Productivity in the Music Classroom

Productivity in the Music Classroom

Introduction

It is sometimes said that a clean desk is the sign of a teacher with too little to do.  If I am anything like the typical music educator then I would argue that I have plenty to do!  Not only do I struggle with keeping my desk clear, I often feel that it is an uphill battle just to reclaim my work space - let alone get everything I need to done.  There is a section of my desk that is dedicated to "things that need done now" - and often it tends to grow like a parasite as I slowly whittle my way through my to do list.  Part of my struggle is practical: I have 25 minutes of planning period during the typical day (unless you count travel time between school buildings as planning time - which some might!) which means I often find myself staying an hour or more after school just catching up with what needs done today.  Please note - this is not a complaint!  I tell people often how I am blessed to have the best students in the school.  After all, most band students are not required to be in band - they elect to.  It is a blissful thought as a music educator that my students are there because they want to be.

Productivity

So how does one go about organizing/optimizing their productivity in the classroom.  In a recent post, I blogged about one tool: OneNote for Teachers.  This program is available for download to any computer, tablet or smartphone and can help to streamline the teaching process.  The very existence of this program demonstrates a need that many teachers have in the classroom - efficient and expedient execution of their many tasks.  Technology has played an increasingly important role in helping to ease tasks so that teachers may focus more on teaching music.  The two most fundamental aspects I face in my classroom are calendar keeping and taskmaster systems.

My approach to calendar keeping has until recently been a non-interactive, digital calendar.  A publisher document or PDF, this calendar has mostly existed digitally so that it is conveniently downloadable but not editable to the viewer.  While to me this is the quicker calendar to produce upfront, it is not ultimately the best method since a fully interactive and sync-able calendar would be more appropriate to embrace the modern technology with which most of us interact.  Because of that, I am currently working on Google Calendar for the first time in creating the fall marching band calendar.  While this will be a powerful tool for my students (and parents and community members) to interact with, I believe that the strongest and most appealing reason to embrace this technology is the ability to update at will and have that instantly known to all who have access to the calendar.  The largest potential pitfall I can see with this technology is not advertising everywhere our students are going to be to the world - this mostly a concern out of an abundance of caution rather than any imminent threats.  While this is a legitimate concern worthy of consideration, I do not anticipate widely broadcasting the availability of our calendar past the people who would need access to it.

The second, and more daily interactive tool with which I work is a task management system.  Again, up until recently this has been a sticky note system for me - which isn't to say that that is an invalid system.  However, with at-home work becoming a real and frequent option - having even something as simple as a digital notepad - such as Apple's "Notes" has become a great benefit to me.  Since I have a school issued iPad synced with my phone, it is easy for me to take notes in "Notes" and have it carried around with me in my pocket.  This instant, permanent sticky note is a great way to digitize what I already do with pen and paper.  My favorite streamlined tool for productivity has proven to be Splashtop.  This app has been required of us by our school for iPad since we became a 1:1 district in 2011.  The app itself is essentially a digital mirroring app capable of providing remote access to a computer.  After initially getting the basic level of the app and using it to become mobile in my classroom, I eventually elected to upgrade to the medium level of the app in order to have "offsite" access to my computer.  In addition, I was able to download Splashtop to my laptop at home.  Here is one such scenario where I was able to quickly and efficiently do something that would normally take hours:

In my study hall (not in the band room), I found myself needing a Finale music file from my laptop at home.  Using my iPad, I was able to get on my home laptop (miles away in my living room) and attach the file to an e-mail.  Since I was unable to leave my study hall, I was then able to remotely access my school computer (down the hallway), open the e-mail attachment and print it to the copy machine right across the hallway.  In the matter of 5 minutes, I was able to access a document on my home laptop's hard drive and have it printed out at school for use during the next period.  This sort of accessibility is remarkable considering just a few years ago it would have been time and resource consuming to try to access that sort of connectivity.

Finding what works

The most critical element of getting organized in your classroom is finding what works for you and what you will stick to.  No matter how many bells and whistles a new program has, if you don't find yourself using it then it won't work for you!  If you are struggling with maximizing your productivity, then you should try a system for a set amount of time (maybe 2 weeks) and then gauge how effective it was for you and whether you should keep it or discard.  This sort of intentional setup will help you with increasing efficiency, reducing stress and streamlining your workflow.

OneNote in the Music Classroom

Microsoft OneNote for Teachers

As a Surface Pro 3 user, one of the powerful tools at my disposal is Microsoft's OneNote.  While I have used it for personal use (particularly for taking quick notes), it is a powerful resource for use in the classroom as well.  It is important to note that OneNote is not just for Microsoft hardware users, but it must be downloaded by most non-Microsoft devices since it is not a native program for them.

This post specifically addresses the use of OneNote for Teachers as a high potential resource for classroom educators.   One of my biggest struggles in the classroom is managing all of the different aspects of teaching in a myriad of locations.  It is often the case that I use multiple platforms for different needs.  Most of my administrative work happens with Office documents/Google Docs/Google Drive while my gradebook is managed in ProgressBook.  My classroom lessons (the ones involving technology) typically use websites or Google Classroom.  Communications happen mostly through e-mail, texting and website posts - so there are a number of different platforms in which I tend to operate on a daily basis.

A Multitasker

Microsoft OneNote for Teachers is one platform that is designed specifically to streamline the many platforms educators typically juggle with.  The ability to integrate highly personalized and interactive lesson plans into the program itself, along with connected grading, e-mail, easy linking and cross-platform connectivity is a powerful tool on in an educator's belt.  On OneNote's website, they even show a video with examples from a biology classroom, music classroom and geography classroom.  The music classroom piqued my interest for obvious reasons, but more so because of the built in ability to add audio or annotations.  This is a critical point for me, since I often like to walk my students from point to point in my lessons allowing them to engage with the material in a meaningful way at each point.  This sort of "guided tour" curricular model would be particularly powerful with differentiation and pacing in the classroom.

Here is a screenshot from the tutorial demonstrating the music lesson and annotation abilities with embedded audio interaction:

And here is the tutorial video for creating an interactive lesson such as this.

Another advantage of this sort of program is the ability to provide enrichment to each student that is more customized to them.  The interactive lesson concept allows students who might struggle to pace themselves more slowly while the students who have mastered the concept can move ahead.  The teacher could provide additional materials at the "end goal" of the lesson that could help to solidify/reinforce what was taught during the lesson.

This above example is just one way that OneNote for Teachers could be used in the classroom, but I encourage you to go to this website for further reading!