smart board and common core

[nafmeadmin]

I would like to budget for an interactive projector (like a smartboard) for my classroom. I need to justify it by how it will help me support the common core. How do you use yours to support the common core? How do you use yours to support music?

[nafmeadmin]

I like my Smartboard, and use it daily. In Grade 5 and 6 Band, I use it to create interactive rhythm drills and to create short melodic patterns for the kids to play. I create ‘composer files’ to show them pictures and all sorts of stuff. It’s great for showing kids videos and so forth downloaded from the internet. Last Friday, I showed my seventh grade choir a clip of a group singing a piece we’d been using for a listening activity all week. A picture and/or recording really IS worth a thousands words (although in reality, I still talk a lot!) As far as supporting the Common Core, I’m on less familiar ground there. I use the NafME standards in my classroom, since our CC music standards are still under construction.

[nafmeadmin]

I use mine everyday as well. It is a great way to support many different ways of student learning especially visual and kinesthetic. Students take part in their learning by doing while they listen. I always notice higher listening skills when students know there is a potential to approach the board. As a projector, I show listening maps (and interactive ones that the students can formulate as they listen), youtube clips of topics we are studying and performances (both professional and amateur, and can annotate on music or documents. I often project music for body percussion, boomwhackers, chimes, etc. so we can discuss as a class before I give individual copies.

Interactively, I try to have the kids touch the board more than me. Arranging rhythms/pitches when decoding songs, practicing staff note names with interactive games, drawing vocal roller coasters for pitch exploration, review games, etc. It really is true that students listen more and are better behaved when they see a chance to use the smartboard.

My school is currently only using common core for math (I also teach 6th grade math) and my experience with it is simply about which topics need to be addressed in each grade level (on a more standardized level). Smartboards will help you teach any topic in any subject for any amount of kids.

It can be a lot of work to incorporate a new technology into your teaching. It’s a new way to prepare lessons and it’ll take time to build a database. There are TONS of free resources out there for music education classrooms already. I think a smartboard would be a wonderful investment for your classroom if you’re willing to take the challenge! I think part of your justification for the money needs to be on your willingness to learn and incorporate it into your teaching to get their money’s worth. Finding specific activities to do with learning targets in the common core might be a good place to start. Smart Exchange is a great website for free smart notebook activities and even lets you download a “reader” so you don’t need the software to view them. Here is another wiki with (in my opinion) some of the BEST activities that my students love. http://my-tech-wiki.wikispaces.com/SMART+Music+Resources

Good luck!

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