4 Apps 4 Teachers

I am so excited that I recently acquired an iPad to use in my classroom! I immediately began to search for apps to enhance my teaching. Since I only have one iPad, I began by looking for apps that will assist with administrative tasks. In addition to the obvious must-have apps like Dropbox, Splashtop, and Evernote, I have found several other apps that any teacher is sure to love.

Planbook

Planbook is an awesome app that can be accessed from a computer, as well as other devices like the iPad. Although there is an annual fee of about $12, you can try it free for 30 days. Believe me - after thirty days, you'll want to purchase the annual subscription!

As a music teacher, the trickiest part was deciding how to set up classes and schedule them. I finally decided to set up a couple of grades on each day, so I can see the entire week's plans at a glance. I have several grades twice a week, which is why they are listed on two different days. Here is a sample week, just to show how I arranged my classes:

Not only does it provide a great format for keeping up with lessons plans, it makes it very simple to note standards for each plan. You simply select the source of your standards (it even includes state standards), and then click on the standards addressed in the plan.

There are plenty of useful features, which include extending lessons, bumping lessons, attaching files, and adding notes and events. Use a computer to start your online Planbook today. You can set up your classes and begin planning in minutes. There are video tutorials to help you start. Visit Planbook.com to begin!

Teacher Kit

I LOVE this app, which is totally free! Using Teacher Kit, I can set up classes (with photos of students), arrange their seating chart, track behavior and attendance, enter grades, and set up any additional fields of information I want.

As an elementary music teacher in a school with approximately 800 students, I have a lot of names to learn. After finding this app, I was able to import my class rosters, take pictures of the students, and arrange their "desks" in the exact way they sit on the carpet in my room. I can study classes (especially kindergarten) to make sure I know all of my students' names.

The behavior tracking tool allows me to enter behavior as positive or negative, and also lets me add notes about the specific behavior. It keeps track of the date and behavior for each student.

The trickiest part was importing my student rosters for each class using a CSV file. Refer to the Teacher Kit Support Center for clear directions and answers to other questions you may have. (My first attempt failed, since I didn't use the right headings for the spreadsheet.) If you are a classroom teacher, you can simply enter your students individually. However, with 40+ classes in our school, I needed to utilize the import feature.

Set up classrooms for each class you teach.

Arrange seating charts by touching the desk and dragging it wherever you want. (This is a sample photo from the app store. My students sit in a semi-circle on the floor.

Track behavior and attendance, as well as keep up with grades.

Pick Me!

Although the Pick Me! app doesn't have as many bells and whistles as Teacher Kit, it may suit your needs. You can enter students by classroom, add pictures and other information (like parent e-mail address or other notes you want to add). The main purpose of the app is to randomly select students and keep track of their answers (via a thumbs up/down). You can reset the scores whenever you want to, but the limitation is that there is no way to record what skill has been assessed.

Class Dojo

Class Dojo is a free, fabulous, fun app that allows you to track student behavior using a computer or mobile device. I have been using it for a couple of years, and I highly recommend it. The iPad app (or app for phones) allows mobility while running the program. You can read more about Class Dojo in my previous post, Behavior Boosters.

Several of these apps can be run through a computer, so don't worry if you do not have a mobile device. I hope you'll try some of these teacher tools. I predict that you will find them as useful as I do!

I decided to join Steph's 2/4 Tuesday Linky Party at Stay Tuned, since I had 4 apps to share. Be sure to check out her party for ideas from other music ed bloggers. 

Behavior Boosters

We have happy students at our school. They even get excited when they behave. Really! I'm not kidding. Our students enjoy being good (most of the time). In order to encourage positive behavior, Janet and I have several incentives that we use in both of our music classrooms.

1. Fun Friends

I found these fun friends at Dollar Tree last summer:

I picked one up, and it made me smile. I figured if I enjoyed it, then my students would, also. They were available in 6 colors, so I picked up 4 of each. I thought I might be able to use them when forming groups for centers or cooperative projects. I sent Janet a picture, and she wanted some for her room. So, we scoured a couple of stores to come up with one more set of 24.

These squishy friends have become an incentive for students to work hard and behave beautifully. Students love to receive a pal as a reward for excellent work ethic or behavior. When we notice a student exhibiting exemplary behavior or work, we simply walk by and drop a squishy in the child's lap without stopping instruction. As soon as the first one is handed out, the atmosphere in the room changes. Children sit taller, pay closer attention, work harder, and behave better. Students strive to be noticed in a positive manner.

These new friends have provided plenty of excitement in the music room. We have a 6th grader who asks if we are giving out squishy friends every time he comes to class. We have seen an improvement in his behavior and work ethic since the first introduction of these new buddies. Although they work very well, it is important to refrain from overuse, so they will continue to work their magic.

In addition to these friends, we also have a collection of finger puppets, beanie babies, and stuffed animals. Children love all of these, so if you do not have squishy friends, simply substitute something students will like. We find that even our 6th graders really love the stuffed animals. Janet has a big Winnie the Pooh and a big gorilla that makes the rounds during most 6th grade classes. Winnie and the gorilla never lose their charm. Students even keep them close as they work diligently on white boards honing their music notation skills.

2. Special Seating

Find a special seat to use as a reward for students. Janet and I do not have chairs in our rooms, so our classes sit on the carpet. We both have a few special places, such as a bench, a table with swivel stools, an exercise ball, and various stools. Sometimes we let deserving students leave the carpet and sit in a special spot. We also instruct them to watch for other deserving students to take their places after a few minutes. Students work hard to impress their peers. Of course, we typically require girls to pick boys and boys to pick girls to help the students pick based upon work, rather than friendship.

3. Class Dojo

This app is the guro of behavior management. I could go on and on about its magical effects on our 6th graders. It provides a way to award positive and negative points in any category you create. You assign points by simply clicking on the students' avatars, or on the list of names. You can also award points to multiple students, or the entire class. The app can be run from a computer, iPad, or phone. We run the program on a computer that is projected on the screen, but since the computer is in the back of the room, we can assign points from our phones or iPads.

Class Dojo keeps a running total of points for each student and displays the totals on the students' cute cartoon monster avatars. It will also create reports for individual students and classes, and reports can be sent to parents. There is even a way for students and parents to log in at home to check progress. Students can even log into their account and create their own avatar.

We LOVE Class Dojo! It has worked wonders in our 6th grade classes. One problem we had with sixth grade, is that they enter our hallway at the end of the day more like they are in junior high (with backpacks that must be put in lockers, people stopping by the restroom, complete with hustle and bustle and slight commotion. Therefore, I set up a behavior standard for being ready to begin. I stand at the door with the app running on my iPad, with it displayed on the screen. I award points to the first few students to enter and sit quietly in their spots. Then I hit the random button. If the chosen student is seated and quiet, he/she receives a point for being ready to begin. It really encourages the students to enter quickly and calmly.

We even allow 2-3 students to assign points (following our guidelines). We select the students by having students with a certain number of points (who have NOT run Dojo before) stand. For example: "If you have 20 or more points, and have NOT run Dojo, please stand." Then we raise the points until only 2-3 students are still standing.  They observe the class and keep a list on an index card, then they go to the computer to award points.

At this point, we only use the program with 6th grade. We are a K-6 school, and we feel like saving it until their last year keeps it fresher and more exciting. Try out Class Dojo, and let it work its magic on your classes. I guarantee that you will love it as much as we do!

A Few Fun Slides

I love summer! I must admit that sleeping late is one of my favorite things to do. Another joy of summer is that I now have time for fun projects that sometimes slip by during the school year. I need a creative outlet, so I thought I would work on a few PowerPoint lyric slides to some fun traditional songs that I plan to add to our repertoire at school. I have included a link to the PowerPoint file for each, in case you are interested:

I Bought Me a Cat

I Bought Me a Cat PowerPoint Download (Free)

Shoo Fly

Shoo, Fly PowerPoint Download (Free)

I Fed My Horse

I Fed My Horse PowerPoint Download (Free)

All Around the Buttercup

All Around the Buttercup PowerPoint Download (Free)

That's all for now!

