Ode to the Tibetan Singing Bowl

Teaching could very well be defined as the art of using things for purposes other than they were intended.  Such a definition describes my use of the Tibetan singing bowl.

A Tibetan Who?

From my layman’s knowledge of the purpose of a Tibetan singing bowl, I can say that they are used by monks in Tibet for meditation.  Singing bowls are more of a musical instrument than a bowl, and I wouldn’t recommend using it as a bowl, either.  They are made perfectly round and tuned so that they give a pleasant ringing sound when lightly struck with a rounded stick.  The key to making them sing, rather than ring, is to run the rounded stick along the rim of the bowl, always applying pressure directly toward the centre of the bowl.  The meditation activity is to concentrate long enough to keep the bowl singing for as long as possible.  The bowl usually sits in the palm of your hand, and you can stop it from ringing or singing instantaneously by curling your fingers around it.

 

I used to sing to get my students’ attention, but now I let a bowl do it for me!

I use my Tibetan Singing Bowl to get the class’s attention.  If I need them to be quiet so that I can tell them something, or if we’re doing an Inside-Outside Circle activity, then I simply ring the bowl to get their attention or signal them to move on to the next person.  If I’m having trouble getting the students attention, and they continue to talk even after I’ve signaled them to listen, then I just make the bowl sing until everyone’s quiet.

Where can I get one?

I got mine at the CNE one year and paid $35.00 for it.  However, I’ve also seen them at Green Earth and on Amazon.  I would recommend that you listen to the bowl before you buy it.  You wouldn’t want to order one online and then discover that it’s too big or that you hate the sound it makes.

What’s nice about it?

It saves your voice

The main reason that I started using a Tibetan singing bowl is because with all the other talking that a teacher has to do in a day, I was really straining my voice.  If you’re speaking loudly to get students’ attention, that’s even worse.  If teachers are always using their voices to yell overtop of a classroom full of chatting students, then what will be the long-term effects on their voices?  As a new teacher, I’m interested in finding practices that I’m not going to regret having taken up at the end of my career.

It saves time:

How much time do teachers waste in a day, or in a year, getting students’ attention?  It would probably add up to some ridiculous sum, like seven instructional days.  The Tibetan singing bowl offers a clear and consistent way of getting the students’ attention, and consequently saves time and frustration (after all, you are technically meditating).

It’s not an unpleasant sound:

The sound that a Tibetan singing bowl makes is rather pleasant.

It’s not a whistle:

If someone were to use a whistle to get my attention outside of a Physical Education class, I would not be thrilled.  The connotation is that I’m an unruly dog.

It’s not a bell:

Bells to get students’ attention have reached the point of tired cliché.

It’s an endless source of fascination:

When I used the singing bowl on one of my practicums, I found that students were endlessly fascinated by it and that having a chance to hold and try the singing bowl could be an effective reward for good behaviour.

It’s not easy to use:

It takes a bit of practice to make a Tibetan singing bowl sing.  In other words, if your students pick it up and try to use it, they’ll be able to ring it, but they won’t be able to produce that sustained ringing sound, especially if their fine motor skills are still developing.  Just be careful not to drop the bowl.  If it gets dented, it won’t work anymore.

You’ll be THAT teacher:

Who doesn’t want to be that quirky teacher that students talk about amongst each other and who will be remembered fondly in the years to come? 

Book Review: What Every New Elementary Teacher REALLY Needs to Know, by Otis Kriegel

A MOST HUMBLE REVIEW OF: What Every New Elementary Teacher REALLY Needs to Know (But Didn’t Learn in College), by Otis Kriegel 

I found this book while skimming through educators’ tweets, and the title intrigued me.  When I started my BEd program almost a year ago, I was in the Intermediate/Senior stream and thought I would be teaching secondary school.  I was really excited when I got the opportunity to be an Elementary Occasional Teacher, and I took both the Primary and Junior ABQ courses to prepare for this next leg in my journey, but the fact remains that all my practicum experiences were in secondary schools.

            Perhaps it’s needless to say that I’m nervous, but I’m nervous.  When I found What Every New Elementary Teacher REALLY Needs to Know (But Didn’t Learn in College), I rejoiced that someone had bothered to write a book for those of us just coming out of teacher’s college.  As a career, teaching is complicated and expansive.  Excellent though the instructors and programs are, it would be an impossible task for them to teach you everything you really need to know and should be thinking of in one year (even in two years, the task is still impossible).

