Three ways to prepare for the new school year

Hi everyone!
I know summer isn't over...but the school year is looming closer. We start on August 10...and of course, there is SO much to do, but I'm trying to not get overwhelmed. Here are three ways to prepare for the new school year:


#1: Create song lists for each grade level
This is the first thing I like to do when beginning to prepare for the new school year. It's a great way to wrap my head around what every grade level will be singing during the upcoming year. I recently created a video about creating a song list, which can be viewed below.


#2: Create a song index
If you don't already have one, this is a great tool to have, especially when you start working on year plans, concept plans, etc. I first created a song index in my Kodaly training, and it's super helpful when looking at which songs  you'll do for which grade level, creating your musical programs, etc. It's like the Holy Names Kodaly American Folk Song Index, but it's with songs from your collection! I created a video about creating a song index for my friends Karla and Amy to use with their classes at Colorado State University; here it is!


If you want to be notified of future videos I do, make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel by searching for my name, then clicking "subscribe," as shown below (thanks to Rebecca B Designs for the cute arrows!):


#3: Listen to my podcast :)
So...I took a big step and started my own podcast! My very first podcast is all about preparing for the new school year, and the next few will also be about preparing for the new school year. You can find it by clicking on the button below:


Once you get to the page, make sure to view in Itunes, like shown below:

Then click on "subscribe," as shown below:

...so that you can get all my future podcasts! 
I plan on covering tons of ways to prepare for the new school year in my next few podcasts...and the great thing about podcasts is that you can put them on and do other things, like catch up on Facebook, clean, etc. I'd love to hear your feedback about the podcast; you can do that by going to "ratings and reviews," then clicking "write a review," as shown below.

What are your favorite ways to prepare for the new school year? Feel free to comment below!

5 comments

  1. Thank you Aileen, that was very helpful

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  2. Love the format of your song lists! Hope I can get to something like that next week after my summer classes finish up! Thanks for sharing!

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  3. I love your categories!!!

    One thing I've learned in mass indexing in Excel is to Freeze Pane's so that I can always see my headings and the title!!

    If you don't know how to do this, you have to be in Normal View. then click on the cell that is just under and to the right of the intersection you want frozen. (in your song list it would be cell 3B) Then click Window, Freeze Panes. So then you can always see the song title and your headings as your scroll left, right, up and down! :) LIFE SAVER!

    I have really enjoyed your videos and podcasts! Thanks!!!

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  4. Thanks so much for this great list (and videos). So timely as I am planning for my first year! I love the way you have organized everything--what a great guideline to follow!

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  5. I've been working on the year plan this week! Nice to see the videos to guide me through the excel features, as that was slowing me down a bit! I've used many of your materials, so thank you for the great ideas and the organization tips!

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