Monday, December 2, 2013
More SmartBoard Lessons
Here is another great blog full of free downloadable SmartBoard notebook files to be used in the elementary music classroom. Just join Smart Exchange for free and you can add these great notebook files to your collection. Enjoy!
So La Mi Elementary Music Class
I just discovered this blog today and I am eager to read into it further. This elementary music educator has many great ideas for lessons, bulletin boards, administrative documents and more. I love her creative, colorful classroom and her simple set up. Enjoy!
Teachers Pay Teachers
Although I realize that this site is very familiar to most, I could not resist posting it here. Teachers Pay Teachers is a great place to both buy and sell teacher made instructional materials. For teachers like me, this is a great and very helpful resource when I am searching for that extra manipulative or creative hands-on activity, being that I do not have a curriculum series to use with my young students. It is free to set up an account and if the item that interests you is not free, it is likely to be at a greatly reduced cost than that of other sources. Happy searching!
Monday, November 25, 2013
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
This is a great site for elementary general music students. It would make for a great activity site for a computer station during the study of instruments of the orchestra and music theory basics such as the staff. The "Music Lab" offers interactive activities on topics such as tempo, rhythm, pitch, harmony, symbols, instrumentation, as well as a "performalator" and a "composerizer." Turn up your speakers and have some fun with this website!
Dallas Symphony Orchestra
This site offers a lot of great information about composers and their music. This would be a great site for students to use with research projects and critical listening activities. There are also games and at home activities for expanded learning.
Sunday, November 17, 2013
Music K8
This is a great site for finding musical materials for the elementary vocal and general music classroom. The music is age appropriate, fun and legally reproducible (all rights reserved!). A vast majority of my general music seasonal concert repertoire comes from this site. Highly recommended!
Songs for Teaching
I use this site frequently, not only for my own classroom, but for non-music teachers when they require musical assistance to teach on a topic. The materials are relatively inexpensive, but work well with ANY subject. The majority of the content is also downloadable, so you can receive your materials immediately. Enjoy!
Fun Brain
This website is an excellent practice tool for piano players and other young musicians learning to read music. This would be great for use as a station if you have a SMARTBoard or single computer in your music classroom.
Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra
This listening adventure is perfect for elementary school general music or just exploring with your kids at home. My students love to end our unit on instruments of the orchestra by playing this game. I have tried it on the computer as well as with whole group on the SMARTBoard. I highly recommend it!
Monday, November 11, 2013
Kelly's Music and Computers
I could not believe the wealth of information connected with this site. There are articles on portfolio assessment tools, comparisons between portable digital recorders and using tablets in the music education classroom. This is definitely worth adding to anyone's PLN!
Ipad and Technology in Music Education
This blog has music education ipad app reviews, troubleshooting for programs like Garageband and SmartMusic, along with numerous other music education/technology posts. This site is a wealth of information for the music teacher working with technology.
Friday, November 8, 2013
Teaching and Music
This blog by Brian Wis is full of great articles and inspirational quotes for music educators. He has entries on everything from itunes, ipads and twitter to assessment, educational philosophies and repertoire. This is definitely a site full of good reads!
Great Ideas!
This website offers many great lesson and project ideas for the elementary music classroom. It also links to other helpful websites, youtube videos, audio recordings, photos, and shares numerous Smart Notebook files. In addition to all of the helpful content, this website is an excellent example of something I could do in my own classroom for the students at home.
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Noteflight Assignment
Noteflight is a web based music notation program that is completely free and very user friendly. It offers many of the same functional features as a notation software package minus the high price tag. Anyone can create a profile and get started on their compositions. The composition above was an assignment for a class that I am taking and I was able to complete the task in a few hours. I have no doubt that my students would love to utilize this fun compositional website. As a 21st century educator, I foresee this website as being a very useful tool for composition and notation assignments in my classroom.
Friday, November 1, 2013
Beginning Composition
This site is a quick and easy tool for beginning composition. The student can simply click and drag the notes to the staff then listen to their song when they have finished. This would be especially fun for PK-1st grade!
Dr. Estrella's Incredibly Abridged Dictionary of Composers
This website would be a great quick reference tool for students completing composer projects. The site also links to other articles, audio recordings, sheet music, and books related to each composer.
Musictheory.net
This is a great website for students to use when they need to review and practice specific music skills at home or as a group in the computer lab with self paced activities. The site contains lessons and tools for everything from beginner basic skills, rhythm & meter, scales & key signatures, intervals, chords, diatonic chords, chord progressions and Neapolitan chords. This site even offers mobile apps for their products as well.
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Mustech
This website is an excellent resource for music technology integration assistance as well as numerous great reads on music technology trends. One of the four featured music education experts from the website is my former college professor Dr. Joseph Pisano. I had the chance to take his Music Technology course at Grove City College several years ago when he was just beginning his work on the site. He is someone who is very passionate about music technology and practices what he preaches. This is a must read website!
Classics For Kids
This website has been a great addition to my composers unit! My students regularly ask questions regarding the composer we will study next. The "Composer Timeline" is a great tool when working to integrate historical events and relating a composer's life to a historical period. The radio broadcasts (which you can also subscribe to as a podcast in itunes), are typically about six minutes long and follow the monthly activity sheets. I highly recommend this technology resource to anyone looking to supplement composer materials in the elementary general music classroom!
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