Elementary Music/Music Technology Blog

This past Saturday, I had the pleasure of attending the PA TI:ME conference’s keynote speaker, Dr. Scott Watson. Scott’s keynote address was titled “Unlocking Creativity with Technology.” It was an excellent presentation that included many wonderful students examples while it also made you think. His goal was to have you leave his presentation with one idea, and I came away with numerous ideas.

Scott’s keynote was based on a course that he taught last summer and will be teaching again this summer. He drove home the point that creativity is the use of the imagination in the production of an artistic work. He presented wonderful student examples including a 6th grade girl creating her own greatest hits album and a 6th grade boy creating a song about pollution for his social studies class. In addition, he showed a student work that was composed for the clarinet. Being a clarinet player, this example was amazing, and I believe that it was created by a 9th grader. It was very musical!

Scott also went into detail about the 8 principles of unlocking creativity. These principles promote creativity in students at any age. They include:

1. Allowing students to express themselves.
2. Offering compelling examples from other students or teachers.
3. Employing guidelines to remove distractions and to help the students to experience success.
4. Removing stifling products.
5. Facilitating improvisation.
6. Coaching.
7. Offering opportunities for feedback and assessment. Scott even writes a separate paragraph to each of his students about their compositions along with a rubric he uses to grade their compositions.
8. Employing performance.

I have briefed these 8 principles, but you can check them out in detail at Scott’s excellent podcast titled “What Music Means To Me.”
Scott will also be teaching this course at Villanova this summer.

In addition, Scott will be teaching “GarageBand Does it All!” from July 6-10 at Central Connecticut State University this summer, the same week that I will be teaching “Integrating Technology into the Elementary Music Classroom.” One can take Scott’s class in the morning and my class in the afternoon. This would be a wonderful week of learning music technology/integration/production so that you enter your music classroom in the fall with new materials, resources, tools, creativity, and assessment ideas.

I hope that you will check out both of our courses this summer!

As I finish up my spring break, I thought that I would finish my re-posting of my blog posts with this one below. I chose this one for a few reasons:

1. Apple’s GarageBand is an excellent tool for the elementary music students, as well as middle school and high school music students. I have used this with my third graders, and it literally took me 5 minutes to teach them how to use it before they were off and running. If you do not have a MAC, check below as I have updated the PC alternatives.
2. This post received numerous responses.
3. I wrote this post on May 1, 2008. My baby is slated to be due on May 1, 2009. So this day is special to me. Plus, it is also my father’s birthday.
4. I updated some of this post to include the most current version of GarageBand (’09), which came out earlier this year.
5. My current 3rd graders are in the middle of this lesson about composing songs about the states that they are studying in their classrooms. It is a nice integration project.

I hope that you enjoy!

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Before I begin this post about how Apple’s GarageBand can be utilized in an elementary music classroom, I feel it necessary to discuss why you would use this application in your elementary music classroom. I tend to use GarageBand with grades 3 and up because there are more suitable ways for younger students (PreK-grade 2) to create music, like playing Orff instruments, recorders, classroom instruments, or using Sibelius’s Groovy Shapes. However, I have had wonderful success with grades 3 and up using GarageBand in the elementary music classroom to create music. Some might state that using a loop-based program to create music by just having the students click and drag loops to form a song, is not creating music. Well, at least not in the traditional sense where we (as music teachers) learned the basics of music to compose. However, I tend to use GarageBand as a tool to assist students in creating accompaniments to the songs that they compose. That way, I still have the students utilizing the basic music and composition skills that I have taught them, but they think that it is fun or “a blast!” as they wrote in their reflections.Apple’s GaragBand 1 came out in 2004 for MAC. Apple is currently in its 5th version titled, “GarageBand ‘09.” Apple markets it as “your own personal recording studio — where it’s easy to make a song whether you’re a first-time musician or a seasoned pro.” There are many functions to GarageBand from creating a song, to scoring a movie, to creating a podcast that can be published to your website, to performing with a “Magic GarageBand,” to learning how to play the guitar or piano. The lesson I share is one I did successfully with my 3rd graders in 2008 and I am currently doing now in 2009:

