Debbie Gray - These Tricks Are for Kids: Tricks of the Trade for Teachers of Elementary Music!

THESE
TRICKS ARE
FOR KIDS!

T RICKS of THE T RADE

for T EACHERS of Elementary Music!

A few ideas that might make your work a little easier and definitely,

a lot more fun!

Debbie Gray

Debbie welcomes comments about her work at

www.debbieonthewebbie.com

2004 Debbie Gray

All Rights Reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 11/03/04

ISBN: 1-4184-8124-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4685-1354-7 (ebk)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2004095481

Printed in the United States of America

Bloomington, Indiana

Contents

These Tricks Are For Kids is far more than a book for beginning music teachers. You dont have to be a Veterinarian to enjoy All Things Bright and Beautiful and you dont have to be a teacher to find many wise and useful tricks collected and revealed in Debbie Grays entertaining book. Like her performances, the manuscript has energy, polish, and fun. Parents, camp leaders, anyone who works with children or adults will find fascinating stories, thoughtful quotations, and fun techniques. Be warned: there are a few experiences recounted that may change you.

~ Randy Peterson, parent

These Tricks Are For Kids is not only an excellent resource for a music educator but for all classroom teachers. Debbie Grays TRICKS are not merely suggestions or ideas, but tried and true methods that she uses daily in her own classroom. Her sassy, smart, honest and inspiring TRICKS are very much a reflection of her teaching. She is a true master of music education and her words are noteworthy to anyone perfecting their skill.

~ Katie Britt, educator

Debbie Gray is a person who has inspired, taught, and helped me through some of the hardest times of my life. She has not only inspired me , but hundreds of other students who have passed through her music room over the years. She gives it to you like it is and is respected for just that. She is the Worlds Teacher, leading many young people into the future with something to look forward to each day. And, if at age 21 and over a decade after having Mrs.Gray as m y music teacher, I still visit her on my days off from college, then something has inspired me for the long-haul; some one has inspired me that some one is Debbie Gray!

~ Bobby Kerr, former student & drummer for AXIOM

Tricks is great reading! Even though the main audience is music educators, the thoughts and ideas are universally applicable.....very fun, thought provoking, and her writing motivates reflection! Its a great piece of work!

~ Mary Franco, educator

I enjoyed reading Debbie Grays book as much as I enjoy walking into her classroom. Sometimes I come back early from my plan period just to slip into the room and watch the children delight in the experiences they have in her music room. Tricks of the Trade may have been written for music teachers, but the ideas for classroom management could be successfully used in any classroom that has a caring, enthusiastic, loving teacher. This would be a great gift book for any new teacher and has so many ideas that even some experienced teachers could find a wealth of techniques to explore to make teaching and learning fun.

~ Melanie Caywood, teacher

This whole project blossomed about seven years ago. I started jotting down random ideas during class that I wanted to remember to share with my student teachers and music education students doing their field observation with me. I made sure each had a copy of my list and continued writing things down as they came to mind. Several of these former student teachers, now successful music teachers, inspired me to turn my suggestions into a book. As I began assembling the additions, I realized my ideas were melding into clearly defined categories pertaining to extracurricular duties, discipline, motivation, lesson planning and presentation, classroom appearance, performances, and random TRICKS of the trade. Now, here I am nearly a decade later, offering a handbook so you can apply some of these ideas. Hopefully, youll also be entertained along the way.

We teachers spend a staggering amount of time dissecting our motives, our methods, and our madness. Sharing ideas with our professional peers is a great way to evaluate our programs, our progress, and especially ourselves. For those of you who are new to the profession, this book is a great way to get off on the right foot and will prove to be a good, reliable resource throughout your career. For those of you who have been teaching awhile, you already appreciate the importance of trying different things that have worked for someone else, the value of sharing information, and the growth that comes in making changes. For those of you who, like me, have been teaching forever and a day , please write a book I can read!

Someone once said,

We typically dont change until the cost of staying the same
exceeds the cost of change.

This book is full of suggestions for change: change in your classroom appearance, change in your attitude toward music education, kids, and teaching, change in the way you discipline, and maybe even change in the way you present lessons. Change can feel weird. Sometimes change IS weird. And even the suggestion of change can cause fluctuations in our spirit and disposition because change isnt necessarily easy. Nevertheless, change is worth considering.

If you can be patient as you peruse these pages, wade through the warped wit, rummage for some randomness you havent realized yet, and keep an open mind so youre not too timid to try some new TRICKS, there are bound to be two, ten, twelve, or twenty worthwhile tidbits to tune up your teaching techniques! (I knowI knowbut alliteration is totally too tempting to omit .)

I have no doubt that some of you, while reading this book thats abundant with assorted approaches, are going to think, Sheeshthis Debbie Gray character is just totally WEIRD! Others of you are going to think, Wowwhat a COOL IDEA! or I never thought of that ! Whatever your perception, I want you to know, Im not attempting to sculpt you into my likeness. I realize there are many factors that could potentially create a chasm between my TRICKS and your trade. We may differ in our thoughts, methodology, feelings, beliefs, and abilities on at least some of the issues at least some of the time. But, when you salvage one miniscule shred of inspiration, get a glimpse of some silly new fun that you and your kids can have in class, adopt any new approaches, use a performance idea or two, personalize a goal, write a few more letters, have some good verbiage for recommendation letters, avoid a crisis, or sponge the smallest element of classroom management encouragement from it, These Tricks Are For Kids will be a worthwhile investment for you, in both time and money.

SOWHATS WORTHWHILE ?

werth-hwil\ adj: sufficiently valuable to justify the investment

of time or interest.

~ Rhymezone

werth-hwil\ adj: being worth the time or effort spent.

~ Merriam-Webster

In order to be good at what we do, we must determine what is worthwhile - that is, how and where we invest our time, money, and energy. Teachers have so many different audiences to reach all with incredibly different needs, learning styles, abilities, concerns, worries, backgrounds, demands, cultures, socio-economic roots, expectations, attitudes, limitations, and opinions. You are bound to feel bombarded and overwhelmed by it all. I still do, even after all these years. But you will, with time as your friend, gradually discover your limitations, your strengths, your needs, what is worthwhile, and what is a waste. As you travel through these pages, you might think you know which of these TRICKS will work for you. You may deem others worthy only of occupying pages better put to use as doodle art by filling in letters that have vacant centers. (The Sunday morning church bulletin has been a reliable color-in-the-letters fidget-fixer for me for as far back as I can remember!) But I urge you to step out of your comfort zone and give something different a try. You can always abandon it, but if you dont try, youll never know.