Spring is here! The days are warmer, the sun is sticking around longer, and your students are likely feeling a little extra springy (Anyone have a class full of Tiggers this spring?) With all that energy bouncing around, it may take some creativity to help your students stay focused. 

What if you could channel all that enthusiasm into something productive? Music is a fun and effective way to engage your students, calm their minds, and make learning feel fresh and exciting. Let’s dive into some musical ideas that will turn your classroom into a springtime symphony!

Sounding the Zero Noise Signal

We all know the classic “Hand in the Air - Zero Noise Signal,” but why not mix it up this spring? Instead of the usual silent signal, try using an instrument or sound effect to grab attention. One year, I used a train whistle during a unit on trains. The students loved it! In April, I switched things up with a rainstick. It was perfect for the spring season and provided an opportunity to...

I took my first GLAD® training in the fall of 2004. When I returned to campus after the 5-day demo, my principal asked me to write a reflection of what I had learned. I recently found that (really old) document on my computer while clearing out files.

            …One of my favorite strategies was the Narrative. It’s like a story board where you place pictures of the story you’re teaching on a background, and it can be used to teach content, academic vocabulary, and story elements…I also think the expert groups, process grid and cooperative strip paragraph have great promise for teaching note taking from research and expository writing…My biggest concern is finding the time to do the prep that’s required for these new strategies…

Those thoughts have been echoed by multitudes of teachers over the decades!

Your GLAD® training inspires you! Your brain is full of research-based, practical teaching strategies that you know will help your students. And you are making so many connect...

It was during an IEP meeting that I learned Nicholas would be joining my 4th grade classroom the following Monday. Nicholas was on the autism spectrum and had spent the first 4 years of his elementary school years bouncing back and forth between self-contained and mainstream classrooms. His parents were excited and hopeful for the mainstream placement, but surprisingly my biggest detractor was a colleague.  

The special education teacher, who monitored Nicholas's IEP and would be checking in on him monthly, did not want him placed in "the GLAD teacher's classroom." Her biggest concern was the overstimulation that would surely be a problem for him from all the charts posted on the walls. Yes, my classroom was covered with layers of chart paper that my students and I sketched on, wrote on, highlighted, covered with word cards and pictures, read, chanted, and recited on a daily basis.  

I knew Nicholas would most likely be fine, but I needed to convince my colleague.  

How do ...

Tone down the talking (teacher talk, that is!)

Project GLAD® has become synonymous with making content accessible and retainable for all students.  It’s known for creating positive, collaborative classroom cultures.  We tout its ability to increase relevancy and cultural proficiency in the learning process.  

Beyond all those benefits...

Project GLAD® is about learning language! 

All our students are language learners.  Whether we’re teaching in a dual language classroom or introducing content specific vocabulary in math, science, art, and literature.  

Guided Oral Practice is one of the main components in Project GLAD.  The idea is for students to learn language, they need to practice speaking that language.

The question is... 

How can we increase and guide student talk? 

How much space is there in the day or class period for students to talk?  Imagine if we took all the time we try to get students to be silent and repurposed it to promote talking? 

Sidenote:  For the Middle ...

I admit, I’m one of those people who wait until the beginning of a new year, a new month or a new week to launch a new habit or goal. I just love that feeling of a fresh start. 

And yes, I have dozens of half finished journals around the house. Each one heralding a fresh start with a habit I’m still working on actually becoming a habit.

If you’ve been in our coaching courses or training, we will tell you, 

“Any day and every day can be a fresh start.” 

It’s true.  But there’s nothing quite so encouraging as a NEW YEAR to push the reset button. 

As educators, we get to experience the impact of a January new beginning in the middle of our school year. 

Wherever you are in your GLAD® journey, we invite you to make January a fresh start month!  The secret is to make that fresh start something that will last longer than my unfinished journals. 

This week at Costco, I ran into a retired teacher who started reminiscing about her GLAD® training.  “It really is the golden ticket,” she sa...

We experimented, we've listened, we've grown and we've changed! 

