MENC Collegiate: January 2010 Newslink

Sections

Band Chorus Future Teachers General Music Higher Ed / Admin / Research Jazz Orchestra Press, Parents & Community Business Connection

MENC Collegiate: January 2010 Newslink

Dear Collegiate Member,

Happy New Year! Another year provides another opportunity to think about your music career. In this issue, you will find this month’s feature article about classroom management titled, “Will You Manage Your Class or Will Your Class Manage You?” You’ll also learn about what’s going on around MENC, get news and announcements, and find interesting opportunities. Brand-new this year, Collegiate Specialty Items for sale! Check out the new lapel pin, writing pens, and fleece blankets designed with the collegiate student in mind.

As always, if you have comments, questions, or would like to share your chapter’s activities or recruitment strategies with us for publication in a future issue, e-mail Jen Reed.

Will You Manage Your Class or Will Your Class Manage You?

Revised and reprinted from MENC’s December 2003 Newslink
By MENC Student Programs Staff

The information and tips provided in this article were compiled from multiple ideas listed on various education Web sites, as well as from the MENC book Classroom Management in General, Choral, and Instrumental Music Programs by Marvelene Moore with Angela Batey and David Royse.

You’re soon going to be out in a world where almost anything can happen. Though the boundaries of this whirlwind of activity can be as small as a practice room or as large as the football field that holds your marching band, you’ll have a host of opportunities to adapt to unexpected behavior from your students. While this aspect of teaching may be as heavenly as congratulating your students on perfectly completing their homework and tests or as mundane as monitoring how frequently your students are taking bathroom breaks, you can take steps now to help navigate how you will manage your classroom in the future.

What’s Your Style?
One thing that will help you is to determine your classroom management style. While your classroom management style may need to be tailored to the guidelines of the school(s) where you teach, it’s a good idea to take some time now to think about how you want to govern your classroom.

To find out what you’re teaching style would be right now visit Indiana State University’s Teaching Styles resource. Is your teaching style too strict to let your students be creative? Or are you too laid back for them to work productively? Realistically assess where you are now and spend some time thinking about where you want to go as far as managing your classroom environment. Once you’ve reached your conclusions, talk to your chapter advisor and student teaching mentors on how to develop an effective teaching style that will work best for you.

Taking Control
It’s important for teachers to take control of their classroom environment, because if the teacher doesn’t, the students will. By providing structure for your students, both you and they have the comfort of knowing that there are clear expectations on how they are to behave inside your classroom.

Create a short list of rules, and share them with your students on the first day of class. Whether you develop your rules with your students on that first day of class--which has the advantage of student buy-in--or you develop them alone based on your classroom management style, it’s important to give students a frame of reference for what constitutes good and bad behavior in your classroom. Breaking these rules should also have clearly defined consequences so that both you and your students can tell that they are being implemented fairly.

As you go through your student teaching experiences, watch what teachers around you are doing to maintain discipline in their classrooms. While student teaching, you may have to enforce a code that you might not necessarily adopt once you’re teaching your own class; however, it can help you determine what you do and don’t want to do.

And, remember, the first step to taking control of your classroom starts with the one person you have complete control over—yourself. If your students see that you are thoughtful, collected, respectful, and ready to go to work as soon as the bell rings, they’ll be more likely to meet the standard you set by your own example.

Be In Tune with Your Students
It’s never a good idea to get involved in a shouting match with a student who is being disruptive. The student usually wins simply because you’ve lost your cool. And, by losing your cool, you generally lose the respect and trust of the well-behaved students as well.

So, how do you stop troublemakers in their tracks? The simplest thing to do is to be aware. Which students get distracted easily? What’s the weather outside? What upcoming school events may be distracting your students? What holidays are approaching?

Be creative. Find a way to incorporate the distractions into your lessons, if possible. If your students are just itching to get on to their holiday break, give them some music that relates to that. Analyze a “restless” work from the composer the class is studying. Change to more lively activities. In fact, keep a laundry list of easy, active, five-minute assignments to help students get back on track and focused. Simply by being proactive, you can avoid a lot of unpleasant interactions with students.

Watch the Wiggle Times
Most teachers find that students are most likely to be disruptive during the first and last moments of class. Try to establish a routine that governs the first few moments of class—whether it’s getting sheet music, taking out an instrument, starting a warm-up exercise, or walking to a seat in a particular way. The most important thing is to pick an activity that gets the students focused on your class—rather than on what mistakes they made on the last test, the argument they saw in the hall, or how much they’re longing to be outside on a fine fall/winter/spring day.

