TMEA Real Life Uses of Music Technology for Music Educators

Great presentation at last year's convention on the uses of technology in the music classroom.

My New horn!

I just bought a new Paxman 20LY. I love it!

Allen HS escadrille field show at 2005 Bandfest, pt. 2

Wow! Talk about recruiting! That's what 600 people look like on a marching field.

Duncanville Marching Band Fall 04

State champs in 2002. This is a great program.

Web Site Critique: Piano lab

www.musictechteacher.com

This site was created by Ms. Garrett a music teacher in Birmingham, Al and her students. Garrett uses Sibelius music software and MIDI keyboards in her classroom to teach not only music reading, but to create, publish, and print music by using a computer. Each student receives one session (40 - 45 minutes) per week in the Lab. Students having access to keyboards, computers, and the Internet at home can access additional lessons and activities to enhance their music learning.

Student Work

This is my favorite part of this site. Here one finds many examples of student compositions. Also, on this page there are videos of student at work in her classroom. The students really get to have part ownership of this site. By allowing them to post their work Garrett fosters a sense of community accomplishment in her class. Also, I find it neat that parents would also be able to see what their children are creating.

Music Lessons

This section contains supplemental lessons for the students who have computer access at home. Not only do the students learn to understand music notation, but they also reading lessons on composers as well. ( Ha! Literacy in the music classroom!) Garrett really uses cross curricular ties by teaching language arts, history and even math al through the use of her keyboard lab.

In services

This section holds important dates of various music technology conventions and learning opportunities across the US. Again, what a wonderful resource!

Quizzes, Games, music help

Here we find a huge amount of lessons that are available to her students from home and other music educators across the country. This is the best collection of music related lessons and games I have ever seen. Wow. If I ever find myself teaching elementary I will be sure to use some of her ideas.

This site in amazing! I can’t believe what Mr. Garrett has been able to accomplish with technology and music education at her school. Technology and music do mix. Keyboards labs such as this would be a great help in increasing music literacy and love from an early age. This site is clear and very well organized. I was able to find everything I needed easily. Ms. Garrett has obviously done an incredible job with her music classroom; I would absolutely recommend this site to anyone looking to create a keyboard lab in their own school.

Web Site Critique: Music Cards

www.musiccards.net

This site is entirely comprised of musical flashcards and quizzes for your students do either in the classroom or at home. The flashcards are highly customizable and can be used with any level of student.

Note Names

I did this tutorial myself. The cards are rollovers, so that once you place yours mouse on the card, the answer is revealed. I like these a lot because you can customize exactly what you want to review via the dropdown menu at the bottom of the page. You can test over the treble clef, just natural notes, and on accidentals as well. I like that the student will be able to focus only on one type of test at a time, it lessens confusion and further reinforces the exact concept.

Triads

This review would be good for most college freshman, as well as the advanced HS student. These cards present a variety of triads, including major, minor, diminished and augmented chords. The chords are also presented in all three forms of inversion. This is a great review!

Piano Note Names

This is another great review for the beginning keyboard player. Again, some college freshman could also benefit from this site. These flash cards help you to train one to find notes on the piano or keyboard quickly after seeing them on the musical staff.

Guitar

Although not normally taught in the public music education classroom, this site also offers guitar flashcards that review notes as well as being able to find pitches on a fingerboard. Having taken recreational music, a course here at WT that requires a guitar midterm and final, I can absolutely see the value of the portion of the site.

Just simply getting the students to understand and interpret musical symbols is one of the most challenging parts of teaching beginning band. I already use homemade flashcards with all of my private students. How nice it would have been to avoid the paper cuts and my horrible artwork had I already known about this site.

The site is very simple, but that is also why it is so easy to use and navigate. Besides, when asking students to use outside learning tools, the simpler they are, the better. I really enjoyed and benefited from this site and I would absolutely recommend this to my students and fellow educators.

Web Site Critique: Band Director.com

www.banddirector.com

This site, although teeming with advertisements is a less serious version of the TMEA site. From the homepage one can get links to dealers of band-specific materials and resources. A list of current articles and even video demonstrations appear here also. Through this site, deals are also available on instruments and printed music for your program. This site is much less organized that the TMEA site, but once you get through all the banners and adds the information available is of quality.

Resource Library

This section is huge! Short of monthly journals, I have yet to find such plethora of information on music education in one place. There are articles and videos on jazz bands, marching band, beginning band methods, concert band and even orchestral resources. I just located this site for this assignment, but after finding all that is available here I am absolutely going to add this to my favorites.

