It’s March Break and it can be quite tempting to use this time to do some planning for the rest of the school year. I highly advocate leaving school completely behind for one week. Do some reading Watch movies Go on vacation (if you can afford it) Take a day trip (if you can’t) Get…

Welcome to the third post in a series focusing on the methodology Dave Burgess lays out in his book, Teach Like a Pirate.  Day three, according to Burgess, is absolutely critical. It is a day where you can get the reluctant learners on board. It is the day where you can sell your program and…

I have an online breakfast every morning, meaning that I read all sorts of blogs while I munch away on some cereal. Here are some teaching-related blogs that I check for on a daily basis. You should too! Dangerously Irrelevant – Scott McLeod’s blog is full of food for thought for teachers. Free Technology for…

Kids Are Worth It : Giving Your Child the Gift of Inner Discipline by Barbara Coloroso Barbara Coloroso is a renowned author of books on parenting and teaching. She offers great advice that we can all use in our daily lives. I can’t believe I hadn’t read any of her work till just now. One…

I have posted about the GPS – Grade Performance Steps for beginning band before. It is an incredible resource that students really respond well to. It gives them specific tasks, is easily trackable, and makes assessment a snap. A colleague of mine formatted the books into individual instrument sections and you can find all of those…

This is the second in a series of posts on how to Teach Like a Pirate, a really cool and engaging methodology by Dave Burgess from a book of the same name. Day two of the school year starts with my opening ritual that was a part of their “Good Morning Training” from the first…

I have had a really hard time finding appropriate resources to use to for my Grade 3 Social Studies Unit. The problem is that most of the teaching resources are written for middle or high school students. Very few texts are suitable for elementary school and our new curriculum. I just recently discovered that my board has a…

I have been collecting teaching resources for the past 15 years. I have bins and bins of resources that I have grouped together by grade level. And they are ALL FOR SALE! It’s my “Going Out of Business Teaching Sale”  These bins are too heavy for me to ship them, so you can pick them…

I have quite a bit of Christmas music written specifically for the concert band. The problem is that many of my students don’t like the sheet music that I have purchased. And when I look at the individual parts, I can see why. The pieces sound great when played in a large ensemble but when…