In this episode of The Happy Music Teacher, we explore the art of classroom management through the lens of transitions. Join your host, [Your Name], as we discover the 'why,' 'when,' and 'how' of using transitions to orchestrate a happier, more productive classroom. Effective transitions are like the notes that compose a beautiful melody in your teaching journey. They bring structure, order, and joy to the learning environment, benefiting both teachers and students.

**Key Takeaways:**

1.Why Use Transitions?

• Maintain order and structure in the classroom.
• Reduce disruptions and maintain focus.
• Enhance student engagement and enjoyment of learning.
• Prepare students for life's transitions beyond the classroom.

2.When to Use Transitions?

• Start and end the day with morning and closing routines.
• Smoothly transition between subjects or lessons.
• Prepare for and transition back from breaks and recess.
• Facilitate group work and collaboration.
• Gather attention for special events or announcements.

3.Effective Transition Strategies:

• Countdowns and visual cues.
• Incorporating songs and music.
• Call-and-response techniques.
• Transition activities and games.
• The buddy system and student leadership roles.

Join me as we uncover the secrets to creating a harmonious and efficient classroom with the power of transitions. Whether you're a seasoned educator or just starting your teaching journey, this episode has valuable insights to make your classroom a place of joy, productivity, and learning. So, tune in and let's make your teaching journey a happy one!

If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe to 'The Happy Music Teacher' podcast on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback and reviews are greatly appreciated and help us spread the joy of teaching!

What we talked about:

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My favorite Countdown timer

My Hello Song for 1st thru 4th grade

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Today's episode is brought to you by the Happy Music Teacher Academy, where you can go to get beyond the chaos, build confidence, and find harmony in your music classroom. For more information, go to storiesthatsing. net forward slash join the Happy Music Teacher Academy. See you there. This podcast is a proud member of the Teach Better Podcast Network.

Better today. Better tomorrow and the podcast to get you there. Explore more podcasts at www.teachbetterpodcastnetwork.com. Now let's get on to the episode.

It's the Happy music teacher who's frustrated and overwhelmed? I'm Jeanette Shorey, a happy music teacher who loves teaching every day. But it wasn't long ago I was in your shoes. Join me Wednesdays to help you find happy in your music classroom. Teaching general music. Music is not easy. In fact, if we're being honest, it's just plain hard, right?

You wear so many hats. Some days you are just the general music teacher. Some days you are also the choir director. There are days, whether we like it or not, that you are the go to sub. because the sub didn't show up. And then you've got your hallway monitor duties and your cafeteria duties. I mean there is so much going on.

Just being the general music specialist and the choir director are two full time jobs. All by themselves and nobody understands except for us. Right? So it's challenging. You wear lots of hats. Your day to day job is a lot on its own. And that's why structure and planning are essential. You must take some time.

Even if you don't think you have it, you must take some time to, you know, just do some planning and organize your classroom. This can be the difference between you being stressed out and overwhelmed all the time and you being a happy, joyful music teacher who can't wait to get to work. And I am telling you that you will The strategies that I share with you every week are the same strategies that help me to be a happy music teacher.

Today we're going to be diving into a topic that can truly transform your classroom into a well oiled, joyful learning experience. Transitions. We know that managing the classroom can feel like just a lot. And we also know that when things are flowing smoothly, it can be just a symphony of seamless experiences.

So no matter whether you have been teaching for years or you're just starting your teaching journey, we're going to explore the why, whens, and hows of using transitions. First of all, why should you use transitions? Well, they are an essential part of the classroom. They help to maintain sort of that structure and order, and it's really crucial for classroom management to Keep the flow going there.

Also a signal to the students that one activity is ending and another one is beginning, and they can make the difference between a student feeling anxious and a student feeling really confident and capable in your classroom, because if you're using the same transitions week in and week out, they are going to know what to expect from one activity to the next.

Transitions can also provide kind of a little bit of a physical and mental brain break. So it gives your students a chance to reset, refocus, and it's going to make their engagement so much more. And it's going to give them a chance to have some energy and some motivation. And it's going to really make it just a more enjoyable experience for everyone.

