Engagement Through Songs & My 15 Minutes of Fame

I'm pretty sure I've been musical since birth. I recall stories from my mom about me as a toddler playing and Elvis Presley would come on the radio or TV and I would stop what I was doing and just dance. I remember riding in my dad's car and us just rocking out to Foreigner or Toto. I have held many a car concert and getting ready in the morning usually involves some upbeat playlist. If you look at my Spotify or Amazon Music, you will find a wide variety of playlists for different moods and settings. I even recall creating my own lyrics to songs based on whatever I was doing at the time or about my pets.

Fast forward to 2018 when AnnaMarie and I got the opportunity to visit Ron Clark Academy. This had been a dream of mine for several years. That's definitely another blog post for another day, but know that it is amazing and if you ever had the chance to visit, jump on it!

One of the many things we learned there was how to keep student engagement high through chants and content songs. We were 100% into it! Before we even got back to school, we were writing our first content based song. Since then we've written songs about comparing fractions, class mission statements, prime numbers and many more! Our students have even gotten involved. The key is embedding as much content into the song as possible and put the lyrics to popular songs that the kids know. My favorite part is when my students tell me that I've "ruined" their favorite song because they can no longer sing the old lyrics, only the ones we sing in class!

Click here to listen to our classes sing the nutrition song

So, what does all this have to do with my being famous? Well, when the coronavirus shut our school down, I decided to write a song about it. Another teacher submitted my video to a local news station and they interviewed me for a segment called "Teachers Getting Results." The story, linked here, aired and for a couple of days I actually did feel kind of famous. That fame has since died down, but my love for music is still going strong. My hope is that I can inspire other teachers to connect with their students through music.

Have you used music to connect with and engage your students? I'd love to hear your ideas!

Love you bunches,
Diana :)

Keeping Connections Alive During the Corona Crisis

What I miss the most about school is seeing kids enjoy books! Earlier this year, I started something to help build relationships with students and foster a love of reading: every other week I would go to the public library and hand select a book for each of my students based on their interests. Sometimes the books were a hit, sometimes they were a flop, but I gave them permission to abandon any book they weren’t into and let them know that I view reading as fun and that this was a way for me to get to know them better and to help them find the fun in reading.

Through this process, what I found is that my students didn’t hate reading, they just weren’t reading the right books and that having someone hand select one for them lets them know someone cares about them and their reading life. It grew to be a great bonding moment for my class, they would swap books, give me requests and make recommendations to others. It was beautiful.
And then came Covid-19. I was feeling kind of helpless and lost with these new changes so I took some time to reflect on what would bring me joy and help me stay connected to my kids. Books had always been something that connected us but with school and libraries closed, I knew my students weren’t getting the opportunities to read like they had been. Only half of them have a device to use to read online (most of them sharing with siblings) so I thought I would start a virtual book drive. Here’s how I did it:
I went to amazon and created a wishlist for each student, I titled the wishlist by student number
I selected 3 books I thought they would enjoy and added them to the wishlist
I entered each student’s address into the wish list under the name “Alexander Student #1” so all confidential information would remain private
I created a document that told a little about each of the students and housed links to their specific list
I shared the document and lists with family and friends, and in a matter of days, all my students had been “sponsored”

Then the fun part began! Students started receiving their books and boy were they excited! The texts and videos started rolling in. They were so happy to get new books, tailored to their interests. They were even reading them over spring break (be still my teacher heart)!

One of Diana's students sent her a video to thank her for the books.

If you’re missing your students and feeling lost without the constant connection, I encourage you to reflect on ways you can continue to build relationships with them. Think back on what made your relationship with them so special and unique. They’re missing you too and while nothing will replace the classroom connection you shared everyday, maybe there’s something you can do to bring that love and magic back to this school year.

Be Kind and Grow Your Mind, 

AnnaMarie