Weekly Newsletters

 

Students at my schools have one 30-minute small group and one 30-minute full orchestra rehearsal each week, and I like to send a weekly newsletter to families to keep everyone up-to-date.  I include a summary of what we did that week, the practice assignment, the link to the small group schedule, and any concert info/reminders of important dates.

I used to just write an email each week (with lots of copy/pasting from the previous year's weekly email), but it was only text.  At some point I switched to Google Slides, and I like this format much better.  Each week fits on one slide, and I can include buttons with links to the schedule, concerts in the area, music advocacy resources, and more.  It's easy to add pictures and text boxes and to move things around to make it look just the way I want. (For any students who are flagged "No media release" on Infinite Campus, I do check in with those families to see if it's okay that I include pictures of their student in the newsletter and that has not been a problem.)  Families really like seeing pictures of their students in the newsletter, and I'm hoping that including more pictures makes it more likely for families to read the other information that I include as well :)  The document is set to "Anyone with the link can view," and then I include the link in the weekly email to families.

Instead of starting from scratch each week, I have a tab open with the previous year's newsletter and simply copy/paste the corresponding slide into the top of this year's document and update as needed.  Now the weekly newsletters are all contained in one document, and it's easy to scroll down to previous weeks.  I change the background color each week, so you see a nice rainbow effect as you scroll through the school year.  Any extra slides with concert info or Solo/Ensemble info etc. have a white background so they stand out.

My weekly email is basically:

Happy Tuesday orchestra families!

Please check out our weekly orchestra newsletter to find out what we did in orchestra this week!

(I highlight "weekly orchestra newsletter," hit "Control K," and then copy/paste the newsletter link to turn the text into a link.)

I'll also include concert into or other important info in the body of the email for those who don't click on the link.  I cc my administrators and bcc parent/guardian emails and then "schedule send" the email for the end of the school day.

Here are templates of an entire school year's worth of slides.  Feel free to make a copy and modify as you like!

Weekly newsletter template

• 5th grade orchestra (first-year players) (Google Slides)
• 6th grade orchestra (second-year players) (Google Slides)

Notes: Along the top where it says the week number, I also include the school and grade level, since I teach at multiple schools and want to keep it organized for myself.  I've also removed all the links but kept the text blue to see where I would generally include one.

Grade/Attendance Sheet

 

While my school does all their attendance records online (on Infinite Campus), I still print out my own attendance sheets, which also double as a place to record grades.  They are, of course, color-coded by instrument, and then student names are in order based on their small group.  That way, whenever we are doing a quick playing check-up in class, I don't have to hunt for each student's name on my sheet--everyone in that particular small group are located next to each other on the grade sheet.  I can also see at a glance how many students in each small group might have forgotten to bring their instrument to school that day.  I also include a column with the initial of each student's teacher with an asterisk if they are in advanced math, since that impacts my schedule and is helpful information to have handy.

Each orchestra's grade sheet is printed on whichever color paper is that orchestra's color.  My binder has a colored divider for each of the four orchestras I teach, and then behind each divider is the small group schedule, grade/attendance sheet, and full orchestra seating chart, all printed on paper that matches that orchestra's color.  (I don't use the color printer, but the different colored background prints in various shades of gray that makes the different instruments look slightly different).

When I create a new small group schedule and small groups get changed, I reorder the names on my attendance sheet document and print out a new one.  I can edit the weight of the border to make thicker lines between each small group.  Each orchestra is a different sheet within the same Google Sheet, so I can easily move between tabs at the bottom.

Along the top of the paper copy, I can write in the date or the name of an assignment and what it is I'm grading.

With attendance, I use different markings to code different things I want to keep track of.  The slash in the upper left for Johannes Brahms in the screenshot above above means there is no instrument in that student's spot on the instrument rack so I need to check attendance on Infinite Campus to see if Johannes is absent that day or if he forgot to bring his instrument that day and will need to borrow a spare.  The slash in the lower left means a student forgot to bring their orchestra folder/book.  Poor Clara Schumann is missing both her instrument and music the second week of this attendance sheet.  If I arrive to school in the morning and see that someone's instrument has been left at school all week, I write a little dot in the box (see J.S. Bach above) and then check attendance to see if they're in school that day.  If someone is absent, I draw a circle and am sure to write that student a quick email to let them know what they missed at orchestra that week.  For students who are present and have brought their instrument/music, I don't write anything.  At the end of the semester when I am entering disposition grades for Responsibility, I can look back and count exactly how many times a student hasn't brought their instrument or music to school so I am not just relying on my memory.