So let's talk a little bit. Further about why we want to use transitions. Number one, they maintain the structure of your classroom there. They create a predictable rhythm. They reduce any chaos, and they really promote a great learning environment. Number two, they reduce disruptions. So when you have abrupt changes in activity, that can create, first of all, anxiety for you students.

And second of all, it can create confusion. And that's going to make it really tricky for your students to kind of Number three, it enhances the focus and engagement. So transitions are going to give students kind of a quick brain break, and it's going to give them an opportunity to go, Oh, okay, well, this is happening next, and it sort of refocuses them if they've checked out.

Number four, This is going to promote smooth transitions. So having effective transitions in your classroom is going to help your students go from one activity to another. But it's also a good life lesson because if they have. different transitions in the classroom, then it helps them to really predict that there are going to be changes in their day to day life.

And it's going to help them navigate those changes as well. And finally, On this subject, having effective transitions is going to create a positive learning experience, so it kind of adds an element of excitement of anticipation instead of students going like, Oh, my gosh, what's happening now? They are going to have a predictable way to just navigate your classroom.

So that is the answer to question number one. Why should you use ESO. Translation by Question number two. When do you use transitions? I like to use transitions throughout every class. So, there's going to be something at the beginning of the class. You can use between activities. So for example, if you're going from your teaching area to your storybook area, and even if you don't have a separate place for each one, it's still okay to Let your students know using some sort of a transition that you're headed into something new, and we'll talk more about that in a bit.

But anytime you're changing activities, you should have a set transition, something that is always the same so that your students can anticipate. Oh, okay, we're going to story time now or we're going to do movement now or Torium. So whatever it happens to be. The third place to use transitions is when something random happens.

So let's say that you just had a fire drill and with bigs and with littles, especially with littles, that can be stressful because a fire drill is loud and noisy and they have to leave the building and Even for your typical kids, a fire drill can be a really stressful situation. So if you have a way to get them out, to get them in with the least amount of stress and anxiety, something that's planned, something that is going to help them to Go into that activity and then especially when you come back into the classroom Something that's going to help them get back into learning mode.

That is going to be key When else should you use transitions? Well during group work So let's say that you're doing centers and you have a group of students at each center And you need a way to move them from one center to another Or maybe you're going from group work back into individual work. You could have a transition for that as well.

Finally, at the end of class, it is a good idea to have some sort of a transition at the end of every class to give your students an idea that it's time to leave. And it's time to line up and it can be really good to have some sort of a transition to help them line up and to let them know that it is time to go.

Planning these types of transitions is going to help your classroom feel structured and productive and it's going to give your students the minimal amount of disruption and the maximum amount of engagement. So, what I'm sure you are dying to know, the most important part, is what are some types of transitions that really work.

So, effective transitions really are going to depend on your age group and also your teaching style, but I've got a lot of tried and true transitions that I'm going to go through with you today. Let's talk first about some non musical ways that you can tell students activities are changing or something new is happening.

You can do some sort of a countdown. So, let's say that your students are going from the, their chairs into the movement area. You can say, by the time I get to zero, and I always have to say, don't move yet. By the time I get to zero, I would like you to be standing in your own personal space in the movement area.

Five, four. 3, 2, 1. Now, a 5 part countdown may not work if your movement area, if your, if your classroom is ginormous, then you may need a longer count, 10, 9, 8, whatever. Usually my kids are going to start counting with me at first and I will stop them and I'll be like, Uh, no, do not count with me. That's my job.

Your job is to walk. And I will always tell them exactly how I want them to stand. Standing up in a circle with a tiny bit of space. Or standing silently in your dance bubble, and that tells them that they need to get their dance bubbles on. Now, a word about dance bubbles, just because I mentioned them, I'm going to just take a little break here and tell you all about dance bubbles.

