The Elementary Music Teacher Podcast: Music Education

Being an empowered educator means that you notice how you're feeling, and are therefore able to take a deep breath and focus.  A lot of times you don't have your feelings validated, which is so hard. In this episode, Jen Rafferty does a great job of explaining what an empowered educator is, why this is her mission in helping teachers, and how refocus your thought patterns to help you move forward.  Presenter and author, Jen Rafferty began her career as a middle school music teacher in Central New York. Jen brings her energy, humor, and expertise to all professional development workshops. She is known for her practical ideas and passion in her presentations while inspiring teachers to stay connected to their “why.” Jen currently serves as the Co-chair of the New York State School Music Association’s (NYSSMA) Secondary Classroom Committee, member of the advocacy committee, and is the President of Cortland County Music Teachers Association. She earned a B.M. in music education and vocal performance, a M.M. in music education from Ithaca College and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in educational psychology. Jen is frequently invited to conduct elementary and middle school choirs throughout New York State. Additionally, in 2020 she founded Sing Together, an international virtual singing community of singers of all ages and abilities. Her most recent publication is A Place in the Staff: Finding Your Way as a Music Teacher, available on Amazon. Links mentioned in this episode: Jen's website Empowered Educator Facebook page Jen Rafferty Music Instagram Facebook live about Finding Your Why Sign up for the "Reflect and Renew" challenge 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.

If you aren't aware by now, I'm beyond passionate about serving, mentoring, and coaching elementary music teachers.  With that said, I've been doing not only group coaching, but 1-on-1 coaching with some of my HARMONY members.  I wanted to share this coaching call with one of the music teachers in the membership for you to get advice and strategies about what you might be facing in your music teacher life. If you're interested in 1-on-1 coaching, I'm offering this as a service outside of my membership site now as well!  Fill out this form and we'll get you set up. Sign up for the "Reflect and Renew" challenge right here. Find out more about and sign up for the HARMONY membership here. 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.

Working with English Language Learners in the music room can feel intimidating, yet rewarding at the same time.  How can you teach music to student who speak a different language than you?  What are ways you can communicate and help them progress in the music room?  In this episode, we'll talk all about that including: the best strategies for connecting with your students why you don't have to go it alone building a sense of belonging teaching with non verbal communication Angela Ammerman is currently both a stay at home mama and a passionate music teacher trainer. She stays at home six days a week and spends one day on campus at George Mason University where she teaches Lab Orchestra, Aural Skills, and String Methods. Ammerman also supervises student teachers for both GMU and James Madison University and is the author of the upcoming book “The Music Teacher’s Guide to Engaging English Language Learners,” to be published by Meredith Music THIS MONTH (October)! Ammerman has been named Virginia’s 2016 Orchestra Director of the Year, the University of Tennessee at Martin’s Advisor of the Year in 2019, and she has been honored by the Virginia House of Delegates, and featured in the Washington Post as well as the Tennessee Alumnus Magazine. Ammerman is the host of the #MusicEdLove Podcast and is in high demand as a guest conductor and clinician across the country. Angela lives with her 1 year old son David Michael and her husband, Dr. David Allen Ammerman. Links mentioned in this episode: Connect with Angela at angelaammerman.com Also connect on social media on Instagram @angelaammerman Sign up for the "Reflect and Renew" challenge right here. Find out more about and sign up for 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.

Teaching right now is hard.  There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it.  Although things are going back to "normal", they're not quite there yet.  So what do we do? How can you move forward? In this episode, I'm going to talk to you about reframing the way you view thankfulness and gratitude.  It’s not going to be sunshine, unicorns, and rainbows all the time.  We're all very well aware of this.  But, in this episode, you'll get some example phrases to show you how to reframe the negative into a positive and then I want you to think about your own life and how you apply these tips and strategies into it. Sign up for the "Reflect and Renew" challenge right here. Find out more about and sign up for the HARMONY membership here. 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.

In this podcast episode, I'll talk about what to know about students lining up to leave the music room.  Every class time will look different and will change according to what you're doing with your students and what grade level is leaving your room.  But, the ideas I share in this episode will help you to get your students lined up and ready to leave in an easier way. In this episode, I discuss: What to allow time for Things to think through  Knowing your schedule well What to do before lining students up How to have students leave Why procedures and expectations are important Read this blog post that goes right along with today's podcast episode.  Find out more about and sign up for the HARMONY membership waitlist here. 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.

