Ready to set up your classroom?
Follow these 3 simple steps and your classroom will be the greatest AAM classroom there ever was!
Step 1: Pick your classroom
There’s a variety of things to consider when selecting your official AAM classroom. Will you continue offering non-AAM lessons in this room? Is the room big enough? Is there enough storage space for all the instruments? Follow the tips below when picking out your room!
Number one because it’s the most important, you need a spacious area. A classroom with plenty of room on the floor for students to hop around on the rug, places on the wall to store instruments and a storage area for books and medals. The rug is 7ft x 4.8ft, so we recommend a minimum room size of 10ft x 7ft. You’ll also need to whether this classroom will be used for AAM lessons or if it will be a combination of AAM and other private lessons. Many studios still offer piano lessons in their AAM rooms!
You’ll want ample wall space for the dry erase board, classroom posters, instrument displays, etc. Make use of the storage space your walls offer! Shelves, coat hangers, etc. make for great storage opportunities.
Consider a room parents can peek into without distracting the class. Does your classroom door have a window? This will allow parents to peek in and watch their child learn without causing a distraction.
How do you want your room arranged? Would you like the main focus to be the piano/keyboard or drum set or perhaps the soft, fun rug or the shiny, hanging medal display? There’s no wrong answer! Take a look below at some of the various, successful room arrangements by other AAM members.
Step 2: Order Your Materials
Don’t worry - we make it easy for you!
Follow this checklist to ensure you have everything you need to set up your AAM classroom. You’ll only need to visit 2 shopping areas - the AAM store and any retail store that sells musical instruments!
Wait - do I need all the instruments?
Great question! We get asked this all the time. You do need all the instruments! They don’t need to be new or top of the line instruments - you’re more than welcome to purchase them used! Check craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, etc. As long as they’re functional and your students can hold them and hear them make sound, you’re good to go!
You won’t need all 9 instruments to be physically in the classroom on the 1st day of your 1st lesson. Level 1 is voice, and it takes approximately 2 months for students to graduate Level 1, so theoretically you have 2 months after the day of your first lesson to purchase a guitar to be ready for Level 2. And so on and so forth, with the violin in Level 3 and the flute in Level 4, etc. A lot of new teachers and studios take this staggered approach to purchasing instruments in order to spread out the cost and make it more manageable.
Step 3: Set Up Your Room
This is the fun part - watching your AAM room come to life. But where do you start?
We recommend dividing your classroom into the three sections that occur during the lesson - Table Time, Rug Time, Stage Time. This way the students are able to bounce and move around, getting out as many wiggles as possible. This also helps their brains to digest the information as they move settings. Plus, the separate sections make it easier for the teacher to move between each activity without having to do a lot of prepping during the lesson.
Figure out where you're going to have your table, chairs and whiteboard set up. This will take up some ample floor and wall space (depending on the size of your whiteboard or if you will need a storage space to have handheld ones and markers readily available for table time activities.)
Now take a look at the rest of your classroom for the rug. You don’t want any instruments sitting on top of it and you’ll want space on all four sides for moving around. Can it go at an angle? Is it better to have it rolled up and tucked into a corner and only brought out during lessons?
Now for the instruments - some of our studios (displayed in the pictures above) have found using bike hooks (think of these kind) perfect for hanging up guitars, woodwind instruments, even cellos up on the walls! Hanging the instruments creates a unique display for students to explore (perfect for tours) while still being accessible during lessons. Plus, it frees up floor space! Don’t forget the keyboard/piano - upright pianos are best for AAM classrooms if you decide not to go for a keyboard, as they can sit against the wall/tucked into the corner.
Last but not least - posters and medals! We recommend using staples for your posters so they are flush against the wall (plus, smaller holes to deal with in the event you move studios) and we recommend using a towel rack (like this one) for hanging up your medals! Take a peek at the photos below for some of the cute displays studios have set up in their classrooms and front lobby areas to attract and encourage new AAM students!
Need room arrangement ideas or just another set of eyes?
Feel free to email us anytime or use the button below to set up a Zoom call and we’ll take a look at your lesson room!