The Elementary Music Teacher Podcast: Music Education

We're creative people, and in fact, we were created to be creative. Part of reaching into that creativity is by using musical play. There are two different types of musical play, behavioral and then playful type of play. Students need to experience play that allows them to learn, find joy, and reveal new parts of themselves they've never been able to experience before.  In this episode with Tina Arenas, you’ll learn: What musical play is Different ways students can use their bodies to make music How to make books playful and musical Vocal exploration ideas Tina teaches early childhood music and movement and serves as team leader for the elementary art, music, library, and PE team at the American School of Dubai, UAE. Prior to teaching abroad, she taught K-5 elementary general music and after-school musical ensembles in public schools in Plano and Denton, Texas. While in Denton, she was recognized as a campus Teacher of Year in 2011. Tina received her Master of Arts in Music Education from the University of St. Thomas and has completed both Kodály and Orff-Schulwerk levels courses, in addition to movement masterclasses.  She has presented workshops for teachers at international, national, and state music conferences and has served as a board member and teacher representative at the national, state, and district levels. Tina has also served as a cooperating teacher for student teachers and as an invited guest lecturer and artist-in-residence for universities. With over 20 years of classroom experience, Tina has developed a passion for making play a priority in teaching and learning. Her mission is to create an environment where children feel valued and developing community relationships is central to our well-being. You can connect with Tina here: Grab her free teaching resource here Connect with her on Instagram @popupforplay Connect with Tina on Facebook @popupforplay Check out Tina's website and blog at popupforplay.com Find out more about the HARMONY membership here. Get your copy of Make A Note: What You Really Need to Know About Teaching Elementary Music Head to my website to grab your free music teaching resource. I'd love for you to leave a rating and a review of the podcast on I-tunes, be sure to share the podcast with any music teacher friends who would find it helpful and be sure to tag me on Instagram or Facebook.

Today, we're celebrating episode 200! I honestly can't believe that we're this far into the podcast friend. On this episode, you'll hear Jessica Grant interview me. She prepared questions, without me knowing what she was going to ask me ahead of time. What a fun way to celebrate and give you a chance to get to know me a bit better. Oh yeah... and to continue the celebration, I'm giving away two copies of my book "Make a Note: What You Really Need to Know About Teaching Elementary Music" and two 1-on-1 30 minute coaching calls as well. To enter into the giveaway, simply tag me in a post on Instagram or Facebook, share about the podcast with a friend, or do a post about the podcast sharing about why you love listening. Want to support my work? You can buy me a coffee! Find out more about the HARMONY membership here. Get your copy of Make A Note: What You Really Need to Know About Teaching Elementary Music Head here to grab your free music teacher guides and resources I'd love for you to leave a rating and a review of the podcast on I-tunes, be sure to share the podcast with any music teacher friends who would find it helpful and be sure to tag me on Instagram or Facebook.

Teaching isn't always going to be sunshine and rainbows. In fact, it's easy to get caught up in what I call the negative thought pattern swirl. Things can be straight up hard and it can cause you to feel the overwhelm big time. In this episode, I'm sharing 4 ways you can reframe the negative thoughts you might have about teaching. I talk about: Remembering your why Knowing the hard days will come Being part of the solution Identifying what's bringing you down mentally  You can also read the blog post that goes along with this episode right here. Want to support my work? You can buy me a coffee! Find out more about the HARMONY membership here. Get your copy of Make A Note: What You Really Need to Know About Teaching Elementary Music Head here to grab your free music teacher guides and resources I'd love for you to leave a rating and a review of the podcast on I-tunes, be sure to share the podcast with any music teacher friends who would find it helpful and be sure to tag me on Instagram or Facebook.

Maybe you're teaching, but you want to dive into being an entrepreneur as well. This episode with Bree Noble and Katie Zaccardi goes into how you can do that successfully, while being yourself and getting past any mindset issues. Connect with Bree and Katie here: Get on the Out to Launch waitlist here: www.katiezaccardi.com/outtolaunch Bree's Instagram @profitablemusicianllc Katie's Instagram @katiezaccardi Katie's TikTok @katie.zaccardi Find out more about the HARMONY membership here. Get your copy of Make A Note: What You Really Need to Know About Teaching Elementary Music Head to my website to grab your free music teaching resource Head here to grab your free online business cheat sheet I'd love for you to leave a rating and a review of the podcast on I-tunes, be sure to share the podcast with any music teacher friends who would find it helpful and be sure to tag me on Instagram or Facebook.

On a day you played one of your classes favorite songs, did you see their faces light up with excitement? Have you ever stopped to think about why? Some kids don’t associate the music they learn in school with what they listen to outside of school. There’s “music class music” and “other types of music” according to some of your students. Honestly, I didn’t try to bring popular music into my classroom for the first couple of years because I wasn’t ever told this is something I could do. In all my years of college prep and student teaching, no one ever talked about actually using music your students connect with. Maybe you can relate to this. You know your students will respond to popular music, but you’re just not sure how to do that.  If so, this podcast episode will help you to get started. You can also read the blog post that goes along with this episode right here. The Beyonce YouTube video mentioned in the episode can be seen here. Want to support my work? You can buy me a coffee! Find out more about the HARMONY membership here. Get your copy of Make A Note: What You Really Need to Know About Teaching Elementary Music Head here to grab your free music teacher guides and resources I'd love for you to leave a rating and a review of the podcast on I-tunes, be sure to share the podcast with any music teacher friends who would find it helpful and be sure to tag me on Instagram or Facebook.

