Teaching Music Tomorrow - with Anne Mileski and Victoria Boler

Today on the podcast, Anne & Victoria continue the conversation on how to successful scaffold movement or a game-like activity in the elementary music classroom with “play parties.” Anne share “The Old Brass Wagon” and how she uses it for a movement vocabulary builder, adaptable to many different circumstances and grade levels. Victoria shares how to scaffold “Alabama Gal” in a way that allows...

Today on the podcast, Anne & Victoria break down how to teach a singing game or activity with your students. We discuss what things to think about when teaching a song for a game, how to scaffold gameplay so that students understand their jobs, and possible extensions for these games and activities for assessment, instruments, and beyond! Thank you for listening! Visit our website here to list...

Today on the podcast, Anne & Victoria are talking more about rote song singing. We’re tying up a couple of loose ends from last week’s episode, and sharing two new songs and how we’d teach them by rote to children for the first time. We discuss a “line-by-line” or “my turn, your turn” sequence for the simplest way to teach a song by rote, as well as discuss the element of form with both “ Let...

On this episode of Teaching Music Tomorrow, Anne & Victoria start at the very beginning: how do we teach a song by rote? If we are going to have a predominantly singing classroom, how do we effectively sequence singing a new song for our students? Listen in for tips, tricks, and a whole lot of discussion on how to teach a song. Thank you for listening! Visit our website here to listen to or wa...

In the conclusion of today’s three part melodic arranging discussion, Anne & Victoria round out the ideas we’ve explored throughout the past couple of episodes. We open the episode with a discussion about what it really means to arrange, vs. having a melodic arrangement and how student choice and action is a big part of both. Victoria shares a sequence for introducing partner songs to students...

In today’s part 2 of a three part series, Anne & Victoria talk about the next level of melodic arranging, in a way that allows for student agency and voice (pun intended). This episode is focused on models of melodic arranging that start specifically with singing and then allow for opportunities to expand to barred instruments or beyond. Anne shares a way to take the same song and activity fro...

In today’s episode, we’re continuing on the arranging conversation, this time diving into all things melodic arranging. We start the episode with a conversation about why this might feel challenging to both you as the teacher-facilitator, as well as your students, and what makes melodic arranging a bit of a different animal than rhythmic arranging. (If you haven’t listened to the three part series...

In today’s conclusion of our three-part deep dive, Anne and Victoria share two cumulative experiences that will incorporate all of the skills we have talked about thus far. These three episodes have truly built on one another to show how you can start small, add the simplest layer and guide students toward independent musicianship skills. Anne shares how to take the different layers we’ve discusse...

In this second episode of a three-part deep dive, Anne and Victoria outline two actionable sequences for upleveling rhythmic arranging with your students. You might be surprised about what we consider “level 2” for arranging with your students, and it puts a lot less pressure on the teacher than you probably think. Anne shares how to take the song Apple Tree and continue along the arranging spectr...

In this first episode of a two-part deep dive, Anne and Victoria outline two actionable sequences for starting the process of rhythm arranging with young musicians. Anne shares a layered arranging activity with the song, Apple Tree. Victoria shares a movement-based arranging activity with the rhyme, Zapatitos Blancos. Both activities encourage students to experiment with rhythmic durations in a fo...

Last week on the podcast, we shared a couple of easy to implement rhythmic reading ideas. In that episode, we talked about how rhythmic reading is multifaceted and not a straight forward description. The layers of “reading” are only compounded when we add in melody, or pitches, to reading activities. Today, Victoria shares an activity for identifying melodic patterns in well known folk songs as we...

Reading can be used as a one-and-done activity on its own, or we can use it as the launch-point and facilitator of many other musical skills like memorization, arranging and part-work. Today on the podcast, Victoria and Anne share two reading activities you can use tomorrow.  Anne’s game, “Clever Caterpillar,” can be found on her TPT store here . Victoria’s rhyme, “Pin Pin Jarabín” is sourced from...

Steady beat is the foundation for all musical skill building. Today on the podcast, Victoria and Anne are talking about all the different ways we experience steady beat in our classrooms, and best practices to consider when thinking about steady beat activities. Today on the podcast, Anne & Victoria share two of their favorite tried and true activities for steady beat. Anne shares “Umpi the Fr...

Early childhood music is full of vocal development opportunities and explorations. Whether we are talking about exploring higher vs. lower, echo singing, or pitch matching, giving adequate time and care to developing and discovering the singing voice is one of the most important musical foundational skills.   Today on the podcast, Anne & Victoria share a couple activities for vocal develo...

The concept of fast and slow is one of the earliest foundational concepts we introduce to our students. In the land of comparatives, it’s one of the most accessible for our young musicians, because they have so much gross locomotor experience moving fast. The discrimination between learning slow and fast is an important scaffold for talking about tempi and note durations later on in music learning...

Part-singing is one of the most integral parts of the general elementary music classroom. Rounds are an important part of a part-work sequence, but are not the first experience or even the most accessible way to explore part work for beginners. Today Anne & Victoria talk about how to use rounds in a lesson, an appropriate sequence for teaching these activities, and some tips and tricks to make...

Elemental Form is one of the most basic ways to break down music in the elementary music classroom. Whether we are talking about singing, movement, or any other mode of music making, we use elemental form every single day in our lessons. From introducing new song material to scaffolding for students’ creative choice, elemental form is not only a concept on our curriculum roadmap, but a tool for st...

Ostinati seem like one of those simple things that appears on our elementary general music curriculum “to do” list. However, ostinati are definitely not a “one and done” game. As a matter of fact, they're an important part of our music making process that allows students to exhibit their own independent musicianship while also making creative choices. Today Anne & Victoria are talking about wa...

When you think about the many different modes of music making we use in the elementary general music classroom, you may not immediately think about speech. However, like singing, speaking is an important first step (and beyond!) for all musicians to explore comparatives, creativity, and expression. Today Anne & Victoria are talking about speech pieces they use in their classrooms. Victoria is...

Picture books are one of the most powerful tools you can use in your elementary music classroom. Aside from bringing in cross-curricular connections from kids’ grade level classrooms, or “singing a story” (which we love!), there are many ways to incorporate books into the music room that promote active music making and learning with our students. Today Anne & Victoria are talking about two boo...

Today Anne & Victoria are talking about some good, drag and drop activities with body percussion. We’re starting with the basics, whether you’re looking to work with early elementary students or older beginners, so that you can incorporate creative music making using body percussion no matter what grade, class, or concept you are teaching. Thank you for listening! Make sure to click subscribe...

Movement can be a scary word. Although it’s embedded in our music making and our music classrooms, finding opportunities to engage our students in purposefully creative movement can leave us feeling overwhelmed and intimidated. So what do we do? We find ways to simply build upon what we are already doing. Today Anne & Victoria are talking about the first steps you can take toward facilitating...

If you’ve heard Anne & Victoria talk about assessment before, you have probably heard the words: “active,” “embedded,” “part of the process,” and “observational data,” among other things. But what does that actually look like in practice? What does it mean to be consistently and efficiently taking in observational data when you are in the middle of teaching your music class, and you only have...

What do you do when you look up at the clock and realize you’ve flown through your lesson plan… and you don’t have anything else left to do that day? What happens next? How do you keep the kids meaningfully engaged while still filling the gaps and transition out of a meaningful music lesson? We’re sharing two activities that can be completely adapted to any grade level, for any lack of time. Anne...