MusicBox Education

🎻 I Wanted to Rest, But Then This Happened… Greetings! I hope you are all resting, recovering, and resetting after a long school year. (Personally, I think I slept for an entire week!) While winding down, I realized I have a new summer project that I’m incredibly excited to share with my orchestra colleagues! 🪐 Rest, Reset, and... Rocket Ships? Between the regular concert and the Story Concert, I only had two class times with my elementary students which is not enough to get some new music...

A Fun End-of-Year Concert Idea + An Easy Way to Collect Instruments! 🎻 👀 What’s Inside This Newsletter: 🎻 The Sane Teacher’s Guide: A brilliant way for collecting end-of-year instruments. 📚 The Story Framework: How to extend your concert without piling on extra repertoire. 🪐 Behind the Music: A sneak peek at my quirky new "Planet Songs" for beginning strings. 🍪 A Stress-Free Instrument Inventory Hack Do you dread the annual scramble to get students to return their instruments at the end of...

May Lesson Plans: Done For You! ✅ ⚡️ The May Survival Kit: The Icons: Hook them with Nintendo, Ghibli, and Game of Thrones. The 5-Minute Flip: A "Listen-First" hack for deep engagement. The Toolbox: 10 free folk songs + the best site for General Music. 🎹 AAPI Heritage Month: The Names They Know Don’t fight for attention this May—use the composers your students already hear every day. Bridging the gap between "Screen Time" and "Class Time" is your fastest way to engagement. The Legends: Koji...

🎤 Why My Students Are Rapping Shel Silverstein... 👀 What’s Inside This Newsletter: 🎶 Why the "April Crunch" caught me off guard 🕺🏻 My Middle School Hip Hop unit (starring Shel Silverstein) 🔓 [EXCLUSIVE] Live Strategy Session 🎶 Confessions of a Tired Conductor Greetings! I’m on break this week—and I definitely need it (as I’m sure we all do!). I’ll be honest: my concert is next week, and while I usually feel confident heading into a performance... this time feels different. Here are the three...

202+ Composers. One Design. Zero Chaos. And 50% Off! 🎼 Greetings Reader! What if your classroom walls—and your screens—reflected the rich, diverse world of music your students actually live in? I created the 202+ Composers All-Year Bundle to be a powerful, unified resource designed to celebrate diverse representation while keeping your classroom decorations clean, cohesive, and inspiring. 🖼️ One Beautiful Design. Every Composer Belongs. Instead of separating musicians by style or background,...

🎻 Need a "Friday Break" Lesson Plan? 👀 What’s Inside This Newsletter: 💡 The Friday Pivot: How to handle post-field trip burnout. 🤺 The Musketeer Composer: Why Joseph Bologne is the legend your students need to know. 💤 Front-Row Nappers: A "Tale from the Trenches" about concert etiquette. 🎁 The Resource Vault: Slides, interviews, and performances to share. 💡 Teaching Tip: The "Friday Pivot" Greetings, fellow music makers! We had a full week of field trips to various symphony concerts, and by...

An Unexpected Concern in the Principal's Office AI is really nailing it! 👀 What’s Inside This Newsletter: 🔥 The Principal’s Office: A surprise meeting about a holiday classic. 🔎 Hidden Histories: Why "Jingle Bells" and "Miss Mary Mack" aren’t what they seem. 🙅♀️ Drawing the Line: Navigating parent concerns and cultural sensitivity in the classroom. 🎁 Black History Month Gift: A special February/April bundle for subscribers. Today was an interesting day. . . I received an email from our head...

🤦♀️ Those "Horrible Numbers" That Caused an Absolute Uproar 👀 What’s Inside This Newsletter: 🎻 The "Violins of Hope": A powerful lesson in history and middle school 🍱 A Taste of the World: Why diversity in our repertoire matters more than ever 🐧 The Penguin Dilemma: How I try to represent continent (mostly) 🗓️ Resolutions & Resources: My plan for more visual exploration this year 🤦♀️ Those Horrible Numbers You can always tell who the school teachers are—and who are the musicians are that...

🛒 I Can’t “Stand” It Anymore (Ordering More!) 👀 What’s Inside This Newsletter: 🕵️♂️ The Stand Shortage: Where did all my orchestra stands go? 🌍 Holiday Remix: Swapping "Christmas" for "Any Holiday" (ChatGPT’s help) 👼 Theology 101: Why my students think all angels are named Harold. 🧙♂️ Wizardry: A teaser for my 92% retention secret. Greetings! As we head into a well deserved break - 🎼 The Stand Scramble First—music stands! We officially need to order more. When the band rehearses on the stage,...