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 instrument class, directs the FH Philharmonic, is the Performing Arts Department Manager, and teaches privately in the after-school conservatory after being the director for over 20 years. She has authored four books and numerous articles on how to integrate tech 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, and the 2017 NJ Nonpublic School Teacher of the Year Awards. Her most recent publication, Using Technology with Elementary Music Approaches (2020), published by Oxford University Press (OUP) is available from 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 on the social feed buttons below!

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

July 17, 2022  /  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.

Each video (found on my YouTube page) will be accompanied by lesson manipulatives. The lesson manipulatives can be found on my Teachers Pay Teachers page starting in September (these free manipulatives are now showing up on my TPT page). Up until then, you can have them for free (as seen below and beginning to show up on my TPT page). This gives you the opportunity to use the video for free to work well with your classroom approach or purchase the lesson that goes along with the video on my TPT page. Either way, the videos are free to use in your classroom.

Here are the resources and blog of the lesson plan:

Blog: http://amymburns.com/elmusedtech/lls

Google Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1yZc3cVj3E5cecZ8lBgcx0KsRdEhQlcXopEJMAfvgyXw/copy

Seesaw Activity: https://app.seesaw.me/pages/shared_activity?prompt_id=prompt.ef00279b-e26e-4235-a8ea-94d66cb93e73&share_token=rfB59kRcRnKJQVr-jd5TXQ

PDF of Slides: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aEsBUC9yEyPGZ6fiBMnAagNL_6ZjYV85/view?usp=sharing

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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

Teddy Bear Play-Along Video and Manipulatives

June 26, 2022  /  Amy M. Burns  /  Source

This 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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categories / #elmusedtech, Assessment, Canva, Google Slides, Free!, Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3, Kindergarten, MBE, Play-Along Videos, Seesaw
tags / #elmused, #free, #edtech, #elementarymusicteacher, #elementarymusicteacherlife, #elmused tech, #mused, #MBE #elmused #elementary, #elmused #mused

Rhythm Play-Along: Happy Birthday!

May 08, 2022  /  Amy M. Burns

This video is for birthday celebrations if you can celebrate them in your music classroom. This video will cover all of your students' birthdays throughout the school year. Like my videos? Please consider buying me a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech The musical concepts covered are 3-meter, 4-meter, accents, quarter, half, dotted half, whole, and eighth notes, along with triplets.

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categories / #elmusedtech, Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3, Grade 4, Grade 5, Kindergarten, Play-Along Videos
tags / #elmused, #free, #edtech, #elementarymusicteacher, #elementarymusicteacherlife, #elmused tech, #elmused #mused

March Rhythm Play-Along and Body Percussion Play-Along Videos Featuring All-Female Groups

March 11, 2022  /  Amy M. Burns

Here in the States, March is Women’s History Month as well as Music In Our Schools Month. For this month, I chose to create a rhythm play-along video that features a medley of four all-female groups that span four decades of music. The rhythm patterns include whole, half, quarter, and eighth notes, and quarter rests.

Update: I added the Body Percussion Play-Along this week that accompanies the rhythm play-along video!

The groups and songs that are featured are:

Caffey, C. (1981). We Got The Beat. [Recorded by The Go-Go's]. On Beauty and the Beat [Audio File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Wvue2OT-FA

Holland-Dozer-Holland. (1964). Baby Love. [Recorded by The Supremes]. On Where Did Our Love Go? [Audio File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO_zEzrJRuE

Dent, A., Knowles, B., & Knowles, M. (2001). Survivor. [Recorded by Destiny's Child]. On Survivor [Audio File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wmc8bQoL-J0

Edwards, B., & Rodgers, N. (1979). We Are Family. [Recorded by Sister Sledge]. On We Are Family [Audio File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMVe_HcyP9Y

Credit: unsplash-image-5gn2soeAc40.jpg

The Go-Go’s We Got The Beat

The Go-Go’s are an American All-Female Rock Band started in 1978 in California. It has featured numerous band members and became very popular in the 1980s with the song, “We Got The Beat,” off the album Beauty and the Beat. The musicians featured on this recording are Charlotte Caffey on lead guitar and keyboards, Belinda Carlisle on lead vocals, Gina Schock on drums, Kathy Valentine on bass guitar, and Jane Wiedlin on rhythm guitar. This debut album topped the charts, which was a first for an all-female band that wrote and performed all of their music. “We Got The Beat” is considered The Go-Go’s signature song.

