This begins our incredible adventure using 1:1 iPads in the Elementary Music Class!
As of August 16th, our school is now a 1:1 iPad school.
As excited as I am about all things technological, I know I need to learn how to use the iPad as a learning tool. My goal this year is to update my traditionally taught lessons in the music classroom, not just by teaching apps on the iPad, but by redesigning how I get my students to learn musical concepts. We’ve had one full week of classes, and I wanted to share my first attempts… successful and not so successful! I have so much to learn… I wish …… well, I have to dive on in and go for it knowing I’m going to make mistakes and learn by doing. Hopefully, blogging about these adventures will lead to exciting conversations as we encourage and help each other.
Third and fourth graders are reviewing beat and meter.
This week, we explored how grouping strong and weak beats together in organized patterns creates meter, and different meters have different feels to them: waltz in 3, march in 2 Â or rock music in 4.
The students created strong and weak pattern groupings. Several children wanted to know why there was a barline and that led to a discussion of the special STRONG beat at the beginning of each measure. It wasn’t originally in my plans, but we quickly grouped in strong/weak patterns, grabbed a boomwhacker to make a barline, and took pictures of the patterns. I’ll print these out and post them around the room for future study.
Students used EduCreations on their iPad
1:1 iPad Problem:
1:1 iPad Problem:
1:1 iPad Assignment
Students scanned the QR code with their iPads. Each QR code was linked to a musical piece either in the meter of 3 or the meter of 4. Their assignment was to work in groups to create a dance illustrating the meter of their linked music. They had to clearly show the strong beat.
1:1 iPads – This worked!
The video links below show excerpts from their creative dances. The boys clearly understood and felt the strong beat in the meter of 4. One group even illustrated the form of the piece within their movements.
One group of girls worked so well together and came up with a real dance routine. They even worked to come through the tunnel on each strong beat in the meter of 3.
Creative Moves In Meters Of 3 And 4 from Cherie Herring on Vimeo.
My plan is to keep working on the video and let the students add their voices to create a tutorial about meter. Working with iMovie, I think they can easily take ownership and produce a final piece that explains meter correctly.
Problem! I wish I had them longer than 30 minutes per week!!
How are you using 1:1 iPads in your music classes? I would welcome any comments or suggestions about our new adventure!!
Cherie Herring
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5 thoughts on “1:1 iPads in the Elementary Music Class: Getting Started”
Hi, I am a preservice music/ed teacher and am loving your blog! I am just starting an ICT course and your blog touches upon many things that we are talking about in the class. I just posted your blog to share with my teacher and colleagues so if anyone has feedback I will be sure to get it to you!
That’s great news, Laura! I would love to have conversations with teachers who are using technology in the music classroom. We all have so much to learn and need to stick together as we help each other along the way. If you are interested, I can add you and your colleagues to my shared DropBox folder. YOu will be able to download all SMARTNotebook lessons directly without any problems. I will just need your email address to send you the invitation to share the folder. Please let me know of any feedback…. that’s the whole point of this blog!!
Cherie
Cherie,
I just finished my first year of teaching and I am looking for new ways to integrate technology within my classroom. I read your comment about sharing SMARTBOARD lesson files via Dropbox. Could I also receive these lessons? Thanks so much!
Sincerely,
Ben
Hi Cherie,
I’m loving your blog… I too, am musically minded and a techie at heart. You have some great ideas. I am wondering what recommendations you might have for those of us who do not have the 1:1 iPad ratio… I use my SmartBoard every lesson, every day, and I have brought my own iPad in a few times, but logistically with only one iPad, it is difficult. Any suggestions for those of us with only 1 or two? There is that ever important piece of making sure everyone has a turn to worry about! I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Hi Rebecca! Thanks for the comment and the question. You made me think!! After a year and a half of iPads in the music room, if I had to move to another situation in which I only had one iPad (and my SMARTBoard), here are a few things I would definitely continue to do:
I would use the iPad to record my students when they demonstrate understanding of a concept. Throughout my blog, there are several videos of students creating dance moves to demonstrate duple or triple meter, or other musical concepts. I would either film the kids talking or dancing, or I would let a team of kids film it and edit it in iMovie. Then I would post it on my wiki for all to see. When my 4th graders use their iPads in their study of Recorders, it is actually the WIKI that makes it all work. The iPad is the tool, but the access to the wiki is the key because kids can work to their level. You can do that without iPads. Give the kids the url to the wiki and they can practice their recorder pieces from home. THEN, have them use their mom’s iPhone and email you the video. My students don’t take their iPads home. Here is a link to my recorder wiki.
