First of all, "YAY!!" to having a music classroom again! We lost our portable last year, so I travelled from room to room to teach music which had a substantial negative impact on the program. The kids are so excited to have a place for music again and the music room is NEVER empty - every recess and lunch break students are working on something.
I teach every child in an elementary school from Kindergarten to Grade 8 and have a wide spectrum of music activities on the go right now. Like Jane Werry, I steal from here and there, working with my students to find our own original way to do things.
MUSIC TECHNOLOGY
In July I travelled to NYU to attend NYU's IMPACT Conference where I was inspired with new ways of using music technology. Great conference - I hope we get a huge contingent of MF teachers going next summer.
Groove Pizza & Chrome Music Lab
To get things rolling in September, I introduced every class to Groove Pizza and Chrome Music Lab and discovered both are appealing to all age groups. So many kids tell me that they use these websites at home and have introduced them to their moms and dads.
Here's a little intro video about Chrome Music Lab:
Primary kids enjoyed taking turns on the Smartboard:
Gr. 8 Track & Hook Songwriting Project
Grade 8's are using Groove Pizza and Soundtrap to create their own hit songs. We're working through Adam Patrick Bell's assignment, which is fully and artfully described on his blog. I have rewritten the assignment instructions for my students on our Grade 8 Desire2Learn website. Students have worked in production teams to create tracks and are now struggling to add hooks. This kind of free-flowing creative work is somewhat daunting to these adolescents but a few groups have made progress and are inspiring the others. Here's an example of a student's track made using the loops on Sountrap - now ready to add some hooks:
Favourite New Gadget - Belkin RockStar 5
I bought one, then a parent who works for Belkin generously donated a whole bunch of these five-way audio splitters. I definitely would recommend them for every music room. Students work in groups listening to one device and also easily adding in a keyboard or digital drum kit to play along to a song they're learning. Kids come up with all kinds of creative ways to use them. Each one also comes with an aux cord. Fantastic!
Performances
We were invited to perform at an event honouring staff with 25 years working with the board and also recent retirees. At first, it seemed a bit daunting to get students ready for this with such short notice, but now our recess/lunch break rehearsals have become my favourite part of the day! I asked intermediate students who were available to perform at this Monday evening and despite students' busy scheduled lives, I have 26 students participating. They are learning True Colours, preferring Marina and the Diamonds version, and On Top of the World by Imagine Dragons. Although I did purchase sheet music, students have preferred to use the Musical Futures informal learning approach with both of these songs. This is how we work in class, so that's what they're familiar with. (You can find our more about that on the Musical Futures website which requires a free log-in to access resources - check out getting started with informal learning)
I am so inspired by how they listen to find harmony parts, argue over the optimal tempo, experiment to add auxiliary percussion and work together as real musicians!
I will upload a rehearsal vid shortly.
Everything Else
These are just a few highlights. Grade 4's are also learning to play the recorder, Grade 5's are bucket drumming, Grade 6's are learning to play the ukulele and Grade 7's are doing group "In at the Deep" Recreate a Song projects. Since it's a beautiful sunny Sunday, I'm heading out for a bike ride (YES - it's November in Canada) and will continue a Part II of this blog soon!