Credit: unsplash-image-OKLqGsCT8qs.jpg

The Supreme’s Baby Love

The Supremes broke onto the music scene as a premier act of Motown Records in the 1960s. They paved the way for future African American R&B and soul music groups. Their popularity rivaled The Beatles during the 1960s. After a few changes in the group’s members as well as a name change (they started as The Primettes), the group’s members were Diana Ross, Florence Ballard, and Mary Wilson. “Baby Love”, from their second studio album titled, Where Did Our Love Go?, was one of 12 singles from them that went to #1 on the American charts.

Credit: unsplash-image-9wQIAuHkfaY.jpg

Destiny’s Child’s Survivor

The song, “Survivor”, comes from Destiny’s Child third studio album of the same name. The Grammy Award-winning song and MTV Award-winning video topped the charts at #2. The group’s members that recorded the song are Beyoncé, Kelly Rowland, and Michelle Williams. The group had gone through numerous changes in membership. So much so that a radio station compared them to the show, Survivor. After hearing this comparison, Beyoncé decided to turn that joke into a song, which became a big hit.

Credit: unsplash-image-sitjgGsVIAs.jpg

Sister Sledge’s We Are Family

Sister Sledge defined the disco sound and their single, “We Are Family” topped the charts at #3 from their debut album of the same title. It is hard to believe that this iconic song did not hit #1 nor won the Grammy Award that year because it is still a popular song today. The group consists of the sisters, Debbie, Joni, Kim, and Kathy Sledge. After the passing of Joni Sledge in 2017, some of the adult children of the original members have formed the band, Sledgendary, which according to the website, “BRING THE PARTY to any occasion!”

Body Percussion Play-Along Video

Body Percussion Clipart credited to Midnight Music: https://midnightmusic.com.au/2020/12/midnight-musics-body-percussion-clipart-library/

Teaching manipulatives coming soon to my TPT channel (https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/S...).

Like my resources? Please consider buying me a coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech.

Countdown to 2022: 5 Free Tech Activities for #Elmused (#2) - Free Tools (Reposted from mustech.net)

December 30, 2021  /  Amy M. Burns

This past year, many items that are usually paid for, became free for us to use, especially during the lockdown. Some of them were Denise Gagne’s Musicplay Online and MusicFirst. As we started back to school in the States in August and September of 2020, many of us came back to budget cuts or even, teaching a whole new subject. As we now return to the classroom in 2021 (or a concurrent teaching scenario) we find ourselves using and needing free tools more often than not to accommodate the ever-changing learning environments.

There are amazing music education tools that have limited free editions or trial periods, but eventually, give you more bang for the buck with the paid versions. As mentioned above Musicplay Online, MusicFirst (MusicFirst Jr is for the younger grades), Quaver, Noteflight Learn, Soundtrap EDU, and others, fall into that category. Having tried and used all of the products mentioned, they are worth every penny for the elementary music educator who uses them in their classroom often and for supplementing the curriculum.

However, if you need free tools, here is a list that many elementary music educators used this year that can continue to be used in a more traditional elementary music classroom.

Quick Free Resources

  • Wheel of Names – Add text, emojis, or pictures to create various wheels to use in your classroom.

    • Uses: You can use it to choose students, or add pictures for students to name notes. You can add pictures of rhythm patterns for whole class assessment. You can also use emojis to promote arioso singing or improvising short melodic phrases.

  • Rhythm Randomizer – This site creates rhythm patterns in various meters and note values.

    • Uses: Use this site to assess various rhythm patterns. Or, use this site to take a quick screenshot of a rhythm pattern needed for your manipulative, or Google Slide, or Seesaw Activity, etc. You can change the settings so that your rhythm pattern can be set in various meters and note values.

  • Note Image Generator – Bret Pimental created this site to capture pictures of notes on various staves.

    • Uses: This site is wonderful to collect quick pictures on a staff. When you use this site, you can download the pictures that you need and upload them to wheel of names.

  • Solfasinger – This site is wonderful as it gives you a digitized solfege Curwen hand signs with a child singing the syllables. It also has moveable Do.

    • Uses: If you are teaching virtual, concurrent, or need a resource for the students to be able to access solfege, hand signs, and a recorded voice singing the syllables, then you can use this site to enhance your teaching or to share with your students.

  • Solfege Hand Signs – Ms. Lambert gives you a free pdf of solfege hand signs with the boomwhacker colors as barriers.

    • Uses: You can use these to print out and hang up in the classroom, or add to your virtual classroom. If you do not want the barrier, you can export the pdf file and crop out the barrier in each picture by exporting each picture from the pdf.

  • Transpose ▲▼ pitch ▹ speed ▹ loop for videos – This Extension allows you to change the speed and pitch of YouTube videos or online videos.

    • Uses: You could find karaoke videos and change the pitch and speed of them to assist your students’ practices and rehearsals.

