June 29th is our next date!

    Can you believe it? It has been a whole year since the very first #musedmot and we are coming up on our 4th event on Saturday June 29th beginning at 10am est on Twitter.  This day is meant to get us motivated to continue learning all thoughout this summer and the rest of the year. Yes, I am saying it. Due to a variety of  issues we will be moving to a once a year big event.  This is because of many factors but with high hopes to attract a bigger crowd and more moderators with a once a year date.

          Are you interested in moderating a conversation this year? Please either: leave a comment below, email cedwinal@plymouth .edu, or visit our Volunteer Section on our new website! You do no have to be an expert to moderate, just be excited and have a lot of questions! These are discussions AND presentations, you choose the topic, the format of Twitter or Google plus and then you choose the time slot on the Schedule. I am looking for MANY more moderators, please consider signing up!

     We also have a new Registration system. There is no money involved! This system just allows me to see who is going to be on and be able to help out those who need tech help in order to participate and to invite those into the Google Plus Video Chat Hangouts that would like to stop in. If you are unsure of your prescence about the event, still sign up that way just incase you run into trouble we can be there.

   Over the past year Musedmot has begun to evolve! Our new website is up and looking fabulous! www.musedmot.webs.com , we have connected with Pinterest, Twitter, and Google Plus and have begun to connect with many new friendly faces from around the globe!

   It’s always amazing how one little idea can turn into a whole new life style for one classroom. You make one small change thinking nothing is going to become of it but in reality the students can take that one little idea to new heights and create a whole new motivation to bring more music in to the school.

As some remember from a previous post, I decided to start up a recording space in my classroom.

   Cleaning out the closet was the easy part. After cleaning, I set an iPad with the recording app Pocket Wavepad and had the students record their final result to their Silly Rap Rhythms.  After I had finished with these projects at both schools I thought it would be time to close up shop on the studio thinking no more would come of it. I really was truely wrong with that thought. It seemed the recording studio had brought about so much buzz that would just not go away. I had students begin to come up to me right and left asking for permission to record a song they had been practicing or one that they had been WRITING. I had to keep it open! It would just not have felt right if I hadn’t!

    When letting students into my closet to record, rules had to be posted in there. We came up with them as classes before for our projects so I took the top 3 that really covered everything and posted it in there:

  1.) Be Safe- Do not touch anything other than the recording equipment and your things, stay off the shelves and keep off of the boxes on the floor.

  2.) Be prepared- Rock stars are ready to record before they head into the studio, have your song written and practiced before you record!

  3.) Be Respectful- No one likes a Diva, work together if you’re with a partner, and be respectful of the equipment, yourselfs, and eachother.

   If students followed these then the studio stayed open, and most of the time it did, I might have had one or two people I kicked out of there for fooling around.

     Students are required to check with me to make sure they have a finished song before signing up for the room. It becomes fun for me to give them advice on their tune and help them with lyrics and melody along the way. I always tell them “You come up with the ideas, I just help you elevate them” they always need to come to me with something down on the paper before we go on. When they are ready for sign up my sheet is posted next to the room door and looks like this:

   Name                                           Class                                            Song Title                                 Time to Record (Not during class)           Need a CD?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          (Can I use?)

1.

2.

3.

4.

      Students know I can’t allow them to disturb another class so they must come in during one of my prep times or before or after school. I am only there for technical emergencies as well. They know by now how to work the recording equipment and should not need my help unless the iPad goes boom or something terrible like that.

        After they are done they leave, I take the sheet and recordings at the end of the week and using file sharing on iTunes I take the songs and will put them on cheap burnable CDs for those who request them.  They also answer the question on whether or not I may use there song for things as school events and conference presentations. I never use faces or names so most are ok with it. I am working with our principals to possibly turn this into a CD program for next year and use CD sales as a fundraiser for the school.

