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Into the Great Unknown: Part 2 Planning Routines and Teaching Procedures

• Conducting/song leading (starting/stopping music, your energy. While self-reflection can be challenging and
leading music/rhythms) time consuming on the front end, in the long run it will
enable you to better serve students and help yourself feel
Reflect upon the following when you watch a video of your teach- more empowered and energized at the end of a day of
ing: teaching. We hope you have fun in the process. Happy
planning!
• Are you making eye contact (equally amongst all stu-
dents)? Dr. Kendra Taylor and Dr. Olivia Salzman-Coon
both received their PhDs at the University of Oregon
• Is the tone/volume of your vocal delivery engaging? and teach music in the Pacific Northwest.
(as opposed to monotone and one volume)

• What do your facial expressions look like? (positive and NOTES
encouraging vs. disapproving)
1 Tom Brunzell, “Trauma-Aware Practice and Positive Edu-
• Are you engaging your body? (For example: walking cation” in Margaret L. Kern and Michael L. Wehmey-
around the room as opposed to sitting at the piano for er (eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Positive Education (Pal-
most of class, matching your physical alignment to grave Macmillan/Springer Nature, 2021): 205–23. doi.
what you’d like to see in your singers, using nonverbal org/10.1007/978-3-030-64537-3_8
communication that reinforces your verbal directions) 2 Jean Stockard, Timothy W. Wood, Cristy Coughlin, and
Caitlin Rasplica Khoury, “The effectiveness of direct in-
struction curricula: A meta-analysis of a half century of
3. Reflecting on Routines research,” Review of Educational Research 88, no. 4 (2018):
Once you’ve attempted to employ your routines for 479–507.
a substantial amount of time, reflect on the challenges 3 It is important to consider when you will allocate time to
and successes. Are you able to clearly see the benefit prep your student leaders with this end goal in mind.
of the tasks you employ regularly? Are you still facing Consider utilizing leadership camp opportunities to ac-
challenges at some point in your lesson? Has your en- complish this.
ergy level increased? Be vulnerable with yourself and 4 CAST, Inc., The UDL guidelines. https://udlguidelines.cast.
decide what needs further improvement. Improvement org/
is a lifelong task. There is no need to feel shame or dis- 5 Charlene Archibeque, “Making rehearsal time count,” Cho-
appointment if something doesn’t work out. That just ral Journal 33, no. 2 (1992): 18–19.
means you are one step closer to finding the solution. If
possible, bring your routine and ongoing challenges to
a building mentor or a music mentor in your district/
area and ask for their input. After your first attempt at
routine design, you can bring invaluable knowledge of
your students and classroom culture to this conversa-
tion.

Conclusions
We hope you are inspired to reflect on your class-
room routines, delivery or instruction, and can find
ways to refine your teaching with an eye to conserving

54 CHORAL JOURNAL June/July 2025 Volume 65 Number 9