http://recorderkids.wikispaces.com/ The students can practice from home and it flips the music classroom. They come back having practiced the piece and with questions and solutions to share.
I used Garage Band with 3rd-4th graders for the first quarter. I would miss Garage Band! We were able to compose using a 4-chord pattern. The children learned how to count-in and keep the steady beat. They created an arc with a steady beat, chord pattern, and bass. Then they added the solo line on top. By the end of the quarter, they were doing so well and composing on their iPads at home and emailing me the files. If you mirror your iPad and plug it into the sound system, you could still create an 8-beat chord pattern and improvise above that on their boomwhackers. You could use Garage band to demonstrate all the SMARTdrums and SMART strings and how many ways the acc. can change while still keeping the same chord structure. I would have them use/change the chords in SMARTKeyboard to dim, min, or aug7 chords to create spooky music for Halloween.If you set the chords up ahead of time, the kids could take turns playing the acc on the iPad while the other kids played on their BW.
I would use Explain Everything everyday! Since you have your SMARTBoard, if I were you, I would build up a bank of videos created by my students in which they explain the musical concept to introduce the lesson. Recorder fingering? Have students take the iPad into the recording booth and make a tutorial to teach the finger movements from B to C! Take that video from Explain Everything and slow it down so the kids can see little fingers playing it correctly. Once they have mastered the required song for the belt, let them go to the recording booth and make a recoding to post on your wiki or website. They will keep trying until they get it perfect enough to record it. It’s a great motivator. How about record singers demonstrating correct vowel sounds, the final “T” or the final “S” of words… have one child be the conductor and the other children following. Film teams and show the videos then vote on the most accurate endings.
I would have to have the children use Explain Everything to create the Scary Dynamic Stories… Nothing cements the concept of musical dynamics quite like turning the page and having to record something different. You could turn these recordings into QR codes that their parents could scan at home. In fact, I would send tons of musical examples home as QR codes or links on my wiki so parents could see their children perform. If you keep technology in their face a bit, you might get a few more iPads donated to your room.
The iPad is great, but if you don’t use it as a tool to demonstrate understanding, a piece of paper and a pencil is just a good. The iPad is not a substitute for a worksheet. I think the iPad is so perfect for taking the learned concepts one step further to show mastery. If students can teach it, they understand it. Nothing shows that like a movie or like an Explain Everything project.
Another thing, I think I would still set up some really cool QR scavenger hunts and have the iPad be the tool to give the clues via QR codes. I would use the iPads to conduct interviews around school – Who is your favorite performer? What instruments did you play when you were a child? Find a musician and have them come in for an interview. Skype with the iPad! Have students interview John Jacobson or Teresa or Paul Jennings, or someone from your symphony. Record/film the interview and turn it into a movie for all to see. Record yourself doing crazy things with MadLips to introduce composers… it worked for me and the kids loved it! Use Puppet Pals and introduce musical concepts for the children to view at the beginning of your unit of study. Record your student’s voices to use throughout your smartboard lessons. Attaching mP3’s is super easy! Find a way to keep track of which student has been the iPad helper of the day and spread the joy around. I have an iPad film crew, an iPod control team, a SMARTBoard helper, a light turn-er-off-er, and someone to pass out instruments every lesson. If they misbehave, they get fired!
I hope this gives you a few ideas.. I’ll keep thinking about it all! The truth is that I would much rather be without my iPads than without my SMARTBoard! I can’t imagine going back to pre-IWB!!