Ms. Wonderly Makes Music

When I stepped out into the bright sunlight, from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind…The Outsiders and a ride home! ✨

This former Tulsan had the best time rocking her Tulsa tee to go see this Tulsa treasure…which also happens to be Broadway’s new Best Musical! The Outsiders was everything I’d hoped it would be and more!

When you grew up in the town where S. E. Hinton’s The Outsiders was based and where the movie was filmed, and you read the book and watched the movie multiple times growing up, and you’ve been listening to the new Broadway cast album on repeat for the last few weeks, and you reread the book a couple weeks ago, and you happen to be back in Tulsa the night it wins the Tony Award for Best Musical, you can’t help but run around town the next day to find some of the famous film locations! Check out my story for a more in-depth description and look at my Outsiders adventures, but here are some pictures I took today, with a swipe through to some still shots from the movie to compare them to! It made for quite a fun afternoon, with the soundtrack to my drive obviously being the cast album of The Outsiders - A New Musical! ✨ Stay gold! ✨

Elevate Your Classroom Dallas was a dream! It was such a joy being on so many sides of this conference - planning and preparing with the leadership team, creating promotional graphics for social media, designing the conference tshirt, helping set up the event space, running social media throughout the conference, connecting with dear friends old and new, presenting a session on playing instruments with little learners, capturing the whole week in video on my phone to continue promoting our full summer of conferences on social media, and celebrating three incredible days of PD with the best team of leaders, presenters, engineers, partners, and friends!

I cannot thank Jason, Greg, and Jessi enough for their invitation to join this incredible team a year and a half ago, and for their continued support of me and the work I do! It has been the biggest blessing getting this opportunity to grow as a graphic designer, presenter, educator, and human! I am so proud of what this team has accomplished so far and am thrilled for where we are going from here!

📸: .photos

Day 3 was a special one, seeing all the work we’ve put in over the last year wrapped up in a beautiful bow! Elevate Dallas was absolutely one to remember, and was the perfect kick off to our summer conference lineup! I’m so thrilled that I didn’t have to say goodbye to these dear friends, just “See ya in two weeks!” Next up is Nashville, then Phoenix! 🎉💗

Elevate Dallas Day 1 was a wonderful whirlwind! 🎉 We spent all morning and afternoon setting up our space, and all evening partying and PD-ing with some amazing primary educators! I spent most of the day with my new gimbal in my hands, capturing and creating content for Elevate Your Classroom! Tomorrow, there will be even more content to capture AND a session to present! I can’t wait to share all about playing instruments with primary students! 🎉🎶

Year 8 was…a lot! 🎉

There was a lot of good that happened this year: two wonderful student teachers, enough Orff instruments for EVERY student to play together, sweet notes and visits from current and former students, six successful programs and choir concerts, a cleared Amazon wishlist, endless GoNoodle dance parties, my first choir festival as a region chair, two Jonas Brother concerts with my teacher besties, a field trip to the OKC Philharmonic, supporting former students at their concerts and musical performances, fun professional development trips, school visits from the OKC Philharmonic and Lyric Theatre, a brand new sound system, a school-wide Lunar Eclipse watch party, cheering on students at soccer games and basketball games and track meets, lots of crazy fun with my coworkers turned family, sweet moments wrapping up my time with 5th graders I’ve taught since Kindergarten, my first group of 5th graders walking the halls in their caps and gowns, and all the excitement that comes with end-of-year activities!

But it was also a very tough year. My car broke down on the way to school early in the year and (after two stressful weeks figuring out if anything could be done) had to be replaced. I attended my first student funeral. I took a few days off of school when my mom was admitted to the hospital with meningitis, then tested positive for COVID and missed the entire week of my birthday-themed lessons…one of my favorite weeks of the year! Then came lots of stress with looming deadlines and to-do lists that never seemed to end! There were tasks on tasks on tasks on tasks, and I really struggled to manage it all. And just when I felt like I might be getting my life under control, unyielding sinus issues arose that left me hoarse nearly every weekend from January to April. 🤦🏻‍♀️

It was a lot. It’s still a lot. But I’m trying my darndest to focus on all the good Year 8 brought with it…because there truly was SO much good! I’m think I’m finally ready to put this year behind me though, and can’t wait for all this summer has in store!

BRUH WE OUT. ✌🏻 There will be more reflections next week after I’m officially all packed up, but today was our last day with students! DJ Wonderly made her final appearance of the year for Super Kids Day this morning, then stayed to DJ the all-school picnic! It was a wild week to end a wild year, but we made it! 🎉

My first group of 5th graders came back to walk the halls in their caps and gowns today! 🎓😍 It was so special reconnecting with these seniors and reflecting on all the memories we shared during my first year of teaching! I can’t believe it’s been eight years already!

It’s Teacher Appreciation Week, and I am a ! Here are my teacher stats! 🍎

👩🏼‍🏫 Years working in education: 8
🏫 Schools: 1
🗺 Districts: 1
🍎 Classrooms: 2
👩🏽‍🏫 Grades taught: PK-5th
💼 Principals: 3
👱‍♀️ Number of students taught: 2,446
🌎 States taught: 1
✏️ Certified: Vocal/General Music PK-12
📜 Highest degree: Bachelor of Music Education

Teacher friends, re-share this image and share your stats! Let’s celebrate all educators!!!

Everybody line up! 🌎🌚☀️ We were at about 94% totality today, and our amazing STEM teacher threw a schoolwide watch party! Students spent the weeks leading up to the eclipse making paper plate glasses and cereal box pinhole viewers, then we all headed to the playground this afternoon to get the party started! We even had several news stations at our school documenting the big day! It was so cool to watch the eclipse progress and feel the temperature changes that came along with it! See ya in 21 years for the next one!

