Book Buddy Pro in the Music Classroom

http://melodysoup.com/2015/08/music-classroom-library-meets-book-buddy-pro/

Check out this post about how to use the app Book Buddy Pro in your Music Classroom Library

Google Drive is AWESOME!

Today we started choir!  Yippee! 

This year we had a much easier time starting choir than last year because THIS year, instead of asking parents and students to return a sheet of paper letting us know that they were coming to choir today, we sent home a hyperlink that sent our interested parents and students directly to a google form.  YAY! 

Students who wished to join choir simply filled out the google form and without any other steps, we had an instant spreadsheet!!!! 

Today, when we were ready to mark attendance, and take note of who is interested in auditioning for special parts or serving as choir officers, my co-teacher and I were able to work on the very same spreadsheet at the very same time!  Our changes were visible to both of us and we got twice as much work done in half the time.  We also were both constantly working from the most current document. 

If you are looking for a way to manage your extra choirs better, then I HIGHLY recommend using google drive! 

It is working AMAZINGLY well! 

If you haven't tried it, now would be a great time! 

Caution! Primary Music Centers Under Contruction! - Part 3

Quiet Please We're Testing!  Those are not the words a music teacher wants to hear when she shares a wall with a testing room........ ALL my speakers are on the "testing" wall..... My instruments were bleeding through to the other side...... what to do.... what to do....?????? 

This next set of centers were developed out of pure necessity.

We've been working on composition centers, but many of my composition centers require students to either play or improvise melodies and rhythms on instruments.  Basically, I came up with these  in a pinch ideas when I had a room full of students and not enough centers to go around. 

Before I scrapped all of my composition centers, I first modified most of them.  Instead of using un-pitched percussion, my students used body percussion, instead of pitched percussion, my students sang.

I'm pretty sure we did ok, because no one came to the door to tell us to be quiet. 

Additionally, I added a couple of centers to replace some of the more rambunctious centers.  Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best. 

Finale Notepad!

Set-up - headphones and headphone splitters allow for more than one student to hear their work while working on a computer.  I use Finale Notepad quite a bit with my older students, so the FREE! download is already on my computers.  The trickiest part is getting students logged on.  I try to pair a student who I think will be independently successful with one that needs some support.  The more independent student uses their log-in credentials.... Since my students have easy access to computers in their classroom they are well used to logging in. 

Kinder - nope, didn't do this one with kindergarten..... during kindergarten I just added an extra person with my other centers.  They didn't miss it, they were having too much fun.

1st/2nd - I helped them log in and find Finale and then after a quick tutorial on how to manipulate the application I left them alone to doodle and listen to their doodles.  I wanted them to have the experience of notating something and then playing it back to see how it sounds.  I told them to start with quarter, and eighth notes and they did pretty well.  When it was time to go, I helped them save their work. 

Rhyming Books
Set-up ...I have a great collection of books.  I asked my students to read independently and with each other.  I  chose the books that are rhyming because they are more rhythmic than others and they are ones with which the students could add instruments if we were allowed to be loud. 

Kinder-2nd grade I was shocked by how intrigued and on task the students were.  They REALLY enjoyed getting to read my special music books that they don't see everyday.



CHECK OUT!

Reflections upon centers in music

Caution! Primary Music Centers Under Construction Part 1

Caution! Primary Music Centers Under Construction Part 2

Funny Fridays! - Google Translate to the rescue!

Trying to teach without a voice is annoying and difficult.  Trying to teach music without a voice is downright agonizing.  After adjusting ALL of my lessons for minimal teacher vocalization this week AND after fighting for each word all week I decided today that I'd had enough.  Because today I actually felt almost as bad as I sounded so I got a sub for the afternoon.   The afternoon sub was a great idea, but I still had to get through my four morning classes......