Lesson: My 3rd graders study the 50 states every winter, which culminates with a”50 State Fair” at the end of the winter term. During this fair, each student presents various facts about the state that he/she was assigned. To integrate music into this fair, without just singing the Ray Charles’s tune “Fifty Nifty,” we compose our own state songs. Each student composes an 8-measure song using the notes and rhythms that they can play on the recorder. This particular 3rd grade was able to play and read the notes G A B C and D on the recorder. After they composed their song using the freeware Finale Notepad (unfortunately as of 09/2008, this software is no longer free), they then created an accompaniment to their song using GarageBand ‘08. We saved their compositions as MIDI files and clicked and dragged them into GarageBand ‘o8 (Finale Notepad allows you to save the music as midi files). Once their songs were in GarageBand, they arranged an accompaniment that consisted of bass loops, drum loops, guitar loops, and piano loops. I taught them about the various musical styles and how just throwing any loops on the screen would not always produce a favorable, musical product. After they completed their accompaniments, they played their recorders along with their GarageBand accompaniments. To see and listen to their works, please click here (this might take a minute to load). If you click on the 1st and 2nd grade pages, you will hear their podcasts on Peter and the Wolf and Beethoven, both were created in GarageBand.

When I had the 3rd graders reflect on this project, many of them commented on how fun it was to write a song. Some examples of my 3rd graders’ reflections (they were not edited):

“I think I rote a good song.” “I thought it was fun because I got to compose and I like to compose.” “I love music! I am so happy we get to use grage band in music. It was realy nice to learn how to make a song.” “I think that it was so cool that social studies was in music.”

GarageBand is for MAC only. What do I do if I work on a PC? Music teachers with a PC tell me about Sony Acid Music Studio, is comparable to GarageBand. In addition, James Frankel blogged about Mixcraft from Acoustica, which has an interface very similar to GarageBand. He also wrote an article about how to use mixcraft.  Super Duper Music Looper has been another product that teachers have stated that has been similar to GarageBand and successful in their elementary music classrooms. Finally, try TrakAx, a free video and music software program that is very similar to GarageBand.

GarageBand can do so much more in the classroom. I just gave a snippet of some things that it can do. At NJMEA in 2008, TI:ME member Christine DeSimone from Edgar Middle School in Metuchen, NJ, did an excellent session on “GarageBand in The World Music Classroom” where she demonstrated her middle schoolers’ works with World Music. At the 2008 TI:ME national conference in Michigan (and the 2008 MENC national conference), Carol Broos presented about “Flash, GarageBand, and Movie Scoring” to a room of 100+ music educators. Over the years, James Frankel has presented several excellent sessions on how to utilize GarageBand in the classroom.

My questions to you are:

1. Have you used any music software to enhance your curriculum?
2. If so, which applications have you used?

3. If not, do you think that you might try to use music software to enhance your music lessons in the future?

If you get a chance, please respond.

I wrote this post last May when my students were featured in the local paper. I am very proud of my music classroom and my students, so I thought that I would re-post this blog. I hope that you enjoy.

Photograph by Andrew Miller

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I wrote this post back in May of 2008. I re-post it here for two reasons:

1. To show that elementary general music students can podcast with some assistance from the teacher.
2. When I return from break, I will be posting this year’s podcasts of my 1st grader’s Peter and the Wolf and my 2nd grader’s Life of Beethoven.

I hope that you enjoy the post and that it will inspire you to podcast with your elementary music students.
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By now, many elementary music teachers have either heard of the term podcasting, thought about the advantages of podcasting, or have done some podcasting in their classrooms. At my school, the tech department will give out annual grants to our staff that encourages us to add a technological tool to our current curriculum. When I applied this year, I wanted to experiment with podcasting because I was finding it difficult to assess my youngest of students because of their limited reading and writing abilities. This podcasting project was a wonderful success in which my students adored doing it and I felt that I could assess them accurately and easily.

