New Tools for Kids!

Our students now have Google Apps available to them!

This news was shared with our staff in a short sentence in a lengthy Monday morning newsletter.  Way at the bottom.  I really think that news should have been shouted from the mountain top, with way bigger type and about a dozen exclamation points!

Can you tell that I am pretty excited?  Those of you who have had Apps for a while are probably yawning right now.

Why would a band director be so excited about kids having access to Google Apps?  When you use SmartMusic like we do (everywhere and everybody) kids frequently ended up sharing accounts with other members of the family.  Now each kid can get his/her assignments without having to dig through big sister's/brother's assignments to get there.  Sure, I could have set them up with an account myself, but I am pressed for time as it is.  Now, someone else has done all the set-up.

Other reasons to get excited include all the other tools that go with an Apps account.  Writing, spreadsheet, forms, presentations, web pages can all be authored with these tools.

The cross-disciplinary assignments that I didn't get to may be possible now.

How about a serious tuning unit with a spreadsheet to track your tendencies over several practice sessions?  Wouldn't be cool if kids new where they typically were on the tuner with a little scientific study?

Report on a composer?  Or should that be a presentation?  AND it gets stored on the "Cloud," so no more "the dog ate my homework."

Nothing like a new tool to get the excitement going!

What To Do With The Rambunctious Music Class This Last Week...

I have THAT class...

You know the one that has more than its share of kids who check out WAAAAAY too early.  I think they were done three or four months ago.  As a teacher, you know that if you lighten up, there will be problems.

It's the end of the year here, students really aren't that motivated, unless it is some project of their creation.  The problem with their projects is they can end up involving the Dean of Students.  What should I do with them?

Every once in a while I have a spasm of lucidity.  Make a project theirs.

It is time for a creative project.  Our music text has a musical in it.  Instead of skipping it because we ran out of time, we are in the process of turning it into a video.  There will be several versions of it, because I have 4 different teams working on the project.

This project needed some lead time to set up.  We watched some musicals.  We studied the characters.  Historically, the music we had an interesting cast to study.  When asked "why?"  I pointed out the more you know about the topic the better story you can tell.  We learned to sing the parts.

We split into two teams.  We planned and did story boards.  We won't have a lot of time to shoot and edit, so planning is key!  When I saw a solid plan,  I handed out the cameras.

My students are problem solving.  It is surprising how many choices you can make on an artistic endeavor.  I think these students get that now. We'll see how they turn out.  Right now, I am hoping they will finish!  There is a lot of discussion on how the musical should look.  There have been a lot of reshoots, just to get it right.

I get materials, observe the groups and stay out of the way.  I tell them it works like Donald Trump's TV show, if you are helpful and pitching in, you will hear good words from me.

I am seeing some of their best work of the year right now.  At a time of year when most other teachers are complaining about their attitudes and laziness I have busy and productive students.  Amazing.

So What Ideas Do You Have For Summer Professional Development?

http://www.finaletraining.com/PERPICH.pdf

http://www.mbda.org

http://www.ties.k12.mn.us/Professional_development_workshops.html

http://www.smartmusic.com/Educators/Clinics.aspx

So what ideas do you have for summer professional development?

There are several good ideas available in my neighborhood.  And if you don't live in Minnesota, we are not a bad place to visit when it isn't -40 degrees!

There is Finale training with Mavis Kallestad.  If you want to learn Finale or get better at it, Mavis does an excellent workshop.  The Perpich Center is the arts high school in Minnesota and I have always thought they do a nice job of hosting events for teachers too.  If you use SmartMusic, Finale is pretty handy for making your own accompaniments.  Pretty handy, as in the ONLY way to make your own SmartMusic accompaniments.

The Minnesota Band Directors Association is offering a Instrumental Teaching Symposium  in Moorhead. With J.W. Pepper offering a new music reading session in Fargo the same dates, this could be an interesting two for the price of one... August 4th and 5th.

There are a bunch of workshops at TIES.  Check their workshop schedule.  If you want to get introduced to a new computer program, these folks are great.  Lots of one day intro sessions on a number of different softwares.  I am thinking about some advanced Interactive White Board training.

The SmartMusic workshop in Rochester looks good too.  June 17th is coming up fast though.  Similar workshops are available through out the country.  Check the SmartMusic web site if you need something closer.  Although, if you need some medical work done, Mayo is not a bad place to go... maybe you could work that out. !-)

What is happening in your neighborhood?

End of Quarter SmartMusic Tip

www.smartmusic.com

Do you take late work?  Do you take SmartMusic assignments late?  I am not particularly worried if a kid wants to get an assignment in late, I'll take it.  The only real deadline is when they print the report cards.

Some points on an assignment is better than no points on an assignment,  Way better if you run the math on this.  A zero in the grade book is really hard to overcome. 

I think one of the signs that you may doing "busy work" assignments is the fact you don't really worry if a student hasn't completed it.  Or at least care enough to correct it late.

