Stackable Shelves for Folders

 

Last fall I made copies of just about every handout and piece of music that students would need for the first semester and stuffed folders just in case we had to switch to virtual learning at some point.  I ended up really appreciating not spending so much time in the copy room just about every week, so I did the same thing this fall.  I also made up spare folders for each instrument in case a student forgets their music at home.  Between four instruments and two grade levels and multiple folders per part, I had an unorganized stack of folders that was really bugging me.  I had to dig through the pile just to find the one I was looking for and didn't have a good system to keep them organized.

After a great find at Goodwill (under $5 total!) and some homemade color-coded labels, these stackable shelves are the perfect fit for these orchestra folders!

Conducting Beginning-of-the-Year Bulletin Board

 

For this year's beginning-of-the-year bulletin board, I wanted to do something with conducting patterns.  I came up with the title "Lead The Way to a Year of Learning!"  I also thought about doing "Lead the Way to a ____ Year" with lots of different adjectives in different fonts and colors, but then I thought that would look too busy.  In addition to the conducting patterns and time signatures, I included pictures of a diverse set of composers.

I went over the time signatures and conducting patterns with a permanent marker to make them less pixel-y. 

Featured conductors include:

• Leonard Bernstein
• Gustavo Dudamel
• JoAnn Falletta
• William Grant Still
• Eun Sun Kim
• Zubin Mehta
• Matthew Smith (read more about his story here)

• Google Doc of conducting patterns, time signatures, conducting pictures, and labels