    Aside from having budding songwriters and hard core musicians walk in and out of my classroom at all hours of the school day, I also began using it to record students for assessments as well. My fourth graders have been working so hard on their recorders, they jump at the opportunity for me to be able to hear them one on one!

                      Do you have a space to record in your room?

Feels like forever since I have really posted anything about Quaver Music on my own blog! They have come out with so many tools in the past few months my head is spinning with the ways to use everything. At one point my desk was plastered with post it notes about how to use each new thing (I have a weird thought process). Undoubtably the best tool that they have introduced is amazing, especially for a still fairly new teacher who is always looking for new songs to teach and play with her class.

ClassPlay itself is only out as a preview right now for everyone with current scheduled release around mid-August that will then require purchase.

Right now, ten out of the eighty or more promised songs for ClassPlay are available for all to preview and play with. I have gotta say, those 10 totally ROCK.

ClassPlay is a tool to help teach students simple songs developed by the Quaver company and also, songs that are in the public domain. It goes through the song step by step, starting out with learning the melody by solfedge, then the lyrics, and so on. Each step provides a stunning visual for the students to follow along with and use as they are learning the piece. It also provides activities and virtual instruments for the teacher to use along the way so students can develop a full understanding of the song they are singing. ClassPlay pretty much turns what would be about a 10-15 minute song learning activity into a full lesson reaching all standards and learning styles in the process.

We are seeing more and more digital natives arriving at our schools, here at the k-5 level I have Kindergartners able to use an iPad without assistance. That is the way our culture is beginning to lean towards. With more digital natives arriving, they require more visuals because of their longer amount of daily screen time. ClassPlay provides those bright and simple visuals for those visual learners to follow along with. They are simple and great for teaching the younger ones how to track along with the music as well. The background tracks that are provided with each screen teach and model correct vocals and lyrics for the auditory and verbal learners and allow the whole class to sing along correctly with what ever step of the song they are on. Of course the tough bit to every song is trying to provide movement that will help them learn it and not hinder their focus that takes away from the melody and/or words. ClassPlay caters to those physical learners by providing movement to most of the songs whether it is keeping the beat to acting like goofy animals. After they have learned the song and have gone through the performance, ClassPlay takes it one step further providing those logical learners with activitys and thought provoking questions relating to the song and its lyrics or history.

Taking a look a step further into ClassPlay, one can actually relate this technology tool to some of the NETS (National Educational Technology Standards) that can be found at ISTE Website. These are standards used for students to help them become more technology savy for the digital real world that is developing around us. The Quaver Music site itself connects with just about all of these standards. ClassPlay itself fulfills the first two:

1. Creativity and Innovation: Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology.

     With the activities and questions that go along with each song, ClassPlay fully shows it can provoke thought and inspire creativity through each song giving the students a deeper experience with the tunes.

2. Communication and Collaboration: Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.

  ClassPlay is found in the teacher bulletin board and is suppose to be used as a whole class. It requires the students to work together to perform the songs and finish the activities provided again using technology. It might not allow us to collaborate with other students at a long distance (THAT WOULD BE COOL! SKYPE WITH ANOTHER QUAVER CLASS AND PERFORM THE SONGS!!) but the collaboration in class using technology creates the ultimate experience.

I spent the week having my students run through centers. It’s a great way to see who needs extra assistance and who are stronger at certain things that could buddy up with others in the future. As I did with my first wall at my first school : Wanna See My Wall? Part 1 my second school built the same. It was great to see some of their examples and how they differed between grade levels and between schools. Now that my hallway is filled to the top with pictures and poems I thought I’d share some fantastic work by my students about why music is meaningful and should stay in schools.

 

MIOSM may only be a month, but how do you continue to advocate all year?