What to do….  What to do……

That was when I remembered Google Translate.  Because I had already considerably downsized my vocal output this week, it wasn't a big deal to type in the few things that I needed to say into the translator.  I have an active board and speaker system hooked up to my computer so it was easy to adjust the volume so that everyone could hear and see what I was writing.  I loved it because I can type almost as fast as I can speak, so I was able to answer questions with complete and thoughtful answers instead of limiting myself to nodding yes and no and writing on the board which takes longer.  In kindergarten, after I motioned everyone to come in an sit down, which is part of our normal routine, I typed in "Everyone please stop talking".  They were stunned into silence!  I still had a couple of wanders who hadn't quite joined the class, so I simply pressed "play" again.... and again..... to which a student on the first row who was listening exclaimed..... "we heard you the first time!"   I love kindergarten!  It worked well with kindergarten because they couldn't read the words I was typing but they could hear them.  It worked well with my older students because they could read along as I typed and they got a kick out of typing mistakes that would cause funny pronouncements.  The majority of my students are bilingual they enjoyed watching the translations develop.  Needless to say, computers still can't translate like we can. However, that was part of the fun. 

I know you won’t be surprised by two things.

1. My ENT did give me some medicine, but he also reminded me that nothing takes the place of silence and water when dealing with vocal stress. 

2. I will be using google translate much more as part of my arsenal of tools to decrease the amount of talking that I have to do.

Patriotic Songs and the Kitchen Sink!

I tend to teach patriotic music in the late spring because the vocabulary  and often the melodies  for most of the songs are rather advanced.  By waiting until the late spring, I share these super fun songs with my students when they are the oldest they will be all year long.  By the time we sing these songs, they have a good habit of reading words, singing melodies and reading rhythms.  Plus, they will be prepared to sing all of our patriotic songs in time for summer fireworks and baseball.  I like to use all sorts of ways to get these songs into my students.
I have created lots of my own power point presentations using free clip art from either msnclipart OR  stock.xchngstock.xchng  but creating your own presentations from scratch for every song is very time consuming.  I have found really great presentations of songs using powerpoint  musicbulletinboards.net  VERY useful!

Especially the Fifty Nifty United States! powerpoint created by Linda Barnhart


However, my two FAVORITE things to use are BOOKS! and CENTERS!

Last year I while checking the musicbulletinboards site for updates I happily discovered these REALLY awesome centers for the Star Spangled Banner!  Tracy King did an awesome job when she created these gems!  They are reasonably priced and worth every penny.  They are awesome because they are simple and they are fabulous because all I had to do was PRINT!  I've used them with my students this week and they have worked VERY well!  I'm a fan of supporting great work, so ya'll go support this music teacher by purchasing her excellent materials!

When using books to teach patriotic songs you can never have enough because each version brings it's own charm.  Also, I don't tend to be one of those teachers who can resolve to assign a specific set of songs to each grade level and stick with it.  Because I'm afraid I'll forget something,or they will move away and they'll leave my school and miss something entirely, I tend to introduce songs earlier than may be typical and we just make sure and sing them every year.  Because I am crazy enough to teach really "too hard" songs to my younger students, books are the very best way to crack open the meaning of the songs to my young learners.

 You're right! My  kinder students who sing "America the Beautiful" at kinder graduation might not have a clue what they are singing about..... BUT when we revisit "their" song in first and second grade, they have a ton of "aha" moments...... I'm going for the  "long haul" pay-off.

By that time, my big kids are ready to really analysis the musical elements and meaning of songs they've known "all their lives".

A nice song to add to 5th grade patriotic music is "Song of Peace" in the Macmillan textbook.   The melody is "Finlandia" by Jean Sibelius  The lyrics speak of  the worth of each country and how each country is worthy of celebration.  Very nice indeed!

Here are some wonderful Patriotic song books that I've been using for years.  Some of these are so well loved that it is time for me to replace them.

Katherine Bates, author, - Wendell Minor, illustrator

Scholastic paperback

Scholastic paperback

These are books that I would dearly enjoy having in my classroom and hope to acquire sooner or later.

Public Domain, George M. Cohan Composer, Norman Rockwell, Illustrator

Patricia A. Pingry

Katherine Bates, Neil Waldman Illustrator

There are MANY MANY more!  In fact the list is so extensive I'll probably do another post on patriotic books just so that I can keep track of what I would like..... As my momma says, There is NOTHING wrong with my "wanter".

