Week 7!- Throw Down Your Heart

Bela Fleck, banjo player, traveled to Africa to learn about where the banjo was created. He listened to many musical groups in different countries in Africa and played along with them. "Throw Down Your Heart," is the movie (available on Netflix) which was taped while he was on the trip. You and your music students of ALL ages will be captivated by the musicality and genuine respect the musicians have for one another.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jl4IOSLX-o

Week 7!!- TED video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU3V6zNER4g&feature=player_embedded#at=1053

this was from the information on assistive technology this week. Evelyn Glennie talks about really LISTENING to music with your whole self, your whole body. SO insightful and moving! Something we should all watch.

Week 7!! Groovy Music

http://www.sibelius.com/products/groovy/index.html

Sibelius came out with a program called Groovy Music, and its target audience is K-8. Here is a page where you can watch a little video describing its capabilities. I am going to a Sibelius class tomorrow, and I will ask if anyone has used this program.

Week 6-Free Tools in the Classroom Site

http://www.microsoft.com/education/teachers/guides/freetools.aspx

This is free for teachers, and also has some videos about SongSmith and other ways to improve your teaching. I got a microsoft id in order to download the teacher ed. of SongSmith and then I found this site.

Week 6-Northfield Music Website

http://sites.google.com/site/northsmithfieldmusic/Home/music-resources

This is a high school's "cool sites" page that provides many software programs to browse through-notation programs, composition, drill, theory, etc. A really great resource!

week 5-songsmith

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/songsmith/teachers.html

This seems like a really cool program for students. They sing into a microphone and the program makes up an accompaniment to go along with it. Kids can choose tempo, instruments, and style of accompaniment. Sounds fun and it's free for teachers for 6 hrs of use. Then it costs $29.95.

Week 5-Bulletin Boards

If you are like me and haven't changed your boards all year, this might be helpful! I love getting new ideas from other music teachers and this site also has printables so you can reproduce what you see!
http://www.musicbulletinboards.net/

Opera for Children links- Week 4

http://www.squidoo.com/opera-for-children

Wonderful resource for opera information, even a little foldable you can make out of printable templates at the bottom. Has a link to the book "Operas That Every Child Should Know," and many other links.

classics for kids - Week 4

http://www.classicsforkids.com/shows/showview.asp?ID=42

This is a really great site for kids to learn about operas and classical music. They can listen, learn about composers, and read the stories about the operas. I could spend days here....

Bicycle Built for Two

http://www.noteflight.com/scores/view/de11ef3002acb502e7a7a8027574a0fded5d9235

You can go to the score using the link above, too. I am just posting both to see how this works. Can you please comment and let me know if your playback of this skips or plays smoothly? Mine skips and sounds like a cd skipping. :(

Overall, I thought this program was really user friendly. I liked Musescore last week, especially the video tutorial. This week I more or less used trial and error with Noteflight until I got stuck, then I looked at the instructions. I could not find how to put in the staccato marking, but luckily Cathy told me about clicking the bottom left of the edit menu. THANKS to Cathy for her help! I would have never found that!

This would be helpful for chorus, handing out just soprano or just alto parts so they can see the notes and the lyrics, and not get confused by piano accompaniment.

Bicycle built for two

Peter and the Wolf flute beatboxing! week 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6SHsF1n9Qw

This site is really awesome to share with kids. They recognize the bird theme and actually see someone play it, then when he starts beatboxing they LOVE it, and so do I!

Peter and the Wolf themes week 3

If any of you study Peter and the Wolf with your students, this is a handy website when you would like to listen to the themes of each character. I use it to quiz the students after we have listened to Peter and the Wolf in class.

http://www.philtulga.com/Peter.html

Best Idea Ever!!!

http://web.me.com/lanemusic/WESPodcast/Podcast/Podcast.html

WOW! This is so inspiring! The kids have adorable accents, too! This teacher has such a wonderful idea...podcasts so parents can hear what's going on in music class. I never even get info. to the principal in time for our monthly newsletter, but doing this would be so awesome....

The future of music ed.

http://leadingnotes.org/2011/02/15/pisano/

Here is an article that will hopefully make you feel positive about the future of Music Ed. and how technology will help to keep us "current."

Music PLN

http://musicpln.org/
I found this site and it has a term from this week's info-PLN!  You sign up (free) and it is a HUGE resource for just about anything.  You can ask questions to peers, look for advice, see classes that are offered in your area....

Rubric Creator

http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=CustomizeTemplate&bank_rubric_id=147&section_id=9&
Here is an interesting tool for creating thorough, descriptive rubrics in minutes.  I found it in the back of our book for this class.  I tried it out and there are a lot of choices under each column, and you can change it to accommodate your needs.  You can save the rubrics or print them out right away.

Introduction

Hey Fellow Music Tech. Classmates,
This is my 13th year of teaching elementary music.  I am currently teaching in my 4th district, PreK-5 with 4th-5th gr. chorus.  The kids are wonderful and I am getting used to yet another district curriculum, textbook series, staff, principal, etc.  Luckily, it has been great so far.  
I married my high school sweetheart and we have 2 beautiful children.  Shaylee is in second grade and Brody is 3.  I am kicking myself that I didn't get my Master's before kids, but I am sure there is a reason that I am doing this now.  I feel fortunate to have met some really wonderful people through this program so far and this is my 4th class.  
My goal for this class is to become more comfortable utilizing technology in the classroom and to discover what is available to best serve my students.

First Post

Just trying this out to see how it works.