            Kriegel’s book is a written and expanded upon version of the seminars that he gives for teachers in Teacher Education programs and for new teachers in general.  It leaves aside much of the fashionable education theory that may very well rise and fall with the tides and instead focuses on the practicalities and logistics of teaching in an elementary school.

            Below I’ve picked out only a sampling of some of the tips, tricks, and pieces of advice in Kriegel’s book that I found useful.

The Spare Clothes

Have a set of spare clothes ready and handy in case you get covered in glitter, glue, glitter-glue, or bodily fluids.  Nobody gave this advice to Kriegel in his Teacher Education program, and nobody gave it to me.  I’m grateful for this kind of advice because while many ascribe to the philosophy that to learn something you must suffer, I would prefer to be told what to do to avoid that suffering in the first place.  I could have been covered in glue, had nothing to change into, and realized that I should probably have a spare set of clothes hanging around, but this way is better.  I shouldn’t have to eat poison to learn that poison can kill me. Nevertheless, I get the distinct feeling while reading Kriegel’s book that he suffered a particularly traumatic experience because he mentions the spare clothes at least five times in the Introduction alone.

Teach How to use Supplies

Rather than simply laying scissors, glue, and other supplies in front of your students and saying, “Go crazy!”, Kriegel advises the teacher to instruct students on how to use each supply—how to use a glue stick properly, how to use scissors properly—before having them use it for a project or activity and before putting on the supply shelf as something students have access to and can use.  In other words, add new supplies to the shelves or cupboards as the school years goes on, after the students have learned how to use them, rather than having the cupboards full from day one.  This strategy will prevent you from becoming the frustrated teacher whose students have made a huge mess of the classroom, and will prevent you from punitively taking supplies away until students “show more maturity.”  This strategy also emphasizes with students that more and varied supplies and privileges are earned slowly, not given all at once and then taken away.

Lunch Boxes

Why does lunch always feel so rushed?  I’m open to any advice that can make how I spend those fleeting minutes more efficient.  Kriegel recommends that the teacher keep students lunch boxes in one big container, and has the students put their lunches there at the beginning of the day, when they’re taking off their coats, outdoor shoes, and backpacks.  The rationale for this is that it’s no longer a scramble for students to find their lunchboxes, settle down, and eat at lunch time.  This kind of simple, but powerful organizational step characterizes the kind of practical advice and direction that this book provides.

Rainy Day and Wet Shoes Always Get Me Down…

So what happens if it’s a rainy day and you want to prevent your classroom from becoming a wet and muddy mess?  Kriegel recommends having an umbrella bin: a clean plastic garbage bin or bucket to put umbrella’s in at the door.  If the day’s really wet, lay out some big towels (that you’re keeping on hand in your classroom) on the floor and have students put their boots and coats on it (this also works with snow pants in the winter).  Also have parents send a spare set of socks (or better yet, set of clothes) so that students aren’t upset that they’re walking around in wet socks.

The Homework Folder

I fell in love with this idea!  It’s quite simple: each student gets a two pocket folder.  One side is labelled Communication, and the other is labelled Homework.  Notes and letters to parents go in the Communication side of the folder, and worksheets and assignment/project pages go in the homework side, along with a small notebook where students write down the details of their homework assignments.  This folder goes home with students every day and comes back every morning.  The homework folder also provides a venue for parents to send notes to the teacher.  As a new teacher, I’m always struggling to devise better ways to communicate the day’s homework to both students and parents.  The simple elegance of this strategy appeals to me.  The homework folder quickly establishes a reliable routine, but a routine that’s not over-complicated.  What can be more worrying for the new teacher than whether or not students remember the homework routines is whether the teacher remembers it.  This system gives me a way to problem solve where I might have put things, where students might have put things, and how I should go about finding things that have been misplaced.

Other Topics

Other topics covered in this book about which new teachers are often terrified include:

·         Field Trips

·         Working For and With Your Principal

·         Communicating with Parents

·         Acing an Observation

In sum

Kriegel’s book is written and divided for the teacher who’s busy and doesn’t have much spare time.  It can be read from cover to cover, or indexed, as Kriegel recommends.  The prose is witty and snappy.  Both the advice and the anecdotes often approach hilarity.  New teachers will go from splitting their sides laughing to feeling nausea when they read something about which they haven’t yet thought.

            The other nice thing about this book is that it wasn’t written ten years ago.  Published in 2013, Kriegel’s book has been written in the age of the internet and also includes practical advice for teacher’s wishing to run classroom websites, blog, and deal with cyber-bullying.