What does it mean to deconstruct a music standard?  It can be overwhelming having objectives, deciding what quarter to teach them in, lesson planning to teach the objectives, and knowing if you're doing it "right." In this episode, I break down step by step how to deconstruct a standard to help you move forward in your music classroom. Read this blog post that goes right along with today's podcast episode where you'll see what's discussed laid out in a sequential process.   Links mentioned in this episode: Get your copy of my book Make A Note. Find out more about and sign up for the HARMONY membership waitlist here. Sign up for 1-on-1 music teacher coaching. Listen to episode 157. 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.

What does decolonizing music education look like?  Are there steps you can take to make sure you're making your music classroom equitable for every student who comes through your doors?  In this episode, I brought on Giuliana Conti to discuss this with me.  The advice she shares throughout the entire episode is awesome and you'll get practical tips you can apply into your teaching right away.  One of the best quotes from this episode is that equity means access, accountability, and opportunity to learn.  In the classroom, equity means thinking critically about what you're presenting, how you're presenting it, and your role in it.  After listening in, I can't wait to hear what your key takeaways are.   Giuliana Conti is a proud educator, education researcher, and leader.  She has committed five years to representing nearly 15,000 colleagues in local, state, and national arenas while evaluating and developing the advancement of GPSS as an organization. She also has five years of teaching experience in the K-8 music setting.  Her recent focus has been on increased communication with stakeholders and partners, professional development programming for our constituents, and providing her team with a strategic plan grounded in inclusive, effective, and sustainable processes for the next three years. As a PhD researcher she has carried out a sizable portfolio of qualitative and quantitative studies. These have involved standard and innovative processes within study design, need assessment, data collection, analysis, evaluation, and impact measurement. While my Doctorate is in music education specifically, she has a deep understanding of the practical and theoretical intersections between psychology, sociology, cognition, culture, learning, policy, reform, and student-centered curriculum development in K-12 settings. She loves teaching, and contributing to the success of others within education. Links mentioned in this episode: Connect with Giuliana on Twitter The Smithsonian Folkway website World Music Pedagogy books by Patricia Campbell Find out more about and sign up for the HARMONY membership waitlist here. 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.

If you aren't aware by now, I'm beyond passionate about serving, mentoring, and coaching elementary music teachers.  With that said, I've been doing not only group coaching, but 1-on-1 coaching with some of my HARMONY members.  I wanted to share this coaching call with one of the music teachers in the membership for you to get advice and strategies about what you might be facing in your music teacher life.   If you'd like to sign up for coaching with me where we can talk about anything and everything going on in your music teacher life, fill out this form.  Find out more about and sign up for the HARMONY membership waitlist here. 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.

As an elementary music teacher, you bring drama into what you're already doing with your students, whether you realize it or not.  As you put on performances, do movement activities, read stories with action words, and create different sounds, you're integrating drama.  I'm so excited for the conversation I had with Deb Baldwin in this episode about drama instruction and integration, because this is where her expertise lies.  She breaks down how to teach drama to the youngest and oldest of students and gives sound advice that you can use in your own music or drama classroom.  Deborah Baldwin is an award-winning theater teacher and director having done both for nearly 40 years.  She directed over 250 plays and musicals with adults and children alike. Deborah developed and administrated several youth theater companies in the Midwest and serves as a consultant to them as well. She taught in Missouri and Colorado retiring in 2016. She created curriculum in all areas of theater for grades second through twelfth--creative dramatics, introduction to theater, musical theater, playwriting and technical theater.  Currently, she created drama education resources for her store, DramaMommaSpeaks on Teacherspayteachers.com. In addition, she coaches teachers just starting out on their journey. She is an award winning indie author of Bumbling Bea a middle grade book.  She blogs at www.dramamommaspeaks.com and can be found on Facebook at Drama Momma Speaks and Instagram under the Dramamommaspeaks name. Find out more about and sign up for the HARMONY membership waitlist here. Head to my website to grab your free music teaching resource. Join the Elementary Music Teacher Community Facebook group to continue the conversation. 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.

Are you struggling with feelings of being left out or lonely?  I know I sure have.  In fact, I've gone through some anxiety and stress the past two months and know others have as well from conversations I've had.  If this is you too, then I recorded this episode just for you.   During this episode, I talk about how to move past the feelings of being left out or not included.  What do you do?  How do you process through your emotions?  We'll talk about that and so much more.  So, listen in and get ready to feel encouraged. Find out more about and sign up for the HARMONY membership waitlist here. 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.