Sometimes it is helpful to zoom out and look at the entire school year for planning purposes. Here is a collection of resources/blog posts with the whole school year in mind:
Check out the Contents page for a list of all my blog posts, organized by category.
For context, I teach first- and second-year orchestra students at two elementary schools.
I keep a document where I keep track which years/months I post my different hallway bulletin boards, and I thought it might be helpful to see them sorted by month. My beginning-of-the-year bulletin board tends to stay up until winter break if it's a year when I don't put up the bow hold bulletin board; then second semester I'll change it each month or so. Some I use every year (Birthday/Music for Life/Music In Our Schools Month/End-of-Year Recruiting), some I alternate every-other year (the two January bulletin boards), some I try to rotate between several before repeating one (beginning-of-the-year bulletin boards), and some I've maybe only used once or twice.
What other bulletin board ideas might I add to the mix?
SEPTEMBER/BEGINNING OF THE YEAR/SEMESTER 1
OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER/WINTER CONCERT
JANUARY
FEBRUARY
MARCH
APRIL
MAY/JUNE/END OF YEAR
ANY TIME (or could be timed to special events--Career Day?)
YEAR-ROUND (in classroom)
I have been wanting another way to look at the repertoire I have taught in past years, organized by unit or by concert. I had always been keeping track of past repertoire, but it was just a long list in a Google Doc format, and I would have to scan through the whole thing (or do Ctr + F to find a specific piece) each time I was looking for something. This new document groups pieces by unit--during which part of the year this piece could be taught or for which concert it could be performed.
There are so many pieces out there for beginning orchestra, but for it to work in my teaching situation, it would have to fit in a specific slot depending on what has been taught by that time in the year and it would have to help provide a balance between different time periods, styles, parts of the world, composers, etc. that students are studying throughout the course of the year. Please see this blog post for a sample winter concert and spring concert program for first- and second-year orchestra students along with a list and explanation of the different "slots" I try to fill with my repertoire selections.
In my district, we have a winter band/orchestra/choir concert in December, our district-wide String Fest field trip and concert at the end of January, and a spring band/orchestra/choir concert in May. In February, once String Fest is over and we are into our Solo/Ensemble unit, beginners will start their first very simple full orchestra piece (often just two parts), while second-year students will learn a full orchestra piece that may or may not be performed on the spring concert--students will get to vote from a few options they've been studying later in the year.
Anyway, I went ahead and created a Google Sheet, organized more-or-less chronologically through the school year, with both first-year (5th grade) and second-year (6th grade) orchestra represented. Titles in each category are listed in alphabetical order, with links to the publisher's website (or to a different blog post for my arrangements). The last column allows me to track when I've last taught each piece too.
As always, feel free to make a copy and update as you like! Which other pieces would you recommend I check out?