The definition of a podcast is “a contraction of the words iPod and broadcasting” (Frankel, 2007). You can download and listen to a radio broadcast or any audio broadcast on an iPod, computer, or any mp3 player. Most podcasts are free and can be found on individual websites or iTunes.

In my 1st grade classroom, I wanted to assess the students on their knowledge of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf and their rhythmic comprehension of quarter and eighth notes. During this unit, we had listened to Peter and the Wolf narrated by Leonard Bernstein, moved to the music, drew the characters and the instruments, explored the instruments at www.sfskids.org, and watched the Disney cartoon version of the story. At the end of the unit, the students were grouped and given a character from the story. They would then write a two-measure rhythm pattern in 4/4 time to play as the rhythm of the character. Once I checked the rhythms, they would choose a classroom instrument to play the rhythm and represent the character. Once that was complete, the students told me the story and I wrote it down. Then, we opened Apple’s GarageBand, pressed “Create a new podcast episode” button, used the Blue Snowball microphone, and began recording. I narrated the story with what the students had told me to say. They played their rhythm patterns when their characters were present in the story. After class, I scanned their pictures into iPhoto and used them in the podcast. I also found musical excerpts of Peter and the Wolf with no narration on iTunes, so I used it as background music. I then put it on my website. The results were wonderful. And, I could assess them on those skills. To listen to their podcasts, please click this link: 1st grade podcasts.

While you are there, please also check out my 2nd grade podcasts of The Life and Music of Beethoven.

If you do not have GarageBand because you own a PC, try the freeware TrakAx. This program has a very similar to the look and feel of GarageBand and it is free!

If you do not have a website to publish the podcasts, try podomatic.com — “PodOmatic podcast portal: Create, Find, Share Podcasts! Get your free podcast hosting, free podcast creation, podcasting tips, free podcast tools, and more.”

There are other wonderful sites of elementary students’ podcasts. Here are a few:

Radio WillowWeb: Radio WillowWeb is produced by students and teachers at Willowdale Elementary School.
ColeyCast: Recorded by the students, each broadcast highlights some of the exciting things they are learning in their classroom, Room #34.
Radio Cambridge: Podcast by elementary students at Cambridge Elementary in San Antonio, Texas.
Dr. Frankel’s Podcast Page: Podcasts from his students at the Franklin Avenue Middle School & Presentations at Conferences. It was listening to his podcasts, reading all of his podcasting articles, and with his encouragement, that I finally dove into podcasting with my students.

If you have created podcasts with your students, please leave a comment and a link so that we can check them out! As always, I welcome your feedback.

Frankel, J. (2007, June). Tech Terms: Podcasting. Retrieved March 17, 2008, from http://jamesfrankel.musiced.net/category/tech-tips/

Last July, I wrote this blog post about why I like teaching elementary general music. I felt that it was an important post to write for two reasons:

1. I was feeling from other elementary general music teachers that they were being treated as they “took the easy way out” by not becoming a high school band/choral/marching band/ director.
2. Teaching elementary general music is one of the best jobs in the teaching profession, if you feel that it is the right job for you. Basically, only you can decide whether teaching elementary, middle school, or high school music is the correct choice for you. In addition, you will sometimes have to teach in various situations before you can find the school that is the right fit for you. Do not give up on the teaching profession. It is one of the most rewarding jobs!

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Recently, I read numerous posts on the MENC General Music Boards about “Music Teacher Hierarchy.” It was an extremely interesting discussion about how many of us went to college with the aspiration to teach band for the next 20+ years. Somewhere in the process of life after college, we shifted to teaching elementary general music. In the posts, some teachers have felt that others in the profession have thought that they took the “easy way out” when they decided to teach elementary music.