Anyway, SmartMusic has a feature on the grade book that makes things easier for those of us that take late work.  Instead of hunting around for recordings to evaluate, you can filter the grade book for ungraded work by going to the view window shades and selecting view and setting it to "ungraded" instead of "all." Kids that have it all turned in disappear off the this list and that cuts down the number of cells to work your way through.

This tip may also help at other times in the quarter.  A little bit of evaluating every day is made a lot easier if you can get last night's newly turned in work organized.

IWB and Score Study

I have always been looking for new ways to share and communicate what is in the score with my band students.  In the past this was usually accomplished with lots of descriptions about what is the main melody and what is background supporting that melody.

Great for the auditory learners.  What about the people that would benefit from some visual help?  Wouldn't it be great to do some score analysis with the kids looking over your shoulder?

The office copier here doubles as a scanner, so it really is no big deal to "Scan to PDF" the score for projection on my new IWB.  Throw in the ability to use a virtual highlighter on the score, the ability to zoom into a part to take a closer look and you have a winner.  You can even write in the counting without making a huge mess of  your original.  (I work with beginners, your group may be too advanced for the counting thing.)

Who knows, maybe you will be helping a future conductor learn the craft of score study...

SmartMusic, Microphones (and Macs)

https://www.smartmusic.com/Store/Microphone.aspx

SmartMusic needs a microphone.

I know that your computer has a mic built into it someplace, but the built in is probably not going to give the results that you want. It is way to close to a fairly noisy device! Have you listened to your computer?

The SmartMusic mics are a pretty good bargain. The mic cord length is generous and they get closer to your sound and farther away from the noise. It will boost your SmartMusic results by just doing that.

Mac users. That thing that LOOKS like a mic-in jack on the side of your computer is a line-in jack. There is a difference and it doesn't work to put the SmartMusic mic right into it. You need some other way to plug in.

You have a couple of choices.

The Griffin iMic is a pretty slick audio interface for a USB port. It features and in and an out and line/mic level switch. Plug your SmartMusic mic in and set the level to mic and you should be good to go. From what I have seen in the practice rooms, the downside to this gizmo is that kids fiddle with the switch and try to get it to work with the wrong setting. I'm not sure if that is kids doing basic trouble shooting or a prank on the next user.

The cheaper choice is the new SmartMusic USB mic. You only get the audio in and there is no line/mic setting. Could not be simpler. The downside I see to going this way is if you use your Mac for more than SmartMusic, it may be nice to have that level switch.

Well you can decide. iMic or SMUSB mic. No really wrong answer, but use a mic.

SmartMusic 2010 for General Music

I am going to be doing some singing tests with my general music class. Normally, this would have been a huge time sink. Stand at the piano and do your test.

I'm not so sure that the kids were able to do their best. I know I was distracted managing the class AND listening to the tests. Can't imagine what it was like for the kids. The documentation piece was a little thin as well.

I will be trying SmartMusic this time. The series we are using doesn't have built-in SmartMusic support, but it does have audio files on CD. Those can be ripped and used with SmartMusic. That is probably good enough, but I think I will be spending a little time with Finale 2010 and writing it out. Set the kids up with SmartMusic Gradebook account and we are ready to use our files on the practice room computers.

Able to do their singing in private, I am expecting my middle schoolers to do a better job. I'll let you know here!

SmartMusic Training Guide

I got my copy of the SmartMusic Training Guide in the mail Friday.  I have spent some time looking it over for ideas for next year.  I think parent training will lower the number of SmartMusic related calls.  If I can figure out a way to get those to zero, I'm all for that.

This guide is designed to help you manage training for yourself or others.  I think it hits the mark on this.  It does take a subject with a lot of features and tailors and structures what you need to know nicely.  There is a plan included for each audience.  Parents, students, teachers and administrators all have different things they should know about SmartMusic.

If you think you may be presenting SmartMusic to an audience without an internet connection, the included "Supplemental Materials Disc" will help out a lot with the movies.  The key movies are on the disc.  These movies are also on the web site. 

That brings me to the question, do you really need this book?  It did take $53 to get it.  If you want an excellent pre-made set of presentation plans the answer is maybe.  The information is available on their web site and you should be able to figure out what people need to know.  After all, you are a teacher and that kind of thinking is what you  do.  However, it IS very helpful to have this in your hands to make sure you don't miss something for one of your audiences.  This purchase is a convenience call.

Music Teacher Alert-- IPod Touch and Remote

I usually put my recordings for class on my laptop to study and playback in class. It is very handy to use iTunes to organize my class. Play this one off of CD 1 and then it is time for that one off of CD 12. This is a giant pain in the neck if you have to shuffle the media around. Import it and you are good. Find a couple of cords to run the laptop through the stereo. With middle schoolers, it is a VERY good idea to wander around and listen while they sing. You would be surprised how much the quality of work goes up when you are right there. But now the computer is over there and you are here. How do you pause? (or start over, skip, turn it up/down?) I suppose I could get one of those FM transmitters and put the library on my iPod and work that way. But then I would be eating up capacity on my iPod. If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, there is a new controller program called Remote. Remote is free from Apple on the iTunes store. Load it on your favorite iTouch/Phone and set up a wireless network on your laptop and the two will team up to give you power over your music. Was it hard to set up? Not really. I did have to turn off the proxies on the computer side. The computer wouldn't find the iPod until I did. I know, I know. Turning off security. Please don't call my network guy, Tom, to tattle. With my set-up, If I am using the computer in my classroom, it isn't attached to the network (or the web.) I don't believe that I am lowering security that much for the rest of the school. I better check that one out. I am enjoying my new remote. The batteries made it through the whole day. Maybe I should order up another iPod for back-up. For sure another charger so I can juice it up a little at lunch. Hmmm, can't wait for that first payday.

