How to Set up a General Music Classroom

This article will give you helpful tips on how to set up your general music classroom. These tips are directed towards organizing your classroom so that it is conveniently laid out for the entire year.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• shelves
• textbooks (if applicable)
• baskets
• cans
• laundry baskets

1. First, choose your desk set-up plan. I have found that the best way to set up the classroom is the for the desks to be in a "U" shape with space in the center of the room. This space can be used to play Orff instruments or as a space for your younger grades to come in and have a seat on the floor for their lessons.

2. Step 2 is for teachers with textbooks. If you have classroom textbooks that you use for each of the grades, I suggest that you put one of each grade level in each of the desks. This way you can simply ask the students to take out their book rather than asking a student to pass them out from off the shelf, etc.

3. Next, organize your classroom instruments. My suggestion is to have a shelf in the front of the room. I have a bookshelf with about 5 shelves. I store the instruments on this shelf. I also suggest that you have 3-5 plastic bins to put on top of the shelves. I use these bins to put all the instruments that I'm using for a lesson in. This makes passing out the instruments and collecting at the end of the class much easier. I keep my rhythm sticks in coffee cans (decorated of course) and I store those on top of the shelves. My bigger Orff instruments sit on the floor in front of the shelves.

4. Now, you need an area set-up for storage of student work. I suggest a plastic bin for each grade level that you teach. This will help you organize your papers for correction, as well as give the students a constant place to turn in their papers after they've completed their assigned work.

5. The next step is your sound system set-up. You need to be sure that your sound system is set-up within your arms reach. The last thing you want to have is down time while you cross the room to get your music started. Remotes are convenient but they don't always work perfectly. It's simply easier to have it close to you. I suggest a multi-disc changer if possible. It's so much easier to have your discs loaded and ready to go so that your entire day runs that much smoother. The ultimate set-up is an IPOD that has your play lists programmed for your lesson. However, this is far reaching for many districts and I certainly understand most will not have that capability. If I didn't purchase the IPOD for myself I wouldn't have it either!

6. The last step I suggest is to put a lot of thought into your bulletin boards. Consider everything that you are going to be covering throughout the year. If you put boards up that contain a little bit of everything, then you won't have to change them throughout the year. Music teachers teach too many grade levels to be able to simply change them all the time. I have found this to be the best way to take care of the bulletin boards.

Tips & Warnings

• These are just some tips I have found helpful. They are by no means the end all of a successful classroom set-up. I've just found that they work for my teaching style and maybe they will work for you too!

[teacherlibrary]

on 8/24/2009 Not bad :)