Luckily, I have only encountered one teacher who thought that, and I felt the need to set her straight because teaching elementary music is wonderful and by no means, the “easy way out.” Yes, it is not for everyone and I applaud those who realized that and moved to a better suited teaching situation. However, for me, it is what I feel that I was called to do and here are my top ten reasons for why I adore teaching elementary general music:

1. The students in elementary school are sponges! At this age, they are open to most of the teaching tools that you use and they absorb knowledge like sponges.
2. Orff Instruments! The students can master them well and you have a blast performing with them.
3. Technology! Students at this age know more about technology than most because they have no fear of it. Therefore, you can use it often in your classroom because it will excite them and they will relate to you better. In addition, they can teach you a thing or two about music technology, burning CDs, mixing music, recording music, iPods, the latest computers, even guitar hero…
4. Dancing! At this age, the students love to dance. Therefore, you can teach them many traditional folk dances and cultural dances without too much giggling…unless you are pairing up 5th grade boys with 5th grade girls.
5. Singing! I teach the students from PreK (age 3) to Grade 3. They are never shy about singing and will sing solos when asked because they are very comfortable with me (having had me as their music teacher for years).
6. Recorders! OK, you might not like listening to 20+ recorders at once. However, recorder music has evolved over the years. You can still have them play their traditional 2 to 3-note songs unaccompanied, or you can purchase a variety of recorder music that comes with synthesized accompaniments or have students earn karate belts to encourage their progress. The elementary recorder students love these new materials that we did not have when we were in elementary music class. The excitement on my students’ faces when they first hear and then master Don Muro’s Queen B from Introducing BAG is worth gold.
7. Smiling faces! Most of the elementary students love music class and will enter with smiling faces and ready to learn.
8. Improvisation! Students at this age are not afraid to improvise with their voices, Orff instruments, rhythm instruments, and body percussion. In addition, they come up with some excellent improvisations.
9. Light bulb or “A ha!” moments! Enough said.
10. Elementary is where you can “hook” them! At this age, you can successfully teach them the steady beat, expressiveness, phrasing, dynamics, singing, performing, composing, improvising, music in relationship to other subjects, world music, American folk songs, patriotic tunes, dancing, and so much more. This is where the students’ musical journeys begin.

If you are an elementary music teacher, please leave a comment or reason to why you like teaching elementary general music. I would love to hear from you!

As I continue to work through Spring Break, I thought that I would pull out this post about iPods. In June of 2008, I wrote this blog post after the introduction of the Apple’s newest iPhone. I receive the question a lot (Which iPod is right for my classroom?) and I have to say after 9 months, my thoughts have changed a bit on this subject (so have the prices, since they have mostly gone down). Therefore, I have updated this post. I hope that you find it helpful.

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While I was reading about the newest 3G iPhone on the apple website, I then went and visited the iPod portion of their website to see if the iPods have been updated. While reading about the iPods, it reminded me that I have been asked by numerous music teachers about the iPod and which would be the right iPod for his/her music classroom.

How does the iPod benefit the music classroom?
First, any mp3 player can benefit the music classroom. It does not need to be an iPod. I tend to lean towards the iPod because it is user-friendly, it can be used on a MAC or PC, and it works easily with iTunes, which is a free digital media player application for MAC or PC provided by Apple.

Second, an mp3 player or iPod benefits your classroom in many ways:

1. You no longer have a stack of CDs cluttering your space because you can import your CDs to iTunes, make a playlist for each class or grade that you teach, and then click and drag that playlist to your iPod.
2. You no longer have to change CDs during class because the songs will be contained on the iPod.
3. You can plug your iPod into a stereo system, or any speakers that you purchase from Staples, Best Buys, etc., or you can play it through a boom box by purchasing the FM transmitter adapter. Therefore, the iPod is easily adaptable to any teaching situation, whether you teach in music classroom or on a cart.

Stats:
If you do decide to purchase an iPod for your classroom, which iPod is right one? There are four basic iPods: The iPod Shuffle, the iPod Nano, the iPod Classic, and the iPod Touch.

• The newest iPod Shuffle comes with 4GB (1000 songs) for $79 and can now speak to you with its voice over function. It can tell you what song is playing, the artist of the song, and the playlist.
• The iPod Nano comes with 4GB (1000 songs) for $149 ad 8GB (2000 songs) for $199.
• The iPod Classic comes with 120 GB (30,000 songs) for $249. This is the only iPod which had a price increase. Last June, Apple used to offer two version of this iPod (80 GB and 160GB). Now, they only offer one iPod with 120 GB for the price they used to offer the 160 GB.
• The iPod Touch comes with 8G for $299 (1750 songs), 16 GB for $399 (3500 songs), and 32 GB (7000 songs) for $499.

What do the differences in these iPods mean for music teachers?
The iPod Shuffle is the smallest of the iPods and has no screen. It is not helpful for a music teacher because you cannot read the title of the musical piece that is being played. This makes it difficult for the music teacher to select a song during class.

The iPod Nano is a great iPod for a small music budget. The 8GB Nano holds 2000 songs, which is more than enough for one year of elementary general music classes. It also can play videos, games, and store photos, but they will cut down on the amount of songs it can hold. It has a screen so it makes it easy for the music teacher to read and select a musical piece for class. You can also quickly set the repeat function by the press of a button (new feature–the older iPods did not have this feature so assessable). This is nice if you have your students practicing a recorder piece that you would like them to repeat over and over again. If you want your Nano to shuffle the songs, let’s say for playing a movement game like Dancing Freeze or Statue in the Park, just give your Nano a shake and it will shuffle the songs automatically.

The iPod Classic is a good iPod for a larger music budget. Similar to the Nano with its ease of use, its differences comes in size and storage space. If you want to put your entire school’s music library on your iPod, including your Silver Burdett or McGraw-Hill CDs, then the iPod Classic is the right fit for your music classroom. Since it can hold up to 30,000 songs (120 GB), you will enjoy the fact that your music library can be contained on one iPod. Finally, it also can play videos, games, and store photos, but they will cut down on the amount of songs it can hold. As I stated above, this is the only iPod that increased in price since last June. In addition, Apple only makes one of these iPods (120 GB) instead of two (80 GB and 160GB). This could be a sign that the Classic is on its way out to be permanently replaced with the iPod Touch.

The iPod Touch has functions that are similar to the iPhone. You can hold up to 7000 songs (32 GB). You can also play videos, connect to the internet through WiFi, store your photos, and check your email. Though these functions are wonderful for personal use, they do not lend themselves to a music classroom. However, last summer, Apple did something that was brilliant. It opened up a Applications portion to its iTunes store. Before this, many users were offering various applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch that you could easily download and use on your devices. Apple got smart and decided to offer these applications for an inexpensive price (as low as .99 cents for some applications). This was a brilliant move on Apple’s part. Have you seen how many applications there are for the iPhone and iPod Touch?!? The music applications alone are amazing.

• You need an extra instrument in your classroom?
  • All you have to do is download an application and you can turn your iPod Touch into a piano, a guitar, or an entire orchestra.
• Need to assess your students vocal abilities or want to record them quickly and do not have time to set up the computer to record? 
  • Try Griffin’s iTalk Pro  for free (with ads) or for $4.99 (without ads).

The possibilities are endless. Look at this one application titled StudioApp that turns your iPod Touch into a voice recorder and four-track mixer! Browse the full list of all AppStore apps filed under the AppStore category.

The iPod Nano and the iPod Classic can also be turned into voice recorders by connecting a $50-$60 external microphone.  These microphones are made my Xtreme Mac MicroMemo (now only found on Amazon), the original Griffin iTalk attachable microphone for iPod Nano or iPod Classic (now only found on Amazon), or Belkin.

