Balance in music

I am not able to do a brilliant or exciting provocation for this assignment.

I am in the middle of rehearsing all the students at my school for a concert happening next week.

Technology in the classroom is necessary as this is what the students are going to be using. Allowing them to explore and learn in a safe setting is really important.

I have been teaching music in primary schools for over 20 years. It has been very exciting being able to explore and work with new ideas as they come through.

I still use tuned percussion instruments and lots of singing as part of my classroom, especially with the junior primary students. The primary students also have many lessons using instruments. All the students in years 2, 3, 4 and 5 all learn either a string or wind instrument. This program encourages them to learn to read music notation and apply this to playing the instruments.

I have also really enjoyed using GarageBand as a teaching tool in the classroom. I use it in particular to teach form and structure but also tone colour and tempo. The students really enjoy using this app. All students feel a good sense of achievement and they really enjoy sharing their compositions.

Last year I also took the courage to use coding in the music classroom with year 6 students. They loved it. Some students who weren’t in to music as much as others really became engaged with it. It was really exciting watching all the students learning through this activity. The students were also teachers – showing me but also each other how to do things.

Technology is part of our lives. It is up to us how much we include it in the classroom and how we monitor the use of it with the students. There needs to be a balance as with everything.

 

http://mofizzy.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/the-devolution-of-music-part-1.html

https://www.tumblr.com/search/music%20ed%20tech

https://musicedtechtalk.tumblr.com/