Musical Fresh Ideas from TMEA for the iPad

Post #2 today is all music related technology. I attended the Texas Music Educators Conference in San Antonio recently and although most of the conference sessions for elementary are geared toward singing, dancing, playing instruments, there were a few that talked about iPads in the music classroom. After attending TMEA, I realize I need to be presenting there about integrating the iPad in the classroom. Ah well, another post for another day.

Back to my TMEA ideas. One of the sessions I attended was led by Dr. Lynn Basinger. This would have been really great if I could have just sat down to dinner or lunch with her and shared ideas back and forth. But it was a good session and I have some new apps to try. I'm big on free apps so most of what I mention here will be free.

JoyTunes Recorder Master (apparently only for iPad2)
I downloaded this on my iPad and found it fun but a bit challenging to play. Pretty cool but I do like my successes to come quicker and I was ready to quit after the second game! I tend to get frustrated easily with video game but I think kids would find it fun and easy to play. They seem to have more patience than I do!

Pluto Learns Piano HD is an app for both iPad and iPhone. Cute little app for note recognition. And it's FREE.










She mentioned some other apps I would like to try, but they are paid apps and I don't have the freedom to purchase apps on my iPad (it belongs to the school). But here are a few that intrigued me:

The History of Jazz looks really cool and the price really is good. Looks worth the purchase.

The one app I would really love to buy and try, but it lists for $14.99 is Notion. Dr. Basinger said that this app is the closest she has found to a good notation app. Would really like to see this one in action and know more about it.








Here is a link to Dr. Basinger's blog for iPads4MusicEd. She welcomes your thoughts on apps and the use of iPads in the music classroom.

Fresh Ideas from TCEA

I am just back from two fabulous conferences. The first was the Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA) conference in Austin, Texas. This was followed in quick order at the end of the week by the Texas Music Educators Association conference in lovely San Antonio, Texas. It was a whirlwind of a week and my mind is reeling from all the information I tried to stuff into my notes and my brain. I will begin with TCEA.

One of my goals at TCEA was to learn more about integrating the iPad in the classroom. Not just using apps for drill and kill, although those certainly have their place and there are wonderful apps out there to help students practice what they learn in games and the like. What I wanted to see was how to use the iPad and it's many apps to create lessons and products. I must commend two amazing educators, Lisa Johnson and her partner in crime, Yolanda Barker. They are the authors of a FREE book in iBooks called Hot Apps 4 HOTS. (HOTS = Higher Order Thinking Skills)

This was used for their session at TCEA and showed how apps can be used to create products and be used in lessons. Their book is set up following the different levels of Blooms with an activity including, task, apps used, directions and other resources. Even if you do not use their ideas, perhaps it will give some thought about other ways to use apps in the classroom. Lisa and Yolanda can be found on their Appy Hour radio podcast at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/search/appy-hours-4-you/

Lisa also has great tips on her blog Techchef4u. Their session probably had the most impact on me. I have shared with many teachers at my school and their ideas on how to use in their own classes is very exciting. Made my trip to Austin worthwhile!

Of course a highlight to TCEA, was being able to co-present with Carol Mayo on Mouse Mischief. Mouse Mischief (MM) has been called the "poor man's clicker" but we like to call it the "alternative student response system". Sounds fancy, doesn't it? MM is a free download from Microsoft that works through PowerPoint. Using wireless mice, it enables you to create interactive lessons in PPT where your students can work either answering individually or as a team. You don't have all the bells and whistles that you would with the popular clicker systems but for formative assessment on the quick, easy and inexpensive, this might be your answer. You can find information at Carol's site Hold the Mayo

There were many sessions that I attended and will address another great one in a subsequent posting about making book trailers.

Music Tech Ideas

Well it is a good thing this is not Twitter because I am worse at "tweeting" than I am at blogging. It seems I am always apologizing for my lack of posts. I would love to be one of those weekly writers but it never seems to happen. I promise this will be the last time I whine about never posting! Moving on-

I will be away from my classroom and wanted to leave some assignments for them using technology. It is always nice when I can send them to the tech lab and they can work on something that doesn't require a sub to monitor too closely. Many of our teachers use Edmodo as an extension of their classroom and students regularly turn in assignments through their class pages. Edmodo is often called "Facebook for the classroom" and that is a pretty good description.

My junior high students will be using it while I am gone. They will all be logging into their Edmodo account where they will find their assignments. Once there the sixth graders have a link to the Rhythm Trainer. Rhythm Trainer is a fantastic site by John Blank created as part of his masters project while at VanderCook College of Music. The site lets you practice hearing rhythm patterns in two different ways. There are options for tempo and a variety of notations to choose from. One of my favorite parts is that my students can email me their results. When I get the email, it tells me their name, how many correct, how many wrong and the best part....how much time they spent doing it. Great for when you aren't there and wonder if they are really doing what they should be doing.

My seventh grade students will be working in Jam Studio. Jam Studio pretty much helps you write a song. You have the option to choose your chords, tempo, meter (4/4 and 3/4) and all of the instrumentation. Very fun and they enjoyed using it.

The eighth grade has a bit more complicated assignment. After signing in to Edmodo, they will access 4 links. The first will take them to a Google Site (You are welcome to take a look) that I created to help them discover some things about musical form. They also have links to two Google Forms where they will answer questions as they go along. I will be curious to see how they handle all of it. Sometimes they are very focused and receptive to using so much technology and other times they act like they've never seen a computer before!

Please be sure to share these marvelous sites with your music teachers. They are all easy to use and your students will enjoy infusing a bit of music technology in their learning.