This past Friday, my PreK Olders (4 year olds) successfully and beautifully performed six songs for their Grandparents' Day Concert. These songs came from units I began this year titled "The Music Book of the Month." Each month, I would post on my school's music webpage information about our music book of the month. During that month, we would explore the book through reading, singing, acting it out, enhancing it through instrumentation, and more. For PreK Olders, we studied Five Little Monkeys by Eileen Christelow (September), Five Little Pumpkins by Dan Yaccarino (October), The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush by Tomie dePaola (November), The Nutcracker as illustrated by Don Daily (December), We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury (January), Marsupial Sue by John Lithgow (February), There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly (March), Shoo Fly illustrated by Iza Trapani (April), and A You're Adorable by Martha Alexander (May).

An example of how the book was featured in lessons throughout the month of music classes is I would begin with reading Five Little Pumpkins. In the next lesson, I would display the book through the document camera projected onto the smartboard to read the book again and then I would sing the book to the students. In the next lesson, we would sing the song and learn the finger play. In the next lesson, we would sing the song, perform the finger play, and discuss the numbers and how they decrease by one. In the next lesson, we would act out the song with five students performing the pumpkin parts, one student playing the wind chimes for the "ooo" part, one student performing the whip crack for "out went the lights," and one student turning off the lights at that point in the song. We would also videotape the students performing this activity and post it on the music page of the school's website so the parents can view it. All of these items took about 10 minutes of a 30 minute class. I see the PreK Olders twice during a seven-day cycle.

I took some of these books and culminated this into the PreK Olders Grandparents' Day Concert which was very successful. It was the first time in the fifteen years that I have worked at FHCDS where the four-year-olds received a standing ovation!

Next post: Integrating the second grade's heritage unit on immigration into music class.

This Friday will be our annual Grandparents' Day Concert, which involves all students in grades PreK Olders, second, fourth, and seventh grades. The theme of the day is "Music from the Heart" (in honor of our new auditorium), so my colleague and I decided to make our grades 2, 4, and 7 concert theme to be a bit more vague, and to just call it "Music." Our concert program is as follows (along with program notes on some of the songs):

1. I Am But A Small Voice by Odina E. Batnag, English Words and Music by Roger Whitaker, Arranged by Roger Emerson - Soloists:six second graders.
   In conjunction with Roger Whittaker (famous British singer, songwriter and whistler)'s first American tour in 1980, a major international song writing competition was launched, the "Children Helping Children", from the United Nations in New York through UNESCO. Children from all over the world were encouraged to submit lyrics and poems on the subject of promoting peace and understanding, the best of which Mr. Whittaker would put to music and record. The contest attracted over one million entries from 57 countries. One composition stood out. It was written by a 13- year-old girl, Odina Batnag from Manila, Philippines. Young Miss Batnag was flown to New York and introduced to the huge audience at Mr. Whittaker's Radio City Music Hall concert where her entry, "I Am But A Small Voice", was performed for the very first time. Simple child's words put together to create a winning composition that sends out a very powerful message of Hope, Freedom and Harmonious co-existence amongst all people in the world and a dream of a clean and unspoilt surroundings. A message of peace, better future and love from a thirteen year old girl Odina Batnag. (Rachel Mendoza, http://www.angelfire.com/on4/zambalesforum/i_am_but_small_voice.htm)
   
   
2. A Child of Song by Derryl Herring & Andy Beck
3. My Favorite Things/Do-Re-Mi Medley from The Sound of Music by Rodgers and Hammerstein, arranged by Mark Brymer  - Richard Rodgers published his first song at age 15. Following the death of his first collaborator, Lorenz Hart, Rodgers teamed with Oscar Hammerstein to produce nine Broadway shows, including Oklahoma, Carousel, South Pacific, Pal Joey, The King and I, Flower Drum Song, State Fair and the show whose medley you are about to hear, The Sound of Music. In this medley, arranged by Mark Brymer, you will hear My Favorite Things and Do-Re-Mi. These songs also coordinate with our second grade project based learning unit with immigration as we study the life of Maria von Trapp in music class. (A portion written by David P. Miller, Mississippi Community Symphonic Bands, http://www.startlogic.com/controlpanel/weebly/)
4. Galop by Ken Berg
5. Sing-Along: America, Of Thee I Song, partner song with "America, the Beautiful" by Mary Donnelly and George L. O. Strid. This partner song combines "America The Beautiful" with an original melody set to the text of the "Pledge Of Allegiance." The students will begin by singing the "Pledge of Allegiance." Then, a special appearance by some of our wonderful grandparents as they sing "America The Beautiful." The song will end with the grandparents and the audience singing "America The Beautiful" while the students sing "The Pledge of Allegiance." As apart of their study of American Sign Language, you will also see the 2nd graders sign the pledge as they sing it during the final verse.
   
