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S8: E164 Back to School Organization: Music Edition

Afternoon Ti Podcast

Season Eight

Episode 164

Back to School Organization: Music Edition



Free Afternoon Ti Scope and Sequence Guide!!

Our final summer health series episode is here!  At this point some of you may already be back at school and some of you have a few more weeks of summer remaining.  No matter where you find yourself, this episode is a great pivot point for you for entering back into a teacher mindset.  And hopefully a positive and hopeful one.  In thinking about returning back to the classroom, here are five things that you can use as a starting place to start off the year:


  1. Knowing what you can and can’t do this year (Singing?  Masks?  Social distancing?) If you have your schedule for the year, think about how you’d like to structure planning time, seating chart arrangements (do students need to be 3-6 ft apart, can you sing, will they be masked… etc…)


  2. Scope and Sequence

Where are your students at?  You may need to adjust where you start and that’s okay.

Monthly charts are great for this.  Mapping out the concepts you want students to learn based on month.  Think about rhythmic and melodic content.  Then fill in specific material that you’ll use to teach the concepts. Click here for your free Afternoon Ti Scope and Sequence Guide.


  1. Materials for the first class or even first week

  1. Pre-assessment for each grade level (could be an echo song to identify pitch matching, rhythm activity to assess coordination of speaking and performing rhythms, google form of musical terms and symbols to demonstrate recognition, sight-reading activity, game)

  2. Expectations and procedures - this will be based on what you can do in the classroom (social distancing, masks, etc)

  3. Choose a place to begin.  Something that you can start with and then modify from there.  Select material from last year that is familiar to students.  Gauge what they remember.  

  4. Put together some kind of structure for your lessons.  An opening song or a closing activity.  A flow for what will be done over a class period.  I always find it takes me a bit to figure out how each class moves through material and how much material to plan.


  1. Musical Preparations for your materials being presented (manipulatives, Powerpoints, vocal pieces,…) Do you need to create manipulatives?  Powerpoints?  Google Slides?  Examine octavos?

Decide what manipulatives you want to buy and get them - if you don’t love them, don’t buy them (if you aren’t certain, err to the side of caution and don’t get them)  example//Pop-it fidget toys - knew these would work fantastically with my fifth graders for assessment of note values, creating ostinato patterns, and hands-on tools that are easy to clean and pass out/take in.  Keep in mind the organization piece of a place where these items will live and function.


  1. Assess your anxieties, your hopes, and your reality

Nerves return… what are you nervous or anxious about?

Hope returns… what are you hopeful about?  What are you excited to try?

Reality returns… what is possible?  What can you handle?  How do you want to set the tone in your classroom? You do not need to be an overachiever in making everything unbelievably amazing.  Be realistic.  Do what you can with what you have.  Let your good be enough.


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