Maybe you want to make extra money as a teacher, but you don’t know where to start. There are truly so many awesome ideas available, and the first place to start is to figure out what aligns with you.  Then, think about if you want to start a teacher business (like we discussed in episode 166 of the podcast) or make extra money on the side of your full time teaching career.  In this episode, we’ll focus on 4 easy ways to make money as a teacher. You can also read the blog post that goes along with this episode right here. Want to support my work? You can buy me a coffee! Find out more about the HARMONY membership here. Get your copy of Make A Note: What You Really Need to Know About Teaching Elementary Music Head here to grab your free online business cheat sheet I'd love for you to leave a rating and a review of the podcast on I-tunes, be sure to share the podcast with any music teacher friends who would find it helpful and be sure to tag me on Instagram or Facebook.

This episode goes deep into mental health in both your teaching and home life. Mental health isn't something to take lightly, and through Lauren's story, our goal is that you know you're not alone and are able to take the steps to get the help you need.  Throughout our conversation, we discuss: Why it's important to treat yourself like a best friend or a child The longest relationship you have in life is with yourself Living your life for you and not for others Putting your needs at the forefront before it's too late Lauren Marcinkowski (she/her) is a music therapist, educator, mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend--and now former teacher. Her passions are around creating empathy for all students and people through promoting self-awareness and understanding of ourselves so that we can more fully accept others in our lives. Lauren is also passionate about mental health and advocating for this. Lauren is currently at home now with her 1 year old son, Jace, and is working on her website, "The Empathetic Teacher.com." She enjoys spending free time exercising, reading, playing with Jace and her husband and exploring the libraries in their county. Connect with Lauren here: On her website www.theempatheticteacher.com On Instagram @theempatheticteacher and @theempatheticmom Find out more about the HARMONY membership here. Get your copy of Make A Note: What You Really Need to Know About Teaching Elementary Music Head to my website to grab your free music teaching resource. I'd love for you to leave a rating and a review of the podcast on I-tunes, be sure to share the podcast with any music teacher friends who would find it helpful and be sure to tag me on Instagram or Facebook.

It's tough to teach music without enough instruments. But, it's not impossible. I started my elementary music teaching career with one broken hand drum. That was it. Although it was frustrating at times wanting to use a classroom full of instruments and not having that, music was still taught to my students.  Sometimes it's not about what you don't have, but teaching with what you do have. The instruments can be bought and your classroom can be built up over time. In this episode, we'll explore how to teach music without enough instruments to help you move forward successfully. You can read the blog post that goes right along with this episode right here. Other links mentioned in this episode: Blog post about centers in the music room Scratch.MIT virtual xylophone Find out more about the HARMONY membership here. Get your copy of Make A Note: What You Really Need to Know About Teaching Elementary Music Head to my website to grab your free music teaching resource. I'd love for you to leave a rating and a review of the podcast on I-tunes, be sure to share the podcast with any music teacher friends who would find it helpful and be sure to tag me on Instagram or Facebook.

This episode is all about helping students find a sense of belonging in the music room. Once teachers develop an empathy based approach with your students, you'll notice it leads to connection, which therefore leads to belonging. Students need to be able to come into the music room knowing they belong there. The music room is a safe space where students should be able to take a risk and make a mistake. Real empathy builds belonging and fosters a sense of belonging. Throughout our entire conversation, Dr. Missy Strong talked with me about empathy, how her approach to teaching music has changed, and the ways she helps her students be their most musical selves by feeling like they belong.  Missy Strong has taught general, choral, and instrumental music at the early childhood, elementary, and middle school levels for 26 years. She holds a Master of Music Education degree from Rowan University and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Music Education with a specialty in Early Childhood Development from Rutgers University, New Brunswick. Missy currently teaches elementary general and choral music. She has served as the Senior Research Assistant for Music Together and was the director of children's music education at Philadelphia's historic Tenth Presbyterian Church for over a decade. Missy is a FAME Endorsed Teacher Trainer in both First Steps in Music and Conversational Solfege. She is a Founding Member of FAME and the former President of the organization. A frequent music education consultant and clinician, Missy presents conference sessions, professional development workshops, webinars, and courses at the collegiate, international, regional, state, and local levels. She is a published author and editor with articles in both state and national music education journals and books from GIA Publications and Oxford University Press. Missy and her composer/pianist husband Jeremy live in Southern New Jersey with their four kids, Ethan, Owen, Lorelei, and Jackson. Connect with Missy here: In her Facebook group On Instagram @musicedwithmissy On Twitter @DocStrong26 At her TpT store  Find out more about the HARMONY membership here. Get your copy of Make A Note: What You Really Need to Know About Teaching Elementary Music Head to my website to grab your free music teaching resource. I'd love for you to leave a rating and a review of the podcast on I-tunes, be sure to share the podcast with any music teacher friends who would find it helpful and be sure to tag me on Instagram or Facebook.

Assessment in elementary music is something that can be a bit tricky. Unlike a general classroom where formative assessments are done all day long in reading and math, a lot of what happens in elementary music is performance based. Therefore, the assessment waters can get a bit confusing and it’s overwhelming trying to figure out when and how to assess every student. Honestly, there’s not one size fits all approach. A lot of what happens in an elementary music classroom from planning, to teaching, to assessing, is up to you as the teacher. So, in this episode, blog post, I’ll break down assessment in elementary music in an easy to understand way. My goal is to provide you with tips and strategies that you can in return, think about how you can make them work for your teaching situation. You can read the blog post that goes right along with this episode right here. Find out more about the HARMONY membership here. Get your copy of Make A Note: What You Really Need to Know About Teaching Elementary Music Head to my website to grab your free music teaching resource. I'd love for you to leave a rating and a review of the podcast on I-tunes, be sure to share the podcast with any music teacher friends who would find it helpful and be sure to tag me on Instagram or Facebook.