6. Born to Make Music by Teresa Jennings - This upbeat, country rock 'n' roll song will get your feet tapping in no time. "We were born to make music we were born to sing a song. We hope you will enjoy the second graders as they were born to make music and sing!"
7. Music, Music, Music! by Stephan Weiss / Bernie Baum
8. Sing by Joe Raposo, arranged by Steve Zegree. A cool walking bass line, a hip, easy swing feel, and fun scat lyrics make this arrangement of Joe Raposo's "Sesame Street" song a great one to perform. "Don't worry that it's not good enough for anyone else to hear, just sing! Sing a song!"
9. I've Got the Music in Me by Bias Boshell, arranged by Alan Billingsley Whether you know that as a Kiki Dee song, or from The Sing-Off, or even from J Lo's Kohl's commercial, you will not want to sit still as you hear our students sing "Don't let life get me down. Gonna take it the way that I found it. I've got the music in me."

We had our first rehearsal today and my second graders rocked the house! I was very impressed with their singing, enthusiasm, and memorization. Currently, my second graders' favorite song is "I've Got the Music in Me." It is a great concert finale. I look forward to seeing this concert coming to fruition by the end of the week.

Next post: The PreK Olders' Concert titles and how that integrated with the "Music Book of the Month" units I initiated this year.

When I returned from Spring Break last month, I began a countdown. This I do every year. This year's countdown consisted of the number of performances there are in the final ten weeks of school. This year's number turned out to be nine. This requires a lot of planning and organization. We have already completed two of the performances which were the two talent assemblies. Our school's talent assemblies feature students who have been studying their talents privately for over a year. We like to honor those students who take their personal time to improve their talents with being able to showcase them at our annual talent assembly.

This week's performances include the first grade play about Aesop's Fables and performing for our donors who gave for the past ten years of our Capital Campaign (which ended with our new performing arts center, which is an amazing facility).

The first grade play includes nine songs. The first graders adore these songs. They are original songs that include "Welcome to our Fables Play," "Big Fish Little Fish," "Lion and Mouse," "Hare Solo," "Tortoise Solo," "The Tortoise and the Hare Rap," "Keep on Tryin'," "The Dog's Reflection," and "Finale." The lyrics of these songs were written by the first grade teachers and I composed most of the music using basic songwriting skills and garageband (to record the songs and to create the accompaniment track for the rap). The first grade teachers write the play and they correlate it all to their curriculum. It is a very successful experience for the first graders and it is the highlight of their school year.

As the end of the school year approaches, our final performances include Grandparents' Day Concert, 2nd Grade Heritage Festival, Performing Arts Department Showcase, Kindergarten Diploma Ceremony, and The Closing Ceremonies. I will blog more about these as they occur.

I am adoring the virtual instrument apps that I have on the iPad for my elementary music classroom. Some of the apps that I am experimenting with or using in my classroom can be found here. In this recording, my 3rd grade class is singing and performing “Chatter with the Angels” utilizing orff instruments, recorders, voices, and an iPad using a autoharp app plugged into the stereo amp. I am playing the melody on the flute. This was recorded using the GarageBand app on my iPhone. The microphone is the phone’s internal microphone. I hope that yo

As our school's spring break begins this week, it allows me to look back over the winter trimester and reflect on our curriculum and lessons. As I did, I posted these reflections on my website. Some highlights:

Kindergarten: We have been studying a variety of rhythm patterns. One of the rhythm patterns is the one that goes to BINGO, except we replace it with HEART, for Valentine's Day. This activity has an interactive whiteboard file attached to it that can be downloaded from the SoundTree Institute. To read a description of the lesson, click here.

