General Music and Technology

[nkabat]

What cool things are you doing with Technology in the General Music Class. I have done some stuff with Garage Band but want to learn so much more.

[Bob F.]

Garageband (GB) is fun. I have "preached" to our music staff, but I could use a music teacher's point of view. Does GB lend itself to the classroom with some good tested (ie utilized by you) activities?

[nkabat]

Bob,

I am doing a project with my 5th grade classes that is called the scary project. It uses writing, dramatic reading and garage band to create scary music and background sound effects to either a poem, story, or song. If we post it on our web page, I will let you know.
Have also done a 4th grade project with simple machines facts and garageband. Those should still be on the Glen Grove Home Page.
Nancy

[Lucie deLaBruere]

This article was interesting - not about music education... but definitely about 'education" using music industry as a metaphor.
http://www.infinitethinking.org/2007/12/change-music-to-schools-and...

[Brenda Muench]

We're blogging with my 5th graders! I only see them once a week for 30 minutes so we don't get to the lab very often. But when we do get there the kids have a great time writing and commenting on the net.
http://muench.21classes.com
http://muench.5c.21classes.com

We've been podcasting with my 1st - 3rd graders for almost a year now thanks to Carol. I use a blog from edublogs to post them. I also post interesting things I find on youtube in the same place.
http://mrsmuench.edublogs.org/

Podcasting has really helped to increase the traffic on my school music website.

[ian]

i use GB with upper elementary classes to work with balance and dynamics. Students can record their performances, and immediately listen to the results to determine how well each layer of sound interacts with the others. They can then use this information to problem solve ways for getting their work to sound better. Alternately they can record different parts of a piece on different weeks, and decide how they want to master their final recording.

[Brenda Muench]

This week we used Microsoft Publisher to make listening maps in 3rd grade. We've been listening to The Surprise Symphony and the maps showed which beats were soft and which were loud. The kids were so proud of their finished products!

[Carol Broos]

Google Sketckup and Music
I have an electve class that is working in Google Sketchup, it is a free download and cross-platform. So, my students have downloaded at home and are working back and forth. I am always looking to get music into any project. My boys (plus one girl) are working on their "house." We are doing "show and tell" tomorrow. I went around on Wednesday to see the projects before they present. Two boys showed me their "kingdom." Then I got to thinking. They could make their kingdom, I would video sceenshot their kingdom (using Jing) and place it in iMovie or GarageBand. They then could add voice-overs and music! I will post some when they come available - look for the "Kingdom"