So, I say put your dance bubble on. And they take their hands and they move them from the bottom of their bodies all the way to the top. And we have a whole conversation about dance bubbles. Probably, now this is kinder first, second grade, pre k. Starting in third grade, I use force fields. And a force field is different because instead of making a circle around their bodies, they're making a square.

So it goes, put on your force field.

So that is force field. That's the difference. And I do that third, fourth, and fifth grade. And in both cases, I will say to my students, The bubble or the force field is soundproof. That means if I hear you, I will know you took it off and you won't be able to get too close to anybody or anything. So if I see you getting too close to anybody or anything, it takes five minutes for the force field or the dance bubble to re energize And so you will have to sit out because this activity requires a dance bubble, requires a force field, whatever it happens to be.

So that is my dance bubble. And we went aside there and just talked about that for a second. So, so that is countdown. So, um, 5, or 10, 9, 8, you can also do a countdown that is a timer, and that's another really good way, like, let's say that you've given your students, okay, in the next two minutes, I want you to write down everything you know about this piece of music.

And obviously you would have given them lots of structure before this to tell them what they needed to write down. But let's say that this is like the 10th time you've done something like this. So you're going to say you have two minutes. to write down everything you know about this piece of music and then you put the timer on.

There are tons of timers. I will link to a timer in the show notes that I like but there are tons of different timers and you want something that's right there in front of them so that they can see it so they know how much time they have left. You can also use visual cues. So I know of a music teacher who had a an actual traffic light in her classroom, and that was amazing.

But you can do like a transition card. You can do a color. You can do a type of symbol if you are in story reading mode, you could put on your story reading hat and that would tell your students that for now they can't ask you any questions because you're in story reading mode. If you were in, um, let's say a movement mode or dance mode and you wanted to wear a tutu and dance mode, you could, I mean, you know, whatever you want to do, however it is that you roll, just something visual to tell your students we're going from here to here.

So that is a really great way to give your students a visual. example or a visual symbol or a color, something that tells them, um, green means go and red means stop, whatever it happens to be. And Our students with special needs, especially visual cues, are very important to them because they tend to be more visual spatial learners than our typical students are, and so this is a really good way to get them kind of in a new mode or to get them thinking about, okay, we're going from one to another.

activity to another, whatever it happens to be. Call and response. So you can do something like class, class, and they can say, yes, yes. Or you can do a song. For example, for a while I was doing. I can make your hands clap and then they would do so, you know, anything like that. Um, you could do, uh, we don't talk about Bruno.

Oh, oh, or whatever that I can't even think of the tune right now, but something that's a call and response, either a phrase or a song, something that they are going to be able to anticipate and they know, stop, look and listen. When you do the call, they do the response. Bam. And they are, they are ready to go for the next thing.

You could do a transition activity. So something between Your different tasks that's going to kind of give them a brain break. You can do a riddle You can do a little discussion that leads into the next topic. You can do a video You could do um, I don't know if they're playing instruments. You could give them like Um, okay, for the next 15 seconds, you get to play any rhythm you want with your instrument.

And then at the end, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, right? So that is a great way to go as well. You can also, for your students who kind of have a tricky time with transitions, you can buddy them up with someone else so that they can transition together. And if you have a class that really needs that buddy system, that might be a good thing to do.

Or maybe you have a student or two and you can pair want some of your savviest students with some of your students that struggle with transitions and give them an opportunity to help each other. I mean, they love to do that. You know, the kids in your class that really, really love to help others.

Finally, of course, we are going to do short songs and music that is going to help our students with all the things. So whether they're swapping instruments, they're swapping center groups, they're entering the classroom, they're lining up, whatever it happens to be. And I have so many I want to share with you.

So with my bigs, I have one type of song and with my littles, I have a second type of song. So the first one I'm going to share with you is the one I do from first grade all the way through fourth grade. I do not do a hello song with my fifth graders. We do another kind of entrance activity and I will share that with you shortly.

