Fashion Friday: Blingin’ the Plaid

Happy Friday everyone!  Hoping everyone’s week went well as it was again freezing cold.  It’s definitely been difficult getting my students to be focused and back on track with all of the delays, testing and snow days.  What I wouldn’t do for a day of uninterrupted normal lessons with no tests, assemblies or noisy lunches (include all of my students having their instruments and I’d be in heaven).  I’m planning a post next week on my classroom situation which should be a fun one if I can find some before photos.

On another note, one way I’ve come to terms with the chilly weather is that I can layer as much as I want without getting too hot at work.  Here’s one of my favorite layered looks:

Boots: Target

Jeans: American Eagle

Plaid Button Up: Old Navy

Sweater: Zara

Vest: Old Navy

Necklace: J. Crew

Watch: Fossil 

I have also done this look with a gray sweater and probably like that better however chances are that is dirty.  Hope you enjoy the somewhat warmer weekend here on the East Coast.  Super excited for the Superbowl on Sunday!  Who is everyone rooting for?  As someone who bases my team preference solely on team colors and the city they represent I’m struggling to pick a team because I have watched more Seattle games than Denver and am starting to like the navy lime green color combo.  However, I have actually been to Denver and it’s a beautiful city.  Guess I’ll wait till the game to choose.

Bulletin Board Bravado!

When thinking of how I wanted to do my bulletin boards this year I wanted a way to post information, the schedule, and a spot to highlight the students of the month.  All three of my schools have a different board location.  At the first school I don’t have a board so I’ve used the small band of board at the top of the wall to anchor the paper for my wall board.  I’ve made it right out side of the cafeteria in hopes that it’s where most students will look in the morning.  I don’t pass out the schedule to my students but make sure that it’s posted in the school, in their classrooms and on my website (www.tinyurl.com/ilermusic).  My first year I gave them the schedule but it used so much paper that I decided to change that this year.  I think it makes them take more responsibility to look in the morning for their lesson time.  (I’ll go over my schedule and process for that in another post)

As you can see I have the schedule and group lists.  I’ve taped plastic sheets to the paper so that each month I can easily replace the schedule.  I also have a spot for students of the month (also in a plastic sleeve) and a “Do you know these notes” section that is obviously low enough that when the primary students are in line for lunch they like to touch it.  Might been to rethink that one.  The problem with the wall board though is that it’s all taped on the paper which makes it difficult to replace things.  Better than no board though!

My second school has the board I am most proud of.  I love the neon colors on the black paper!  It really stands out in the cafeteria which is where this board is located.  I have two plastic sheets at the bottom for adding fun facts and the students of the month.  

Here’s my fun fact sheet.  I add it in when I don’t have other announcements.

 The third bulletin board is outside of the music room which I use one day a week and the other day I use another classroom.  Right now I have some of my composition projects I gave students before winter break on display.  Once I take those down I have another “Do you know these notes” section for students to name the notes.

 I truly wish I had taken some photos of my boards from last year to compare.  Part of my motivation to start this blog is to see how I’m growing as a teacher so it’ll be a fun way to document that growth and to get feedback.

How do you post your information?  Do you have a bulletin board at your school?  What are some themes or projects that you have posted?

Fashion Friday: Too much Teal?

I’ve decided to start up fashion friday on my blog as a means to inspire myself to look decent at least once a week :-) I realize that this post comes before any of my actual teaching posts (and please don’t let that show you where my priorities are).  I am working on a first teaching post that will have some of my bulletin board ideas.  Hoping to post that next week.  So anyway, on to my first outfit post!

 Boots: DSW 

Teal Corduroy Skinny Jeans: Lucky Brand off Amazon

Checkered Button Up: T.J. Maxx

Gray Sweater: Old Navy 

Necklace: Lou Lou Boutique 

Watch: Fossil

Not sure if this outfit has too much teal or not but it was a fun splash of color for what’s been cold and gray weather.

Happy Friday Everyone!

Note Tweaking 101

Welcome to my new music education blog!

I'm very excited to start blogging again!  This is my third blog (post middle school in the late 90's).  My first blog was about my year living in Geneva, Switzerland as an Aupair which you can visit by clicking HERE.  My second blog was a short lived DIY blog which you can visit by clicking HERE.  This blog will be mostly about my teaching experiences, trials, triumphs and thoughts on the profession.  If you'd like to hear more about me click on the "About me" tab above.

I decided on the name note tweaking while arranging a song for my orchestra.  After listening to "Roar" so many times and attempting to write the cello and viola parts I realized how often I had to "tweak" the notes because I heard it wrong the first few times.  I also like the parallel to how often I tweak what I'm doing with my students to find the best fit for them.  Isn't that life though?

This is my second year teaching at 3 elementary schools about a mile outside of Washington D.C.  My schools vary in size with my smallest school having about 250 students, my second school having about 700 students and my largest school with 900 students.  Each school has a head start program (pre-kindergarten) and goes up to 6th grade.  I teach about 133 beginning students and 62 second or third year students.  It's about the same number of students as my first year but I have about double the number of returning students than my first year.

I teach in a very diverse area at all Title 1 schools.  Our main population is Latino and African American.  Many of the challenges I face are due to the transient nature of the community and finding ways to connect with my students and / or motivate and encourage them.  Once I find that music that sparks them or when they discover their true abilities it can be very rewarding as a teacher.

I'm hoping that this blog will be a great outlet of ideas as well as a source of input from other educators.  Feel free to contact me by sending me an email at britiler@gmail.com.

Thanks for reading!