Aileen Miracle

Aileen Miracle teaches general music in the Olentangy Local School District in Ohio; this is her 19th year teaching. Aileen received her BME from Central Michigan University and her MME from Capital University. In 2016, she was awarded Teacher of the Year at Cheshire Elementary. She is the co-chair for the 2019 OAKE conference, blogs at Mrs. Miracle's Music Room and presents music education workshops across the nation.

Articles by Aileen Miracle

• Is a switch to standards-based grading right for you?

  Friday, November 15, 2019

  According to Schoology, standards-based grading is an intentional way for teachers to track their students’ progress and achievements while focusing on helping students learn and reach their highest potential. It is based on students showing signs of mastery or understanding various lessons and skills. In this article, I'll detail the what, the why, and the how of standards-based grading to help you successfully implement it in your classroom!

• Teaching meter in your music classroom

  Thursday, October 31, 2019

  For many years, I’ve been tweaking my process for teaching meter/time signatures. I wish teaching this were as easy as saying, "In 2/4, there are two beats in every measure, and in 4/4, there are four beats in every measure." But as we all know, it is much more complicated than this. In this article, I'll detail some strategies that have worked well for me in teaching meter or time signature.

• A look at my week as a music teacher

  Thursday, October 17, 2019

  Looking for fun songs and activities for your music lessons? In this article, I’ll give you a "peek at my week," detailing one song, game, book, or activity from each of my lessons this week. In first grade, we’ll be practicing long and short-short, which they just learned last week (in preparation for ta and ti-ti, or quarter and eighth notes). At the end of the lesson, students will learn the dance "Highway No. 1," which is one of my favorites!

• Giving students choice during centers in the music classroom

  Wednesday, October 02, 2019

  I've been using centers for several years now and have really enjoyed the student-centered learning environment and the chance to work with students one-on-one. In today's article, I'm writing about something new I've been trying: giving students choice during centers! So why give students choice during centers? In my experience, students really love the ability to choose what they do, when they do it. Recently, after I told the students they get to choose, I had a student look at me incredulously and exclaim, "We get to choose?!?! That's cool!"

• 5 free tech tools for the music classroom

  Thursday, September 19, 2019

  Are you looking for ways to incorporate technology into your music room? In this article, I'm detailing five of my favorite tech tools — and they are all free! My first tool is the Rhythm Trainer website. It is a fun way to practice dictation and audiation. You can choose the rhythms students know, then students listen to an audio sample and dictate it with those rhythms.

• How to turn your music classroom into an escape room

  Thursday, September 05, 2019

  Have you ever heard about escape rooms in the music classroom and wondered what that would look like? In this article, I'm detailing the why, what, and how of escape rooms! A few years ago, I began hearing of escape rooms for the general classroom, but I first heard about escape rooms specifically for the music classroom from Carrie from the Music Teacher Coffee Talk podcast. I tried one soon after that and fell in love with it!

• 5 must-do’s for back to school

  Thursday, August 22, 2019

  Are you about to start the school year, but aren’t sure where to start? In this article, I'm detailing five must-do's for back to school. My first must-do is to print class lists and your schedule. Class lists are great to have for attendance, creating seating charts, figuring out small groups, and more! I love to have class lists both in paper form (for my class list and fire drill binders) and in Excel so I can easily copy and paste them into programs and apps.

• Long-range planning you can use for next year

  Tuesday, July 30, 2019

  Since it's summer, it's a great time to sit down and really look at our overview for the next school year. What do we want our students to learn? Which songs and pieces will we use? Long-range planning is a passion of mine, something I learned about in my Kodály training at Capital University, but it wasn't until a few years ago that I began to understand how all of the pieces fit together. Here is a list of the different types of long-range plans for the music room and how I feel they fit together.

• Ikea finds for your music classroom

  Thursday, June 27, 2019

  Summer break is a great time to relax. But you can also use this time to think about your classroom for next year! I have found so many great ideas for organization at Ikea, so in today’s article, I’m sharing some of my favorite finds.

• 5 tips to survive the end of the school year

  Thursday, May 09, 2019

  Since it's May, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the end of the school year. Here are my suggestions for surviving the end of the school year so you can have a relaxing summer, and so you can come back at the start of next school year refreshed and organized!

• Tips for teaching music classes on testing days

  Thursday, May 02, 2019

  If your school is like mine, your students have been testing quite a bit lately. How can we as music teachers make sure that students are engaged and excited when they've already been sitting for hours, taking a test? Here are some ideas that have worked with my classes.

