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!
One of my favorite parts of summer is creating new resources that elementary music teachers can immediately take back to their classrooms. This post is an update from my summer series a few years back of play-along videos featuring songs and musical concepts commonly found in the Kodály and Orff Schulwerk approaches.
This week's featured resource is:
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
Read MoreStill 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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Earlier this week I shared the Rhythm Play-Along version of the medley including excerpts from female solo singers dating 1967-1990. They include Cyndi Lauper, Madonna, Dolly Parton, Aretha Franklin, and Whitney Houston. This week, I include the body percussion version and the manipulatives to complement both videos.
Like my resources? Please consider buying me a coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech
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The other day, a friend of mine asked how to create individual slides from a series of images. I knew how to do this in Keynote, but I was not sure how to accomplish this in Powerpoint or Google Slides. Turns out that all of the programs can do this. In this video, I will show how to do this with Google Slides and Keynote. There is also an additional video shared from YouTube showing how to do this in PowerPoint.
Like my resources? Please consider buying me a coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech.
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Credit: unsplash-image-N8MDgWvUW-8.jpg
Need a fun Valentine Medley Rhythm Play-Along with the teaching manipulatives? Check this out! If you enjoy my resources, please consider buying me a coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech
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Credit: https://www.njais.org/
The New Jersey Association for Independent Schools (NJAIS) held their annual Innovation and Collaboration Conference live, after having virtual conferences for the past couple of years. It was so wonderful to be back together in-person and to learn how educators are using technology in ways that focus on innovation and collaboration.
When I first attended this conference back in 2017, I left inspired. Jaime Casap, who at the time was a Google Education Evangelist, was one of the keynote speakers and he spoke about the fact that our current generation does not understand the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” This was a popular question asked to many of us when we were growing up in the 20th century. Instead, they are asking, “What do I need to learn to solve that problem?” And this leads to collaborating with others to solve problems. His keynote inspired me to use technology in ways of collaborating to make music. This was very successful with students working together using Seesaw and Soundtrap to create music and reflect on it together. This was especially true when the pandemic hit and we had to adopt virtual learning.
The first day of NJAIS’s Innovation and Collaboration Conference proved to be just as inspiring. As I break down some of the sessions I attended, I end each reflection with what the tech tool or concept looks like in an elementary music classroom.
Read MoreThe pandemic caused more technology to be introduced into every subject area. Some of this technology has a lot of benefits for elementary music classes. Especially those that foster creativity and those that provide assessments.
This week’s episode shows how to use multiple apps that are mostly free to create interactive activities that promote creativity and assessment. Learn how to use Canva, Google Slides, Seesaw, or Interactive Whiteboard apps to create amazing manipulatives, interactive assessments, and creative musical activities.
Blog: http://amymburns.com/elmusedtech/creativeactivities
Shareable Zip File: Creating Interactive Activities for Assessment and Creativity Zip File
Canva. (2022, March 1). [archive] free media license agreement - CANVA. [Archive] Free Media License Agreement. Retrieved July 31, 2022, from https://www.canva.com/policies/free-media-license-agreement-2022-01-03/
Flat for Education: https://flat.io/edu
Canva for Education: https://www.canva.com/education/
Seesaw: app.seesaw.me
Midnight Music Free Notation Files: https://midnightmusic.com/2013/06/the-big-free-music-notation-image-library/
Mote Extension: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mote-voice-notes-feedback/ajphlblkfpppdpkgokiejbjfohfohhmk?hl=en-US
Midnight Music Clipart Body Percussion Library: https://midnightmusic.com/2020/12/midnight-musics-body-percussion-clipart-library/
Read MoreThis is the third 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 Teddy Bear Play-Along video to go with the retrieval practice worksheet (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zN-cwSbWZ_7aS1uhQ97olGHVgWJqUCaE/view?usp=sharing) that I posted earlier this week.
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Throughout the 21-22 school year, I created many “mashup” or medley play-along videos featuring seasonal pop and rock songs. This summer, I made it a goal to create play-along videos and lessons for songs inspired by the Kodály and Orff Schulwerk approaches The first is Lemonade.
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I created this Wakelet that includes multiple activities to use in your elementary music classes on Valentine’s Day. It is labeled in five categories:
Rhythm play-along videos
Boomwhacker videos
Valentine games
Play-Along Videos with body percussion of iconic notation
Lessons
Enjoy! And Happy Valentine’s Day!
Here in the Northeast of the States, the holiday started with an outbreak of the Omicron variant of Covid. This caused schools to pivot their current plans and weigh the options of remote learning, concurrent learning, or live learning with more restrictions. This week, to bring us into 2022, I am going to blog and share daily activities that can be used in your adapted #elmused classroom when returning from the holiday break.
In November, I created a “Be Thankful” Rhythm Play-Along Activity. This Seesaw and Google Slides Project accompanied the video to serve the purpose of retrieval practice or assessment.
This google slides activity involves a puzzle for the students to solve. Once they solve the puzzle, they are to use the Mote Extension (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mote-voice-notes-feedback/ajphlblkfpppdpkgokiejbjfohfohhmk?hl=en-US) to record themselves performing the rhythm pattern. Once they have completed eight slides, they can press play and perform with the Be Thankful Rhythm Play-Along. Although this video was from Thanksgiving, it can be used throughout the year.
Very similar to the google slides activity, this Seesaw Activity uses the microphone tool to record themselves performing the rhythm pattern that they create from piecing the puzzle together. Once finished, they can press play on the ninth slide to perform all of the rhythm patterns with the rhythm play-along video.
Google Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/u/1/d/1XWZYsa-Mu7-Qcb7rT3u8h7dWxxDrOzJ0R19dU-nQsPg/copy
Check back as we count down to 2022 with #2 tomorrow!
Note: At the 5 min mark I say that google slides is much easier. However, Seesaw is what was supposed to be referenced at that 5 min mark.
Here in the Northeast of the States, the holiday started with an outbreak of the Omicron variant of Covid. This caused schools to pivot their current plans and weigh the options of remote learning, concurrent learning, or live learning with more restrictions. This week, to bring us into 2022, I am going to blog and share daily activities that can be used in your adapted #elmused classroom when returning from the holiday break.
With Martin Luther King day coming up in January, having a choice board with resources and simple rhythm and writing activities would work well if coming back to asynchronous or remote learning. These Google Slides and Seesaw Activities give students the chance to learn about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr through various resources. It also gives them the chance to use retrieval practice methods for rhythm literacy. Finally, it encourages them to write about what they learned through thinking maps as well as rhythm patterns.
Here are seven different resources that include songs, raps, rhythm literacy and play-along, stories, and history.
Here is where the students can practice certain rhythm patterns that come from phrases created with thinking maps. In both Seesaw and Google Slides, they can click the play buttons to hear the rhythm patterns.
In Seesaw, the students can spin the wheel, circle the rhythm pattern, and use the microphone tool to record themselves performing the rhythm pattern. In Google Slides, they can spin the wheel and practice the rhythm patterns.
In both Seesaw and Google Slides, they can use text tools or drawing tools to create their own thinking maps about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr from what they learned throughout the activity.
Examples of Thinking Maps created by my second graders.
In Seesaw, the students can end the activity by using one of the phrases they wrote in their thinking map to decode and record themselves performing the rhythm pattern. In Google Slides, they can use the mote extension to record themselves performing the decoded rhythm pattern.
Check back as we count down to 2022 with #4 tomorrow!
