👀 What’s Inside This Newsletter:
- 🎧 Trench Tales: Why I’m wearing earplugs like a rockstar.
- ⛳️ Game of the Month: The "Around the World" card trick.
- 💡 Literacy Tip: Why we need to teach song titles.
- 📚 Resource Spotlight: 101 Folk Songs (with lyrics!)
- 👟 Freebie: My "Concert Etiquette" Slide Deck.
Why I Wear Earplugs at Lunch 🥪
Ooof! I’ve spent most of my career as a traveling teacher...
But now I’m on one campus with two buildings.
This means a new adventure for the first time in my life: Lunch Duty.
Let me tell you: nothing prepares you for the decibel level of a cafeteria at full roar.
I now wear earplugs like I’m headed to a Metallica concert! 🤘
To manage the chaos, I’ve trained my assigned tables to communicate with me in sign language when they need water or a bathroom break.
I actually use sign language in my music classroom too—mainly because if I get interrupted verbally, I lose my train of thought so fast it qualifies as a natural disaster!
⛳️ The Game Your Students Will Beg For
Once I recover from the cafeteria, I like to get my students focused with a game.
The absolute best and most versatile game inside is called "Around the World."
All it takes is a few minutes and some index cards to get started.
Why does this work so well?
I started my music literacy journey realizing students struggled to recall the names of symbols on the page.
I made a set of cards for my Suzuki groups, and the obsession began. We had to play it at the end of every class for years! (I think I had about 100 cards by the end!).
🔥 The Secret Sauce:
- Well, students love games (of course!)
- More advanced player can lose to a younger student and that makes the game unpredictable
- The next level of colored cards and would work really hard to get to the more advanced levels
You can get this game + 9 others for FREE below 👇
10 Most Amazing Music Games!
Each game comes with:
- 🎬 Video guides
- 🧩 Game play
- 📝 Assessment tips
- 🎁 And more!
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🧠 Check-In: What's in a Name?
We teach the notes, but do we teach the title?
I recently learned that reading teachers spend significant time analyzing book titles—searching for clues, history, and context. I realized I had been assuming my music students just "knew" this stuff.
Let’s look at Mary Had A Little Lamb:
- Did you know it was a poem written by John Roulstone in 1815?
- It’s about a real event involving Mary Sawyer in Massachusetts.
- Ask your students: "How old is this song?" or "Do you know what a fleece actually is?"
I wish more band and orchestra method books included lyrics for folk songs—it's such an integral piece of learning!
🌟 Resource Spotlight: Stop Hunting for Lyrics
Since most method books leave the lyrics out, I decided to fix the problem myself.
If you want to try this "context-first" approach in your next class without spending hours on Google, check out my book 101 Folk Songs from Around the World.
I specifically designed this to be the "grab-and-go" resource I wish I had:
(Side note: I think it is time for a name change... too many "Around the Worlds" in my library! 🌍)
101 Folk Songs from Around the World
✅ Includes Lyrics: No more guessing the words or searching online.
✅ Cultural Context: Perfect for discussing the "Who, Where, and When" of the music.
✅ Versatile: Great for sight-reading, warm-ups, or cultural deep dives.
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Teacher Tidbit: Concert Season Survival
⚠️ Reality Check: Do you have comfortable concert shoes?
If not, consider this your sign to invest in footwear that won’t make you question your career choices mid-performance! 👟
My students always need a refresher on why we wear black and how to behave, so I created a slide presentation we review before every show.
Full disclosure: One of my high schoolers insisted we make the presentation more “sick.” The result? A slide on "What to wear if you’re in a cult." 🤣
(Don’t worry… strictly educational. Probably. And depending on the group, I often skip that slide!)
Enjoy! Here’s a copy of the presentation in case you’d like to take a look!👇
🎵 To send you off on a high note:
"The fact that children can make beautiful music is less significant than the fact that music can make beautiful children."
Cheryl Lavender
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To great teaching and great tunes!
- Lyda Osinga
