I’m currently at three different elementary schools in Prince George’s County Maryland teaching all band and orchestra students grades 4 through 6. Each school has a different way of running things as well as a different classroom situation for me. The first school is my base school where I have a majority of my students (35 Beginning Band, 23 Beginning Strings, 18 2nd or 3rd year Band, 16 2nd or 3rd year Strings). I am there 2 days a week and my students receive 2, 30 minute lessons a week. Their lesson schedule rotates so they don’t have class at the same times, as they are pulled from classes. They come to class by remembering their time and as I don’t have a phone on the stage so I don’t call them to class. They are generally pretty good at remembering their time. Here is my classroom setup!
I have a small board I found one morning on the street that I use as a dry erase board. I generally have 4 rows of 4 chairs and a stand to each chair. The boxes that you see are full of air filters, which I’ve been told there is no room for elsewhere. At the start of the year there was another row in front of those of boxes so I’m really glad those have been moved. I’ve decided to make lemonade out of lemons though and have used the boxes as a giant bulletin board and staple charts and posters to them. Behind the chairs are my percussion instruments (a tone drum, snare drum and 2 bell sets).
Here is my back wall in more detail. I have a chart of procedures, a list of what I’ve called “Air Head Scales” and our Karate Belt chart. I’ll go into those in more detail in another post. I also have a “Folder Graveyard” which is where I put things my students leave behind. I also have a lamp, to class up the joint.
Here is my proudest acquisition, my closet office better known as “cloffice”. This used to be a storage closet until they had to turn the old band room into a 1st grade classroom and my instrument storage closet was lost to me. So I moved everything that had been in this closet to the old instrument storage closet and moved all the instruments to this room. I also acquired a desk and filing cabinet which has turned my life around.
My second largest school also has me on the stage. I have 25 beginning band students, 12 beginning strings, 13 2nd year band and 7 2nd year strings. I have a similar set up at this school. The schedule is similar in that it rotates each day. I do have a nearby phone that I can use to call students down if they forget which is pretty handy at this school as students are often forgetting their times.
I forgot to get a picture of the size of the stage but it’s pretty similar to my first school. I set this stage up with 2 rows of 5 chairs and stands. Here’s a picture from last year which shows the size. I truly wish I had taken a before shot of the situation on the stage when I first got there. I was covered in stuff. It took me days to organize and find places to put all of the boxes, tricycles, milk crates, ect. that were left. You could not see the back wall.
My biggest project at this school was organizing one of the closets for instrument storage. I don’t have a picture because (I forgot) and the light in this closet hasn’t worked since I’ve been there (2 years). I know where everything is in it though and now have an area to store the instruments so they aren’t stolen.
My third school is the smallest and I have 17 Beginning Band, 10 Beginning Strings, 11 2nd year Band and 5 2nd year strings. Students have the same time that they come each month and I walk to their classrooms to pick them up. This is mostly due to behavior in the hallway. I didn’t take any pictures of this classroom but I teach on one day in the music room and one half day in the “Gym / classroom”. Makes it pretty tricky on days when I’m not in the music room to transfer all of my materials. Fortunately the other room is across the hallway.
So those are all my classrooms! Does anyone have similar situations? I’d love to hear any feedback! Enjoy the rest of your week!