This spring I was able to get a large number of books from donorschoose.org.  I was happy to discover this beautiful series of books!  I have two of these and hope for the other three soon.  I taught with them today and it and they were a great hit.   In kindergarten we had a great time counting the stars on the flag for "You're A Grand Old Flag" because every page had a flag with even MORE stars.  Then the "Star Spangled Banner Book" has the BEST illustrations for dawn and twilight I've yet to see.  What better way to teach those words than with the "right" picture!

Marsha Qualey  did a wonderful job!

 

Don't "Decompose" - Compose! Writing music on demand in the music classroom.

For as long as I can remember, I have written music for pleasure.  I write for myself, I write for my friends and I write for my family.  I write as an expression of my faith in Jesus Christ.... but as much as I write, only occasionally do I write music for school.

THE NEED!
The thing about writing music for school is that it is typically born out of necessity.  When you NEED a song and you don't have the right one, sometimes a new and original song just happens.

Special Occasions
The VERY first time that I had the need to write a song for school was actually upon the death of a dear friend and colleague who was killed in a tragic car accident.  Our school was stricken by the sudden loss and my students needed a way to express their love for this popular teacher they had lost.   I was new enough to writing music that I wasn't very quick at music dictation, so as I wrote my co-worker drafted what I was playing and singing.  The song I wrote that afternoon has turned into my go to "occasion" song.  I gently shift the words here and there so that when most people hear it they would never guess it was intended for a memorial service.

Since that time there are a couple of things I've realized about writing music for school.

•  Keep it Simple!  - Ask yourself, Is it universally singable? Writing a song for the entire student body is not the same as writing a song for your honor choir.  (in terms of range I would stay between b-d'')

• Can you play it?  -If you can't play your song while one hand is directing your chorus and you are "eyeballing" the talker on the back row, it's too hard! You might like to rely on a recording, but what if the power goes out? We call them "special" occasions because they are "special" and weird stuff happens.   

School Songs
Every school ought to have a school song..... PLEASE, even if you don't have time this year, PLEASE at some point at least try it or at least commission a piece. My first school where I was music teacher at for 10 years has a beautiful original school song that was already in use when I became music teacher there. That song is both singable and simple and all of the students, teachers and parents know it by heart.  It brings the entire school together. It's a wonderful way to begin or end school events of all kinds.
When I came to my current school I was utterly dismayed to discover that a school as old as mine had never had a school song of any kind.  How sad! I decided to take my time and for the last two years I've written a "class song" for my graduation 5th graders. After this year, I'll have accumulated 3 songs about my school.  I am going to teach all three of them to my choir and then do a scratch recording of the students singing the song.  THEN next year, I'll introduce them to all of the students and staff and we will all vote.  After-all, it's not MY school song, it's OUR school song. PLUS, my hope is that by giving myself 3 chances to get it right, my compositions will improve. Remember since a school song is an "all-sing" , make sure that you follow the rules for specials occasion songs.

Content Buster Songs
Everybody knows that declarative knowledge (the names of things) and to some extend procedural knowledge ( how things work)  is easiest to remember if you use a song or an acronym or other memory device.  When my students are struggling to remember key vocabulary, sometimes I will be asked to come up with a "diddy".  Just this last week, my team of art, music and PE had a meeting with administration to see how we could help with improving vocabulary that held confused our students on the latest benchmark.  I'm always very intentional about integrating all of the other subjects into what I do, but sometimes even a little explicit intentionality goes a long way.   So I brought the vocabulary list home with me so that I can see what I can come up with over Spring Break....(man it sounds like my spring break will be 3 months long.....)   Ideally,  these  little "diddies" should go back to the classroom WITH the students, especially since knowledge application and transfer are the REAL problems....... SO it helps if the classroom teachers you are supporting can sing the songs too..... wait...... you have teachers at your school who are afraid to sing?  ME TOO!  So a pre-made CD then...... There are some good ones......  Sometimes you can find these songs already created and recorded by someone else which means that all you have to do is make sure that your teacher friends have legal copies.  OH..... wait...  you mean spend money?..... OK, so now we're back to composing our own little "diddies".  You can still put them on a CD for moral support, but if you write them yourself then you have the rights to them.....