Engage Students
One of the key ways to maintaining a disciplined classroom environment is to keep class interesting to the students. If you’ve got great material and you present it in a way that wows your students, you’re much less likely to have classroom management issues. Students are less likely to be distracted if, for example, you vary opportunities to listen to musical performances on CD with opportunities for the students to make their own music.

Tips from Teachers
Identify students who are disrupting class early in the school year and call their parents—just to introduce yourself. By caring enough to introduce yourself to parents, you’ll get the parents on your side and greatly reduce the leverage of troublemakers. To see how this method worked for some middle school teachers, visit Teachnet.com.

Stop students in their tracks with a stopwatch—that’s one approach advocated on the Education World Web site. Bring a stopwatch with you to class, and if the students start being disruptive, time their outbursts. Then, offer rewards or punishments based on the length of time the disruption took place.

Don’t let your students bug you, “bug” them instead. A quick tip from the A to Z Teacher Stuff Web site says to take small pictures of bugs or little plastic bugs and give them to students when they are Being Unusually Good. The students with the most bugs at the end of each week get a special reward.

One Last Word
Classroom management is both a crucial and complicated topic—one you’re better off addressing sooner rather than later. So, as you go through your college career, take some time to reflect on how you think you should run your classroom. And, if you’ve got some fun student teaching experiences, suggestions, or feedback, send them to Jen Reed, Student Programs Manager.

Hosts of teacher Web sites include other tips on classroom management topics. For instance, the Teachnet.com classroom management site features a wide variety of suggestions from teachers about particular discipline issues—you’ll find everything from how to manage too frequent water fountain trips to creative ways to prevent cheating. So, if you’re having trouble with a particular issue, try using the Internet to find creative solutions.

If you can’t find what you need already posted, ask a question of fellow MENC members or MENC Mentors on any of the MENC Forums (Band, Chorus, Orchestra, General Music, Jazz, and Future Teachers).

MENC Classroom Management Resources
Books

Classroom Management in General, Choral, and Instrumental Programs. Not only does it offer insights into the general principles of classroom management, it also offers insight into how to implement those principles in specific music programs (general, instrumental, choral) at different levels (elementary, middle school, high school).
Crowd Control: Classroom Management and Effective Teaching for Chorus, Band, and Orchestra

Articles

Online Resources

11 Techniques for Better Discipline
Interactive Lessons on Respect, Talking, Behavior, and Time Outs
National Education Association Classroom Management Tips
Harry & Rosemary Wong’s The First Day of School

Professional Achievement Recognition

The purpose of the Professional Achievement recognition is to distinguish individual Collegiate members for their commitment and dedication to MENC and music education. This recognition is given to Collegiate members who have served their chapters in an exemplary manner. All Collegiate members who meet the following criteria are eligible to receive this distinction.
Criteria: (all requirements apply)

Student must be currently enrolled in an active MENC Collegiate chapter.
Student must also have been a Collegiate member of MENC in the school year prior to the current one.
Student must possess an overall minimum grade point average of 3.0 (on a 4.0 scale) or equivalent during the year of the application.
Student must verify participation and involvement in chapter activities.

For each eligible Collegiate member, chapter advisors should send a completed Professional Achievement application and a description of the eligible member's participation and involvement in chapter-related activities to MENC. Applications must be sent to MENC on or before February 28. Recipients of this recognition receive a Certificate of Achievement and a specially designed lapel pin. Each senior nominee will also be considered for a $500 grant from the Caitlin Merie Hurrey Memorial Scholarship.

New! Collegiate Specialty Items …

Blanket: Light gray, 50 x 60 inches machine washable fleece. MENC Collegiate logo in black and white stitching. #8055. $20.00/$15.00 MENC members
Pen/Highlighter: Dual ended with black ink and yellow highlighter. Silver pen with black MENC collegiate logo. #8057. $1.60/$1.20 MENC members
Lapel Pin: ¾” steel pin with dark and light blue enamel. #8056. $1.60/$1.20 MENC members

To order: Call 1-800-828-0229 or visit www.menc.org.

Member Benefit Spotlight

"Make Your Case" Database

SupportMusic.com, an initiative of MENC and NAMM, now features a new "Make Your Case" database for advocacy. The database will help you build a case for your music program when it's threatened. The links below spotlight some of the entries now available in five searchable categories:

Anecdote: Music Provides Common Language
Document: How Creativity, Education, and the Arts Shape a Modern Economy
Quote: Music and Universal Curricular Value
Research Report: Singers Are Far More Likely to Be Involved in Charity Work
Statistic: Preparation for the 21st Century Workplace

These items (and many more!) can be used for advocacy efforts, such as speeches before civic groups, testimony before school boards, letters to or meetings or phone calls with legislators, and meetings with principals or superintendents. MENC is committed to adding the latest and most compelling information to the database. If you have any information you would like to see included, contact advocacy@menc2.org.

