Elementary Music/Music Technology Blog

When I speak with numerous music educators at various conferences, a more common phrase that I am hearing is “I have a SMART Board in my classroom but I am not sure how to utilize it with my curriculum” or some variation of this. About a year ago, I discovered that I could sign out a SMART Board for my classroom and get to use it if it was available. Last year, I signed it out numerous times and it has proven to be an asset to the music classroom. Below are some descriptions of ways that a SMART Board can enhance your music classroom. If you teach on a cart, you can utilize a SMART Board that might be in a teacher’s classroom too.

What is a SMART Board?
Simply put, a SMART Board is an interactive whiteboard. It requires a computer, an LCD projector to run, and the SMART Board software which is called SMART Notebook Software (the software is optional, but it can do so many things!). The computer connects to the LCD projector through the adapter that comes with the computer. The SMART Board connects to the computer through the USB port. This can be a wired or wireless USB connection depending on the particular SMART Board.

I just want to add that SMART Technology is just one maker of this interactive whiteboard. Promethean is another excellent maker of the board and I enjoyed trying their board at the recent NECC conference. Another model that teachers like is Hitachi StarBoard. Plus, there are more inexpensive and smaller versions of the board. To check out a great teacher/tech discussion on the topic at proteacher.net, click here. In addition, if you perform a google search on the topic, you will find numerous websites devoted to the discussion of which interactive whiteboard is best.

One final word before I go into the various uses. My SMART Board is on the rolling case as opposed to being mounted on a wall. If I had the choice, I would use a mounted SMART Board because it means less wires for your students to trip over and less items for your students to bump into which will cause you to “orient” your screen many times during the lesson.

Music Software:
I have used music software such as Sibelius’s Groovy Music Series and Harmonic Vision’s Music Ace with the SMART Board. We would perform a lesson, game, or create music together as a class. Each student would go to the SMART Board one at a time and complete a step in the lesson or create a certain portion of the song. An added bonus with the Groovy Music Series is that it has a button that allows the screen to get smaller so your youngest of students can reach the board without standing on a chair.

Music Notation:
Finale and Sibelius (or other music notation software programs) become easier and more memorable to use when the students create a piece together on the SMART Board. They are able to click and drag the notes from the note palette to the staff. Using a good set of speakers connected to your computer, you can play back their compositions beautifully as they watch the music proceed across the SMART Board screen.

Interactive Music Websites:
The students can take turns utilizing websites on the SMART Board. Here are some websites and ways that I have used them with the SMART Board:

1. New York Philharmonic Kidzone: I have had my Kindergartners play the Music Match Instruments Concentration game as a group. They come up to the SMART Board one at a time and click on the card. The card flips over and plays an excellent audio example of the instrument. When they find two cards that match, they earn points. They cannot lose this game because it continues until all of the cards are turned over. There are three difficulty levels, so it is a great game to reinforce instrument sounds with the students.
2. Dallas Symphony Orchestra for Kids (DSOKids): There are two sections of this website, one for students and one for teachers. I have utilized Beethoven’s Baseball with my 3rd graders and higher. It is a game where you pick composers to be the members of the baseball team. When Beethoven -the pitcher on the opposite team- throws a pitch, the students must come up to the SMART Board and choose the answer. This particular game works well with older elementary. It is a great assessment tool to a composer unit.
3. Ricci Adams Musictheory.net: Excellent website for middle and high school music theory. There are interactive lessons and training sessions (like note, key, interval, and ear training) that you can perform with your students at a SMART Board station in the classroom.
4. philtulga.com: Check this interactive and integrated website out! You will find numerous musical activities to perform with elementary students using the SMART Board. One example that I adore is on his counting music rhythm page. If you count rhythms with numbers, Kodály syllables, Gordon syllables, or French syllables, you can click on one of the side buttons to change the syllables between methodologies. In addition, the rhythms will be spoken with the syllables when you press the play button. Finally, the Sequencing with Simon is a fun music game to play that incorporates listening skills.
5. San Francisco Symphony Kids (sfskids.org): One of my and my students’ favorite websites. There are a variety of interactive musical activities from playing an instrument, to composing, to exploring the instruments, that can be done well with a SMART Board.
6. Virtual Instruments: Here are two examples of virtual instruments that you can use with your students via a SMART Board. Virtual keyboard. Virtual Gamelon.
7. Are you using Nursery Rhymes in your music classroom? Check out this website and project these excellent pictures of nursery rhymes on the SMART Board as you use them in class.

Powerpoint:
You can use powerpoint presentations on your SMART Board. One of the best ways that I used it this year was I made a powerpoint presentation that had the lyrics of a simple song typed onto the screen. When the student would come up to tap each word to the rhythm of the lyrics, the word would light up. This was an excellent way for me to assess the students’ rhythm skills. After they completed the song, we would then use one of the SMART Board markers and write in the rhythms of the song using stick notation.

SMART Notebook Software:
SMART Board has software that you can use to create lessons. The notebook software has a lot of bells and whistles to it such as games accessories like dice, spinners, etc. It also has various teaching tools like maps, graphics, pictures, tabs, etc. In addition, if you perform a google search for music SMART Board lessons, you will find lessons created with the notebook software that you can download and utilize right away. Some of my favorite lessons that I have found by performing a google search are:

1. The note tree: the students click and drag quarter, half, whole, and eighth notes off the tree and place them in the proper quarter note, half note, whole note, or eighth note circle.
2. Using the lines in the notebook software and creating a 2-line staff or a 3-line staff that the students can click and drag noteheads to the lines or spaces of the staff.
3. The note game: There are various notes projected on the SMART Board. The students must use the SMART Board pen to circle all of the quarter notes. When finished, they pull out the answer tab from the side of the screen, which will reveal where all of the quarter notes are. The students then can self-assess their answers.

These are just some ideas on how to utilize a SMART Board in your classroom. The board and software itself take a little time to get used to. However, your students will love using the board and you will love having a large, interactive, visual teaching tool in your classroom.

Have you used an interactive white board in your music classroom? If so, how? Please leave a comment and share your ideas.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 at 7:19 pm and is filed under Software, Methodology, Lesson Plans, Reflections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.