• Selecting and rewarding star students in your music classroom

  Thursday, April 18, 2019

  Looking for a great way to keep students engaged and focused during music class? In this article, I’m writing about one of my favorite classroom management strategies: choosing star students. A star student, in my classroom, is a student who has showcased exemplary behavior during music class. Perhaps this child was participating quite a bit, or was singing his/her best, or was helping another child. This child is chosen at the end of the class, and is given some kind of reward.

• Teaching the major scale in your music class

  Thursday, April 04, 2019

  Looking for fun ways to teach about the major scale? If you've taught fa and ti to your students and would like to teach about the major scale, folk songs can be a great way to reinforce these concepts! One of my favorite singing games is called "Chumbara," a French-Canadian singing game. In this article, I'll also detail a hands-on way to teach the major scale and how to use instruments to deepen students' understanding!

• How to use the Seesaw app in your music room

  Thursday, March 21, 2019

  Are you looking for an app to both assess students and communicate with parents? Seesaw is one of my favorite apps. I heard about Seesaw a couple years ago and had it installed on my iPads, but it wasn't until this past spring that I was finally able to check it out. Seesaw is known for being a great advocacy tool because parents can see what's going on in the music room. Whether you post a snapshot of a student's completed worksheet, a video of him/her singing, or a video of the entire class performing, it can be a fabulous way to communicate with parents.

• 2 folk songs for upper elementary students

  Thursday, February 21, 2019

  Today, I'm sharing two folk songs that are wonderful for upper elementary. The first song is called "Sandy’s Mill," which I learned from Joan Litman at Capital University. Students sit in a circle, passing a playground ball to the beat. On the word “pom,” they switch directions. Any time the teacher plays the hand drum, they also switch directions! A student volunteer can also play the hand drum. This is great for practicing steady beat, and for that reason, the song would also work really well with older beginners who need practice with steady beat.

• Tips for teaching first-graders music

  Thursday, February 07, 2019

  First-graders are at such a fun age. They are curious, but can follow directions a bit better than their kindergarten counterparts. They are excited, they are joyful, and they can really start diving into musical literacy! In today’s article, I'm writing my tips for teaching first grade.

• Tips for teaching kindergarten music classes

  Friday, January 25, 2019

  I was once told in college that when lesson planning, you should think about the child's age and transfer that to minutes to understand their attention span. So, a 5-year-old can handle a five-minute activity before losing attention, a 6-year-old can handle six minutes, etc. I have found this rule of thumb to be very helpful, especially in kindergarten. In this article, I’m sharing tips for teaching kindergarten music so that students are engaged and you feel successful.

• When to lesson plan for your music classes

  Wednesday, January 09, 2019

  My first few years of teaching, I sat down for hours at a time, on Saturday or Sunday, and planned all my lessons for the next week…by hand. Now, having kids at home, I really prefer for my weekends to be family time, and make sure to have time during the school day or right after the school day to write lessons. I realize that some music teachers have little to no planning during the day — as I’ve been there — so today, I’m writing a post with different options for when to lesson plan.

• Props in the music classroom

  Thursday, December 13, 2018

  As music teachers, we have the opportunity to buy some really fun items for our classroom! Perhaps you've seen tennis balls or ribbons in another music teacher's room, and you've wondered how they incorporate those props into their music classroom. Here are my five favorite props for the music classroom.

• 6 ways to start music class

  Thursday, November 29, 2018

  Pondering the best way to begin music class? In today's post, I'll write with my favorite ways to start a lesson. Please note that there is no right or wrong answer for how to welcome your class. It's totally up to you and what you think is best for your students. You might try changing it up a bit to see which way you like the best!

• Differentiation in the music classroom

  Thursday, November 15, 2018

  The term "differentiation" has been used more and more often in education lately. What does it mean? How does it apply to the music room? According to Carol Ann Tomlinson — an expert on differentiation — differentiated instruction is defined as factoring students’ individual learning styles and levels of readiness first before designing a lesson plan. So what does this look like in the music classroom? I've heard many music teachers say that differentiation happens naturally in the music room. I agree...to a degree.

• 6 ways to end music class

  Wednesday, October 31, 2018

  Pondering the best way to end music class? In today's post, I'll write with my favorite ways to end music class before another class walks through the door! For example, a simple but fun way to say goodbye to your students is to sing goodbye to them. If your first-graders are working on sol-mi, you could sing "Goodbye first grade," on sol-mi-sol-mi, and they could sing back "Goodbye Mr./Mrs. ________." Then, you could sing "Have a good day," and they could echo that. You could even sing to individual students and have them sing solos back at you.

