Danny Nicholson (@dannynic) recently tweeted about a post to his blog that is packed with great ideas on how ot use an IWB in the music room. Danny’s Twitter stream always contains a lot of great tips on IWB stuff!
Extra thanks to him for editing his post to include a link to our IWB wiki for music teachers: mustech.pbworks.com. A place where many music teachers go to share their IWB lessons, and you can too!
So of course teachers have been making their own games for years, it’s nothing new. They are very useful for review and if you have several different games that are pertinent to your curriculum you can set them up in centers and add some variety to your classroom routine.
I thought it was cool when one of my Twitter pals (@msstewart) shared today that you can self-publish your own boardgame designs at http://www.thegamecrafter.com/. Obviously this is cool for your own classroom, but if you really have a brilliant, creative idea you can use the Game Crafter website to sell it to others.
There are always a ton of tech questions on the Teachers.net music teachers chatboard, and recently one came up regarding transferring sounds from casette tapes to computer files and/or CD’s. I’m sure many of us have recordings of concerts or other things from “the old days” that we would enjoy having available in a more permanent and convenient form. Fortunately if you have some basic computer skills it is easy and inexpensive to transfer those casettes to your computer with materials you can buy at RadioShack.
Rather than reinvent the wheel myself I am going to direct your attention to this excellent tech-help blog where the writer has created a really helpful, detailed tutorial with photos and screen caps on how to accomplish this task using a PC and the free program Audacity (if you are using a Mac this is also possible with GarageBand.)
Basically if you have a sound card with an audio-input jack (usually blue, if you have a MacBook it is the one next to your headphone jack marked with the symbol that looks like a circle flanked by inward-pointing triangles,) a casette player with any kind of output (in the tutorial he uses RCA but this is just as possible with an 1/8″ headphone jack, although of course the resulting audio quality will vary) and a cord that can go between the two you can make this happen!
You do not need a special machine to accomplish this task!! Those things are available and if your afraid of your computer they might be easier, but they sure are going to be more expensive!
I looooove podcasts. They are perfect for the car, or the treadmill, or to listen to while knitting. Most of my favorites are from NPR (This American Life, Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, The Splendid Table.)
I also love music and love technology, so imagine how much a L-O-V-E something that combines all three!! Carol Broos (twitter) and Brenda Muench (twitter) are both wonderful people to follow around the internet if you are interested in edtech, particularly as it applies to music. The two have joined forces to host a podcast called Musically and Technically Speaking where they share some of their wonderful ideas and techniques. What I like about these ladies from the podcast as well as their blogs and forum postings is that they are really into good teaching, not just toys. This is not “what can I do to find an excuse to use technology” it is “how can I use technology to enhance what I am doing.” I think the distinction is very, very important.
As a side note as a fulltime pre-K music teacher I’d like to empathize with whichever one of the ladies said, referring to kindergartners, “I just have a hard time dealing with them sometimes.” So true, they really are a different ball of wax. In my own times of frustration it is comforting to know that I am not the only one who sometimes feels as if I am herding cats. 
So if your interested in good teaching, music and educational technology go ahead and throw this podcast on while you commute or do the dishes. I don’t think you’ll regret it!
One of my favorite things about teaching preschool music is that the skills we explore are very fundamental. I feel this open sup the possibility for all sorts of play-based learning and I get to do a lot of fun things with the kids. At the moment we are “working” on the concept of loud and soft, which is obviously part of our music curriculum but also integrates the concept of opposites from the preschool curriculum.
Here are five activities we have been doing to work on loud and soft:
This turned out to be a long post for a simple 5 things. Anyone have any suggestions on more activities for exploring loud and quiet?
things like this (taken from an online forum for teachers that shall remain nameless):
Hi- I have a student who does not like to sit… at group
time or at desk… not really able to focus and
participate…I am not sure what to do because I have the
rest of the students to teach…..
