Milestones Worth Celebrating - 2013-2014 School Year

Today I'm linking up with Make Moments Matter's linky party about Milestones for this school year. You can link up to by clicking the image below and following the directions in the blog post:

School Year Highlights 2013-2014:

• I had two 5th grade students conquer their stage fright and perform in a large Kaleidescope concert in front of hundreds of people, as well as, a Recorder Recital at the end of the year.
• 3-5 Jingle Bell Jukebox Christmas Concert was a HUGE success
• Included 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade small ensembles to create nice transitions and flow during Christmas Concert
• First ever Spring Fine Arts Night, which included band, choir, reader's theatre, and a talent show went wonderfully and parents asked us to do it again next year!
• All Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd graders got through all of their curriculum for the year (this is as far as we have gotten with unified assessments, and each year I'm getting a little better at getting through it all, YAY!)
• My choir students have really grown in their singing abilities and commitment to choir.

Blogging Highlights 2014-2015:

• This year I have been better about maintaining my blog and wrote at least 2 blog posts every month of the school year. I would still like to be more consistent, but I have definitely surpassed my blogging from last year.
• I posted almost twice as much as last year (41 blog posts this year compared to 22 posts last school year)
• I have began to network with other bloggers and have participated in 30 Linky Parties this year!
• I created and coded my own look for my blog! I will work on making it even better, but I'm really proud of my first attempt on creating my own blog layout and coding it myself!

Other Social Media Highlights 2013-2014:

• I have a profession twitter account that I'm trying to become better about using. This will be another goal for next school year
• I put together Pinterest boards for all my Teachers Pay Teachers products and I feel I'm doing a better job of tagging items and organizing my boards for all of you
• I started a Teachers Pay Teachers Store in October and I already have almost 400 TpT followers! I'm so appreciative for all the love you have all showed me!
• I started a Teacher's Notebook Store, as well, to spread out my products to more of you and allow you multiple options for buying
• I created a Facebook Page for my Teachers Pay Teachers Store and thanks to several frenzies and all your kind words I have over 1,200 fans in just 6 months!

Personal Highlights 2013-2014:

• I started working out on a pretty consistent basis since about February this year. I've been going to zumba and kickboxing classes and suprisingly, I've been enjoying them!
• This year I tried out for a community musical and was cast as The Cat in the Hat in Suessical the Musical. This is my first musical since high school (which was over 8 years ago), so I'm really excited about this opportunity!
• I ran my very first 5K this year. I honestly never thought I could run 3 miles without dying, but I did and am even planning on running another 5K in October. (What has happened to me?)
• I'm finishing my 4th year of teaching and am only one year away from having to renew my license (where has the time gone?)

Tweet for Education

I decided to write a blog post about tweeting, since last week we had a mini-in-service about the significance of tweeting as a professional practice. Now I know what some of you are thinking: How can you use Twitter as a professional practice? How will it better your work? What should you tweet about? What does it mean to follow someone or be followed? These are all questions I will try to answer in this post.

I myself am of the 'younger' generation. I'm what some refer to as a millennial or generation Y. The millennial generation are typically people born anywhere from the late 1970's through 2000. Millennial kids are generally marked by an increased use and familiarity with communications, media, and digital technologies. This means I have no qualms with using new technology and am constantly finding ways to use new technology in my music room. (I already have a smartboard at both schools and recently was given an iPad to use in one of my classrooms. I'm sure you will see more about this technology later in the year as I find ways to use it.)

Though I am excited about using technology in my classroom, I will admit I was a bit skeptical of twitter at first. How can you really learn anything just from 140 characters or less? However, I have found that many do not just post random things like "Today my job was super great!", but instead, they post things like "Today I played an awesome #music game with my students! Check it out (URL here)! #musiced #musedchat" They then link their post to a blog they wrote or read somewhere. These types of tweets can be really helpful.

How do you find relevant posts? By using the search bar. You can put in words or hashtags into the search bar. Hashtags are made up tags that connect people that are talking about the same thing. Some important hashtags to know, if you are a music teacher: #musiced, #musedchat, #music, and #musedmot. By searching for these hashtags you will see ALL of the posts related to that topic. You can then read different posts people made and eventually decide to follow them. To follow someone just use the simple steps highlighted below:

1) Find someone interesting and click on the post:


2) That will open this mini-menu:


3) Click the FOLLOW button:


As you follow more people you will get more tweets here in your tweet feed:


If you are being followed they are getting your posts!

Now, you are making links with interesting people and hearing what they find to be interesting through retweets.

What is a retweet? Well, when you find something super interesting (which believe me you will!) just click the retweet button as shown below:


After you retweet it, all YOUR followers will see it, too! You will also see things that your followers retweeted, which eventually can connect you to more professional music teachers! (Isn't social networking fun?)

After spending just ONE week on Twitter, I have read MANY articles about music advocacy. I have found tips for parents to use music at home. I have found ways to network with other teachers. I have found teaching tips. All of that in just ONE week. (And I only am following 12 people and followed by 2). Start small and just keep building. The more people you start following the more people that will start following you.

What should you tweet about? Anything you want to share! Wrote a recent blog post? Tweet about it! Did something awesome in your classroom? Tweet about it! Looking for helpful tips? Tweet about it! Just make sure you add hashtags so other people can find your posts! It is also okay to not tweet anything and just follow people. However, I am guessing once you start tweeting you won't be able to stop.

One more thing, while following tweets this last week. I stumbled upon something AWESOME! Apparently, there is a music education motivation day planned for September 29th. I don't know a whole lot about it, but you can learn more here. You can also look up #musedmot on twitter to find it!

Have you used twitter as a professional tool? If so, who do you follow and what have you learned or found? Have you ever considered using twitter as a way to grow professionally? Feel free to follow me @bndelaruelle and I may follow you back.