NAfME collegiate advisor
Ideas on Building Positive School Culture Jacki Thering, WMEA State Chair, NAfME Collegiate Advisor
As we begin the new school year, I’d like to offer a few thoughts on building positive school cul- ture in and out of the classroom. I teach fifth and sixth grade orchestra at two ele- mentary schools, so I
work directly only with a small percentage of the students at my schools. However, I want to interact and build connections with the entire school community, both because it’s good for students to have a network of trusted adults at school and because I hope that having an existing relationship with students will make them more likely to choose to participate in orchestra once they reach fifth grade.
I make a point to be out in the hallway greeting students each morning. I help orchestra students check the small group schedule posted outside the door, have some extra one-on-one conversations with students as they drop off instruments, and say good morning to all the students who walk by the orchestra room on their way to class. This year, I’d like to be on a first- name basis with more students, so I plan to study the yearbook and to make more of an effort to ask students I’m chatting with to remind me of their names. This small habit of being present during arrival (and in the afternoon as students are leaving for the day) helps all students to feel welcome and included in our school community.
A tradition I’ve started at my schools to help build positive school culture is to play
“Happy Birthday” on my violin for any teachers or staff members celebrating a birthday on a given day. Sometimes it can be challenging to find a few free minutes to travel across the school in search of that specific staff member, but it is always rewarding. I’ll ask students if they’ve sung for their teacher yet that day, and then I’ll play again with everyone singing. This gesture always brings a smile to the recipi- ent’s face, and I’ve gotten comments from several coworkers that they had never been serenaded on the violin before and that my musical message really meant a lot to them. Unfortunately, I’m not at both schools every day, so I’m not able to catch everyone, but I can at least send an email to those teachers I miss wishing them a happy birthday. Also, there are simply too many students to be able to honor all the students at my schools, but I do play for orchestra students in class if it’s their birthday on their orchestra day. And students have figured it out – when they see me in the hallway carrying my violin, they ask whose birthday it is!
In the orchestra room, I have a wall space with the heading “Check out these STAR musicians!” where I hang up pictures of orchestra students playing their instru- ments as well as student compositions (the mascot at one of my schools is a star). I take pictures during small groups a few times during the year and make sure that all students have a picture of themselves displayed. They love finding themselves on the wall, and my goal is that seeing themselves with their instrument will help to self-identify as a musician. At the end of the school year, each student receives a
photo from me with a personalized inscrip- tion on the back as a memento of their time in orchestra that year, too.
Something newer to my teaching practice is keeping track of the positive, personal emails I’ve sent home to families. I record the student’s name and what I recognized the student for: memorizing a piece, volunteering to lead the scale warm-up, figuring out how to play a melody by ear, etc. By committing to write a quick email when I notice a student really shining or making progress on something specific, I was able to make that connection with families of nearly all of my students last year. I will be aiming for 100 percent this year! I already send a weekly orchestra email that shares what we did in orches- tra that week, any upcoming dates to be aware of, and what the practice assignment is, but a personal email to recognize the work of an individual student is a great way to build connections and community between home and school.
As music teachers, we are in a special position to make positive connections with our students and to build positive school culture. I’m sure all teachers, from pre- service teachers to the most experienced, already do a lot! It can be helpful to take a step back once in a while and examine what we already do in this area and how we can become even more intentional in our teaching practice.
Jacki Thering teaches fifth and sixth grade orchestra at Orchard Lane and Elmwood Elementary Schools in New Berlin. Email:
jacki.thering@
nbexcellence.org
~Jacki Thering
Color code handouts or small group schedules etc. by instrument or ensemble or school for easy organization.
36 September 2018
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