• The BEST and MOST useful chants are the ones that we write WITH the students, BUT if you don't have time. then...... 
• I HIGHLY recommend enlisting the help of the teachers whose classes will benefit most.  This is critically important in order to clarify definitions. 

• Chanting is plenty! - don't worry about melody, rhythm is enough!
• Repetition,  Repetition ,  Repetition .... Repetition! 

Here is an excerpt from a 1st grade chant that I created with my first grade team a few years ago....They were studying the states of matter and wanted to introduce both vocabulary and conditions.....I've looked EVERYWHERE for the whole thing which I can't find, but here is the part I remember.......

Sometimes liquids are viscous (repeat 2 times) 

( ta --- ta ---  ti-ti ta --- ti-ti )

With a SLOOOOW STICKY FLOW

(ti-ti taaaaaaa ti-ti- taaaaaaa)

Speaking of well done, pre-composed chants...... In my search for vocabulary support I found this great site.  I've got my free 14-day trial and I expect to be listening to some of these chants so that I can see if it's worth my $5.00 a month......

Flocabulary 

Modeled Composing / Modeled Writing (Same thing)

If you are like most music teachers that I know, you've had your share of professional development in language arts and math.   I'm finding that one of the most useful aspects of these processes of teaching literacy is the cognitive transparency that occurs.   A teacher reading to her class will share her thinking about what she is reading.  A teacher writing in front of his class, will share his thought process about word choice or voice. I feel like literacy is literacy is literacy, so I thought I'd give it a try in music.  So, I got my guitar out and composed a song transparently in front of my students using the kids names and what they were wearing.  THEY LOVED IT!  Some of the verses I wrote were funnier than others..... One was about wearing a white shirt on spaghetti day, while another mentioned something about wearing green must mean that you love trees.  I brought transparency into the process by guiding them through my melodic choices and pointing out how the rhythm of the words informs how I create the rhythms rather than the other way around.....I was working more with aural discrimination and  even word choice in terms of rhyming.  I wanted the students to hear when the song was finished. On this particular day, I didn't worry about notation, I was primarily concerned with sparking the conversation about composition with the students..... we'll use their own compositions to notate as this one would be rather complex.  This is a practice I want to continue to develop. 

Songs of Encouragement! 
If you are like me and you teach music at a public school, your school life is dictated by whatever standardized test your state uses so show that your students are progressing compared with everyone else.

If you've ever taught at a school with a significant population of "at-risk" students, then you understand the obstacles that these children face just getting to school, let alone succeeding in school. Making a full year of academic growth is a huge accomplishment when by February you've gone to your third elementary school for the year.  Passing a standardized test is an even bigger achievement because for most "at-risk" students.  In order to pass the test,  these students must   bring their "A+++++ game" to school and then show up with it on test day too!

 It doesn't matter that last night, after your mom got off of the evening shift at work, your family had go to the store to buy milk at 11:30 p.m....... It doesn't matter that because your family had to go to the store so late, you have to wear yesterdays uniform that has lunch stains and a rip in the seat.  It doesn't matter that last weekend your aunt moved out, so now your mom doesn't have enough money for the rent and you just busted out of your only pair of shoes.......  It doesn't matter.... those tests, like real life....... will wait for no student.


However, since I GET to be the music teacher, I can encourage and support my students to do their best on those pesky tests.

Just  before spring break my help was enlisted in organizing a TEST pep rally..... not my favorite thing to do, but I know my students will love it........ My biggest problem is that over the years different "alternate test day lyrics" have cropped up for whatever popular song is currently IT.....Rather than being put in the awkward position of being "copyright shady".... Isn't it better to create something original and meaningful that can be adjusted to the specifics at your school?  Time is REALLY the key.... so first I'm going to suggest that you subscribe to Music K-8  because they have a great collection of songs that will fit the bill for most folks.  

However, when you set out to put something both encouraging and fun together for your students for an event like this, play around with looping and sequencing.  It's a skill that if you don't use it for a purpose, then you'll never learn how to use it.

