Erin Emery-Dumas

Something that I didn’t utilize during my first year of teaching, but have found IMMENSELY useful this year is a classroom management plan/handbook. Of course I had routines and procedures during my first year, but having it written down has given it a sort of validity that I didn’t find right away. I have attached a copy of my handbook below, but I removed any private work information (such as student names, contact info, etc.) in order to protect myself and my kiddos.

Something I’d like to add next year is a section regarding my schedule within each class. For example, I start with a hello song, but everything after that is relatively random. I think it would be helpful for both me and my students if there was a little more routine throughout each lesson. For example, if I am following the lesson plans in John Feierabend’s First Steps in Music, it always goes in this order:

• Pitch Exploration (Vocal Warm-Up)
• Song Fragments (Echo Songs/Call and Response)
• Simple Songs
• Arioso “I speak like this, I sing like this”
• Movement Exploration (Movement Warm-Up)
• Movement for Form and Expression
• Beat Motions
• SongTales

I feel like having this order somewhere visible to the students would be very helpful, and it would also keep me on track! Once I type up a slide for that, I will be adding it into my handbook.

If you have any ideas of things to add to my classroom management plan, please leave a comment or contact me directly! I’d love to hear what you have to say.