It's that time of year.

Busy, Busy, Busy.

I found out very late yesterday that my schedule is changing for the first day of school Tuesday (via a late day e-mail, no less.)  Heck of a way to spend your last day of vacation.

Anyway, there are a few things to do yet:

Check on the SmartMusic Order.  I'm going to need a purchase order number.  We have 233 band students that we purchase through a volume discount ( https://www.smartmusic.com/Store/Volume.aspx . )   I'm guessing we will need about 175 subscriptions when you edit out the siblings and the kids with no internet access.  Kids with siblings can share access at home.  We have SmartMusic equipped practice rooms for the others.

If you haven't seen SmartMusic for a while, take a minute and download it at http://www.smartmusic.com .  It has been made a lot easier to use with the new user interface.

I think there may be an offer for a Finale upgrade for school in my e-mail box.  It is the way to get custom made accompaniments into SmartMusic.  I wonder if this is a version to skip if Finale 2010 works with SM 2011. Will need to check to see if that combination works.  Otherwise, I had better do the upgrade.

Butch and Billie over at AABACA Music usually have a good price on Finale and it is nice to keep the business local if you can.  I guess online at MakeMusic is local for me too!

I have a new SmartBoard in my music rooms.  Really looking forward to getting that in play.  I have been making do with the Wiimote hack.  Johnny Lee was thinking of you when he created the software that does this trick.  Look here: http://johnnylee.net/projects/wii/ 

This hack would be good for me still, but what if you have a sub?  Are you going to give them permission or access to go in and fiddle with you preferences to set the Wiimote up?  Also, our district does sub training on the IWBs.  Not that I am ever sick...

Time to get to work.  Happy Labor Day.  May your supervisor be considerate and think more than a day ahead.

Should There Be a Standard Classroom Computer Set-Up?

I always wonder about there being a standard computer set-up for classrooms.

My thinking says that I should be able to easily get my computer to do what I want. In my case, organize audio and record audio. Yeah, the latest Office might be a good idea so I don't have to spend a lot of time converting documents to the latest format. But for the most part, I want to be able to do a quick recording with some options to edit later.

Macintosh/Garageband is perfect for me. The rest of the building is PC. That really isn't a problem as far as computing goes. It is fairly easy to switch from one to the other.

How about the output? I like running the audio out into a desktop sized speaker system. That part is easy.

The visual side for demonstrations, that might be a little different. I have 4 rooms that I work in. The band room has a HUGE monitor on a stand in it. The choir room has a lcd projector in it. The ensemble room used for lessons has the standard 17" monitor in it and the room with piano keyboard lab has nothing in it.

If I taught reading, math or social studies, I would have a interactive whiteboard in all those rooms. I can work around with the Wiimote version of an IWB easily. So I don't feel terribly left out. But with the flu going around I have noticed a number of subs in the building. I know that subs in our district are getting the skills to run an IWB from the major supplier to our district. (I am not sure if we are training them or they are just getting it on the job. I hope that it is training.) Would they be up to covering for me?

If a sub is needed in my rooms I want things to go on normally. But the Wiimote does come with some challenges. Step one is activate the Bluetooth on the laptop, step two is get the Wiimote recognized, step three is figure out where to put things physically so they work together... I am pretty sure we would have a problem with this. Do we really want people getting that deep into the hardware when they have my students to worry about at the same time? Would the IT people want them to have administrative rights to work on these settings?

If you are in a position to install IWB technology in the classroom, please be don't forget to teach the subs how to use the technology. I think that this is also the place for consistency. The ability to get the audio and video outputs working may be more important than the Mac/PC question.