Afternoon Ti

 Afternoon Ti Podcast Season 9 Episode 169 Pentatonic Scales The Pentatonic Scale.  The power of five pitches. Can be created in a variety of ways to give a specific sound to the piece. Easy to manipulate home tones to create different sounds within the scale.  Can be played by the black keys on the piano.  Can be sung beautifully.  Great for improvisations and compositions.  So versatile in the classroom.  Some of the reasons I find so much joy using the pentatonic scale with students. Today we’re going to talk about pentatonic scales - what they are and how we can use them with students, in a broad sense.  Then over the next few episodes you’ll hear lesson ideas using this concept with recorders, singing, barred instruments, composition, and improvisation.  Lots of great things in store over the next few weeks! A pentatonic scale is a series of five pitches used within a musical piece.  It can be helpful to break down the word - Penta ...

Afternoon Ti Podcast Season 9 Episode 167 Classroom Rules Rules provide boundaries, create safe spaces, and create community when set up well.  They’re often as much for us as teachers as they are for the students.  They guide how we interact with our students, how we establish transitions, handling of instruments and materials and basically the structure of our entire classroom.  Rules help us decide when to take action when something happens in the room that isn’t okay and when to praise and recognize students for their efforts and successes.  Rules are guides.  In fact I often refer to them as goals with my students.  Because they’re things we work towards and work on together as a team. Too many rules and it’s stifling.  Too few and it’s chaotic.   We’re going to break our discussion about rules into three topics.  The first will be choosing the main rules for your classroom - these are the broader areas that cover a wide range of...

Afternoon Ti Podcast Season Nine Episode 166 Teaching Advice You Need to Hear There are many ways to inherit great teaching advice - through reading books, talking with colleagues, attending workshops, taking Levels courses, and lots more.  As I was cleaning out our office shelves at home this summer I came across teaching notes I had saved over the years, but hadn’t looked at in a while.  Things from my student teaching, TMEA conferences, and observations from principals or others who shared ideas that helped me grow.  I skimmed through pages and thought about how much great advice has been shared with me over the years and how useful it was to see it again.  So much great advice.  And thought about how we could all use great advice full of encouragement and wisdom as we head into this teaching year.  So here are ten pieces of teaching advice for you to think on, ideas for you to incorporate, and positive messages for you to believe about yourself and y...

Afternoon Ti Podcast Season 9 Episode 165 Phonetic Beats with Faith Rodgers Faith is a 29 year old mom and elementary music teacher from Dallas, Tx. When her son Steven was 2, he was diagnosed with a severe speech and language delay. Faith tried all the big name phonics companies to help Steven learn, but they all ended in tantrums. Finally one day Faith had the idea to take a hip hop beat and make a letter A rap and Steven loved it! Not only did Steven love it but it went viral. It was on that day that the idea of Phonetic Beats was born. Here we are 3 years later and Faith has completed individual raps for each letter of the alphabet. Phonetic Beats Website Phonetic Beats YouTube Channel Voyage Dallas Article Speech Tutor I met Faith Rodgers at SMU during our time in grad school and it’s been so wonderful watching what she is creating and putting out into the world for parents and educators.  Her company Phonetic Beats encourages phonetic literacy in small children through tra...

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: 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…) Scope and Sequence Where are your students at?  You may need to adjust where you s...

Season Seven Episode 152 Curriculum Design with Nyssa Brown Part II Nyssa Brown is an international music education consultant with Music Ed Forward. Nyssa specializes in empowering educators to design curriculum that is inquiry-based, conceptual, and community-specific. She has facilitated student learning for 20+ years, in addition to presenting and consulting with teachers from six continents. Nyssa was one of ten finalists for 2004 Minnesota Teacher of the Year and received a prestigious Milken Educator Award in 2004 from the Milken Family Foundation. Nyssa served as a Grade 3-5 sub-committee member in the development of the National Core Arts Standards. She empowers educators to envision what is possible in music education. FREEBIE!! The Ultimate Curriculum Design Toolkit.  Click here to get your copy! Website:   Music Ed Forward MusicEd Forward Podcast Understanding by Design Model by Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins