Elementary Music/Music Technology Blog

The SMART Response system, formerly called  Senteo, is a wonderful assessment tool for the classroom. The SMART Response system comes with wireless remotes called clickers and a software that allows you to create assessments and evaluate the results. I first saw this system put into affect when I observed the Spanish teacher give her 2nd graders a test. She created the test using the SMART Response Assessment Software. Before the class, she would input the names of the students and assign them a clicker. When the students entered the room, they were given a clicker. She explained to the students how to use the clickers and how to use them to answer the questions. She would then present one of the questions on the screen. It would be a picture with a multiple choice answer. The students would click the letter that matched the answer. The Spanish teacher could see in graph form how many students answered correctly and incorrectly. The clicker could also give the students a live assessment that lets them know immediately if they answered correctly.

This system is a wonderful assessment tool in the classroom. If you are required to give tests in music class, or do assess regularly in music class, this could be an effective assessment system. The system and clickers also work in coordination with SMART Notebook. I found it to be a very interesting and effective assessment tool. I am looking forward to using it with my 3rd grade music classes in the winter. As I was reading the SMART website to learn more information, I read that they are creating a “SMART Response LE” system and clickers for younger elementary and special needs children. That clicker looks to be much more age-appropriate for students in grades K-2.

Have you ever used the SMART Response System? If so, with what grades and what was your experience?

For the past two days, my colleagues and I ran a workshop about the uses of a SMART Board and the Notebook software at our school. Our school just upgraded the Notebook software form 9.7 to version 10. Notebook software allows you to utilize tools such as games (like vortex, crossword, hangman, basketball, and more), activities (such as balloon popping, word reveal, multiple choice, and more), animations to the screen (some that you find in powerpoint), recording techniques with the software, and the SMART response system, to enhance your current curriculum and lessons. There are some new additions to the Notebook software version 10. These include:

• The Lesson Activity Toolkit 2.0 comes with the installation disc. In 9.7, we had to download the lesson toolkit. The lesson toolkit has many educational advantages as it gives you many options on how to utilize it in a lesson as a teaching or assessment tool.
• In the Welcome Screen, you will find a redesigned Teacher’s Hub to offer more resources for teachers, even those who are very experienced with Notebook.
• The Gallery has more templates.
• Magic Pen allows you to write on the SMART Board and then your writing disappears in 10 seconds. This is fun to use with your students because you can write a rhythm pattern on the SMART Board with the magic pen and the students have 10 seconds to clap it before it disappears.
• The Properties Bar on the right allows you to animate words, photos, or objects on the screen. They can fly in or out, spin, fade in and out, and more. It also allows you to easily change the background of a slide and allows you to record one page of a slide and all of the animations and drawings that you do to that one page.
• The SMART Response system allows you to give a test, quiz, exam, assessment with the students and record the students’ answers with the clickers hardware. These clickers look like remote controls. When you set up a test in SMART Response, the students press the correct answers using the clickers. It is then recorded for the teacher and the teacher just goes to a page in the software to see how the students did. Basically, it records and grades your multiple choice tests for you.

After intensely working with the version 10 software for the past few days, I generally like the new additions. However, Notebook 10 is unstable on a MAC. It crashed my computer several times during the workshop. My laptop is only 6 months old, so I did not feel that it was the laptop. When all of my colleagues and the participants had the same problems with crashing, we all realized that it is the software. However, with that said, we called the tech help at Smarttech.com and they were extremely helpful.

Check out some of the lessons that were made during the workshop!

Has anyone used Notebook v.10 in their classrooms? If so, what were some of your favorite items?

I was reading Jim Frankel’s blog yesterday and he wrote about the newest version of Band-in-a-Box for MAC. The latest version sounds wonderful with its most recent improvements. Check out his blog here.

If you have been keeping up with many of the music technology blogs, then you are probably aware that yesterday Avid released Sibelius 6. There are some excellent additions and updates to this newest version.

1. Magnetic Layout: This tool will save lots of time when editing a score. In the previous versions, you would have to spend time alligning dynamics, slurs, and other phrasing tools. Now, Sibelius does this automatically from the first note inputted onto the screen.
2. Versions and Classroom Control: These two new features are wonderful for music educators. Versions enables educators to efficiently track student progress, spot plagiarism and promote collaboration. Classroom Control allows the teacher to leave messages for the student right on the composition and allows the student to respond. It reminds me of Microsoft Word’s track changes.
3. Keyboard and Fretboard Windows: Adds another way to input notes. It also allows a visual approach to composing.
4. ReWire Support: As stated in the press release: “simplifies the once challenging process of incorporating audio tracks into notation-focused projects, making it an ideal tool to facilitate a film’s orchestral session.  By synchronizing Sibelius software with Pro Tools software (or other DAWs running on the same computer,) customers can start real-time playback in Sibelius and the DAW will follow, or vice versa.  Further, composers or orchestrators can easily add a vocal to a song created with Sibelius or augment an existing recording for enhanced creative options.”

I am excited about these new additions and updates to Sibelius and look forward to trying Sibelius 6!

I am curious to know which software you have used in your elementary general music classroom? Either using it with the students or you using it as an enhancement tool to your lesson.

I have used the following:

• Harmonic Vision’s Music Ace (1&2): I have had students use the lessons and games to assess musical concepts being taught in class. For example steady beat, lines and spaces on the staff, steps and skips on the staff, and more.
• Sibelius’s Groovy Music (Shapes and Jungle): I have had the students use this program to create songs that integrate their science unit on the rainforest or songs with guided forms.
• Apple’s GarageBand: I have had the students use this program to create accompaniments to melodies that they have composed with Finale Notepad.
• Finale NotePad: I have had students use this program to compose melodies to state songs or melodies that use certain notes and rhythms.
  • Side note: Disappointed that Finale NotePad is no longer free? Try Noteflight! You can do many of same things that you could do in NotePad, but for free!
• Morton Subotnick’s World of Music: Great application that I use with the students when we are studying music and instruments from various countries.
• Skype: A great way to communicate with other elementary music classrooms.
• Audacity: A freeware I use to record my students singing and performing, edit tempo and keys to certain cd tracks, and more. I have also used Apple’s GarageBand and MOTU’s Digital Performer to do this as well, though Audacity does change the tempo and keys easily and succesfully over GarageBand.

Many of the projects that I listed above can be seen and heard on my website.

Those are just some of the programs that I use with my students. What are some of the programs that you use?

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 wanted to share with you a letter that I received from a friend and colleague. This past March I went to her school to show her and her colleagues ideas to enhance their current curriculum with technology. I am so proud of her accomplishments. If you were ever curious about how to enhance your current curriculum but you were not sure how to go about it, please read her letter. I hope that it will inspire and encourage you to try to integrate technology into some of your lessons or even to use technology as a tool to simplify some items in your classroom. If you are curious as to where to find music technology workshops, check out some of the TI:ME conferences and workshops in the summer.

“I’m beginning to feel more confident with my Mac now.  I found myself in a situation where my accompanist couldn’t make it to my school chorus rehearsals as often as I wanted.  I solved my problem with my Mac.  I input the piano accompaniments into Sibelius, then exported them in Garageband as midi files, and shared them to iTunes.  For rehearsal, I plugged my iPod into the classroom stereo and my kids sang along while I conducted with both hands free.  When our accompanist finally did make it to rehearsal, our time together was more fruitful since the choir was already familiar with the accompaniment.

Yesterday I recorded our concert with the microphone on my iPod.  After downloading the files into iTunes, I imported the file into Garageband.  Then I used Garageband to edit the recording into separate tracks and shared it back to iTunes.  My concert is now on my iPod in nice, neat files and I can burn it to CD to share with the band directors at my school.

I’m becoming more proficient with Sibelius.  I’ve used it to arrange some of my choral pieces.  I took the bridge section out of one piece and rewrote an Orff part for a student flutist.

I know that what I’ve been up to is very easy stuff, but I’m proud of it.  Thank you so much for inspiring me to learn to do these things.  My Mac really is changing the way I’m thinking about teaching and making my job easier.”

If you have been wanting to upgrade your Sibelius notation software, now is the time! This week, Sibelius is offering a great price so that registered Sibelius users can upgrade to Sibelius 5 for $85/Professional Version and $65/Education Version.  Sibelius 5 Lab Pack Upgrades are just $215.  That’s 50% off regular price.

To learn more, click here: http://www.sibelius.com/shop/upgrades.html

As I read the posts on the MENC General Music Boards, I realize that many music teachers are in the same boat as I am and we are preparing for our concerts which are in the next couple of weeks. One part of my concert preparation is to record my students singing their songs and assessing their performances for the following areas:

1. Phrasing
2. Enunciation of words
3. Pitch
4. Tempo - does the tempo assist in hearing the lyrics and phrasing?

I can record my students using the following tools:

1. iPod with voice recorder attachment - Mine is XtremeMac micromemo. Grffin (iTalk Pro) and Belkin also make a microphone. Very affordable and easy-to-use.
2. M-Audio Micro Track - Great quality stereo recording and very portable.
3. Apple’s GarageBand on a laptop - Very easy to use. Just set up a new real instrument track, click record, and let the internal microphone record your students’ voices. If your computer does not have a microphone, the Blue Snowball and the Blue Snowflake are wonderful USB microphones that record with excellent quality.
4. Computer with the freeware Audacity - Just download Audacity, launch, and press record. If you have an internal microphone, it is that easy and very affordable.

To play any of these items back you will need to hook your portable recorder or computer to a sound system or a good set of speakers. My students get very excited to immediately hear themselves singing. Having them assess themselves is educational for them and assists in achieving MENC standard #7. Evaluating music and music performances.

As I enter December and Holiday Concert Time, and just finishing up the first trimester reports, I wanted to share some of my students’ works so far:

1. Kindergarten: These two podcasts are my students arranging and creating an accompaniment for Twinkle Twinkle Little Star using Sibelius’s Groovy Music Shapes and my students singing their Halloween Parade Songs.
2. Grade One: These three podcasts are my students playing their first 2-part orffestration, Mrs Miller’s 1st grade orchestrating sounds to their original story titled The Scrubbing Machine, and songs they created using Groovy Shapes that utilized dynamics.
3. Grade Two: These two podcasts are my students performing the “oooo” of Skin and Bones on the Orff instruments and their group compositions using the notes of a C Major Pentatonic Scale and Finale NotePad 2008. (If you are saddened by Finale NotePad no longer being free, check out the following post.)
4. Grade Three: This podcast is of my students performing a four-part orffestration of classic folk songs.

I hope that you enjoy my students’ performances/works!