Love how realistic this is! I’m going into year 4 of elementary music and these types of videos tend to make me feel terrible about my organization and aesthetic! This just helped me so so much! Thank you for this!

I hear it! I have a similar issue in my room--the decibel level in my room is higher than what the district says is acceptable, but the AC on the roof is literally right next to my room and my air return is the first one so it's louder. The air runs the entire school day, all 180 days. It was frustrating recording Covid videos because the air would literally distort the sound if I played instruments. You are not alone!

Last year, my 19th at my school. I had to move to a new room, which was never intended to be a classroom. They put a wall up between the artroom area of a a space that was originally built to be a cafeteria, but didn't work out, so it became an art room/storage area. I'm in the storage area side. They did not put soundproof insulation in the wall, and the wall has gaps along the ceiling side of the wall. Needless to say, the art teacher hears me almost constantly, and I hear her often.. I have no shelves, other than castoffs, from other teachers when covid hit, and they had to get rid of to make room for social distancing, and a few shelves I had purchased and brought from my old room. The castoff shelves, are 2 sided, and not deep at all, so it's hard to organize anything in them, plus I can't put them against the wall, because they're 2 sided, so they take up a lot of space with the way they have to be positioned. Long story short, I got the smaller space of the new room, and it is substantially smaller than my old classroom. It is really difficult to do activities in there. Also, it is right if the gym, with a door that previously went outside, and this due to fire codes, I cannot lock the door, ever. I'm very envious of your room, I'm spite of the little quirks. I also have a very noisy steel roof above my room, with no insulation, that when it rains, or snow melts from the gym roof, and drips down onto my roof, it like a cacophony of drums. 😂 It's a challenge! 😊

Such a nice room!! I will be teaching elementary music in the fall. I will be split between two schools: K-2 in the fall and 3-5 in the spring. I will have to change classrooms and schools mid year.

Becca, have you seen those xylophones in a bag? If I was at school, I’d send you a picture. Ours have different colored bars. I looked online. These type are not expensive. In fact, they could be listed as resonator bars. (Hey, resonator bars could be used too. In fact, they’ve been virtually unused at all 3 of the schools where I’ve taught.) I’m at a huge elementary school that has 2 music teachers. I’ve asked for the barred instruments for the first semester. We have a stack of keyboards. My goal is to make sure I get 12 adapters to plug them in. I miss having the xylophones 2nd semester, so I focus on ukes then. I love this realistic tour. There is some evidence of some massive learning going on in your room. Great job! Hope you have a great summer.

I’d love to hear how you do lessons with only 3 xylophones as I have the same situation in my classroom but love instruments!

This is very informative, thank you! This is my second year teaching elementary music and I will admit I need so much help! I wish you were my mentor teacher! I had sit dots last year but the kids kept playing with them! It was so annoying! How do you keep them stuck to the carpet?? My students would constantly take them off! Ugh! Sorry, Im still learning. Also, you said you have kids color worksheets? How do they color on the carpet?

When you pan around the room too fast, the camera cannot handle it, and it makes my eyes hurt. But then again, it is the end of my year, too, and my eyes are simply tired, haha!