the Musicplay Teacher’s group on Facebook - you’re the authors of the Musicplay newsletter this week.
Why use centers in the music room? Learning centers are typically set up in a classroom to encourage children to make choices. As they work in the centers they learn to work independently as well as cooperatively. Behaviors are getting more difficult to manage every year. If you use centers and have one or two students not behaving appropriately, this is a time when you can intervene and have them work one on one with you, or you can give them a written task instead of letting them play the games at the centers. I found with the grade 5 classes I worked with that the level of engagement was really high, and students were almost all on task.
Our kids had way too much screen time during lockdowns, and we are still seeing the effects. How do we keep children's attention in a classroom, when they are used to watching 6 second TikTok videos? Even Disney movies are moving at a pace that's much greater than they used to. In this newsletter, I'm going to begin a discussion on increasing engagement in your music classes. This is too large a topic for just one newsletter, but this is very necessary for our tired, hard-working, dedicated music teachers.