This summer I got 3 Macbooks for my classroom that have Garage Band on it.  I took a 3 hour class this summer and have been on my own ever since.  Without a project to point toward, I've not really learned anything.  But I decided to bring one home over Spring Break because I knew that this testing shindig was in my near future and I want it to be good because my kids need LOTS of support!

So this afternoon I started playing around with some of the loops and I found one that I liked and in about 45 minutes I had this track recorded.  I'm sharing it with you because I think that for the time I spent on it (not much) is sounds pretty good....I think my students will be impressed and amused. Plus I'm amused by the fact that I now have a track of ME rapping..... that is really funny.....I also figure that it's a pretty safe track to put out there because unless you are a Wildcat, you can't steal it...... and no one wants to hear a recording of a almost 35 year old lady rapping..... yeah.... I'm not worried.....If you do decide to share it, let me know, and give credit. Maybe you'll even enjoy it enough to laugh with me at the simple joys of teaching elementary school music and all of these creative ways we can support the learning of your students.

It's SO EASY! Easi-Speak Digital Recorders!

 

This fall I had a project funded through donorschoose.org  for a pack of small handheld digital recorders. Since I have never had anything like this before in my classroom, I was filled with all sorts of dreams about ways that we could use them in class to create digital portfolios of student work.  

Well, I'm here to say that the reality is even better than I had hoped.  

When I received my Easi-Speak  pack I was right in the middle of 5th grade show and then it was the holidays and well....... I'm just now getting around to playing with these little guys with any sort of intentionality.   So far I'm just giddy with possibilities! 

Here is what I've tried so far! 

Scratch Group Recordings:

The 100th Day of school sort of snuck up on me, and since I had my guitar with me that day, we made up a song.  It was pretty cute as far as ridiculously on the fly song go, so I thought I’d record the children singing it with me.   I thought that the digital recorder did a good job of capturing the entire class singing.  It’s by no means a quality for public sharing and it is no replacement of "real" recording equipment, but it is a good representation of the “daily” work done in class and certainly a good addition to a digital portfolio.

Individual Recordings: 

I REALLY like this, probably because this is how the microphones were designed to be used.  So far, I’ve only had one recorder out at a time, but I think that soon I’ll have all of them out at once.  Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to create an accurate record of student singing that is a concrete support of your qualitative rubric?  The nice thing is that since these recorders are designed to be used by one student at a time, even with background noise, you still get a REALLY nice sound.

Emergency Practice Tracks:

There you are with only about 1 class left in your voice and that afternoon you have your less than independent choir students coming in for rehearsal.  I wore the recorder around my neck and recorded a rehearsal track for my students who sing part 2. Now granted, I was at a piano with a volume control, but it was so much easier than any other option available to me at the time.

Discipline documentation:

So I have to admit that I discovered this by accident. It’s that time of year where the chatty cats and cathys in my class have gotten rather bold and the effectiveness of those natural consequences that worked just last week is slipping.   Creativity is in order to keep my students from "spring breaking" too soon. 


I’d been playing around with my little recorder when my class with my favorite chatty cat who uses ALL of my creativity came into class ready to see if I had any new ideas.  Lucky for me I still had my little recorder in my hand.  I smiled hugely at him, pointed out the red “record” light and said, “This microphone will record all of your good work today, why don’t you wear this around your neck and sit close by me today.”…. He was literally stunned into silence. And THEN he asked good questions and did his work.  It was a PERFECT day!  Not to mention the fact that a few of his “chatty cat crew” wanted a microphone too…. I told them truthfully that my microphone would catch all of their good work too.  They were good as gold.  Eventually one caught on and said, “What if we aren’t good?”  I said, “Oh, it will catch that too….”  PRICELESS!  

Ideas that I haven't yet tried! 

·     Record instructions for an independent activity or EVEN record your sub plans, burn it to a CD    and you are all set!

·     Auditions – now that my students are learning how to use it, the next step will be to formalize the procedure.  I either have to figure out a way to create blind auditions, OR I have to train my students to always say their name and teachers name before they start singing or speaking because the whole idea would be to have them do their preliminary audition just outside where I can see them but they can’t be disturbed during their audition.  I’ve still got some figuring out on how to make that work realistically.

