Elementary Music Technology and Integration

Amy M. Burns has taught PreK-grade 4 general music for over 25 years at Far Hills Country Day School (FH) (https://www.fhcds.org/). She also teaches grade 5 instrumental class, directs the FH Modern Band, is the Performing Arts Department Manager, and teaches privately in the after-school conservatory, having served as director for over 20 years. She has authored four books and numerous articles on integrating technology into the elementary music classroom. She has presented many sessions on the topic, including four keynote addresses in TX, IN, St. Maarten, and AU. She is the recipient of the 2005 Technology in Music Education (TI:ME) Teacher of the Year, the 2016 New Jersey Music Educators Association (NJMEA) Master Music Teacher, the 2016 Governor’s Leader in Arts Education, the 2017 NJ Nonpublic School Teacher of the Year, and the 2026 NJMEA Distinguished Service Awards. Her most recent publication, Using Technology with Elementary Music Approaches (2020), is available from Oxford University Press (OUP) and Amazon. Burns is also the Community Coordinator for Midnight Music (MMC) at https://midnightmusic.com/, the General Music Chair for NJMEA Board of Directors, and the Elementary Music Consultant for MusicFirst (https://www.musicfirst.com/), a company built by music educators for music educators, dedicated to helping music teachers and their students make the most of technology in the classroom.

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Assessment Using Peter and the Wolf and Book Creator

January 31, 2022 / Amy M. Burns

At the end of the trimester, the 1st graders learned about the instruments of the orchestra, story music, and the essential question of how music can affect a mood, through Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf. The students experienced the story through movement, listening to the instruments, listening to the story narrated by Leonard Bernstein, drawing to the story, and watching the Disney version of the story. The students also learned how the certain instruments and their melodies evoked moods. For example, the low sound of the bassoon and its melody for the grandpa evoked a mood of grumpiness. However, the high sound of the violin and its melody for Peter evoked a mood of happiness. Once finished, both of the classes created this ebook. Ms. Cirelli's class drew the pictures and Ms. Kinney's class told me what to write. They loved their ebook and we hope that you enjoy it as well.

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