Webquest

Here is the link to my webquest if anyone is interested.  I did it for a middle school general music class.  Students have to compose music to cartoon images.

 https://sites.google.com/site/imageinspiration/

Week 7-Choral Wiki

http://www3.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Category:Sheet_music

This is a great site for discovering new choral music.  You can view, listen to, and download scores for free!

Week 7-Virtual Choir

I am a huge fan of Eric Whitacre, although I have never had a group large enough or skilled enough to handle the music.  Here is an amazaing performance of Lux Aurumuque done all online.  It contains 170 voices from 12 countries all singing together.  This would make a great opening reflection to a choir rehearsal.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7o7BrlbaDs&feature=related

Week 6-Interesting Stomp

I am a big fan of stomp!  I think it is a great way to teach rhythm to general music, and improve coordination in my show choir.  This would also be fun for a drum core.  Here is a fun take on the traditional stomp/step.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJzMoODAcls&feature=player_embedded#at=126

Week 6-Breathing

This video has some great breathing exercises!  Breathing is key to developing  a good vocal sound.  As a middle school director, I think there are several exercises in this video that my student will love.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEz0ku-oXM4

Week 5-Music Games

This site contains many quick and free music games.  Staff Wars is really fun!  I could definitely see this being used in my classroom.. http://www.themusicinteractive.com/TMI/The_Music_Interactive_-_Welcome.html

Week 5-Brain Based Classroom Management

I went to a workshop in my district today about brain based classroom management and discipline.  It was wonderful.  It was taught by Nancy Laursen and Wilma Santana, both incredible teachers!  Here is an article I found discussing many of the techniques and research we learned about.  I'm sure reading the article will not be nearly as meaningful as taking the workshop, but hopefully you can get some tidbits from it.
www.brains.org/classroom_management.htm

PLN Week 4-Exploration

This is a very fun site for kids to experiment, explore, and create music.  I can envision some fun projects for my general music class with this site. exploratorium.edu/music/exhibits/index.html

PLN Week 4-jam studio

This website is WAY cool!  My students are going to love it.  I had a blast playing around.  I think it will be really fun to implement in the computer lab.  www.jamstudio.com/Studio/index.htm

Singing Stories-Week 3

This is a cool experiment on the value of group singing.  It might be something for us choral directors to look into trying. http://www.choralnet.org/view/282019

Audience Rubric-Week 3

I came across this article/idea when browsing one of the websites from my PLN.  I think audience behavior is a very important skill we teach not only our students but our parents as well. This is a nice way to approach the subject and I may even include parts of this in my next concert program. 
http://www.musick8.com/html/ideadisplay.php?ibid=1829

Bicyle Built for Two

http://www.noteflight.com/scores/view/239940dfd8ee93709f12d015f0f967b0aa272e55 I enjoyed using the Noteflight program this week.  I found it slightly more difficult to use than Muse Score at first but that may have just been my learning curve.  My students do composition projects and share them with the class.  This program would provide a way for them to work from home without having to download a special program.  It would also allow the students to submit their final compositions and share them with the class, without having to print them out.

wording website

I love this website.  I think it will be really cool for designing choir t-shirts, bulletin boards, and worksheets.  It was fun to play around.

http://www.wordle.net/

Theory worksheets

Here is a great website for elementary and middle school theory worksheets.  They also have printable composer worksheets and music.
http://www.makingmusicfun.net/

theory lessons

I'm not sure how to make the link "clickable" but here is a good website for interactive computer lessons.
  http://www.musictheory.net/

lessons and games

This website contains great lesson ideas and games.  It is also helpful in organizing individual lessons in a music lab.
http://musictechteacher.com

Stomp Video

http://www.funmusicco.com/musicteachersblog/2010/03/teaching-ideas-for-using-stomp-in-a-general-music-class/
I do a stomp/instrument making project in my general music class.  This video will make a great introduction.

Fun Music

http://www.funmusicco.com
Here is a great website I found that has fun games and worksheets for music classes.  They seem mostly appropriate for Elementary and Middle School.

District Choral Festival

I have a very exciting event tonight I thought I might share with all of you.  I am from a relatively small district in Southern California.  I say small meaning we only have on high school.  Granted there are 3000 kids there.  I am from the mid west as most of you are, and small there means something entirely different.

Anyway,  tonight is our district choral event.  Every choir in the district from 4th grade up will be performing.  Roughly 1200 kids.  Our five elementary choirs perform as a large ensemble together.  Each middle school group (there are 8 total) performs one song, and each high school group (there are 6) performs one or two songs.  We  all sing an opener and a closer together with all 1200!

It is a very exciting event and is great for recruiting.  Our students all attend the same High School and it is great for them to see where they will be in a few years and what can happen if they work hard and stay in the program.  Our band, orchestra, and jazz bands do similar events but the choral event is by far the biggest. 

I am truly blessed to be in a community that values and supports music education. 

Anyone else feel lost in technology?

So this is my first attempt at a blog.  I just started facebook last year and find that I love looking at what everyone else is up too but don't really make the time to update my page much.  The last pictures I posted were from Thanksgiving!  I am really excited about the possibilities for this type of interaction, but don't know that I will really make the time to use it once this class is over. 

I'm a little old fashioned, as I love the face to face human interaction.  I also find reading on the computer a bit challenging.  I just missed the technology boom, as my house did not have a computer until after I moved out, and in college I was forced to do all of my computer work in the library. 

I am excited to learn about all of the new "stuff" out there and it will be nice to get insight from around the country.  My school is in the process of a remodel and I have been promised a music computer/keyboard lab when it's done.  I have been looking forward to this class as I think it will be very beneficial in starting this process.  The impact it will have on my students will be tremendous and it will allow us to do so much more.  Now if I can just find a way for my school to allow youtube access!