Opportunities to Learn Finale

I spent some time installing Finale 2009 this morning.  It seems to be working great right away.  I did run into small hitch and that was Finale asked for the location of my Garritan sounds.  There are a number of them included on the install DVD and  I forgot to install them.  Not much of a problem.

Garritan still hasn't come up with sounds that match my ensembles.  They are more than welcome to come out and sample my beginning band if they ever get tired of listening to fine instruments.  Human Playback may need a little tweaking to sound like my band as well!  

I love the ease that registering the upgrade is, just a couple of clicks and you are current.

I have been following my own advice and I am working my way through the included QuickStart videos.  The manuals are all electronic as well.  It never hurts to study how a program is supposed to be used.  It can save tons of time later. 

I am a book guy, so I miss the bound paper manuals that most current softwares are leaving out.  David Pogue hasn't published one of his Missing Manuals for Finale.  Writing that may be my next project...If you don't beat me to it!

If books and screens won't do it for you and learning Finale, I would like to point out a great upcoming  opportunity. The Minnesota Summer Music Technology Symposium will be here in August.  If you can't make it there, I would look for any workshop that features Mavis Kallestad.  Her workshops are well thought-out and hands-on.  Very few people know more about using and explaining Finale.  A session with her is worth your time.  You can reach her at workshops@makemusic.com or 952 475-2894 or look for her workshops at MakeMusic.com.

iPhone Apps

There is a lot of buzz about the iPhone release today.  There is a lot of talk about the improvements and the new pricing.

I was most excited about the App Store that is opening at the same time on iTunes.  Developers are now able to write software for the iPhone (and iPod Touch) and publish their work at iTunes.  Some of these apps are free and some are low cost.

A quick look at iTunes this morning turned up an app that music teachers may be interested in.  Guitar Toolkit looks like something that music teachers could use.  A lot.  Ever wish you had a tuner in your pocket?  I probably wouldn't use it for the alternate guitar tunings, but just hearing a A=440 that is actually in tune would be helpful no matter what ensemble I am working with.  This might be worth a closer look.

(Quick Edit-- I went back to the store and after playing around a little more. I found a NUMBER of other apps that may be a help to music teachers.  Happy shopping.)

Guitar Toolkit must need the microphone from the phone, so I suppose my iPod won't run it.  I wonder if the IRS will let me deduct my iPhone bill?

The MusicEd Blog Carnival

I am kind of new to the blog carnival idea, but I like the results.  There is one going on here!

SmartMusic Tip

Teachers, if you are thinking about using SmartMusic in your program this year, you may want to do a little work this month.

SmartMusic is looking at a price increase later this month.  It may be worth your time to beat the price increase.  Check it out for yourself.  www.smartmusic.com or write them at smartbuy@makemusic.com.

Great Article about students and practice

There was a great article about practice at the MENC web site by John May.  It looks at both quality and quantity of practice.

Wynton Marsalis was talking about this as well in his Tackling The Monster TV program.

Practice really isn't just about how much time you put in.  It is also about what you practice.  Sure, I want my kids to put in lots of time, but not just on the stuff they they really know already.

John May has a great chart in his article.  One axis is time and the other axis is efficiency.  Ideally, you do want kids in the 4th quadrant (lots of time and efficient practice.)  

What if you had to choose between time and efficient?

I would lean towards the goal. Does the student play correctly with good control and tone. Does it really make a difference how long it took them to get there?  We need to teach efficient practice.

 

Waiting on a new iPod

I am pretty excited.  I am getting my first iPod soon.

I'm getting it for my general music classes.

Believe it or not for crowd control.  

I don't play piano well enough to really accompany my 5th and 6th grade music classes.  I have been shuffling CDs in and out of the player.  Those CDs are all starting to look alike (even with the bifocals.) So sometimes it takes me a minute to shuffle through them.  If you know 5th and 6th graders that's 59 seconds too long.  Sure I can burn a CD with my lesson plan all neat and tidy on it, but what if the CD needs revision before the next class?  It is easier edit a playlist on the fly.  

I think if you throw in an FM transmitter wandering the classroom and playing the songs just got easier.

I settled on a refurbished Touch unit.  The ability to grab an new tune off a wifi network was pretty enticing.  Also, the internet in your pocket sounds good too.  I wonder if Impact will run on this version of Safari?

Hope the UPS guy can make it tomorrow.  I am looking at snow right now.