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!

Filtering by Tag: #mused

Long-Legged Sailor Play-Along (Boomwhackers, Percussion, and Recorder) and Manipulatives

August 10, 2025  /  Amy M. Burns

This is the fourth installment of my summer project of creating play-along videos of songs and concepts found in the Kodály and Orff Schulwerk approaches. This week, I feature the Long-Legged Sailor Play-Along (Boomwhackers, Percussion, and Recorder) video. Like my resources? Please consider buying me a coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech

Each video (found on my YouTube page) will be accompanied by lesson manipulatives.

Here are the resources and manipulatives:

Blog: http://amymburns.com/elmusedtech/2022/7/16/lls or https://buymeacoffee.com

All of the parts and the video are included in the manipulatives found here at https://buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech/extras

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categories / #elmusedtech, Assessment, Google Slides, Grade 3, Grade 4, Grade 5, Play-Along Videos, Recorder, Boomwhackers
tags / #elmused, #elementarymusicteacher, #free, #edtech, #elementarymusicteacherlife, #elmused tech, #mused

Play-Along Video Inspired by Kodály and Orff Schulwerk Approaches: Doggie, Doggie

June 01, 2025  /  Amy M. Burns

Still teaching? I like to end my year or begin a holiday break with my younger students playing music activities that reinforce musical skills like steady beat, piano and forte, sol-mi-la combinations, movements, and more. Here is an activity using Doggie Doggie. It involves the movement game, singing sol-mi-la combinations, and a simple orffestration/boomwhacker arrangement, all in one video. 

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categories / #elmusedtech, Free!, Google Slides, Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3, Kindergarten, Play-Along Videos, Preschool
tags / #elmused, #free, #edtech, #elementarymusicteacher, #elementarymusicteacherlife, #elmused tech, #mused

Higher #elmused Moving Up Song Medley

June 01, 2024  /  Amy M. Burns

This rhythm play-along medley consists of four popular songs for higher elementary moving up days. The rhythm patterns covered are syncopation, quarter, eighth, whole, dotted quarter, and sixteenth notes, as well as quarter rests.

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categories / #elmusedtech, Grade 2, Grade 3, Grade 4, Grade 5, Play-Along Videos
tags / #elmused, #free, #edtech, #elementarymusicteacher, #elementarymusicteacherlife, #elmused tech, #mused, #elmused #mused

Two Tech Tips: Mirror a Video

February 12, 2023  /  Amy M. Burns

These are two tips that let you change a video so that it is mirrored. This is helpful for any movement videos or choreography videos where you need to mirror the teacher on the screen and they are using the terms left and right. Like my resources? Please consider buying me a coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech Tools Used: https://www.mirrorthevideo.com/ https://clipchamp.com/en/

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categories / #edtech, #elmusedtech, Free!, Elementary, Middle School, Webinar, YouTube, Tech Tip
tags / #techtip, #elmused, #elementarymusicteacher, #youtube, #free, #elementarymusicteacherlife, #mused, #middleschool, #highschool, #elementary

Countdown to 2023-10 Tech Tools or Tips for Elementary and Middle School General Music: #2 The trick of adding - between the t and the u in the URL

December 31, 2022  /  Amy M. Burns

#2 The trick of adding - between the t and the u in the URL

This is a quick video for #2. And “oldie but goodie” tip.

This is a trick that sometimes works, but not all of the time. To make the YouTube video become full screen with no ads, no comments, and no videos that will play right after, take the YouTube video’s URL that you would like to show, add a - between the t and u, and refresh the screen.

There are a lot of other ways to do this. Another way is to load the YouTube video you would like to show, click on the share button, and click on embed. A large iframe code appears. Click copy and paste the iframe into a new tab. Look for where the https begins and the URL ends, usually with letters. Delete the other items so you have a URL in the tab. Click refresh and the video is now embedded onto the screen with no ads, comments, etc.

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categories / #edtech, #elmusedtech, Free!, Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3, Grade 4, Grade 5, Kindergarten, Middle School, Webinar, YouTube
tags / #free, #YouTube, #elmused, #middleschool, #elementarymusicteacher, #elementarymusicteacherlife, #mused

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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.