Free Virtual Instruments

  • Playxylo – This site has been amazing this past year. The creators listen to music educators’ suggestions and improve their virtual xylophone often. It currently has diatonic, chromatic, and pentatonic scales, as well as xylophone, boomwhacker, and monotone colors.

    • Your students’ devices can be transformed into instruments for in-person learning with restrictions, in-person learning with limited instruments available to the students, concurrent learning, and remote learning.

  • Bongo Cat – This site is so much fun.

    • Uses: Use it as a virtual instrument for your students since they all might have devices, or use it as a stress relief for yourself.

  • Scratch – A free coding website.

    • Uses: Need a virtual instrument? Place the name in the search tool and see if someone has created one for you to use. Level this up by asking older students to code instruments for the younger students to use.

Free Tools for Creating Music

  • Chrome Music Lab – At this point, this site is so well-known that it is now a “go to” for music educators and their students. There is so much that one can do to create music and for arts integration.

    • Uses: One can have students create their own music in Song Maker. Arts Integration can be achieved by using Ocsillators to integrate Science with Music and Kandinsky to integrate Art with Music. To see a music and art integrated project we did this year, click here. There is so much more that this site can do. Want to also integrate music making with math? Try Groove Pizza and talk about the angles that are used to create various drum grooves.

  • Incredibox – “An oldie but goodie”, as I heard a music educator describe this site the other day. This site has four demo versions that you can use with your students for free. They can arrange the cartoon beatboxers to make music, as well as unlock some new grooves within the site.

    • Uses: I love to use this site with my students to integrate writing with music. My students will write a poem as a part of their poetry unit and then turn it into a rap that they use Incredibox to create the background accompaniment track. We have also created the classroom expectations and used this site to create the accompaniment when rapping those expectations.

  • Beepbox – This site is a wonderful way for older elementary students to create music that can be shared and saved.

    • Uses: It is a wonderful tool to use to create video game music (especially ones from a few decades ago). This site can also promote creating music with guided form and instrumentation.

  • Bandlab EDU – Bandlab EDU is a digital audio workstation (DAW) that is web-based and promotes collaboration as students can create music together while working on multiple devices. Soundtrap EDU and GarageBand are very similar as Soundtrap EDU is a web-based DAW that allows collaboration, but is not free. And GarageBand is a DAW, but only accessed with Apple devices and is not web-based.

    • Uses: Explore this tool to create accompaniments and record students’ performances for assessments and to create a virtual performance audio recording. Plus, if you can, create accounts for your older elementary students to make music together when they are not in the same class, grade, or school.

Miscellaneous

  • Pear Deck – Pear Deck, and it’s Chrome Extension, can turn your Google Slide presentations into interactive student assessments, exit tickets, and more. It is similar to Nearpod, but Nearpod has more items. Both have free versions.

  • Loom – Loom is a screen recording tool, much like Screencastify and Screencast-O-Matic. These screen recording tools can be used in our traditional classrooms as they are great ways to create play-along videos. By creating rhythm or melodic patterns in Canva, you can bring those patterns into Google Slides, Powerpoint, or Keynote, add the soundtrack to the slide show, place the slide show in present mode, and record yourself moving the conducting tool across the screen. From this, you are creating your own play-along videos that enhance your curriculum as opposed to using one on YouTube which might not follow the curriculum you teach.

  • Wakelet – Wakelet is free and allows you to create a list of links to share with your students. If you are lacking any sort of Learning Management System like Google Classroom, Schoology, Seesaw, Canvas, or others, then Wakelet can help you share many of your items with your students in a safe way.

  • Canva – Canva for educators is a game changer. To see more, check out Episode 2 of this series.

Virtual Performances/Assessment Tools

  • Flipgrid – Flipgrid is free and can be a wonderful tool to capture assessments, capture videos of students performing, promote digital citizenship, and learn more about students, their interests, and how they pronounce their names.

  • Seesaw – Seesaw is a game changer, especially for an elementary student. To check out more, click here.

  • Easy Virtual Choir – Creating a virtual choir when you lack the tools or experience is challenging. Easy Virtual Choir is an alternative. You can upload the accompaniment track and have students privately login to record themselves with the accompaniment track. Once all have done that, Easy Virtual Choir creates the video for you so you do not need to access or learn a video editor. For some educators, this was a viable and successful alternative.

With our current teaching atmosphere in an ever-changing status, these free tools can be so beneficial for this coming year.

Check back as we count down to 2022 with #1 tomorrow!

categories / #elmusedtech, Free!, Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3, Grade 4, Grade 5, Kindergarten
tags / #elmused, #free, #edtech

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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.