Sunday Scoop 8-30-15

Hi everyone!

I am linking up with Teaching Trio for their Sunday Scoop!

HAVE TO:

1) I have no motivation to put up new bulletin boards this year, and I never really have a classroom theme like some music teachers do...so I'm still struggling with what to put up, but our Open House is Friday morning, so I have to figure something out before then!

2) My first day of music activity for grades 1-5 is a listening activity using emojis- find out more about it in this blog post! I need to prep some manipulatives for the younger kids and make sure I know the procedure for the older kids with iPads (assuming they brought them back!! Fingers crossed!)

3) My colleague and I really want to make a Back to School video that includes all of our staff in the school, but I know some people will be resistant to the idea of dancing and looking silly in a video, so I'm hoping to change their minds and get it done before Open House!

HOPE TO:

1) I have many options for Winter Concert music, but I want to make sure that I've picked it and am ready to start teaching it towards the end of September!

2) I LOVE MY NEW RUG!! It is so colorful and new and beautiful and I have never had a rug before- can you tell I'm excited! In any case, I am happy to have it, but since I was using moveable carpet squares recently, I need to try some stuff out to make sure I know how my kids will be sitting when they come in my room starting September 8th.

HAPPY TO:

Wednesday is our annual Back to School meeting for the Arlington Arts Ed Faculty, so I'm excited to see some familiar faces! A bonus for this year is that I am a lead music teacher in my county, which means that I'm involved in a lot of the sessions and activities that will be going on all day. It is always great to see arts colleagues and reconnect after the summer- we rarely get to socialize and swap ideas, so it is something I look forward to all summer long!

Have a wonderful week!

~Ms. Patrician

My Favorite School Supplies

Good morning!

Today I am linking up with Teaching Trio for their Favorite Things linky party!

Since some of you are already going back to school, I thought I'd talk about my favorite teacher school supplies to buy and use each year! I don't go back to in-service until August 27th and kids don't come until September 8th, but I've already gotten a head start on my shopping and planning!

1) I know there's no way that I'm the only teacher who gets excited about their shiny new planner! Of course I spent the majority of my time at Lakeshore picking out my pretty new planner and I can't wait to start filling it up with first week of school plans!

2) I love having a big calendar on my desk to keep track of the dozens of activities and special events that happen at school. I get some weird pleasure out of filling it out and tearing off each month as it passes. 

3) I am SO excited to make two new centers:

         -Dip Tray Workstations- the idea came from Mrs. King's Music Class

        -Pool Noodle Rhythms- this idea came from Mrs. Miracle's Music Room (and a bunch of others)

I can't wait to see how my kids react to the new centers!!

~Ms. Patrician

August Small Goals

Hi everyone!

    Today I am linking up with Jennifer at the Yellow Brick Road for her Small Goals link-up in August!

Here are my small goals for August:

-Get back on Twitter regularly

       As many of you know, last year I got very involved on Twitter, which included participating in many educational Twitter chats, getting the staff at school involved in using Twitter to share and build our community, and gained over 1,000 followers from November-May! Most of my regular Twitter chats took a summer hiatus, so I haven't been quite as connected lately. But all that has changed this week, since two of my regular chats #vachat and #elmused are back for the school year! I can't wait to grow my PLN even more this year!

-Begin a regular workout schedule

      I have totally slacked off this summer and sadly it is showing. I want to get into a regular schedule before school starts, so that I can stick to working out at least twice a week when we do go back in a month. This starts today after Aria's vet appointment- I will run at the gym for at least a half  an hour!! (If I write it here I am more likely to actually do this)

        --UPDATE: I did go to the gym this afternoon- definitely need to keep this up!!!

-Make an outline of a plan for the school year

       I finally have a pretty great list of lessons and activities by grade level that I enjoy doing with my students during the year, and now I am going to try to organize them into something like units and plan out at least the first two months of my school year. That will probably be something I tackle bit by bit, but I'm excited to get started!!

Do you have some goals for this month? Feel free to link up with us as well! I look forward to reading your goals!

~Molly