For more information about all of the iPods, here is a great comparison chart provided by Apple.

Recommendation (updated since I first wrote this post in June of 2008):
Therefore, I would recommend the following depending on the needs and budget of your general music classroom:

Small budget? iPod Nano.

Larger budget and need to store all of your classroom music library on one iPod? iPod Classic.

Medium to larger budget and storage is not a concern? iPod Touch.

Want to be able to use the iPod as an assessment device? iPod Nano or Classic (with external microphones that now can mostly be found on Amazon) or iPod Touch (with numerous voice recorder applications that can be downloaded and purchased through the iTunes App Store). My personal opinion on this topic? Go for the iPod Touch if you have unlimited funds and would like to turn your iPod into a voice recorder for assessment purposes. With the external microphones only being found on Amazon and the applications now being found and offered conveniently through the App Store for the iPod Touch, the iPod Touch would be beneficial for this use.

Want to be able to turn our iPod into another instrument? iPod Touch (with numerous music applications that can be downloaded and purchased through the iTunes App Store).

Do you use an iPod in your music classroom? If so, which one?

As I am on break, I am re-posting some of my posts that received the most hits and some that were forgotten. The one below received numerous hits. So much so, that I ended up doing a  presentation about these ideas at the most recent NJMEA conference. I hope that you enjoy this post.

In addition, I found this great article titled “Offering the Best Price for Learning Supplies: Free” from the New York Times off of Dave Marra’s Twitter. It gives ideas about how to fund classroom supplies in this tough economic time.

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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.

Today begins my two-week spring break! One of the perks of working at an independent school is that you get 2 weeks in March for Spring break as opposed to a few days in February and a week in April. For the next two weeks, I will be re-posting some of my posts that received a lot of comments and some posts that received no comments.

I hope that you enjoy some of these posts!

Today, my 3rd graders were composing an 8-measure song using Finale Notepad ‘08 as a part of their 50 States unit. In their social studies unit, each student is assigned a state that they research and present facts about during the April “50 States Fair”. In music class, they use Finale Notepad ‘08, the notes that they study and perform on the recorder (BAG, whole notes, half notes, and quarter notes), compose an 8-measure melody, and then create an accompaniment to their melodies using Apple’s Garageband. They finish the song by writing lyrics to their state song melodies using the facts that they learned and researched about their states. This lesson is done in five groups of 4-5 students. Therefore, they work together to compose the melody and the accompaniment. When I print out their melodies, each student will individually write in their own lyrics. You can see some of the students works from last year by clicking here.

Today, I decided to give one of the larger groups a Korg Nano Keyboard to use to play the notes into the score instead of clicking and dragging the notes. The larger group tends to take a longer time, so I was hoping that by playing the keyboard, they would save some time and keep up with the rest of the class. This worked very well and the students loved playing the notes on the Korg Nano Keyboard.

A few items that I noticed that benefitted the students greatly:

1. When they played a G on the keyboard, they stopped to look at the note on screen to see if it matched what they just played. This was a great way for them to assess themselves.
2. Some of my 3rd graders have issues with their fine coordination skills. The keyboard’s keys are nice and large so all of my students achieve success when playing on them.
3. Easy to set up: Just plug it into the USB drive and the computer recognizes it immediately. In Finale Notepad ‘08, just go to the MIDI setup and click on nano keyboard. It immediately works.
4. Inexpensive: Priced at $49.99, it easily fits into an elementary general music budget.

Korg also makes a USB drum pad and a USB controller. If you would like to learn more about these products, please check out SoundTree’s website.

Dr. James Frankel wrote an interesting post today about the YouTube Symphony Orchestra. This concept of musicians auditioning, via youtube, to perform together at Carnegie Hall on April 15, 2009, is unique, but is it that much different than when we used to audition for the our colleges’ symphony orchestras?

Check out Jim’s blog and thoughts on the subject. It is a good read!