Kicking off Spring Break surrounded by people I love and logos I designed was more than I could’ve imagined! I was honored to be asked to design the logo for OAKE National’s 50th Anniversary Conference! The fact that it was for an organization I care deeply about and held in a city I used to call home (okay, Naperville was home, but Chicago was close!) made the whole process even more special!

“Real art is one of the most powerful forces in the rise of mankind, and he who renders it accessible to as many people as possible is a benefactor of humanity.” -Zoltán Kodály

It was so special spending the weekend surrounded by these benefactors of humanity at 2024! Reconnecting with and learning from old friends, new friends, and treasured mentors was exactly what my heart needed!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day from Chicago! There will be more Kodály recaps to come, but it has been a fabulous weekend! 🍀🎶

Kris Bowers’ acceptance speech at the Oscars was incredible. The documentary he directed with Ben Proudfoot is even more incredible! Go watch “The Last Repair Shop,” named this year’s Best Documentary Short Film!

“This is not just a musical instrument repair shop. When an instrument breaks, there’s a student without an instrument. No, no, no. Not in our city.”

This has been one of my favorite yearly traditions since my very first year of teaching! I set aside one week every February for Listening Glyphs! Each grade level focuses on a different Black musician, and we spend the beginning of our lesson learning about their life and their music through books and videos. Then we split into groups, grab our coloring tubs and coloring pages, and get to work listening to their music and coloring our pages based on what we hear! 🖍️🎶
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I vary my involvement in helping them find the answers based on their grade level! Kindergarten’s page is really a coloring sheet not a listening glyph, so they get to color freely while we listen to music from their musician. In 1st and 2nd grade, I walk through each answer one-by-one, and we color our pages together. In 3rd and 4th grade, I review answers throughout, but they color at their own pace. And with 5th grade, we review the answer options together, then I set them free to figure out the correct answers and color on their own! It’s so fun to watch their progression of independence and familiarity, and I love seeing students get excited because they remember doing this in previous years!
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My coloring pages come from a couple different places now, but my favorite Listening Glyphs (the OGs, if you will) have always been from ! I bought her set eight years ago now and have used it every year since! ❤️

I think I’m still recovering from Valentine’s Party Day yesterday…and by party day, I mean teaching music all day, including a class who came at the end of the day after their party with QUITE the extra energy! 😂 Thankfully I had some sweets students and teacher friends looking out for me with nacho, root beer float, and candy deliveries! It was absolutely a crazy day, but still so very sweet! 💗🎶

There’s nothing like spending Valentine’s Day sharing what you love with students you love! ❤️🎶 Yesterday, we took our 5th graders downtown to the Civic Center Music Hall to see the Oklahoma City Philharmonic featuring Wild Blue Country! These students were supposed to go see the OKC Philharmonic last year, but the concert was cancelled due to winter weather, so they were extra excited to finally be making this trip! This is always one of my favorite days to spend with my students, seeing their reaction as they enter the concert hall and spending time before (and during and after) the concert answering their questions and enjoying their excitement! It was a perfect day!

I’m definitely watching the big game for the musical performances and Wicked commercials, but when your friends are Chiefs fans, a charKCuterie board is a must! ❤️💛

It’s been a special day over in Ms. Wonderly’s Music Room! 🎶 This is my fifth year using records to create a hallway display for Black History Month, so I try to switch it up a little bit every year to make sure it doesn’t feel repetitive for my students! I’ve spent four years explaining to my students how records work, but this year I decided to SHOW them! It was so special today watching my students bend down close to spot the needle and watch the record spin as Samara Joy’s voice soared around the room! Now I’ve got to start collecting records that AREN’T from the scratch-and-dent section (like the ones in my hallway), so I can play even more music for my students!

It was a busy week back in the music room, and my voice is FEELING it! I have come a long way from first-year-teacher Katie, who spent pretty much the entire year with a hoarse voice, but every so often it creeps back in! Staying hydrated is a must, and I seem to inhale Halls Honey Lemon cough drops! Last year I also discovered the Vicks Personal Steam Inhaler, which was a game changer in healing my voice after a stretch of sickness! It’s my go-to evening activity during times like this. I throw on a movie or TV show and steam away! My classroom microphone was also used in full force today, so I wasn’t straining my voice as much. Looks like I should’ve been using it all week! 😂

What are your go-to solutions when you feel your voice starting to suffer?

This sticky note and that jar of jolly ranchers are sub day essentials for this music teacher!

I have gone through many different types of guest teacher plans over the years…for musicians and for non-musicians, with technology and without technology, with worksheets and without worksheets! No matter what kind of plans I’m putting on my desk, I always make sure they are accompanied by a back-up activity and some form of student reward! Typically my “If all else fails!” sticky note sits atop a stack of coloring sheets, right next the jar of highly-coveted jolly ranchers! I realize there may never be a perfect solution for being out of the classroom, but I feel much better knowing I’ve given our guest teacher multiple options for when things don’t go as planned! What are your sub day essentials?

OkMEA 2024 is complete! 🎶 This year’s conference was filled with drumming, dancing, singing, laughing, learning, and exploring! It’s always so refreshing getting to spend the weekend catching up with dear friends and fellow music educators! Watching a stage full of young musicians singing beautiful music while wearing tshirts I had the honor of designing was definitely the icing on the cake!

I was in and out of the music room in one day this week! With MLK Day on Monday and a Snow Day on Tuesday, today ended up being a mad dash to get my room and sub plans prepped and ready for me to be gone Thursday and Friday! I’m so thrilled to be heading to Tulsa tomorrow morning to hang out with some of my favorite music educators at the Winter Conference! It is always such a special weekend being with my people and learning new things to bring back to my students!