What if can't find a music teacher…

That's exactly the question I was asking myself in the summer of 1999. When my music teacher resigned with less than a month to go before the first day of school, I found out very quickly that every possible candidate had already been hired. We were looking at the very real possibility of a year with no music teacher. We were determined that it would not be a year with no music. The good news is that we did find a music teacher, one who is still at that school today. Thank goodness we did not have to resort to "Plan B," but the thought process that went into "Plan B" may be helpful to those who do not have a music teacher now.

Education Week had run a short piece some years prior that listed 26 songs that everyone should know. As we tried to piece together something that would be doable within the classroom, establishing a common repertoire of songs was not a bad start. That list of 26 songs was part of an initiative called "Get America Singing…Again." The materials for the project are still available, and all of the information can be found here.

At $16.95 for the teacher's guide and $3.95 for a student book ($34.95 for a pack of 10 student books), this may be something that would you want to examine.