Have you ever had that one song that is so widely inappropriate but every single student in the class begs you to sing it? I’m sure it has happened to many of us, but most of the time we just say “no”. I didn’t say no this time, I knew the lyrics to this song and decided it was easy enough to fix up into something appropriate enough my 5th graders could get into it (Half of it makes no sense but that’s what makes it fun right?). So what I did was take the original lyrics and change them into all completely appropriate lyrics, then I found the karaoke track and handed it off to my  5th graders in chorus (there are 13 of them) and told them to go out in the hall and if they wanted it on the program for our concert they had to get it concert ready themselves. I’m hearing them next week..crossing my fingers it works!

I have been asked for my PG lyrics to the song, most of it fits right in to any typical karaoke track for the original!

Link to background track download: ThriftShop by Instrumental Heat

PG Lyrics to ThriftShop:

I’m gonna pop some tags

Only got twenty dollars in my pocket

I-I-I’m huntin’

Looking for a come up

This is really awesome!

Walk into the room like what is up I got big money

I’m so pumped I bought some shoes from a thrift shop

Ice in the fridge is so so frosty

The people like “Wow, that’s a cold coffee!”

Roll’in in the deep headed to the mezzanine

Dressed in all pink ‘cept my gator shoes those are green

Draped in a leopard coat girls standing next to me

Probably shoulda washed this, it smells like stinky cheese

Yyeeeaaahhh

But like it was 99 cents!

If I get caught in it, washin’ it

‘Bout to go and get some compliments

Passin’ off those moccasins

Someone else has been walkin’ in but me and grungie feet in ‘em

Im stuck in ya closet

Savin’ my money and I’m so happy that’s a bargin, yeah

I’mma take your grandpa’s style, I’mma take your grandpa’s style

No for real, ask your grandpa can I have his hand-me-downs?

Velor jump suit and some house slippers

Dark brown leather jacket that I found diggin’

They had a broken keyboard I bought a broken keyboard

I bought a sleek blanket and then I bought a kneeboard

Hello hello my ace man my mello

John Wayne ain’t got nothin’ on my finger game

Oh no

I can take some pro wings make ‘em cool sell those

The sneakers will be like

“aahh, he got Velcro”

I’m gonna pop some tags

Only got twenty dollars in my pocket

I-I-I’m huntin’

Looking for a come up

This is really awesome!

I’m gonna pop some tags

Only got twenty dollars in my pocket

I-I-I’m huntin’

Looking for a come up

This is really awesome!

Whatcha know bout rockin’ a hat on your noggin

Whacha knowin about wearin a faux fox skin

I’m digging. I’m diggin’, I’m searching right through that luggage.

One man’s trash is another mans come up.

Thank you grand dad for donating that plaid button.

That shirt goes great with that skirt

I’m at the Goodwill you can find me in the

I’m not I’m not stuck on searching in that section

Your Grammy, Your auntie, your momma, you sister

I’ll take those flannel zebra jammies secondhand I rock that Oh no!

The built in onsie with the socks on the Oh No!

I hit the party and stopped in that Oh no!

They be like oh that’s Gucci that’s very tight.

I’m like, Yo! That’s $50 for a t-shirt

Limited edition lets to some simple addition

$50 for a shirt that’s some stress

I call that getting swindled and missed

I call that getting tricked by a business

That shirts very sweet

And havin’ the same one as six other people in a club is a no don’t

The gang come take a look in my closet

Tryin’ to get girls with my brand man you just won’t

Man you just won’t

Goodwill

Poppin’ Tags

Yeah

I’m gonna pop some tags

Only got twenty dollars in my pocket

I-I-I’m huntin’

Looking for a come up

This is really awesome!

I wear your granddad’s clothes

I look incredible

I’m in this big ole’ coat

From that thrift shop down the road

I wear your granddad’s clothes

I look incredible

I’m in this big ole’ coat

From that thrift shop down the road

I’m gonna pop some tags

Only got twenty dollars in my pocket

I-I-I’m huntin’

Looking for a come up

This is really awesome!

  Next on my list? Chicken Fried by Zac Brown and Can’t Hold Us Down also by Mackelmore!