For grading, my district uses numbers (4=exceeds expectations, 3=meets expectations, 2=basic), and I will record grades onto this sheet and then enter them into Infinite Campus.  With playing checkup rubrics/comment sheets, I take a picture of those before handing them back to students and then transfer the numbers onto the attendance/grade sheet so it's easier to enter into IC later.  In this case, I write the headings small enough so I can fit three grades in each box to save space.

• Grade/Attendance Sheet Template (Google Form)

Feel free to make a copy and edit in a way that works for you!

Elementary Orchestra Solo/Ensemble, Part 4: Festival Day!

 

Leading up to our elementary orchestra Solo/Ensemble festival, my coworker and I are as prepared as we can be.  The schedules have been shared with students and families; folders for the adjudicators have been stuffed with the room schedule, rubrics (color-coded by elementary school and then put in order by time slot), extra blank rubrics in the back, judges copies (for the most part Orchestra Expressions books plus copies of the extra repertoire sheets), and pencils; thank you notes for the adjudicators have been written; checks for the adjudicators have been picked up; final details have been emailed to the adjudicators; and we've touched base with the custodian working that morning to make sure they are set for us.  We've printed schedules-at-a-glance for ourselves, schedules to post outside each of the sites, and schedules by school to post on the wall if anyone needs to check their time.  We've grabbed some rolls of masking tape and the laminated stack of signs that we reuse each year.  We also have a few spare instruments with us, plenty of spare music, a pile of blank intro sheets if anyone has forgotten to bring theirs and needs to write out a new one, as well as a basket with extra rosin/strings/pencils/rock stops/sponges, etc.

My district's elementary orchestra Solo/Ensemble festival takes place at the high school from 8:00 am until noon on a Saturday morning.  My coworker and I arrive by 7:00 am and get right to work setting up the space.  The cafeteria serves as the warm-up room for everyone, and then the different classrooms in the music wing plus a nearby lecture hall are the sites (four or five total sites).  The custodian sets up a folding table in each room for the adjudicator and makes sure all the rooms we need have been unlocked for us.  One of us sets up the chairs and stands and rock stops needed for each site (we've worked out ahead of time how many are needed in each room), sets out some extra chairs for audience members, distributes the folders for the adjudicators, and puts a bunch of chairs and music stands scattered around the cafeteria for students to use when they are warming up.  The other of us tapes up the laminated signs and the schedule outside of each site along with a pencil attached to a piece of yarn so we can cross off who has played as the morning progresses.  (We do not have room monitors for our event).  We're as efficient as we can be, and are usually just about finishing setting up when the adjudicators and first students arrive.

We welcome the adjudicators, show them to their rooms, and give any last-minute instructions.  Most of our adjudicators have worked with us for many years, so they know the routine!

We greet students and families as they arrive and let them know they can unpack wherever they like and can leave their coats and cases on the tables in the cafeteria.  We tune instruments and make sure students know when their time slot is and where they are going.

If a student's ensemble partner is unable to participate (or they are a no-show, which inevitably does happen in a few instances each year), we will play with them so they don't have to perform alone.  In this case, I tell the student to come grab me when they are about to go to their room and then double check which part I'm playing (and review who's giving the breath, who's going first for the round, etc.) on our way in.  I'll perform with the student, and then leave right away so I can get back to greeting families and tuning instruments while the adjudicator is working with the student.

When I see a student packing up after they're finished, I'll ask how it went and what comments the adjudicator had for them so we can chat a bit.  I'll thank them and their family for coming and wish them a good rest of the weekend.

The morning goes pretty quickly!  Before I know it, rooms are finishing up, and it's time to pull the signs off the walls, stack the chairs and stands, and get the rooms looking how they did when we arrived.  We collect all the comment sheets and sort them by school (which is easy as they are color-coded by school).