• Using points to reward your music classes

  Thursday, October 18, 2018

  Since I started teaching, I've rewarded individual students for exemplary behavior by choosing star students, or one or two children at the end of the class who have showcased exemplary behavior. It wasn't until a few years ago that I began rewarding whole-class behavior. I read "Classroom Management for Art, Music, and PE Teachers" by Michael Linsin, which is a great read for any special areas team. In the book, the author outlined a four-point system for rewarding whole-class behavior.

• Varied assessments to give to your music classes

  Wednesday, October 03, 2018

  My district has been focusing on formative assessment strategies for years, and for that, I am very grateful. We as teachers have been provided with lots of professional development about the topic of assessment, with strategies to gauge understanding and adapt instruction. One "a-ha" moment I had on my own is the idea of variety. In today’s article, I’m offering a wide variety of ways to assess your students during any given marking period, as a means to not only collect a wide variety of data, but also for your students to show you how well they understand the many aspects of musicianship.

• Selecting the right choral repertoire for your class

  Wednesday, September 19, 2018

  Have you ever struggled to find the perfect repertoire for your choir concert? In this article, I'm outlining how I select songs for my choir program, to ensure variety, accessibility, and engagement. I was a trumpet player all through school, and before my Kodaly training, I had only been in one semester of choir. Because of this, it has taken me quite a while to feel comfortable selecting repertoire, as well as directing the choir! Here are some questions to ask yourself as you choose choral repertoire.

• Special effects you can add to school music performances

  Wednesday, September 05, 2018

  If you've ever directed a musical program, you know how those "little" things can really add to a performance. In today's article, I'll discuss some special effects that I've tried for various performances to add another layer to each musical. For example, if you are planning any kind of firefly song at your program, flashlights are a really awesome addition. You could hand out flashlights to all students or just some of the students, and for that song, have the lights turned off. Then, as they sing the song, they randomly turn the flashlights off and on!

• How to use quizzes in your music classroom

  Thursday, July 26, 2018

  Recently, I took a class about different web apps to use in the classroom. During that class, I discovered Quizizz, and was immediately excited about the possibilities. In this article, I'll write about how to use Quizizz, how to create a quiz on Quizizz, and how to find quizzes I've made on the platform. Quizizz is a website that allows students to take quizzes. It is similar to Kahoot, but you can give the quiz as homework, instead of having all students take it live.

• Beat-passing games for your students

  Thursday, July 12, 2018

  Looking for fun new songs for your music room next school year? In this post, I’ll share beat-passing games, which are games in which the beat is passed from one person to the next. Typically, at the end, the last person to be hit is "out." It is so much harder to pass the beat than it is to keep it on your lap, so whether your students have a solid foundation of beat since kindergarten and need a challenge, or if students are just learning steady beat, these can be very fun and rewarding games for upper elementary!

• Strategies to plan for the school year ahead

  Thursday, June 14, 2018

  ​Planning is a passion of mine. Through my Kodaly levels, I learned so much about long and short-range planning, and how to best develop plans that could meet all of my daily, monthly and yearly goals. When I begin my planning for the next school year, I first start with song lists, which for me is a grade-level list of songs, listening pieces and books cross-referenced by concepts, skills and extensions.

• An end-of-year checklist for your music classroom

  Thursday, May 31, 2018

  The end of the school year is here! There is so much to do at the end of the year. At my school, we receive an end-of-year checklist from our principal, but as a music teacher, there are several other "must-do" items that aren't on the typical classroom checklist. Here are all of the things I think about and do as I wrap up the year in my music classroom.

• Tips for teaching music to upper elementary students

  Friday, May 18, 2018

  Upper elementary can be a tough level to teach in the music room. They are sometimes "too cool for school" and self-conscious of their singing voices. Academically they are advanced, yet musically they may need the basics. A little background about my situation: I’ve had most of the fifth graders I teach since kindergarten. However, I have been in other situations where they needed a lot of help with the musical basics, where behavior was an issue, and where students didn't want to sing.

• Assessment in the music room

  Tuesday, April 24, 2018

  Assessment in the music classroom can be tricky. Many music teachers only see their students once a week — sometimes even less — so fitting in quality curriculum, engaging songs and dances, games, books and more needs to be balanced with assessing students' musical growth. Here are several things to consider when assessing in the music classroom.

• What I’ve learned about teaching ukelele

  Tuesday, April 10, 2018

  This year, I've embarked on a new journey: teaching ukulele! I've really enjoyed it and have learned a lot my first year, including the following: You don't have to spend a ton of money on ukuleles.

• 5 tips for centers in the music room

  Tuesday, March 20, 2018

  ​Centers in the music room can be a great way to have students practice concepts and skills while engaging in a student-centered environment. Even though I've been doing centers for several years, I am still learning how most effectively to run a centers lesson in my music room.