Musical Madness

Wow! The end of the school year is always crazy in the life of a music teacher. We always have two large programs scheduled for the end of our school year: one for 4th grade and one for 6th. Typically, our 6th graders perform a musical in May. It is a tradition that the students look forward to from the time they are in kindergarten.

Memories from last year's musical, "Disney's The Jungle Book Kids":

This year, our state testing was moved to May, which put a kink in the works for our musical. In addition to regular testing, our 6th graders participated in pilot testing for the state. When the testing schedule was set, our principals made the decision for us to change from a traditional musical to a  simpler choral program. The only prerequisites were that it couldn't require a lot of extra rehearsal time, and it had to be "fabulous." 

It took a while to decide on a plan, but we finally decided on a choral production that focused on the sixth graders' time at our school and the fact that they were moving on to the junior high school. The theme of the show was about reaching for dreams. Although the students were disappointed that they weren't doing a musical with drama, they worked hard on challenging choral music and enjoyed learning choreography for several songs. 

One of my favorite choral numbers was Rollo Dilworth's "The Dream Keeper." We did the two-part version, which you can listen to below. Our kindergarten students even loved it and asked to sing it in class the next day. :)

Other choral numbers included Schram and Staggers' "Dreams that Children Dream" and "The Beat of a Drum," arranged by Jay Althouse. Choreographed numbers included "Anything is Possible," arranged by Althouse, "On My Way," by Phil Collins, "Reach," arranged by Roger Emerson, and Natasha Bedingfield's "Unwritten."

The program was called "On My Way," and we used brightly painted doors as stage decorations. At the end of the Phil Collins song, students exited the auditorium, changed from dressy sequin tanks and white dress shirts, and later returned in their "On My Way" t-shirts to complete the program. One student said that changing clothes was her favorite part of the program. You just never know what will be important for each individual!

While the rest of the grade level was changing clothes, a few students performed Philip Phillips' song, "Home." They did a great job!

Every student completed a questionnaire prior to the program. We used their answers to create a script for videos and live spoken parts to bring the show together. Every student had a spoken part, either live, or in a video.

One of the biggest issues we had was finding room for 117 students to have space to dance and be seen on the stage. We set up risers on the stage and two sets on the outer edges of the floor. We assigned each student one choreographed number for which they would leave the risers and perform on platforms in front of the stage. Although it wasn't perfect, it allowed the students on the risers to have enough room to move, and it gave each student a chance to be featured in a dance.

The choral production was a success, but most people missed the traditional musical. Our principals have agreed to let us bring it back next year. I'm looking forward to it, but for now I am going to enjoy my break!

Happy Summer!

Poisoned Rhythm Fun

Last month, I posted a few of my favorite finds through Pinterest. You can read about them here. I also mentioned an activity I planned to try that was shared by Amy Abbott, who has an amazing music education blog that you must check out! (Music a la Abbott) A few weeks ago, I introduced her  St. Patty's Day Poisoned Pattern Game in my 2nd and 3rd grade classes. The basic premise is that the students read and perform rhythmic phrases, but they have to watch out for the "poisoned" rhythm. If they play that one (which is introduced prior to playing the game), then they are "out."

I'm sure there are a million different ways to play the game. As we played the game in class, it evolved into the following:

• Students began the game by playing barred instruments in a pentaton.
• After the poison rhythm appeared, I announced "Fruit Basket Turnover."
• All students who accidentally played the poisoned rhythm moved to the next level of instruments. Level 2 was large drums and temple blocks. For level 3, I used several bins of unpitched percussion instruments such as triangles, wood blocks, guiros, etc. Level 4 was a bin of rhythm sticks.
• Students who did not play the poisoned rhythm were allowed to switch instruments within their level.
• I began the game by counting before each rhythm. Students spoke and played each rhythm two times in a row.
• I was able to increase the speed of the game in some classes by changing the slide on beat 3 during the repeat of the rhythm. I didn't need to count each time, they simply continued playing. They enjoyed the faster pace of the game.