Are you already feeling the intoxication of summer vacation? Yes, we resonate with you! But really, do we stop learning in the summer? Of course not!

We may be learning different things, like how to drive a 5th wheel, or the best vacation spots on a budget, or what it feels like to read a …. novel!

As educators we’re pretty much addicted to learning.

And we’re instilling that passion for lifelong learning into our students. The last few years have had us all on a steep learning curve and our instructional flexibility and creativity has grown as a result.

We launched Next Steps with Project GLAD® just before the pandemic began, and have been right there learning and growing with you. Thank you for sharing your celebrations, challenges and ideas with us. We've been listening and asking:

• What’s working?
• What do you need?
• What would be even more helpful?

We’ve taken all your suggestions and made some BIG CHANG...

Have you ever felt completely unmotivated? We’ve all been there.  And so have our students.

All teachers struggle from time to time with engaging unmotivated students. It begs the question, why aren’t they engaged? At the most basic level, student need to have their physical and psychological needs met in order to learn. You may be familiar with the phrase, “Maslow before Bloom”.  Students who are tired, hungry, lonely, scared, frustrated… face an invisible barrier to engage fully in the learning process.

Today, we’re focusing on meeting students’ needs in one of these areas: love and belonging. 

“Feeling personally accepted, respected, included, and supported in the school environment makes students feel they belong to a school (Taylor & Sobel, 2011). Students who lack a sense of belonging are often unmotivated and non-participative.” (OCDE Project GLAD Learning Guide, 2015)

How to enhance a sense of belonging in the classroom

Those of you who were trained by us in Project GLAD...

Set the Tone with a Tune

Your brain is a lean mean music machine!

There are multiple parts of the brain that like to get in on the dance. And the Mighty Amygdala is no wallflower. The amygdala has three layers of cells. The top layer picks up its cue from smells, seeing faces, and sounds - especially the sounds of music, happy music! This feeds directly into our emotional response. 

Music can generate an atmosphere of well-being and positivity. It can calm and relax. It can spark the flow of ideas and creativity. It can focus and target brain waves for concentration. 

Experiencing music together creates a sense of group cohesion.

Music becomes even more uniting when we add collective movement to the rhythm and beat, like snapping fingers, clapping hands, or tapping feet together. Adding movement (TPR - Total Physical Response) also ignites neuroplasticity across the group. 

Bring on the music… but use it intentionally.

Choose the tune to set the tone for the intended goal. 

Sel...

The birds are singing, the flowers are blooming, and hope is spreading all around us. Yes, it's spring!

This year, we needed the signs of new life that spring brings more than ever. 

Whether your students are in the classroom or joining you from home, consider all the ways you can bring fresh life into their daily learning experience. Perhaps you'll adopt a class bunny (for the courageous!), plant seeds, or go on a geometry treasure hunt in nature.

 Some of my favorite writing lessons came from taking students outside in the spring to observe and write about the growing flora and fauna.  One spring we fit all our writing standards into an insect unit. We wrote insect poetry, scientific journaling on the butterfly life cycle (watching pupas emerge in the classroom), creative writing inspired by Chris Van Allsburg's, Two Bad Ants, and of course our very own entomologist reports on each student's insect of choice.

Those of you already teaching with GLAD® strategies can imagine the p...

We love collaborating with language specialists during GLAD® trainings!

At the beginning of the week they consult with us on how to focus their energy and where to start.

By the end of the week they teach us new answers to the age old question:

"How do I manage the prep for GLAD® when I have several different classes/groups?!"

The following are ideas we have gleaned from professionals in the field, like you.

1. Start by partnering with a like-minded GLAD® trained teacher. 

Push-in to their classroom, or better yet, embark on co-teaching during your times with their students. Find ways to share the load and try new things.

For example, the classroom teacher does an Input chart and the language specialist leads the ELD review with a small group or a word card review with the whole class. Collaborate to find other ways to focus on the language demands of what is going on in the regular classroom through GLAD® strategies. 

2. Select only 1 or 2 of your classes to start incor...