Then, before school the following Monday, I scan the comment sheets, just so I have an electronic copy for myself.  I make a photo copy of the comment sheets for any ensembles, so each ensemble partner can have their own paper copy, and then I get the comment sheets in order of when I'll be seeing the students for small groups that next week.

The laminated signs, folders for the adjudicators, pencils on yarn, and extra intro sheets go back on the shelf for another year, and paper schedules get recycled.

I also order prints of the pictures I've taken from tour week and get those posted on our "STAR Musician" wall, so students can find themselves when they drop off their instrument the next week at school.   Solo/Ensemble self-reflections have to be printed off in time for full orchestra, if they haven't already.  There's also just one more week of small groups in their "scrambled" small groups with their ensemble partners, so I also have to create the next small group schedule, if I haven't finished that yet.  It's a busy weekend, at the end of a busy unit, but well worth it!

With the self-reflections, I do jot down quick comments to what students write.  Often a star or smiley face or "Great!" or "Congrats!" or "That sounds like a great thing to keep working on" is enough, but sometimes a longer written response is needed.  It is really helpful for me to read through all the responses--I learn a lot about how a student felt about their performance when they put down their thoughts in writing, and I read responses that really need a written response from me before I hand them back.  I will also type up a list of what students say went well and include those in the weekly orchestra newsletter that next week.

See also:

Elementary Orchestra Solo/Ensemble, Part 1: Description and Additional Repertoire

Elementary Orchestra Solo/Ensemble, Part 2: Timeline and Documents

Elementary Orchestra Solo/Ensemble, Part 3: Creating the Schedule

Seating Charts

 

For full orchestra rehearsals, I put color-coded name cards on music stands so students know where to sit.  It is also easy for me to see at a glance who is missing.  I used to not create a seating chart and just try to mix up the name cards each week so students would be sitting with different stand partners and in different parts of the section until it was a few weeks before a concert and we would begin using concert seating (that I wrote out by hand).  I could also strategically place students together who would be sharing a spare instrument because they both forgot theirs that day.  After full orchestra, I would collect the name cards in order (Row 1 left to right, Row 2, Row 3, etc.), so I had that seating "preserved" until next week and could mix it up from there.  Of course, I couldn't remember which students had sat with which stand partners over the course of several weeks, so sometimes I would hear students say that they've sat with a particular person three times already and they hadn't sat with so-and-so yet.  But that system worked well enough for my purposes.

However, the pandemic arrived and changed things (to say the least).  We weren't able to hold full orchestra during the 2020-2021 school year (I videotaped myself leading "virtual" full orchestra rehearsals for students to play along with at home).  Then, once we were able to resume full orchestra rehearsals at school the following school year, teachers still needed to submit seating charts to the office in case of any contact tracing that needed to be done.  I started creating seating charts using Google Slides, color-coded, of course, by instrument and then referencing that seating chart to get the names cards in order so set-up each week was as quick and easy as possible.  I also make note of how many chairs and stands go in each row and how many are needed total.  This document is just for me--students don't need to see the seating chart; they're just looking to find their name card on their music stand when they enter the room.  It turns out that I really appreciated having a record of my seating charts and have continued to use this Google Slide method.

• Seating chart template (Google Slide)

These days, I will keep the same seating chart about three or four weeks (we have once-a-week full orchestra rehearsals) and then mix it up.  I simply duplicate the slide, add the new start date on the top, and then drag the text boxes around.  In this way, old seating charts are easily viewable and I can reference them to make sure I am changing up stand partners and where in the section students are sitting.  Again, after each full orchestra, I just collect the name cards in order, and then I am all set for the following week.  If a student is absent that day, I still put their name card on the music stand; I just cover their name card with their stand partner's name card and set out one chair instead of two for that stand.  That way the name cards stay in order when I collect them afterwards.