Free School Website

This is my favorite part of the site. This is a free web builder that allows a school band or orchestra to create its own website. This would be a great opportunity to further communication with parents, and to foster community involvement with your program. Also, this would be a really useful way to encourage the use of technology in the music classroom.

CD, DVD Store

Wow. Short of the TMEA convention in February it is sometimes difficult to come across quality recordings of middle and high school band literature. This part of the site contains cd’s and dvd’s of much of the band repertoire as well as recordings of many of the past TMEA all-state ensembles. Giving your students listening examples is one of the most enriching activity.

Off to the side of the homepage are more links to useful resources. Links to different festivals, recording services, clinics, and uniform makers are available. I checked a few of these out and they were mostly legitimate.

This site is not really that user friendly. The resources center, however, is its redeeming quality, and the main reason I am recommending this to other music educators. I really like the bright, cheerful display, but the banner ads are a bit over the top. I personally will be coming back to some of the articles I found to use later in my college education as well as a great resource for me when I am out in my field

Web Site Critique: MENC

www. menc.org

The is the site for the National Association for Music Education. In Texas, TMEA is the main organization for music education, everywhere else- it’s MENC. The amount of resources and links on this page is incredible, so I’m only going to highlight a few specific areas.

To the left side of the homepage you will find a huge list of links. Through these, you can navigate directly to your specific content area. Most of the sections on this site are for MENC members only. Although this may seem inconvenient for a non- member, it would be wise for any music educator to become a member anyway.

Music Educator’s Journal

This is published by MENC and is one of the most comprehensive publications available for music educators across the country. WTAMU holds a subscription, and it has proven to be a valuable resource to me in the past.

The featured article online in this month’s issue explores the value of teacher modeling in the music classroom and its benefits. This article and all the others found in this publication are continually up to date and relevant in today’s music classroom.

National Anthem Project

This is a really fabulous event aimed at promoting music education in the US through the simultaneous performance of the national anthem on June 15^th of every year. The main performance is in Washington DC, satellite performances will also be taking place across the country.

National Standards

While also a specific section on this site, the entire site deals with music education on a broader, national level. While regional sharing of information and issues is important, the national standards for music educators can provide a different angle from which to view things. For example, west Texas is most a band oriented area, while in the eastern side of the United States orchestral and choral music take on a higher importance.

Overall, I found this site useful and informative only if you are a member of MENC. Though, if you are a music educator you most likely would be. This site was organized and relatively east to navigate. Some of the nation-wide projects and music education advocacy materials are good things to be aware of, even though much of this was covered on the TMEA site. MENC is also a great resource for music educators who do not teach in the schools, but rather privately or out of their home. This is a good way for those individuals to network and increase their pedagogical knowledge even if they are located in a remote area.

Web Site Critique: TMEA

www.tmea.org

This is the official site for the Texas Music educators Association. In my opinion, it is the best online resource for music educators and current music students (From elementary to college) available. This site contains a huge amount of information that is current relevant to music educators and their students.

Opening Page

From the opening page, without ever clicking on a dropdown menu one can reach: a job database, the TMEA teacher mentoring network, a member directory, current curriculum updates and mandates and direct links to other music education associations in Texas. Usually I can find exactly what I am looking for from this page alone.

Resource center

This drop down contains statewide coverage on the advancement of the arts as well as current state laws that directly affect music educators. As well as an advocacy tool kit consisting of flyers and other printable materials that can be used to help lobby for the arts in your district. This section of the site also contains the TMEA publication The southwestern Musician, which contains association information, and also presents articles written by live teachers working right now in the state that detail useful tips and teaching methods. The final section of this menu contains a Music Teacher handbook. This resource explains the qualities of a successful music teacher, and the qualities of a successful program. Also, a very useful list of tips for first year teachers is also included. A multitude of resources are provided for parents also. An entire section is devoted to building successful booster clubs and strategies to increase parent involvement. Also, the association rules are also clearly laid out. Which, might I add are also many of the same rules enforced by UIL.

Divisions

This section is divided into the five divisions of music education in Texas. There are: elementary, band, orchestra, vocal and college. Each of the links to each of these divisions contains information, problems, and resources that are specifically pertain to each. For example, choir teachers in Texas do not need to worry about instrument purchase, just as instrumental music teachers don’t have to worry about the problems associated with their male ensemble members experiencing puberty. This adds to the site’s ease of navigation.

Students

This last section contains some very good resources, not just for educators, but for students as well. It contains opportunities for scholarships, the site for the Future Music Educators association, as well as archives of past all-state ensembles and the current audition materials for the all-state ensembles.