Music as Protest?

Esperenza Spaldin, a bassist and vocalist, wrote a piece and created a music video about the closing of the detention camps at Guantanamo Bay. This could be a great discussion of how music can be used in protest without being the protest that people think of... for example the 60's. Watch the video and see how it could be used in your classroom.

http://vimeo.com/79294714

KUNO tablets and Curriculum Loft

My school is in its 2nd year of KUNO and Curriculum Loft implementation. On the general discussion board of our Technology and Music Learning class I have attached a presentation regarding the implementation and what the pair of KUNO and CL could offer your school. Let me know if you need it and I can also send it to you directly. Thanks and have a great Monday!!

Piano Sight Read App for Apple

Often parents want their children to take up an instrument... well not band ones because those start in 5th grade, what about strings - nope, they start in 4th grade, I want my child to be a percussionist... well I must have them learn piano. That's fine and dandy until you learn that piano's are expensive and your child needs to practice. This app allows for slight piano instruction/guided practice. I'm not suggesting that this is a replacement for a piano, but this can buy time till a piano/keyboard can be purchased. The app can also aid in practicing while students are traveling on family vacations.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sightreadplus/id635326147?mt=8

To Proscratinate? I'll do it tomorrow.

So often we find ourselves or our students on social media, or even us... on FaceBook, Pinterest, YouTube, and many more instead of doing what we should be doing. Now I'm there with all the procrastinators, but this is a site with some great ideas for self control. http://www.edudemic.com/procrastination-tools/ this gives Chrome extensions and other downloads or web add-ons that prevent you from spending too much screen time on your leisure sights and allows for more productivity. Good luck! :D

Study Boost

Study boost enables students to study using their mobile devices. Let's be honest - all of our students are obsessed with their phone, this could help teach technological responsibility and allow teachers to use text messages to their advantage.Try this out folks! https://studyboost.com/

Bicycle Built for Two - NoteFlight

The Bicycle built for two exercise: http://www.noteflight.com/scores/view/c08d9799612bb8d0a5d37c549a1a273e50564a42

This program is great! Normally I use the concerts at the end of the year to be a student's final project with the whole reflection piece, however... now I can use this program to have my students work together on composing their own music, sharing it with me and their peers. It is relatively user friendly and free, which is the best part. 

How to Embed Quizlet Flashcards Into Wikispaces

Here you can create flashcards in Quizlet - which I need to check out more. This allows teachers that have Wikispaces to embed their flashcards and the students can choose study mood. For us music teachers, this can help with music literacy. Our elementary students can review music terms this way and even our older students can utilize it to learn their terms and better prepare for final exams - if you give one besides your concerts and a quick survey.

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2013/11/how-to-embed-quizlet-flashcards-into.html#.UnvQt40jiMU