This template document also includes concert seating charts, when I have two orchestras sitting in one big orchestra.  I like to start concerts with the beginners in the front and the second-year players in the back, and then once the beginners' part of the concert is done, students switch places so the second-year players are in the front (basses don't move).  We end with one combined piece, and everyone stays where they are for that.  (See also: Winter Concert programming)

For concerts, instead of putting giant name cards on music stands that the audience would also see, I type up students names in seating chart order in a quick Google Doc, cut them into little strips, and then just tape them on to the stands when I set up for the concert so that only the performers can see.  When students are sitting in the back of the orchestra, waiting their turn to play, I don't assign seats for that part; I just say they have to sit with their stand partner somewhere in an empty seat.  That way, right before the concert starts, if I see any empty seats, I can ask a student who their stand partner is to know who is missing without having to consult my seating chart.  I hope it also makes it easier when it comes time to switch seats to stay with their stand partner to know where to go.  When we do switch places mid-concert, I don't want students searching for their name somewhere in the back of the orchestra; they should just find an available spot--with their stand partner (since we play one combined piece together yet).  Students who are moving toward the front of the orchestra getting ready to play should more-or-less know where they're going because it's the same location they've been in for full orchestra the last couple of weeks and can verify they've found the right spot when they see their names on their music stand.

On music stands for the concert:

5th: Name, Name

6th: Name, Name

One year, I had such big orchestras that it just wasn't feasible to ask that many students to switch places in the middle of the concert, so I had the beginners on one side and the second-year players on the other side, as shown in the third slide in the template document (and below).  The 6th grade cellos were not particularly happy to be sitting in the back, but that's what made the most sense to me with the space we had available (we share the concert with the band and choir--the choir is on the stage, and the band is set up on the gymnasium floor alongside the orchestra).

For small groups (usually about three or four students), I do not create a seating chart.  However, at the beginning of the year, I do put name cards on the music stands for the beginners during small groups while I am learning their names.  Once I am more comfortable with remembering names, I only use the name cards for full orchestra, and students can choose where they sit for small groups.

For our district-wide String Fest, where there are 200+ students in our giant elementary combined orchestra, I still draw that seating chart by hand (See String Fest Seating Chart Template for that one).

How do you like to create seating charts?  I know there are more sophisticated programs out there, but the Google Slide version works for my purposes.

Celebration!

 

A little departure from my usual sort of post.  I was checking on my blog for the first time in a couple of months and noticed I had reached 100K views!  When I started this blog nearly 10 years ago (August 24, 2015, to be exact, with the help of my sister), I had no thoughts of how many people this might someday reach; I just wanted to document the resources and bulletin boards I was creating for myself and share them out if they could be helpful to other elementary orchestra teachers as I entered my fourth year of teaching.  Teaching elementary orchestra is a pretty niche topic, so it's kind of amazing that there have been that many views (in my opinion)!

Celebrating is not something that comes easily to me--there's always a new to-do list with something that needs doing, and I don't like being the center of attention, but hitting this milestone made me take pause for a moment and reflect.  I took some time and browsed through past posts (this makes 118 posts total!) to recognize for myself all the hours of work that went into creating all the resources and posts over this last decade--gosh, that's a lot of bulletin boards and repertoire packets and arrangements!

I remarked to my sister that it's hard to comprehend that big of a number and what sort of effect these posts might have on orchestra teachers and students around the country (and world!), and she made a analogy to compound interest--sharing over time and continuing to add on a (somewhat) consistent basis leads to a lot of growth.  A ripple effect, for sure.

So, I guess my advice here is to take some time to celebrate yourself--your work, your effort over time, your achievements all add up :)

I keep a Google Doc of positive emails that I have received, but then I rarely take the time to read through them.  As part of this 100K celebration, I thought it was about time to revisit that document, and it was very touching to read through emails from parents, staff, administrators, bits from student reflections etc.--as well as comments from this blog--over the years.  Keeping those positive notes and drawings from students in a drawer or bulletin board to look back on during difficult days or storing them in one place in a digital format, like a Google Doc, is great when you could use a reminder of the positive difference you're making in the lives of so many others over the course of days and months and years.  It adds up!

Thanks all who have checked out teachingelementaryorchestra.blogspot.com over the years!  And thanks to all who have commented either on this blog or on Facebook groups for orchestra teachers that I am a member of--it means a lot!  I've even received a phone call at school from an orchestra teacher in Colorado, who tracked me down to thank me for my "Jingle Bells" arrangement--so cool!!!  

I hope you have found something on here that has given you a bit of inspiration or saved you some time or or gave you something new to think about or reaffirmed something you were already doing!  As usual, let me know if there is anything in particular you would like to see, and I will see what I can do! 

And if anyone's curious, here are the most popular posts, by total views: