Composition is the driving philosophy behind my teaching of music and the program that Andrew Williamson and myself run at NFPS and we are always looking for ways to deepen children’s understanding of their creative voice. From the very beginning of their classroom music programme (prep) we teach them ways to express themselves as composers so by the time they are in grade six they are very comfortable with it. In term one we this year we had all of the grade 6 students in the mac lab working with Garageband. Garageband while not being the most powerful music programme is a great entry point for a lot of children. Much like IMovie in that it gives them some basic understanding of editing. In term one we would get the kids to compose using the preexisting loops, a quick and fun way to create instant music. However to get a deeper sense of personal ownership over your compositions there is a number of simple things you can do 1. Change the tempo of the track (its automatically set to 120 bpm and if you don’t teach this skill you are missing a vital ingredient in composition – tempo) The tempo track is set in the window at the bottom of the project.
(see the picture below)
2. Change the volumn settings in your track. You can do this by adjusting the master volumn controls (on the left hand side of each track) or by making automated settings within each track. The picture above also shows changes in volume settings within a track – its the blue line going up and down under the track.
3 The most powerful change – I think it is important to move beyond using loops made by other people and get children to either create their own loops or write their own melodies, bass-lines or sounds.
This can easily be achieved through the midi function of Garageband.
1. plug a midi keyboard in 2. choose a new track and make it a software track and then 3. choose the instrument you want to use 4. after practicing, press record and play in the sounds you want.
Midi editing can be done in the track editing window (see the picture above)- where the squares can be literally dragged or stretched to any key or duration.
If you want to go deeper with midi the students can actually make their own sounds by adjusting the effects on the midi instruments. For example: Now they are not restricted to the premade guitar sounds but can get any squeeling crunching sweet sound they had in their heads)
We assigned our students the task of creating a piece that had 1. a bass-line 2. a melody line 3. an accompaniment part 4. a percussion part 5. an A and B Section
No other parts were allowed and at least one of those parts had to be composed using the midi keyboard. Not surprisingly most groups used the keyboard to compose more than one of their parts including some who wrote the drums parts as well. If you do alot of wok in Garageband and don’t start applying these ideas sooner or later you will notice that the kids tunes all start sounding the same, this is because they are limited to a restrictive number of rhythm and melodic choices (the premade loops) Once you have taught this very simple skill the range of compositional pieces you will hear back suddenly becomes huge and so much more satisfying from a listeners perspective but also from the students perspective. It has become personalized.
Heres a couple of examples of pieces written using the midi keyboards.
The Grade 2 students have finished their sea projects on Scratch. You can see all of them on our school blog by searching the Categories for “Scratch”.
THE SCRATCH PROJECT -
Step 1
Each student chose their own topic about what they might “See Under the Sea”. They searched the internet for information and chose sites that looked kid friendly. They copied the information onto a word document and the picture into their documents folder.
Step 2
They drew or made the Scratch sprite using the picture that they had saved to help them. They made a second costume for their sprite just be rotating the image slightly or by flipping it. This allowed them to program the sprite to swim while it moved across the screen.
Step 3
The students rewrote the information so that it was in their own words. Sometimes it was enough to delete the large words or difficult parts and it still made sense.
Step 4
They recorded the information straight onto Scratch using the voice recorder.
Step 5
They programmed the Scratch sprites that they had drawn to say the recordings. If they had more than one sprite they set wait times so that each sprite took turns to speak.
Finally we loaded the finished projects up to the Berwick Lodge Scratch site and used the embed code provided to put them onto our school blog.
This project has many outcomes that were valuable for the students.
They have created an original animation using simple computer programming which involves higher order thinking and problem solving..
They shared their knowledge, often helping the whole class once they had mastered some new programming
They have started to develop skills for researching on the internet and rewriting material into words that make sense and that they understand.
Using the recording feature of Scratch is important because it gives students instant feedback about the information they are sharing. We were able to laugh at some of the first attempts where the students used words straight from their research which made them sound like Wikipedia rather than grade 2 students.
Their presentations were interesting and important so they were watched by other students which increased the knowledge of everyone in the class
This was the first time I had attempted a Scratch project with younger students – but it won’t be the last!
Congratulations to all Global Teacher and Global Student blogs shortlisted and to those who were nominated!
How proud we are that so many of our globalstudent or globalteacher bloggers have been acknowledged globally, in the final nominations for the Edublogs Awards 2010!
Thank you Mel Cashen for searching through and putting together most of this list for us.
A special thanks to eLearning of DEECD for both providing and supporting us with this blogging campus.
Here are our nominees and their appropriate categories.
Voting has started now, so please vote for us and show how proud we are of our bloggers who have such global influence and presence.
Please vote for your favourite blogs at Edublog Awards 2010 or follow the links below.
Who have we missed? Please add as a comment below. Other Victorian and Australia teachers have also been nominated so check out all the wonderful treasures in all categories at The Edublogs Awards 2010
This is a lesson I have used on the way to creating a Wordle or any word cloud for that matter. Usually at the beginning of the year when students are getting to know their new classmates. I have mentioned Wordle in other posts but this blog is about the journey not the final product. Like most ICT lessons the process is where the learning takes place and the end product is the motivation and reward. This is why web 2.0 tools such as Wordle are so great. They create a brilliant end-product that engages and motivates the student to learn along the way.
THE LESSON – Aimed at Grades 3-6
The Task: Create a Wordle that describes who you are. “What are the key words that describe you?”
Show students what a Wordle will look like once it is finished and explain that the frequency of a word determines its size.
Step 1 – Word Processing App
Open a word processing document – for example Word. This is where we make our list of adjectives to describe who we are and what we are like. The reason we start in a word processing document is so that:
students can save their words to use again,
students can spell check,
if there is an error while making the Wordle it is easy to retrieve the list and start again. (No tears method)
this is an ideal opportunity to review or teach fast and efficient ways to copy and paste using the keyboard shortcuts as well as and the “non printing characters” that look like ” ¶”.
Step 2- List of single words
Aim to create a list of between 15 – 20 words (more words are acceptable for fast workers equally at times we have to accept less words.
Step 3
COPY KEYBOARD SHORTCUT – CTRL+C (just replace CTRL with “command” for Mac computers:) The next step involves showing students how to use the keyboard shortcuts to copy and paste. They are to copy the words in the list according to how important they are. They copy their name the most times so that it stands out on the finished Wordle. This is an opportune teaching moment to show how useful the “non-printing characters” button can be. It is difficult to copy a single word on a line without copying the paragraph break as well so students soon find that their words always copy to a new line making the document unwieldy. By clicking on the “show non-printing characters” icon students can begin to see what’s happening. By simply adding a space after the word and before the paragraph break the students can then copy the word ready to paste on the same line as the original word.
PASTE KEYBOARD SHORTCUT – CTRL+V: This is the fastest way to paste a word more than once so it makes sense to use this method rather than the right click on the mouse or the “Paste” from the menu. I explain that I think this shortcut is a “V” because the V is shaped like a wedge to push the words into the line (and of course the P is already used for the shortcut to print). The students get plenty of practice copying and pasting their words to complete the list. Finally they copy the entire document using CTRL+A and paste it into the Wordle page.
One more trick of the trade is to have students link straight to the Create page in Wordle. This avoids the gallery and any Wordles that contain unpleasant words.
The final Wordle can be saved using a screen capture tool. Students often find their Persoanlity Wordle is useful throughout the year and the first place they like to post it is on their blog.
Every year I write at least one blog post lauding the brilliance of Garageband as a creative tool for students. Again, I cannot speak highly enough of the power of GB especially when it is used as a tool for student composition. The underpinning philosophy that Kynan Robinson and I have is that we believe in empowering the student as the composer and creator. One of the many things I have learnt from working closely with Kynan is the concept of ‘demystifying the role of the composer’. It is expected in an art classroom that students will practice their creativity. The same should apply to the music classroom. Students should be given the freedom to compose and test out their musical ideas. Garageband is one of those tools that empowers the students to achieve this.
After two terms of learning to compose on Orff and untuned percussion instruments. Grade 5 and 6 students have been given the task to demonstrate the skills and creative ideas that they have developed to compose a piece of music using GB. Similar to last terms composition task, Kynan and I set some parameters. The students had to compose a piece that consisted of a Bass, main melody and accompanying harmonic melodies. The piece had to be in either binary (AB) or ternary (ABA) form. Existing Loops inside GB were to be used to create the bass and accompanying parts. However, they had to use a Midi Keyboard to play and record their main melodic ideas. This provided a great opportunity to discuss the concepts of Midi and dive deeper into some of the interesting features of GB. For instance creating your own midi sounds, manipulating their melodic ideas, using the editing tools and notating tools.
These Grade 5 students are putting the finishing touches to their compositions. Will post some examples soon. If your students are creating music we would love to hear some examples. Please reply with a URL and I will endeavour to share them on Globalteacher.
I wanted my students to be able to use these global connections for a greater good; to raise their social conscience, help others and learn more about the world in which they live while acting collaboratively for a common purpose.
The idea…
One day in August this year, I was reading my Runner’s World magazine, when I came across an article about a woman who ran to raise money for the women of the Democratic Republic of Congo. This article planted a seed and I got to thinking that I could have my students do a run/walk “alongside” their global buddies to raise money for children less fortunate than themselves.
The cause….
It didn’t take long to find a worthy cause to support. The African Rural Schools Foundation strives to provide affordable education to disadvantaged students in Uganda while also supporting children who are affected or orphaned by HIV/AIDS.
The foundation is doing amazing work, running the ABC Divine Foundation Primary School in Mutundwe, Uganda, Africa. There are over 400 students who attend the school, about half live there and many of those are orphans.
Rev. Renee Waun, the founding sponsor of the Foundation from the USA, has been more than helpful in getting our idea off the ground. She has been an excellent link to the Ugandan students and has provided invaluable information and support.
The partners…
When I shared the idea with some of the teachers of classes we collaborate with across the world, they were very keen to jump on board with the project. We have spanned our Ugandan Global Project across four continents- Africa, Australia, North America and Asia.
Primary school “blogging buddies” from around the world will collaborate together to raise money to help purchase land adjacent to The ABC Divine Foundation Primary School in Mutundwe, Uganda, Africa. The land will be used as a play area for the school. Read more about the goal here.
We exceeded our goal raising a massive $20,000 and earning enough money to make a BIG difference to the lives of many Ugandan students.
The Run/Walk
Each class completed a one hour run/walk around their school or community at 10am on Friday 22nd October 2010.
The one hour walk signifies the effort the Ugandan students make to get an education. Many students travel long distances to get to school and some live so far away they have to stay at the school.
From the school director: “Many families in rural areas live in abject poverty, with no school within a 6-mile walk. In areas where schools are available these poor families cannot afford the fees, and so their children grow up without any education at all.” Read more from the school director here.
Students collected donations from their friends and families for completing the run/walk which have been passed on to the Ugandan school.
The Ugandan Global Project Blog has been a place for students to share and learn about each other. Posts have included: cultural and geographic information, “a day in the life”, songs, the run/walk events, time zones, currencies and fundraising efforts.
The Benefits
Through participating in this project, our students have been able to
• Help people less fortunate than themselves
• Develop their social conscience
• Improve their fitness
• Learn more about the world in which they live
• Develop their friendships with their blogging buddies
• Improve their understanding of different cultures and ways of life
• Improve their ICT skills
• Feel good and have fun!
Photo courtesy of Renee Waun
Leave a comment! What you think about our global project?
Have you been involved in any global projects? What did you students get out of it?
Posted by learningcurve on Sunday, November 7th 2010
Everyone enjoys watching movies and adding multimedia to the classroom is a great motivator. Using movies as a teaching tool generates interest and enthusiasm and 21st century learners spend more time connected to media than ever before so why not join them! Spreading the power of great movies has been a goal of The Heartland Truly Moving Pictures and the National Collaboration for Youth, and in collaboration with the Finding Inspiration in Literature and Movies (F.I.L.M.) Project, they have devised free curricula based on Truly Moving Picture Award-winning films to promote positive messages and life-affirming themes for young people and designed to encourage reading and watching quality content, provoke thought and exploration of valuable and important themes and issues, and inspire participation in theme-based activities. Free F.I.L.M. Curricula has resources for movies such as Flipped, How to Train Your Dragon, My Sister’s Keeper, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Bridge to Terabithia, Freedom Writers, Everyone’s Hero, Flicka, Saving Shiloh, Ramona and Beezus and more. It also has a guide for developing resources for other movies and books: Teaching with Movies: A Guide for Educators and Parents. Great resources and ideas for identifying teachable moments in movies and sharing them with students.
Another useful and helpful site e is ‘Based on the Book’, a resource for finding books by genre, year or title that have been made into a movie.
Being a secondary teacher, I have found blogging with years 7 to 12 to be a powerful tool for learning. However, Kathleen McGeady, who teaches grade 2, will tell us why “Blogging isnt just for Big Kids!” in an exciting webinar on Tuesday, November 9th at 3:45pm (Melbourne, Australia gmt+11). Her class blog, http://2kmblog.globalstudent.org.au/reached 20,000 visitors last week – a great readership to talk about!
In this online webinar, Kathleen will discuss and share the following:-
How I got started
Why I got started
About our class blog
Benefits of blogging
The process I follow to introduce students to blogging
How blogging has flattened our classroom walls (global connections and global projects)
Some of the web 2.0 tools we incorporate into blogging
Tips for better blogging
About Kathleen: Kathleen is in her seventh year of teaching at Leopold Primary School on the Bellarine Peninsula. She is currently teaching grade two,is an Ultranet Lead User and has always had a strong interest in ICT which she was able to explore further through Teacher Professional Leave in 2008.
Kathleen’s class blog is a central part of her teaching as are iPod Touches, IWB, global collaborative projects and various Web 2.0 technologies.She writes a blog for educators and, along with Simon Collier, Kathleen began a weekly e-newsletter for teachers in January 2010 called Tech Tools for Teachers.
Posted by Paul Stewart on Monday, September 20th 2010
The Layar Reality Browser shows what is around you by displaying real time digital information on top of the real world as seen through the camera of your mobile phone. This technology is called Augmented Reality. We augment the real world as seen through your mobile phone, based on your location. The idea is simple: Layar works by using a combination of the mobile phone’s camera, compass and GPS data to identify the user’s location and field of view, retrieve data based on those geographical coordinates, and overlay that data over the camera view.
Why it’s awesome…
This simply has to be seen to be believed. When you open up Layar (available on iOS and Android) your phone’s camera switches on and takes over your screen. A wireframe grid is overlaid on the screen (think Battlezone and you’ve got the picture) and onto this grid are placed any layers you download. It works much like the way layers operate in Google Earth, but the orientation is at ground level in 3D space.
Most of the layars are highly customisable, giving users the opportunity to filter out results and control the sensitivity i.e the range of Layar’s radar. You can also flip from reality view to map view which gives users a more familiar experience for navigation.
There’s a surprisingly high number of local layars, including a superb one for the Melbourne Zoo. I’ve been doing some work with the Zoo this year and this app would have been a wonderful complement to the activities we conducted on site. Imagine students walking through the zoo and having information popping up dynamically as they approached certain enclosures. The app provides pictures, links and directions. For example, clicking on the paw symbol for otters gave me an image, a link to Wikipedia and a handy button that gave me directions to the enclosure (which included distance that updated dynamically). Apps like this give users independence and autonomy which can’t be a bad thing.
It’s quite amazing to see the emerging applications for this technology including scavenger hunts and guided tours. Layar also encourages users to create layars; this is a space that is rapidly evolving and well worth monitoring over the next year or so.
What it needs…
It’s still early days so it’s a little bit clunky and imprecise. Depending on which layar you choose, the results can be a little overwhelming – the screen clutter takes some getting used to. Much like Google Earth’s layers, I am expecting a greater level of interactivity to be built into the app (such as video, chat, audio etc.) but it’s still very impressive as it is.
Also, it’s a bit of a power hog. When running the app, my display was using 71% of my battery and the app itself was using 11%. This is to be expected when running such a resource hungry app, but I doubt my droid could last a day at the zoo with Layar running all the time.
The Layar Reality Browser “shows what is around you by displaying real time digital information on top of the real world as seen through the camera of your mobile phone. This technology is called Augmented Reality. We augment the real world as seen through your mobile phone, based on your location. The idea is simple: Layar works by using a combination of the mobile phone’s camera, compass and GPS data to identify the user’s location and field of view, retrieve data based on those geographical coordinates, and overlay that data over the camera view.”
This simply has to be seen to be believed. When you open up Layar (available on iOS and Android) your phone’s camera switches on and takes over your screen. A wireframe grid is overlaid on the screen (think Battlezone and you’ve got the picture) and onto this grid are placed any layars you download. It works much like the way layers operate in Google Earth, but the orientation is at ground level in 3D space.
Most of the layars are highly customisable, giving users the opportunity to filter out results and control the sensitivity i.e the range of Layar’s radar. You can also flip from reality view to map view which gives users a more familiar experience for navigation.
There’s a surprisingly high number of local layars, including a superb one for the Melbourne Zoo. I’ve been doing some work with the Zoo this year and this app would have been a wonderful complement to the activities we conducted on site. Imagine students walking through the zoo and having information popping up dynamically as they approached certain enclosures. The app provides pictures, links and directions. For example, clicking on the paw symbol for otters gave me an image, a link to Wikipedia and a handy button that gave me directions to the enclosure (which included distance that updated dynamically). Apps like this give users autonomy which can’t be a bad thing.
It’s quite amazing to see the emerging applications for this technology including scavenger hunts and guided tours. Layar also encourages users to create layars; this is a space that is rapidly evolving and well worth monitoring over the next year or so.
It’s still early days so it’s a little bit clunky and imprecise. Depending on which layar you choose, the results can be a little overwhelming – the screen clutter takes some getting used to. Much like Google Earth’s layers, I am expecting a greater level of interactivity to be built into the app (such as video, chat, audio etc.) but it’s still very impressive as it is.
Also, it’s a bit of a power hog. When running Layar, my display was using 71% of my battery and the app itself was using 11%. This is to be expected when running such a resource hungry app, but I doubt my droid could last a day at the zoo with Layar running all the time.
Posted by heatherblakey on Wednesday, August 11th 2010
Do you consider yourself a passionate person? What are the things about which you are passionate? Are you passionate about kids and helping kids learn? Are you passionate about opening up new vistas of experiences and understanding for others which – absent your intervention – they might never experience? Are you passionate about creating moments of unforgettable learning? Learning that is SO engaging, so motivating, so interesting, and so fun – that those fortunate enough to experience it will NEVER forget it? Nevada elementary teacher Brian Crosby is this kind of person, and this kind of educational leader. Brian gave the world a seventeen minute glimpse into his 4th grade classroom a few weeks ago in Denver at the TEDx event. I strongly encourage you to set aside seventeen minutes of your day and listen to what Brian had to say.
