Amy M. Burns

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.

Looking for my YouTube Channel or the manipulatives for my Play-Along Videos? Click the social feed buttons below!

#techtiptuesday Turn a YouTube Video into a Slide Presentation using Brick

September 17, 2024  /  Amy M. Burns

Brisk Teaching (https://www.briskteaching.com/) is an AI-driven tool aimed at helping educators to “save 10-20+ hours this week.” It includes a variety of features that aid in the creation of instructional materials and the provision of feedback, seamlessly integrated with platforms such as Google Docs, Slides, and web articles. Teachers can utilize Brisk to generate quizzes, lesson plans, presentations, and tailored materials, adapting reading levels or language to accommodate diverse learners.

Brisk is free for teachers, and you can intuitively add it to your Chrome Extensions (https://www.briskteaching.com/plans).

Turn a YouTube Video into a Slide Presentation using Brick

I saw this online and had to try it. My initial thought is that it could take one of my play-along videos and quickly generate each rhythm pattern into its own slide in a presentation. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see it generate slides about the artists, the styles of music, and more, turning it into a substantial lesson. Let’s take a look.

Here is my play-along video to Aretha Franklin’s Respect. I have added Brisk to my Chrome Extensions. When I click on Brisk, it asks for what I would like to create, from presentations to lesson plans to rubrics and more. I then can tell it what language to create the presentation, choose a template, prompt it more or less, choose the grade level, the number of slides, whether it has images or not, and if I want to add standards and personalize for my students. The Core Art Standards and state music standards are not listed at this time. You can only personalize the presentation for your learners when you have unlocked the feature by giving feedback.

This is a great feature of Brisk as you can use it to:

  • Create a lesson with a slide show that revolves around a video.

  • Help you to get started with a presentation that will accompany a video.

  • Give additional information about the songs or topics found in the video.

  • And so much more!

There are other tools that can make a presentation from prompts like Canva for Education. However, it is always nice to have options, especially if you use Google Slides daily in your music classes or are working on a Chromebook daily.

**Music by Unicorn Heads called Sunshine on Sand.

Comment

©2026 amymburns.com

Any info, student examples, pictures, graphics, etc, may be used with permission. Please contact me personally before using any info, student examples, pictures, graphics, etc.