Jen’s Blog

I have just been looking through some of Shirley’s old posts and came across her critique of one of my posts earlier on in my blogging. She reminded me of the importance of considering the appropriateness of resources for the kids we are teaching. I have become so excited about the wide range of resources available I think this was a helpful reminder before dosing my students with inappropriate things!

One point Shirley raises is that many resources for primary students are aimed at upper primary. There are very few for younger kids. I started thinking about how you could incorporate technology for them.

I then remembered LAMS!!!!!!! I have become excited remembering this wonderful tool and could see many benefits in using this to construct my own online learning experiences incorporating relevant parts of the technology available, but constructing an age appropriate, valid learning experience for kids!

I received this email today:

“Because fewer public schools offer music programs to students, the nonprofit organization Little Kids Rock decided to “provide its unique music curriculum” free of charge to schools. And to us. Part of the expansive iTunes U, Little Kids Rock offers guitar lessons, drum lessons, and other musical resources.”

It then provides a link taking you to the “Little Kids Rock” page in itunes. I thought this seemed like an interesting thing to investigate, particularly given my interest in public education and music. I decided to look up the “Little Kids Rock” website . With a bit of exploring I found that the main program is American and does not have as much relevance to us, but there are still some worthwhile resources.

This is their rationale for the program.

“ believes that all children in our public schools deserve music education. Music education is a transforming force in children’s lives. This is why we are dedicated to bringing free musical instruments and music instruction to public school children. At Little Kids Rock, we believe that ”

(Little Kids Rock, n.d.)

The American program offers free music tuition in schools, providing the teachers and the instruments. However, recently on itunes they have put up a number of resources which could be helpful for teachers. These include activity books, videos teaching guitar and drums and various items from kids and professionals.

Reference:

Little Kids Rock. (n.d.). Little Kids Rock. Retrieved March 5, 2008 from Little Kids Rock website: http://www.littlekidsrock.org/index.htm.

I have done a critique for my assignment on the use of computer-mediated composition technologies. One which keeps popping up is Hyperscore so I wanted to have a go at using it myself to see if it’s all it’s cracked up to be. On my exploration I came across this midi file:

http://www.hyperscore.com/music/IgorMIDI.mp3

This was composed by a 10 year old child who had no musical background in composition. This was done in a week and performed by the Berlin Orchestra in 2001!

Unfortunately, I only own macs and hyperscore seems to work for Windows machines only and has costs to purchase, although from the research and various videos available both on the Hyperscore website and you-tube it seems to have positive reviews!

I have been reading a fair bit about music software for primary school students and one which keeps popping up is the “Super Duper Music Looper“. This is not free software, but you can play a demo online (requires flash).

One thing I like about this software is that it doesn’t require any musical notation knowledge to compose and by just using loops some fairly sophisticated compositions can be made! It is like garage band – but simpler! Students can also record their own voices into the composition and send it via email to others!

One disadvantage is that it only works for windows machines.

I’ve just read Krizzia’s post about integrating music into the curriculum. She is right when she says that many teachers do not have music experience. I have seen in some of my prac schools this overcome by having a specialist music teacher. However, even with an RFF teacher, the time spent on Music is roughly 30mins per class. This is not enough time! Sadly, music is an area often neglected, or if done, generally consists of singing. There is so much more to music than this!

I have watched the children in my pracs when I’ve done music with them (meaningful lessons, not just singing) and they have loved every minute! Kids enjoy music.

I was chatting to an RFF music teacher yesterday about her lessons. She was explaining that she was teaching kids to write rhythms in music notation. These were simple simple rhythms but she explained that the kids LOVED creating. She said on their sheets many of the kids had written “Created by …” or “Composed by…” rather than just their name.

Music is such a rich area which children love to do! More teachers should get on board… there are soo many resources online as well that can be used which require very little musical knowledge to use!

I have chosen to do a particular focus on the use of ICT in music education. I thought to begin my process of focussing on this I’d have a look at what interactive music websites are available for kids. There are many! I had a look at the curriculum support website and found a number of NSW DET supported websites. I’ve seen a number of these before and have liked what is there. I had a particularly good look at the Viva Zone website.

Musica Viva is an organisation which employs professional musicians to come and perform to children in schools. Teachers are given packs and attend workshops and then teach a unit to the children culminating in a live performance. The Viva Zone website is designed with children in mind to support teachers in this unit. It addresses all the key elements of music, pitch, tone colour, dynamics, tempo and rhythm in a child friendly way. Kids can play games and learn about real musicians.

Check it out!   (Make sure you have your sound turned up!)