Poisoned Rhythm has become a favorite activity among my students. They ask to play it constantly. Although I can't let them play it ALL the time, it is a great activity for the end of class when there are a few extra minutes. The benefit of the game is that it can be tailored to include any rhythm you are teaching. If you want a quick and easy way to vary the game, you can purchase Amy's rhythm bundle that includes many different versions of the game.

I also used the PowerPoint presentation of rhythmic slides with my first graders after they learned ta and ti-ti. Students sat in a circle, read the rhythm once, then spoke the rhythm and played auxiliary instruments twice. Between each slide, they passed their instruments to the next person. 

Have fun, but watch out for that poisoned rhythm!

Bingo!/Bongo!

Last week, I shared a Step/Skip game which reinforces upward/downward steps and skips on the staff. In third grade this week, we transferred the game to individual white boards. These boards allowed me to check each student's progress while the entire class worked. I wanted to make sure they were able to place notes on the appropriate lines and spaces and move them the correct direction and distance.

Rather than draw from two stacks of cards as we did in the game last week, I decided to look for an app to do the job of telling the students where to place their next note. I found a free app, Make Dice Lite, which allows you to customize your own dice. It added a cool factor to the game that the children really enjoyed. I simply placed my phone under the document camera and rolled the dice to see where the next note needed to be placed. If you have an iPad that you can connect to your projector, that would be ideal. I was excited to find this app, because its possibilities are endless!

The students began by drawing a whole note on line 3. I thought it would be more fun to practice drawing steps and skips if the students had a finish line as a goal. Therefore, I told them I wanted to know when they reached the top line or the bottom line. I spontaneously told them to call out "Bingo!" when they landed on line 5, and "Bongo!" for line 1. Since this was our first time to draw steps and leaps on the white boards, we actually checked our work as we went. Later, we may play without stopping for each note. The students will know they are on the right path if they reach Bingo, or Bongo at the appropriate time.

When the students came for their second lesson this week, they wanted to play again. They asked what the game was called, and I decided that "Bingo!/Bongo!" was its name-oh. :)

I hope these ideas spark your creativity as you plan your upcoming lessons.
Enjoy!

Pinterest Picks

I love using Pinterest as a resource for finding new lesson ideas. So many music teachers have blogs and share their plans and materials, and Pinterest is a place to find many of these ideas in one centralized location. Click on a pin that interests you, and poof! You are taken right to a web page to explore further.

I have about 300 pins on my "Making Music" board on Pinterest. I only pin links after I click on them and make sure it is something that I would really want to refer to again and possibly use in my classroom. This past week, I utilized two lesson ideas that I found through pins on Pinterest. They were both a hit with my students, so I thought they were worth mentioning.

Fruit Loop Rhythms

Mrs. King's Music Room blog is a wonderful resource for engaging music lesson plans. I am a follower, but noticed her latest post through a pin on Pinterest before I had even seen her blog post on Fruit Loop Notation. I recently started teaching rhythmic notation to my first graders, and I immediately knew they would love this method of differentiating between one or two sounds per beat.

I enjoyed finding a cute font to create a Fruit Loop worksheet. You can download a copy below.

Fruit Loop Notation Worksheet

I used coffee filters to hold the cereal for the students. They are cheap and work perfectly! I measured out 1/4 cup for each student, which was usually just the right amount. 

As you can see, the students were engaged and enjoyed working on their rhythmic notation:

When I introduced ta's and ti's, I used 4 stools to represent 4 beats. As we spoke a phrase from a poem, the students determined if there is one or two sounds on each beat. If there was one sound, one student would sit on the stool. If there were two sounds, two students shared the stool. When two students shared, they put their arms around their partner's shoulders to visually represent the beam over eighth notes.

