A new musical at MWE

DATE:         October 7, 2011

TO:             Parents of Fourth Graders

FROM:        Mrs. Blair, Music Teacher

RE:              4^th Grade Performance

Dear Parents,

This year the Fourth grade class will be the first class to perform on the NEW stage, and I have decided to grace our NEW stage with a NEW musical for Meadow Wood.  The musical is called Schoolhouse Rock Live! and it contains songs about math, reading, writing, science and social studies.  This musical is a personal favorite of mine and I am very excited to offer the students opportunities to sing, dance, and act in this play.  The performances are on January 30^th at 1:00pm for the school and January 31^st at 6:30pm for the parents. 

Because we have never performed this musical before we will be making a lot of set pieces and props.  I would like to have parents of 4^th grade students be a part of the production by helping to make these props.

Please indicate how you might help with the production by e-mailing Ms. Blair at this link.

Thank you ahead of time for your participation and for volunteering to help!  Your support is vital to all we do at Meadow Wood.

Music materials

Every year I do a couple of music projects that require things you can’t buy at a store. This is a good chance to recycle some of the things you throw away weekly.


I need:

1. Empty rolls from paper towels (not toilet paper)

2. Empty baby formula cans (Similac, Enfamil) or empty coffee cans (small not large)

If you have some of these things to donate to music projects please bring them by my room any time.  I will be collecting these materials all year long.  Thanks.

Baby Jonah

Here is a picture of me with my young son Jonah.  He is now 4 months old and doing just fine.  I love his smile and the happy baby dance he does when he sees me.

This is the beat for the Innisbrook RAP Contest. More details coming soon. Prizes to be announced.

11 tools Reflection

My favorite tools were the iPod Touch and Digital Storytelling. I will probably use the iPod Touch in my classroom as a center. Since they are first and foremost mp3 players I will probably have students listen to music on them. However, my favorite application for the iPod Touch was the iTalk Recorder. So I will use that tool to have students record themselves singing one of our curriculum songs. That way I can evaluate and assess their singing. Also, the students can hear themselves sing.

I believe that music itself is interactive and experiential. Music must be experienced and shared by people in community. Music builds community. In some ways I think that technology strips away the feeling of community and the experience of music as a group. When you are interacting with a computer or iPod screen you are not interacting with another person and sharing music with them. When you are playing "pretend" guitar on a app or video game you are not really learning to play an instrument. However, technology greatly enhances our ability to share music with others who are not in the same room with us. It bridges the distance between states and countries, and in that way we can share our culture and ourselves with each other.

I was surprised at how many programs and apps are out there that I had never heard of before. Not that I am up on all the newest technology, because I am not. Still, I was surprised at how huge the internet has grown and continues to grow. The possibilities are endless.

Tool #11 Digital Citizenship

I think the three aspects of digital citizenship that stood out to me the most were:

Internet Safety - passwords and private information
Copyright Laws
Digital Etiquette/CyberBullying

All three of these concepts are important for children to understand as they navigate the web and technology.

I think that I would use the videos and activities from BrainPop to introduce each concept. There are also extra activities that can be printed out for follow-up on each subject. Students could use think-pair-share groups to discuss each topic and then share with the class any questions or comments they had on what they saw.

For music purposes, I would stress the importance of making sure they had permission to use music or music videos before they used them for a project.

Tool # 10

Today I looked at a couple of free apps called iTalk Recorder, ArtLite, and USA Factbook. iTalk Recorder allows you to record your voice and sync it with a computer. I could use it as an assessment tool, by having students type their name into the program and then record them singing. When listening to the singing later, I could write down their grades.

ArtLite has full color pictures of famous artwork from many different time periods and styles. I often discuss time periods in history when talking about music composers. Students could use the iPod Touches to look up artwork from the time when Beethoven was alive. Then we could discuss Classical style vs. Romantic style.

USA Factbook has a feature called USA music map which could combine Social Studies with music. I did not get to actually play with this one on the Ipod Touch but I am thinking that students could look up each state song and listen to it.

I was able to use the iPod Touches during a district training earlier this summer (see post called iPod Touch Training). It was a very fun training and I could definitely see how the iPod Touches could make students more excited about learning.

In the music classroom I could see iPod Touches being used mostly for recording purposes and playing music. Students could always use them to look up supplemental information about songs, composers, and places of origin for songs and instruments. I think that they will probably have to be used as a station in a center until I am able to have a full class set.