I finally have part two of the end result with my Silly Rap Rhythms with Quaver project. This whole thing turned out to be a huge hit at both schools and now after doing it for both  I’ve learned what does work and what does not work when teaching how to do the project and setting the students up for success. 

    Since this was the first year for this project I also was experimenting with how to differentiate between grade levels for next year. 3rd will just be working on recording rhythms and a simple lyric set, 4th will record rhythms with lyrics and a QBackbeat, and 5th will record lyrics, rhythms, and Q Rap Loops. Also, the end step has now become changing the dot notation from the worksheet to actual notes and rests on QComposer (I told my 4th and 5th graders to change all of their 16th notes into 8th notes since Qcomposer only goes to 8th.) 

It’s time to put the project away for the rest of the year and begin others for me! Do you like this project? are you trying it out? If you are I’d love to hear how it’s going!

Be warned, with this school I tried to use the word silly as much as possible and I have to say these examples are very awesomely out there!

Worksheet Examples

   So it’s been a while since I’ve taken a class that has tried to give me homework (I’m saving up my homework energy for grad school!) Last month I won the lottery to get in to one of district professional development opportunities entitled “Learn it and Earn it”. This class gives its attendees a brand new piece of technology and they have to attend 3 classes on this new technology in order to keep it for good. The money for this comes from our professional development funds our district provides to each staff member. I received a new iPad mini from this class and am one session away from it being mine!

Our homework for next class on the 31st is to create a short video or digital story on our iPad minis that we could potentially use in our classes. I love using Youtube videos to enhance my lessons and creating another video I could use was awesome, I’m starting to think about more videos that I could actually have students make or make with students.

Using the iMovie app and inspired  by Quaver Music’s song “Whole Half Quarter and Eighth” I decided on the subject of identification of notes and rests. The following is my current video, if you have any feedback before I turn it in I would love to hear it!

*Music by Quaver’s Marvelous World of Music www.quavermusic.com

**This video is unlisted in Youtube and is only available through this blogpost

Thank you for everyone who moderated and participated today! You guys rock! I don’t know when the next date will be, it might be in 6 months, it might be next January! I’m easily persuaded if anyone ready wants a say in the next date! 

Twitter Archives from Today!

Our First Session was archived from our Moderator Jeff McCoach (@MrMcCoachBand) – Student Recruitment 

Our Session on Teacher Evaluation was archived by Heather McEndree (@MusicHeather) – Teacher Evaluation 

To see the rest of the Twitter archives from today check out – #musedmot Archives

Our Google Plus Video Hangouts were fantastic! I would Like to thank Caroline, Carol, and Rick for moderating them!

Caroline’s Notes from her Hangout on – Music Practice  

Stephanie Sanders Shared forms she uses with her students for practicing  7/8 and HS Symphonic Band

5/6 Grade Band 

My Notes on our Top Websites and Apps for class

Top Websites:

1.)  Quavermusic.com

2.)  http://listeningadventures.carnegiehall.org/ypgto/index.aspx

3.)  www.buttonbeats.com

4.)  http://www.vicfirth.com/education/rudiments.php

5.)  http://www.wesleyan.edu/vim/

6.)  www.dsokids.com

7.)  http://www.testing1212.co.uk

8.)  www.isleoftune.com

9.)  http://www.nyphilkids.org

10.) http://www.incredibox.com

11.)  www.Inudge.net

Top Apps:

1. Orchestra App
2. Piano Dust Buster
3. Recorder Master
4. Grade Book Pro
5. Class Dojo
6. Coach’s Eye
7. Wavepad
8. Evernote
9. forScore-music reader
10.  Tenuto
11. Toca Boca Band
12.  Vid Rhythm
13. Garageband
14. Rhythm Cat
15. Dragon Dictation
16. Splashtop
17. iStopMotion
18. iStopCamera
19. ToonTastic
20. MadPad
21.  BeBot
22. Jordan Rudness apps

Carol had a great session on iPads!-  iPad G+ Hangout

Here is the link to our Youtube Playlist and Hangout video! Hangout Video /  Youtube Playlist We Created 

Thank you to Rick for a great session on Cross Curricular Work!

 Another even more successful event, and a BIG thank you to the new PLN members who  tried out G+! I hoped you enjoyed it! Please be sure to check out our pages on G+ and Twitter, we will continue to stay in touch on those accounts and will try to organize some more practice G+ hangouts for interested parties!:

Google Plus Page 

@Musedmot Twitter Page

Musedmot Pinterest Page!

A day long web day for music educators from all over to connect through different platforms of social media and talk about what we do. The idea was brought up sometime last year and on a dare (yes I was challenged!) it came to life.

We started strong in June of 2012 with a full schedule, and came around with a small event in September. Now it’s time for our winter event on Saturday January 19th! We begin with discussion topics and reminders about #musedmot in the best group on the Facebook, the MPLN Facebook group. If you are on Facebook and not in this group this is a travesty and needs to be corrected! Ask to join in today!

Continuing on to Twitter, and using the hashtag #musedmot you can use tools such as Tweetdeck or Tweetchat to keep up with the hour long talks. When the crowds switch over to Google Plus, the #musedmot hashtag become a back channel for discussion during our G+ time. New to Twitter? Take a peek at their Twitter guide 

After we begin the discussions on Twitter, the exciting part of jumping over to Google Plus begins. Every hour the moderator for the chat on our schedule starts up a G+ hangout and invites those who have signed up on their wall post (There can be up to 10 people on a hangout!). There is a specific topic that the attendees video chat about for that hour before moving on to the next video chat hangout! G+ Starter Guide

When the schedule is done and we are all tired, we party till the sun comes up (well not really, but you never know! could happen someday!)

For our January 19th date we are in need of some help! Moderators and ideas to fill our schedule are needed before the 17th!

Moderator Requirements:

-Motivated

-Willing to lead a discussion

-Excited

You don’t need to be an expert to be a moderator, just be excited and willing to lead a discussion on any topic in the realm of music education that gets you worked up and excited! Feel free to leave a comment if you are interested! You get lots of help to run a hangout!

We are also taking suggestions on how to fill our schedule. It becomes hard to find moderators and coming up with ideas for schedule slots that do not require a moderator would be such a big help!

Find the full schedule and more information on our official page here! www.cdwinal.com

Our G+ page is starting to get some attention! Add us to your circles for updates and tech help! Musedmot G+ page

Or you can follow my new #musedmot Pinterest board! Pinterest  

       Share this post and spread the word about #musedmot! The more the merrier!

  You wait..and you wait for class to settle, but they just cannot seem to get their wiggles out. You know what it’s time for? A SHAKE BREAK. That’s what I call it when I might be in the middle of instructions and realize the poor students just need a minute or two to get their wiggles out before we go back to playing our instruments or listening to directions for activities. I have a lot of great kids in my classes who just seem to fall into bad behavior choices because they can’t sit still. Kids have to move, my K-2 kids are down for 5 minutes and up for 5 minutes, then repeat until our 40 minutes of class ends.

My mission lately has become to find more up to date dances they can do. I’ve turned to Youtube and have created a playlist of dance videos to do as a class. They all either show or explain how to move to the song and are simple enough for my kindergartners to complete. None of them are over 4 minutes long, I’ve even begun to share this list with classroom teachers who use it when the students need a movement break in class or need to move during indoor recess!

Movement Break Youtube Playlist

          Do you have any favorite dance songs you do with your classes? I’d love to add more!