1st Grade: In preparation for their upcoming Peter and the Wolf podcasts, the 1st graders studied the instruments and the characters, listened and drew to the story narrated by Leonard Bernstein, watched the Disney version of the story, assessed their knowledge with Martha’s excellent notebook file for the interactive whiteboard that can be found here, and will eventually produce a podcast of Peter and the Wolf. Stay tuned as the podcasts will be posted shortly. You can see some of the pictures from the notebook file and the students' artwork here.

2nd Grade: The students studied the life and music of Beethoven. To read the description of the lessons and to listen to the students' podcasts, please click here. Ms. Rubin's, Ms. Wang's and Mrs. Miller's did a wonderful job creating the Beethoven podcasts in one 40-minute class.

3rd Grade: In March, the third graders studied the 50 States in social studies. Each of students were assigned a state to research and present about during the 50 States Fair in March of 2012. In music class, they had to compose an 8 measure melody using Noteflight.They  were allowed to use the notes that they have been studying and performing on the recorder: G (do), A (re), B (mi), C (fa), and D (la).They  were asked to compose with the following rhythms: quarter notes and rests, half notes, and whole notes. Once they completed our melodies, they used Apple’s GarageBand to create an accompaniment to their melodies. This was all done with five Mac computers and all of the students grouped into 5 groups.

Afterwards, the students received a hard copy of their melodies and they used their facts that they presented about their state at the 50 States Fair, and wrote lyrics to their state songs.

iPads in the Elementary Music Class: I had a wonderful attendance for my session at the recent NJMEA conference. To check out some of the apps that I showed and/or demonstrated, please click here. I will be holding the session again at CMEA in April.

Internet Resources for the Elementary Music Classroom: Check out this webpage that I utilized in my classroom and at a recent NJMEA presentation. I will be holding the session again at CMEA in April.

Interactive WhiteBoards in the Elementary Music Classroom: This is one of my favorite sessions to present, and at NJMEA, the educators were wonderful and asked great questions. Please click here to view the resources I used in the presentation and the files that I use in my classroom.

This week, I will be heading to my home state's music education conference, NJMEA, to present three sessions. The first one is titled "SMART Boards in the Elementary Music Classroom" and it is one that I have presented before. However, this session is an hour and a half long, which I adore, because it allows me to move slowly and to present everything that would benefit a novice to an advanced user of the SMART Board. This session is from 10:00-11:30 on Thursday, 2/23, in the Rockaway Room in the Tower on the 15th floor.

My second session is titled "iPads in Music Education" and will address how to utilize an iPad as a classroom tool to enhance your current curriculum. Apps will be
suggested for a variety of music classrooms and grades. This session is on Saturday 2/25, from 10:15-11:15 in the Passaic Room in the Tower on the 15th floor. To see some of the apps that I will be presenting, please check out my new webpage devoted to this by clicking here.

My third session is titled "Internet Resources for the Elementary Music Teacher" and will provide you with resources, Web sites and lesson plans that you can immediately use in your elementary general music classroom. This session is on Saturday, 2/25, from 12:45-1:45 in the Oswego Room in the Tower on the 15th floor. To see some of the websites that I will be showing, please check out my new webpage devoted to this by clicking here.

I am looking forward to presenting on three topics that I feel can enhance an elementary music educator's classroom and curriculum. If you are attending NJMEA, please stop by and check out these sessions!

Last week, I had the pleasure to present at the Missouri Music Educator's Association (MMEA) Conference at the Tan-Tar-A in Osage Beach, MO. My good friend Rick Dammers recommended me to Ray Benton, the MMEA Technology Chair, who wanted me to present three sessions. I was able to present about technology in the elementary music classroom (which coordinated with my book Technology Integration in the Elementary Music Classroom), to serve on a panel for SMART boards in the secondary school classroom, and to present on SMART boards in the elementary music classroom. The latter session had over 200 participants, which was my biggest audience to date. They were an excellent audience who appreciated the thorough handouts, liked that they could use my qr code to read the handout on their mobile devices when I ran out of them, and asked great questions.

I also enjoyed and respected how much Ray was doing for the organization and how he was single-handily planning and promoting the tech sessions that ranged from integration, to notation, to SMART boards, to smart music. Most of the sessions were presented by music educators in the field and using students' works as their examples. I was so thrilled and honored to be asked to present at this MMEA.

