Do you use technology in the band room?

[nafmeadmin]

Everybody wants teachers to use technology (read: computers) in school these days. I’m wondering if you have found a good way to use technology in band and what that technology is.

[nafmeadmin]

Most of the technology that I use is my own personal equipment. I have my own iPad and I purchased an LCD projector for the band room and I use the iPad and sometimes my own laptop computer to show scores, show videos that are relevant from YouTube, etc. Unfortunately – and I’m sure that you can commiserate with this – there isn’t a whole lot of money being thrown my way for anything, let alone technology.

When I was student teaching, the band director who was my cooperating teacher had a SmartBoard in his room and he projected the daily agenda, he showed a tuner that the students tuned to, he utilized a metronome and also made some quizzes that really utilized the technology of the SmartBoard.

[nafmeadmin]

Its very difficult in a performance based class to implement the amount of technology that “those who really don’t know what we do” are telling us to do. I am in a situation where I have 65-80 kids 6 times a day. I don’t have a white board, I don’t have a smartboard (still a chalkboard) and try to get access to a LCD projector about once a month since this is all available. At some point, those making laws need to visit the schools to see what is really happening and how unrealistic it is to expect otherwise. Further, if technology resources are going to “tested” subjects, it makes it even more difficult.

On that note, I have three practice rooms attached to my band room. Two of them are equipped with new laptops and Smartmusic. All 400+ kids in my program rotate through and do tuning exercises as well as playing tests (2-4 each nine weeks) using Smartmusic. I won all of this through a grant and it has done wonders for my program and my kids. Kids are no longer falling through the cracks in a large 6-8 middle school program with over 400 kids. It is also putting me in good position to complete new teacher accountability assessments (in Ohio, they are SLO’s) in the coming years since this is a great “evidence based” outcome to base my evaluation for individual students. Hope this helps.

PS. Only 5 smart boards in our building of 40+ teachers!!!! I’m not one of them.

[nafmeadmin]

You could also use Sibelius to creat your own warm ups for your groups and show it on a screen for the class to see. But if you are looking for ways to teach your students with the technology, you could use garageband to do so. You could have the students create their own piece and use the instruments on garageband to make it happen. It’s a fun way for the students to learn how to create their own music and lets them use technology in their music classes.

[nafmeadmin]

I was wondering how teachers that have SmartMusic use it to teach their students about intonation?

[nafmeadmin]

I teach elementary instrumental music, in a rotating pull-out situation with 4th-6th graders. Classes range from 6-14 students. I use SmartMusic primarily in my classroom. Most of my students are low income and cannot afford the subscription at home. I have an LCD projector (they let me use the old beat up one) and project it on to a sheet of white bulletin board paper. I like using SmartMusic to teach a song; the students can all sing the notes on the board, hear the pitches and rhythm. After we sing and finger the notes, we play through with the computer, then kids can come to the board and point to problem areas or explain to the class new concepts. It also gives me the freedom to go over technique in more detail with individual students as the class is playing together and being ‘conducted’ by the metronome of SmartMusic.

I also use a Now!Board, which is a portable smart board (great for itinerant teachers). I can then make marks on the music on the board and the students can copy it into their books. When I didn’t have this I just used a wireless mouse, so I could move around the classroom.

[nafmeadmin]

I’m in a new district this year teaching elementary band at 3 sites. It’s a rural district in Southern California, with a heavy emphasis on technology. The district provided me with a MacBook and iPad. All the students have iPads. My classroom has a projector and Elmo. I haven’t used technology much yet with the kids (5th grade beginning band) outside of creating my teacher web page. I have, however, plans on instituting SmartMusic next year (since they came out with an app for the iPad). My plan with it is to streamline the process for practice logs and also to do playing assessments. Currently, I teach the band in large heterogeneous classes of around 40-45 students, which makes playing assessments impossible.

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