After we worked from text, I called students up to the stools to create different rhythmic patterns. We used words first, like "birthday" and "cake" for one or two sounds. Ex.: "Birthday, birthday, cake, cake." Then we moved to reading the pattern as "ti-ti, ti-ti, ta, ta."

I put a Fruit Loop Rhythm worksheet under the document camera, and demonstrated how to complete an example. If I didn't have the document camera, I would have put a worksheet on the floor and let everyone watch as I completed one pattern.

Since this was my students' first attempt at rhythmic dictation, I used the percussion setting on my keyboard and played two different sounds for the quarter notes and eighth notes. I typically used a higher pitched percussion sound for the eighth notes and a bass drum for the quarter notes. If students struggled, I added the words we had used (birthday & cake) or spoke the ti's and ta's. Most of the students were able to successfully notate the rhythms without the words or syllables.

The nice thing about this activity, is that I could sit at the keyboard and see how students were doing from a distance. I played the example several times. When most students appeared to be finished, I had them tap their boxes as I played it again to check their work.

We played a little game to check the students' work. Since I had numbered the beat boxes, I had used letters for each example. So I taught the students sign language for letters A-D. Then I played an example and they found it on their worksheet. They held up the letter for the pattern I played. I could assess how well they had done as they identified the examples. Of course, I had to try to trick them and repeat one before playing the last one. I got a few on that one when they immediately guessed the example I had not played yet. We had a good giggle over that. :)

The following lesson, we used bottle caps and mini craft sticks to represent notes. Although it wasn't as tasty as the Fruit Loops, the students still had fun as they practiced rhythmic dictation.

Next week, students will begin reading flashcards and playing rhythms. I will have them speak the rhythm prior to playing it. I use the phrase, "Say it, Say & Play, Play" They speak it first, then speak and play, then think the syllables while they play. We usually use the barred instruments set in pentaton for this activity, but any percussion instrument will do.

Thanks to Pinterest, I also found a game to use for reading and playing rhythms. I can't wait to try it with my students. It's a game from Amy Abbott, who has a fantastic music blog named Music a la Abbott. The game is called St. Patty's Day Poisoned Rhythm Game. Check it out!

Step/Skip Game

Last summer, I scoured Pinterest looking for ideas for music centers. I was reviewing some of my older pins and noticed one that would be perfect for my 3rd graders, since they are working on melodic notation. We have been using individual music staff white boards to notate line/space notes, scales, and solfege patterns. Some students were struggling with line and space notes, so I wanted a fun way to reinforce this concept.

When I am introducing line and space notes, I use my head and arms to demonstrate the difference. I put my hands on both sides of my head like an arrow going through my head for the line note. Then I put one arm over my head and one arm below my chin for a space note. I go back and forth and let the students call out which kind of note I am representing. I also tell the students that although we say a note is "on" the line, think of it as being stamped on, rather than sitting on the line. Some students may imagine that if a note were sitting on the line, it would actually be a space note. I find that stamping it on the line helps.

Okay, back to the game that I found! It came from Jennifer Fink at Pianimation. The games and resources that she shares are amazing. The game I used last week was Floor Staff Races. Follow the link to read about the game and scroll down the post for the link to the game cards.

Before playing the game, we practiced identifying space/line notes, steps/skips, and up/down. 

For the game, students drew skip/step cards and up/down cards and raced their toy from the ledger line to the top of the staff. I definitely recommend using more "up" cards than "down" in order to finish a game. I made two game boards and divided the classes in half to play and thought that would work well. However, that ended up being too many students per game, in my opinion. So the next time we played, I divided the class into 4 groups. Two groups played one game, while two groups played this one. We rotated halfway through class, so everyone got to play both games.

I even used this game with one of my 4th grade classes while I listened to individual students play for recorder karate belts. We took the game one more step by having the students identify the pitch name after they moved the animal. If they could not name it, they had to return to the previous position (unless they had moved downward, in which case they had to remain there).

What are you waiting for? Run over to Pinterest and plan your next lessons. If you need a starting point, you can check out my music board by clicking here.

See you on Pinterest!