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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Project Based Learning: 2nd Graders Learn about Empathy and Immigration in Music Class

January 29, 2025 / Amy M. Burns

In the spring, the 2nd graders accomplished numerous national music standards along with successfully completing a project-based learning project with 2nd grade social studies. The essential question was “What was it like to immigrate to America as a child?” In music class, we answered that by studying the life of the Von Trapp family, the music from the movie The Sound of Music, and how the movie varies greatly from their actual life events.

VIDEO CLIP: 2nd Grade PbL about Immigration and Empathy

The movie above shows a culmination of the project.

Project-Based Learning (PbL): 2nd Grade Learns about the Immigration of the von Trapp Family (page 1) — **Project-Based Learning (PbL): 2nd Grade Learns about the**
**Immigration of the von Trapp Family (page 1)**

We presented this at our festival in May.

Project-Based Learning (PbL): 2nd Grade Learns about the Immigration of the von Trapp Family (page 2) — **Project-Based Learning (PbL): 2nd Grade Learns about the**
**Immigration of the von Trapp Family (page 2)**

Project-Based Learning (PbL): 2nd Grade Learns about the Immigration of the von Trapp Family (page 3) — **Project-Based Learning (PbL): 2nd Grade Learns about the**
**Immigration of the von Trapp Family (page 3)**

Project-Based Learning (PbL): 2nd Grade Learns about the Immigration of the von Trapp Family (page 4) — **Project-Based Learning (PbL): 2nd Grade Learns about the**
**Immigration of the von Trapp Family (page 4)**

**Link to article on New Jersey Music Education Association’s (NJMEA) website (flash required)**

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