How to be a Minimalist Music Teacher

Recently I have been on a journey. What would it look like for every aspect of my life to be “Minimalist,” including my teaching career? Maybe you’ve heard about minimalism and are still not exactly sure what it means or how you could actually translate it into your music classroom. Well, to gauge whether or not you’d like to continue learning about a minimalist lifestyle, first ask yourself these questions. Do you desire to free up space-both literally and figuratively-rather than to fill it? Do you seek experiences rather than stuff? Would you like to do more with less? Would you like to have a long, happy music teaching career with less feelings of burnout?………If you’re anything like me, your answers to all of these questions were a resounding “YES, PLEASE! WHEN DO I START?” I am not anywhere close to an expert on the topic, but I’d like to take you on the quest to minimalism with me so we can simplify our lives, and teaching, together. Let’s go ahead and dive in to practical ways we can live more freely by becoming minimalist music teachers.

Last year was my husband’s first year of teaching and for most of the year he was teaching from a cart. At first I felt bad for him, but as I started to think more deeply about it, I realized that this was a gift. First of all, he didn’t have to focus on decorating and decking out an entire classroom. And second of all, he would be forced to stay focused on the task of teaching. This means, he was given the opportunity to be a Minimalist teacher.

According to Jamie Thom,”Minimalism involves the deliberate and frequent rejection of all that is unnecessary: an essential practice in seeking to find ways to thrive in the impossibly busy life of a teacher.”  Here are 5 tips to becoming a minimalist music teacher. But let me warn you: it involves a lot of saying NO and throwing stuff away.

5 Tips to becoming a Minimalist Music Teacher

1.PRIORITIZE

-Grab a pen and paper and make a list of your priorities. Top 5 priorities for teaching this year, Top 5 priorities for your personal goals, Top 5 health goals for 2019, etc.

“My Teaching Top 5 for 2019” might look like this:

1. Have only 2 After-School clubs: Modern Band and Musical practice
2. Work through planning time instead of socializing, so that I can leave right when the bell rings (or when I’ve finished after-school duty)
3. Allow for only 4 music programs per school year-and delegate some program tasks to coworkers & parents.
4. Use more Social and Emotional Learning strategies in my classroom
5. Be consistent with implementing hands-on technology into lessons

After that, you filter every request through that list of priorities. A teacher wants you to help her with debate club after school? NO. Politely tell her that you are only allowing yourself 2 after-after school clubs this year. Your principal wants you to have a program every month? Explain to them all of the other handful of things you’re doing, and that a program once a month would take away from those other important tasks. A coworker comes to your room during lesson planning time? HIDE! No, just kidding. Tell them about your goal of leaving when the bell rings so that you can spend time with your family. Maybe you could socialize during lunch time, between classes, or during Professional Developments (don’t tell your principals I said that! haha). Really, the list goes on.

GET REALLY GOOD AT SAYING NO so that, at the end of the day, you feel fulfilled meeting YOUR goals, not someone else’s. Otherwise burnout and bitterness start to grow. You can implement this “Top Priorities List” in all aspects of your life, with personal goals and such. Creating a priority list for my personal life helped me to lose about 30 pounds (NO JOKE!), start a business and overall feel more fulfilled in life! I recently read this amazing book called “Essentialism” and one of my favorite quotes is this:

“If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will”-Essentialism by Greg McKeown.

2. TACKLE CLASSROOM CLUTTER

Let’s “Marie-Kondo” our classrooms. The question that she asks, using her KonMari method of tidying up, is “Does it spark joy?” If the answer is no, then you’re supposed to thank it for it’s service and toss it! For a teacher it’s important to have things in your classroom that spark joy, but an even more important question to ask would be “Does this spark learning?” For a music teacher, the 3 biggest categories of clutter could be Papers, Instruments and Materials.

1.PAPERS. You probably don’t need the majority of them. So many things are going digital now. Grab a trash can and THROW THEM AWAY. I promise it will feel good.