But with my First grade through my fourth grade, we do kind of a fun hello song, and it goes like this. Hello, hello, and how do you do? And then they echo. Hello, hello, and how are you? And then they echo. Hello, hello, and how do you do? And they echo. I hope you're fine and I am too. So that one has kind of a cool beat to it.

I do have, I will link in the show notes to if you would like to listen to it. I have it on YouTube. And if you would like to purchase your own copy, it is on my website. For my littles, I have another kind of hello song and it goes. Hello. Hello. And how are you? I'm fine. I hope that you are too. And it continues on from there.

So I, you can do, I just made that up and you can just make up your own and it can be something as simple as hello. Hello. We're starting music. Hello. Hello. Sit down on your dot. I mean, it could be something that easy and simple. It does not have to be a big deal. I always recommend some sort of a goodbye song.

So my, with my littles, we do goodbye. I'm glad I came today. Goodbye. I'll see you another day. Goodbye. We had a lot of fun, etc, etc. So, uh, some type of goodbye song to let your littles know that it's time to go. Now, with my bigger kids, with my fifth graders, entrance and exit goes like this. I will either have a song that we're going to be working on as they're coming in and as they're leaving, etc, We will do some echoing or some listening or friends.

Keep the steady beat as you're coming in. Try to keep the steady beat where I'm keeping the steady beat and I'll switch up where I'm keeping the steady beat, keep them engaged and they're listening to that music as they're coming in or as they're leaving. Or I may have them reading rhythms. Echoing rhythms.

I may have them echoing solfege, so it's really up to you, whatever you happen to be working on at that point. Those are good things to bring your students in and have them leave that way. I love to have a lineup song, so it does not matter what it is. You can say, When I call your name, line up at the door.

Um, I happen to, in one of my classrooms, have a green line. So, I'll say, When I call your color, line up on the green line. Orange, line up on the green line. Red, line up on the green line. So, you know, whatever you want to do. I like to do a sing songy kind of thing because... It keeps them actively listening better than if you just say, Okay, orange, line up.

Green, line up. I don't know. It tends to work better. Anytime you are going from one activity to another, Or one station, one place in your classroom to another, you should have some sort of a transition. And I love to use a song. Let's go to the story place, the story place, the story place. Let's go to the story place, sit down and fold your hands.

So we've got that. Or, let's go to the movement place, the movement place, the movement place. Let's go to the movement place. Spread out and put on your dance bubbles. I have one for making a circle. Let's make a circle, a great big circle. Let's make a circle and have some fun. I hold two hands and we grab hands, grab hands, or we can do pinkies, or we can do force field hands, which is your hands are close together, but not actually touching whatever you feel most comfortable with.

That is the way I like to make a circle. We keep singing until the circle is complete. What other types of transition songs? Well, When we are moving in the instrumentorium from one place to another, we just do move down, move down, everybody move down, move down, move down, everybody move down. Everyone has to say it.

And they know that when I say move down the second time, they can pick up their instrument and we go from there. So those are just. some of the types of songs that I like to use for transitions. Let's go back and do a little bit of a review. So first of all, why should you use transitions? They maintain order and structure.

They reduce disruptions. They enhance focus and engagement. They promote smooth transitions, not only in your classroom, but also in life, and they create a positive learning experience. When should you use transitions? At the beginning of class, between activities, when a random thing like a fire drill happens, during group work, during special events or announcements, and at the end of class.

And finally, what are some transitions that really work? Countdowns, visual cues, songs and music, call and response, transition activities, and finally, use the buddy system. Transitions are the key to having a routine that is going to help your students feel comfortable and help you be a happy music teacher.

But consistency is the key. You need to make sure that you use the same transitions day in, day out, all the time. Establish a routine. Make sure your students are walking smoothly through those activities. And that is going to keep everyone happy. And your classroom a harmonious place. If you got some great tips and tidbits that are going to help you become a happy music teacher, I would be so thankful if you'd leave me a review.

Thanks so much for your time. Well, that's all I have for you today. But before I go, let me remind you, keep learning, keep growing, and keep being fabulous you.