Maybe I am just hanging onto my idealism but this attitude really bugs me (and not just because of the ellipses abuse.) Yes, you have many other students to teach. You also have to find a way to teach won’t-sit-down kid. That is your job! How can we claim that we wanted to be respected (and paid) as professionals when so many of us wash our hands of a child as soon as we encounter a roadblock? Yes, some children are difficult. Even more so some combinations of children are difficult, but that doesn’t change the fact that we must teach them (or at the very least end the year trying.)
The fact that a particular student is difficult does not absolve us of responsibility for him. Am I unrealistic to feel this way? Are there times when you just have to give up on one kid to focus on the others?
The performances are over, the tree is decorate and we only have four days of school left!! I for one will be pushing forward and keeping my students as BUSY AS POSSIBLE during this last week before break. I don’t think right before vacation is anytime to slow down if you value your sanity!!
Whatever holiday it is at your house I hope you have a good one (or just a nice, well-deserved break!)
A recent (and ongoing) conversation on the MENC chatboards leads me to discuss ways to motivate children in the music classroom. From an ed psych perspective people are motivated in two ways: extrinsic and intrinsic. I’m sure most of us remember from our undergrad days that extrinsic motivators are the things that come from outside the student (like rewards) and intrinsic motivators are internal to the student (for example the satisfaction that comes with accomplishment.)
Intrinsic motivation is obviously ideal, and music teachers are fortunate that students seem to be more intrinsically motivated in our classes than they are in others. Still, the reality is that not every student is going to feel intrinsically motivated to follow the rules, rehearse with diligence or practice their instrument at home. It would be nice if we could rely on intrinsic motivation completely and certainly we should foster it as much as possible, but at the end of the day we have to find a way to do our jobs and accomplish our objectives, whether the kids are feeling intrinsically motivated or not. This is where extrinsic motivation comes in and I don’t think that its wrong to use it.
There are a lot of different kinds of external motivators, for the purpose of this post I will call them reinforcers. Its important to remember to use the simplest type of reinforcer that will work. If smiles and praise work don’t use stickers, if stickers work don’t use candy, etc. Are any of us really going to assert that we think external reinforcers like praise, smiles, high-fives and hugs don’t have a place in a healthy, well-run classroom? These types of things certainly are extrinsic motivation. Furthermore the “high expectations” that we all know do so much good are external motivations as well! I have to disagree strongly with anyone who condemns the use of rewards in the classroom and instead insist that we need to use appropriate rewards and not go overboard.
Teaching preschool I have learned that young children have to be trained to do the right thing. Some of them get trained at home, which is terrific but some of them don’t, and that means it falls to us. Is that fair? of course not, but we are faced with the task of meeting our students where they are. Expecting a child to behave when no one has ever taught him what that means or given him a reason to want to will not do us a lick of good! I’m not sure how we can hope to foster and instill intrinsic motivation if we don’t use external motivators, within reason, to help us get off the ground.
I absolutely agree with the idea that some teachers are going too far with external motivators and their use of prizes is undermining intrinsic motivation to do a good job for its own sake. I also want to point out though that we shouldn’t throw the baby out with the bath water and paint all reinforcers or external motivators as bad!
I am quoted (briefly) in the August edition of Teaching Music magazine in the article on Interactive White Boards. It’s not a huge quote or anything, but it sure was exciting for lil ole me!!
The second challenge in the Whiteboard Challenge is about using cloning. I create a three-page SMART Notebook to help students learn the simple song “Bernie Bee” which is a traditional so-mi song.
On the first page the iconic notation (small and large bees) are already in place and students can drag ta’s and ti-ti’s (or whatever you call them in your room) to match up with the bees.
On the second page students have to place both the bees and the stick notation.
On the third page students place the bees and stick notation again, but I have added a single staff line so that they can show which sounds are high (so) and which are low (mi.)
I created the background in a simple image program called Pixie 2.