2. INSTRUMENTS. Yes I said it. Do you have old recorders that don’t work? Do you have a set of instruments that you never use? I might get some hate-mail after I say this, but I have only brought out my boomwhackers twice in my 5 years of teaching. This is because I believe that the same concepts can be taught on another instrument that actually brings me joy. Same goes for recorders and pretty much any instrument. The beauty of being an elementary music teacher is that you can shape your program based on the strengths that you have. As long as you are meeting the basic music standards (in Texas we have TEKS), use your favorite instruments and the rest store away or trade with another teacher in your feeder pattern (as long as you have permission from your fine arts director or principal..or whoever). I primarily use ukuleles, guitars, xylophones, rhythm sticks, shakers, recorders, djembe, bongos, other small percussion instruments, pianos and bucket drums. When I first arrived on my campus, there was a set of 15 small guitars on the brink of death. They were cheap, did not stay tuned (no matter how much I re-strung them), and sounded terrible. I kept them in my room for 3 years, thinking that one day I could fix them. Finally at the end of that 3rd year I got fed up and found a new home for them: the trash. It’s this ruthlessness and dedication to efficiency that feeds the minimalist teacher.

3.MATERIALS. Find the 10 materials (not including technology or instruments) that you couldn’t live without in your classroom and only keep those. For me, it’s personal whiteboards, expo markers, stickers, pencils, paper, books, pipe cleaners, tape, stapler, post-it notes

3. CUT OUT THE “FLOOF”

We have to remember that being an excellent teacher has nothing to do with what our classrooms looks like, but with the ways we use our time and energy to be a leader for our students.

I recently read this interesting blog post by Angela Watson called “The Culture of Cute in the Classroom” and she wrote about how she follows quite a few teachers that seem to have intricate classroom themes (jungles, sports, animals), elaborate word walls, intricate labeling systems that all match this theme. But that sometimes teachers feel pressure to spend time making their classrooms look cute instead of spending more time on the pedagogy or content. I do want to say that if you get super pumped about crafts and you love a good theme, then that’s great! But don’t do it because you feel pressure to have a “cute classroom.” Also, ask yourself the question: is this time well spent? Could you be doing other things such as personalized learning, deepening thinking and curating engaging lesson plans? For minimalists, time is of the essence, and it is not a renewable resource. Take some time to be intentional about the decor in your classroom and reflect on whether it serves the deeper purpose of learning.

4. REEVALUATE YOUR ASSESSMENT TOOLS

Use RUBRICS+WHITEBOARDS+TECHNOLOGY for assessments! You do not need to be grading papers all weekend long. My first year teaching, I had the grand idea that I would create a beginning of the year assessment that I gave to all 700 of my students. I spent all weekend grading these papers, and even enlisted my husband’s help. Finally, I got so tired that I called my music teacher mentor and asked how she keeps all of this up. She said, “oh honey. Put your pen down right now.” She explained to me that assessments do not need to be elaborate multiple-choice, free-response tests. Especially when you have 700 students. One thing that helped me a ton with assessments was RUBRICS! (Steady beat, rhythm, recorder, singing, etc.) like these on Teachers Pay Teachers. Go get ALL THE RUBRICS!

Say you want to assess your 4th graders on rhythm. Clap a 4 beat rhythm pattern for your students and have them write it down on a personal size whiteboard. Then on the count of 5 have them all hold it up for about 15 seconds. Quickly assess how students did based on the rubric, and write it down on your seating chart/name list. Then you’ve got a grade for the books and do not have a ridiculous amount of paper to sort through. Quick assessments like these will save you so much paper and stress, and allow you to fit more content into your classroom! Less stress+saving trees=A minimalist’s dream!

5.TECHNOLOGY

One way that I avoid excessive amounts of paper and clutter in my classroom is through technology. Favorite usages of technology- Digital Classroom (projector), Youtube, Quaver, Recording, Garageband, and iPads. (Take a look at my Youtube channel for video ideas that will enhance your lessons)

FAVORITE APPS=Staff Wars, Music4Kids, Yousician, and Jazzy ABCs. There’s also Audacity, Soundation, NoteFlight, SoundTrap. AND QR CODES!! Learn more about this apps from my previous blog post, “Top 5 Apps for the Music Classroom.” Project your assignment, such as this Back-to-School Music Survey, onto the screen and have students complete on a whiteboard. Or put your worksheets into sheet protectors and have them complete assignment with an expo marker. And erase before the next class!

If you’d like to learn more about minimalism, here are a few book recommendations-

• “Essentialism” by Greg McKeown
• “Tidying Up” by Marie Kondo
• “Do Less” by Kate Northrup

Let me know if you have any book recommendations for a striving minimalist music teacher! I hope you have enjoyed these tips, and I’d love to hear how your minimalist journey is going. My goal is to help make your life more simple, yet fulfilling, so that you can do more with less! Follow me on Instagram or Facebook so that we can make our friendship official!

Keepin’ it Simple,

Paige