Month: August 2013

I made one small change today to the website, and that is to give each song its own page. I also added the accompaniment track to “You’ve Got Gold Inside of You.” I am not sure if you can download these audio files? If you try and are successful, will you let me know? Thanks!

Today was my first day back in the classroom. Oh, there is nothing quite as wonderful as the beautiful faces of sweet kindergarteners! They are full of light and happy smiles. Singing with them and hearing their giggles just makes me smile, too!

I tried out a new first day lesson plan, and I learned their names–only to realize that the mom who volunteered to teach last night (just met at Back to School night last night!) will get to know these darling children and I will have to pass on that privilege! Rats! I wish I could remember their names nonetheless so that when I pass them in the hallway I could say hello by name. I think it’s so important to know children by name.

The moving into a circle song took a while to do, and moving in a circle was very giggly and not super effective, but it WAS a start. I’d like to figure out how to use more musical cues and less talking. The clapping cue was not super effective, but again, it was a start. The children all echoed by clapping at different times instead of in unison. I think I need to model this with the teacher and keep practicing it with the children.

Thanks to Vanessa, our new teaching mom, we got the lesson videoed, so I am watching and reviewing it to see how it went. I have to laugh at how the children respond when I instructed them to “quietly go back to your spots.” Few of them seem to know what that means! They’ll learn.

The children are just darling and bright. I’m grateful to be teaching in a classroom whose teacher knows how to teach routines and listening. I know in a few weeks these children will know how to behave even better. It’s always wonderful when children learn how to behave at home, but some children, I know, have so much of an energetic personality that there is a longer learning curve in this area. I’m grateful that this classroom teacher is excellent at accomplishing the seemingly impossible–getting a classroom of wiggly children to sit quietly and listen.

I am so excited to have our Free Music page up! I am especially excited to share our song, “You’ve Got Gold Inside of You” that we wrote and performed last spring. I hope that many children will enjoy seeing this song for years to come! Many thanks again to my mom, Tanya Barkdull, and Sharee Thompson for helping put this song together. It was so much fun!

There is more music to come. Keep watching the blog or checking the page for updates!

Today I met with a couple of mothers who are going to help me to film my lessons and review lesson plans before they are published on this website. I’m SO happy to have some other helping hands, which reminds me of a little tune I prepared for this summer about the saying “many hands make light work.” Many thanks to everyone who has helped so far and those who are willing to roll up their sleeves to help in this volunteer effort to get music instruction to more children, parents, and teachers !