You can see my handouts on the front page of my website. My next presentations with be at NJMEA, which always makes me proud to present in the state that I grew up and currently live and teach. I will be presenting on SMART boards, internet websites, and iPads. My sessions are on Thursday, 2/23, and Saturday, 2/25. If you are planning on attending NJMEA, please check out my sessions!

Currently, Dr. Scott Watson, author of Using Technology To Unlock Musical Creativity - a fantastic resource for any music educator looking to get technology into their classrooms to facilitate creative opportunities for their students-is presenting at METOS, which stands for the Music Education & Technology Online Summit, hosted at the SoundTree Institute. Scott is discussing and presenting samples of excellent works created by his students. He terms it "new clothes for an old tune," which is using the tools of multi-track music production, students make their own fresh, new (popular music style) arrangement of a public domain Baroque or Classical period keyboard work. His examples are amazing and compelling.

Scott has eight principles of music creativity, as seen in the picture above. His book goes over these principles in-depth along with many great examples.

I will be presenting right at the very end of the conference displaying creative examples from PreK-grade 3. Along with me, Richard McCready, TI:ME Teacher of the Year Barbara Freedman, and Nick Jaworski will also be presenting great examples of their students' creative works. Please stick around to hear us present!

Hope to "see" you there!

Last week, the Technology for Music Education (TI:ME) joined up with the Jazz Education Network (JEN) to hold its 2012 National Conference in Louisville, Kentucky. The conference was filled with many excellent sessions that varied from iPads to GarageBand to digital recording and more. Some of the best sessions featured TI:ME's keynote speakers Grammy-Nominated Producer Fred Bogert, legendary producer/engineer Ken Scott, and best selling author Bobby Owsinski. One session I attended was Bobby interviewing Ken about mixing an album for the Beatles. Listening to the play-by-play of his mixing of certain songs was remarkable.

It was also wonderful to honor our 2012 TI:ME Mike Kovins Teacher of the Year, Barbara Freedman. Barbara is an outstanding music educator from Connecticut. She presented exceptional sessions on free technology to iPads in the music room. Barbara inspires her students daily and her new book on composition and creativity in the music classroom is coming out soon.

One of the best aspects of our conference is networking with other music educators who also utilize technology in their classrooms. It was so cool to see many educators actually meet live for the first time though they have read each others' blogs, contributed articles to each others' websites, and have read each others' tweets numerous times.

If you were able to attend the conference, I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I did. If you could not, Joe Pisano did a great job of archiving all of the tweets that contained the #timejen12 or #jen12 hashtags in them. Check out the transcript here.

Finally, Mike Lawson, the Executive Director of TI:ME, worked diligently to revamp the TI:ME website and did an amazing job premiering it at our conference. Mike was able to make the website into a social networking website for its members, he was able to bring back the free subscriptions to Keyboard, Mix, and Electronic Musician to our members, he was able to activate forms and the chapter pages again and more! If you are a member of TI:ME, please check out the new site and create a login and password so you can see the new social networking aspect of the site. If you are not a member or have let your membership expire, now would be a wonderful time to come back to TI:ME and join the music education/music technology/music industry network! 

The next two Tuesdays, December 6 and 13, I will be teaching an online SMART Board Course for novice SMART Board users through the SoundTree Institute. If you have not joined the SoundTree Institute, I highly recommend it for the following reasons:

1. They offer online courses, with the option for credit.
2. Most of the webinars are free.
3. Their courses and webinars include current topics in music education such as Youtube in the Music Classroom, SMART Board, GarageBand, Mixcraft, and more.
4. You have access to numerous articles and lesson plans written by the top educators in their fields.
5. They have a variety of options to social network with various music educators from around the world.
6. They give you wonderful videos of how to use specific software and hardware from the Korg GEC, to Auralia, to Groovy, to Sibelius, to Finale, to Garageband, to Mixcraft, to so much more!

Currently, you can take a tour of the institute on their website and they are now offering a special discounted rate of $49.95. This is a wonderful offer that should be taken advantage of so that you can begin using these excellent resources today.

If you need to be convinced further, check out Joe Pisano's article at http://mustech.net/2011/11/soundtree-institute-music-development/!