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End of the Year: Music Teacher's Survival Guide


It’s the last quarter of the school year, and the ball is in your court. Before you clean out your desk and wish your students a happy summer, make one last giant push to motivate your students—and close the achievement gap. Here are four handy tips that will invigorate your classroom, improve your data, and relieve the end-of-school-year slump. 1. Communicate with parents. Over months, it’s often difficult to make appropriate contact with parents on a weekly basis. As the year wraps up, many...
Picnic day, field day, special programs, assemblies, trips...the end of the year is a busy and exciting time. After teaching for 20 years, you'd think I have it all figured out, but to be honest, the end of the year always catches me off guard. It takes a few days to adjust to the realization that there will be no consistency from one day to the next. In reflecting upon the last two decades as a general music teacher, I present to you my personal end-of-the-year survival guide.

Maintaining expectations

Do your students forget how to act in class, raise their hands, or use indoor voices? If only there was a vaccine for end-of-the-year amnesia! Now more than ever I find it is crucial to be consistent with classroom expectations, and to continue to hold my students to the same standards I have been all year. Some days, I'll spend part of the lesson helping my students practice our classroom routines like we did in September. It may take 1 minute, or half of the class period, but eventually my students will realize that to get to play, perform, and create, they have to continue to be good listeners, follow directions, and "show" their work trough moving, chanting, and singing. 

Staying seated

If you've ever been in my classroom, you know that movement is a very important and significant part of my lessons, so it's difficult for me to accept that it's OK to stay seated. Some days, my students have already had several extended recesses with their homeroom teachers. This is the time of the year when staying seated works really well, as opposed to winter time, when seating down one minute too long can turn into chaos. One of my favorite seating down activities is singing to the children while they follow along using a songbook. I think if we did it every class period starting in September, it would get old and wouldn't work as well, so I save it for the end of the year.

Using a songbook

I like using "Get America Singing Again" songbook. It's light and small, and easy to follow. My students look through the book and suggest songs they'd like to hear me perform for them. I sing the songs to them while they follow the notation. If there is a repetitive part, I teach it by rote, and invite students to join in. They LOVE their songbook time. They don't get bored or tired of it. Surprisingly for me, this activity has often extended to a full class period. 

Making flexible plans

Some of the classes will have music one more time, some two, and some will walk through my door for the last time. And there will be days I'll have my students for 10 minutes instead of the full 45. My end of the year plans take a shape of a growing list of songs and activities that I can easily copy and paste from one week to the next to satisfy lesson plan requirements. Here are some songs and activities that I have used consistently over the years:

Lavender (Growing Up With Music Book 1)

From my experience with toddlers, I have learned that moderately slow songs in triple meter calm down even the most energetic child. Lavender is a song in triple meter that has always had a calming effect on my students. I sing the song and lead them in swaying or rocking. If we are standing in the circle, we rock in and out. In we are scattered around the room, we sway side to side. If students "forget" how to maintain the balance and sway without falling over, I calmly remind them how to do it. I speak slowly, and use my deeper range. It sounds like hypnosis, but if it works, I'll take it! 

Going Fishing (Jump Right In, Book 3)

    • This is a simple call and response song in harmonic minor that is perfect as a single lesson, or as an extended activity. I added some parts to it: click here to hear my version with lyrics on YouTube. 
    • I begin by telling the story about a fisherman who wanted to beat his brothers's fishing record, but couldn't, because he kept sleeping in and missing all the action (true story). One day he got up very early, and headed to the river...At this moment, my students get very curious. They can't wait to hear the ending! As a begin to sing the song, they are completely drawn in. 
    • I begin to teach the song by having students join me on the vocal sigh at the end, as we pretend to reel in the fish. After enough repetitions, we discuss call and response format, and play around with it: 
      • I sing the call, students sing the response; 
      • I sing the call, individuals sing the response. 
      • Individuals sings the call, class sings the response. 
    • If we have time, we add egg shakers throughout the song, and cymbals on each "boom". And if we have even more time, we learn the chord roots and transfer it to classroom pitched percussion instruments. 

Going Over the Sea (Traditional, also in Jump Right In, Book 3)

    • First, I sing to the students. As soon as I get to 2nd verse (When I was two, I buckled my shoe"), I stop and ask students to come up with another rhyme. After a few suggestions, I pick one of the rhymes and sing it for the class. Once we get to "three", I give students the opportunity to "turn and talk" to their neighbor to create new words. I walk around, listen to the discussion, and give students feedback, praise, and suggestions. We discuss how the words work with the music. After we try all of the ideas as a class, we choose one of the rhymes, and sing the entire verse. 
    • We also learn the following movement: 
      • A section: pat/clap pattern to the macrobeats:  pat/clap/touch partner's hands/clap; 
      • B section: double high five on "over", double low five on "under", stand still on "stand", march on 1-2-3. To make sure my students stay focused, we first lean the pattern in the circle without partners. Eventually, I begin to teach the partner pattern by moving from one student to the next on the inside of the circle, practicing it with each person. Lastly, I invite students to turn to a partner and try it together.

La Bamba

    • This is a great song for teaching chord progression. The entire song is I, IV, and V. I perform it for my students using my guitar as an accompaniment. I ask them to pay attention to my fretting hand, and look for a pattern. This gets the conversation going. We learn the chord progression, and transfer it either on boomwhackers or chimes, depending on their level of attention. I like to use a key of E or F if I'm performing live. Some classes progress quickly, and pick up the chorus.

Chirimbolo 

    • I learned this song and dance at a workshop a while ago. Click here for my interpretation of this song. Here's a movement sequence from YouTube. At this time of year, I take a good amount of time demonstrating for the whole class before inviting anyone to stand and try it (see #2: staying seated). I then invite one student who demonstrates focused attention to model the partner activity. I might even demonstrate with several individual students first. Next, I invite two students to try it, while the rest of the class is seated. Eventually, the entire class stands and practices with an "air" partner while looking at me. We might even break into pairs and try it as a class, and even if we don't, they still enjoy it!

Turning it over to your students

This sounds a little crazy, I know. So proceed carefully. Assess your students' level of "end-of-the-year-itis". Consider this: your students have been watching you for the entire year. I bet some of them are ready to take over, and become junior student teachers for part of the class. Here's an example:

  • In my classroom, students are used to improvising. They are very familiar with "same" and "different" routine. First, I set up context (duple, triple, major, or minor), and demonstrate several  patterns with either "same"(imitating) or "different"(improvising) hand gestures to cue student responses.  My junior student teachers take over: they create a pattern, and ask the class to either imitate or improvise. 

Mini-Talent Show

Ask your students if they take instrument lessons, voice lessons, dance lessons, gymnastics, or if they have any other skills they'd like to share. I had a student who was quite good at telling jokes, and another student who could do magic tricks.
Next, establish audience expectations and set a time limit for each act. Make slight changes to create ambiance: display an image of stage curtains on your board, turn down some of the lights, and create a stage area. Sometimes all it needs is a visual outline. You can create it with scarves, beanbags, or hand drums. Enjoy your students' talents!

What are your end-of-the year survival tips? Share it below!


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