·     I also want to use this for small group interactions.  I want to give each group a task and have them record their conversation.  It would be a great way to keep record of who was really involved and who was more passive.

The possibilities are endless..... What if you recorded your private lessons and gave your student a CD of the lesson?  What if students interviewed their teachers about their musical experiences?  What if students used these little recorders as a tool for music composition? I need one for each student!  

What happens once you are ready to hear what you recorded?

 

·     You could choose immediate playback which is useful for immediate feedback for students.

·     You use the USB port on your computer and when you do all the MP3 files come up.  They are in a folder and are numbered.  I had to rename them because I'm not organized to remember what I did when......

·       If you record for a long time, it will record in small seamless chunks

·      You could choose just to rename them and keep them as a record as they are. 

·     OR you can import them into Audacity.  Audacity  is loaded on each microphone and if you want to edit the files, you can open Audacity immediately from the folder.  EASY! 

Brains that POP!

This blog is taking me forever to write.  Not because it's so difficult but because it's Thursday night and I'm "Thursday Tired".  The only level of tiredness that can trump "Thursday Tired" is "Friday Tired" which is why I try to save my social life for Saturday :)

When you work as hard as we do to get as tired as we get there are many many things that can be forgotten.  When you've got so much to do, researching details is just not important..... so in an effort cut down on your research time, I'm going to give you a list.

Now I have to tell you that originally I received this list at one of those gloriously useful music professional development days that my district provides.  All the music teachers gather and create a perfectly wonderful, enthusiastic, encouraging, relevant and useful MUSIC professional development.   Afterwards  I eagerly grabbed up all of the handouts, talked to all of the other music teachers, went out to lunch and enjoyed each others company and then POOF!  Just like that, it was over.  SCHOOL started!  All of those beautiful handouts got filed and put away and not thought of again....

....Until last night when I sat down to write this post....... I remembered that I already had a list like this..... Where did I put it?  Who compiled it?  I can't remember.... I bet I'll remember after I publish this post.... when I do remember, I'll add an addendum.

Soooooo anyway, I'm going to tell you about BRAINPOP!

For those of you who DO use it, you'll know that BRAINPOP! is not the "end all be all" of musical resources, but it is a tool.... one tool.... that we can add to our arsenal of gear that we use to teach children through music. If you don't know about it, or didn't know that it had music stuff on it.... NOW you know!

Many schools and school districts have purchased subscriptions to this site.  Right now, our subscription is hosted on our district library resource page.  I can access it from my teacher computer, from all student computers and at home for planning purposes.  BRAINPOP is a collection of online mini-movies, games and resources.  Each little movie has a quiz and if you have an activeboard you can hook it up so that your activevotes work with it.

Now I'm not gonna lie, in comparison to other subject areas and what they COULD have, the arts in general are still somewhat lacking.  But just between last year and this year, the number of music movies has increased, so I hope that they will have even more new ones in the future.  I wish they had more Brainpop Jr. movies but like I said, as time passes their collection grows.  I like them because they are short, concise my students like them AND we can use them as a tool without being dominated by technology overload.... after all in my class we are supposed to be MAKING music, not merely learning ABOUT music, so a tool like this is useful.  I've used them as an introduction to a larger unit, and I've used them as part of an assessment.

Below are the episodes currently available that are about music.

BRAINPOP!  

Learning Music: 

• Clefs and Time Signatures 
• Musical Scales
• Melody and Harmony
• Reading Music

Musical Genres

• 60s Folk
• Country music
• hip hop & rap
• latin music
• blues
• jazz
• harlem renaissance

Famous Artists and Musicians

• Elvis Presley
• Louis Armstrong
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• Ludwig Van Beethoven
• The Beatles
• Yo-Yo Ma

Making Music

• Analog and Digital Recording
• Brass Instruments
• Percussion Instruments
• String Instruments
• Woodwind Instruments
• Vocals

BRAINPOP Jr. 

• W.A Mozart
• Musical Alphabet
• Musical Instruments
• Percussion Instruments
• Pitch / Tone / Beat
• time signatures and note value
• woodwind instruments

As always, make it a great learning day!