Current News and Announcements

Student Composers Competition

MENC is seeking original music of student composers for featured performances during Music Education Week to be held June 24-29, 2010, in Washington, D.C. Selected compositions will be the best representative works from MENC's six divisions in each of the following levels: elementary/middle school, high school, and undergraduate/graduate school. The instrumental composition category is for woodwinds, solo or any combination of instruments up to a woodwind quintet and piano. Visit contest page for rules and entry form. Deadline: February 15, 2010.

MIOSM® Lesson Plan Writing Contest

For all MENC members. What do you do in your classroom to celebrate Music In Our Schools Month®? Enter your creative lesson plans, teaching tips, and activities. Visit MIOSM Lesson Plan Writing Contest for the rules and contest entry form. Deadline: February 1, 2010.

2010 Biennial Music Educators National Conference

Join fellow music education majors March 25-27, 2010 in Anaheim, California for 2 days of workshops specifically geared toward Collegiate students. Here are some of the sessions you will see:

Advocacy: Gaining Local Support for Your Programs (Jill Sullivan and David Rickels)
Classroom Management: More than Just Keeping the Lid On (Margaret Schmidt)
The Role of Assessment in Music Teaching (Suzanne Burton)
The First Year on the Job: It's Not All About Performing (Richard Sang with panel of local first year teachers)
Job Search and Interviewing (Jill Sullivan)
Survival Tips for Music Teachers in Rural, Suburban and Urban Settings (Janice Smith, Michele Kaschub and Frank Heuser)
Getting the Most Out of Your Undergraduate Experience and Student Teaching (Cindy Bell and Nathalie Robinson)
Inclusion in the Music Class (Deborah Blair)

For registration and housing information, visit 2010 Music Educators National Conference.

2010 Music Education Week

Music Education Week is a new annual event created by MENC at the direction of the MENC National Executive Board. It is built around a new format, different from that of past national biennial conferences. This format is designed to provide members with opportunities for music education advocacy, intensive professional development, and performances in a destination location on an annual basis, and during the summer instead of the school year. Watch MENC’s Web site for program details.

MENC Book

Classroom Management in General, Choral, and Instrumental Music Programs
By Marvelene C. Moore with Angela L. Batey and David M. Royse

This book presents practical ideas for general music, choir, or instrumental music teachers from elementary to high school. Provides tips for preventing behavior problems in the classroom and suggestions for dealing with inappropriate student behavior. This book is referred to in the Feature Article of this Newslink.

This book is available to MENC members from Rowman & Littlefield Education.

January Poll

Each month, MENC asks its members for their input on current issues and trends in music education. This month’s question is: Please tell us which conferences or workshops you may have already attended this 2009-2010 school year, or will be attending by June 30, 2010. Share your thoughts today.

January Monthly Special

Stay Sharp in January

In January only, MENC members can purchase the MIOSM Pencil Sharpener for half off the regular price – only 50¢! These bright blue plastic sharpeners with a white MIOSM logo are great for teachers and students.

No additional purchase is required. MIOSM® 2010 Pencil Sharpener: #7035R 50¢
This special is not available at state conference resource shops. Call 1-800-828-0229 or visit www.menc.org to order.

Follow MENC on Twitter

Collegiate Facebook Groups

Stay connected with other MENC Collegiate members around the world by joining MENC’s Collegiate Facebook group. To join, simply visit www.facebook.com and search “MENC Collegiate Headquarters.”
Want to know what’s happening at MENC Headquarters? Become a fan of MENC on Facebook!

MENC on LinkedIn

Connect with fellow MENC members and music education advocates on LinkedIn, a professional networking site. Participate in discussions about current topics, get music education news, and network with others in the field. To join, login to LinkedIn, select "Search Groups" from the top drop-down menu, and search for "MENC." If you haven't created an account yet, you can sign up at linkedin.com.

New MENC Collegiate Home Page

Check out the new MENC Collegiate Home page with announcements and news, and links to all things collegiate.

“Ask the Mentors” Forum

Do you have music education questions? MENC’s mentors have the answers! Each month from September to May, the “Ask the Mentors” forum features a different mentor for band, orchestra, chorus, general music, jazz, guitar, and mariachi. The mentors are veteran teachers who offer advice in response to your teaching questions. Post questions and read responses on the Future Teacher’s Forum. Read about this month’s MENC Mentors.

Month of January

Band – Dennis Granlie
General Music – Sue Metz
Chorus – James Reddan
Orchestra – Michael Lapomardo
Jazz – David Kay
Guitar – Randy Haley