Coming in at the #1 tech tool elementary concert prep is presentation applications. These are applications like powerpoint, keynote, google slides, and SMART Notebook.
Why Presentation Applications?
Figure 1: This Holiday by Jennings. I highlighted the chorus and ending. I added the rhythm patterns for the fa-la patterns. The record icon links to the accompaniment and the glock icon links to the home page of this Notebook file, which is titled, “November/December”.
If you look through Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT), you will notice that many of the manipulatives are powerpoint files. When I researched why this is, it was noted that powerpoint is an application that most elementary music educators have to use to display song lyrics, activities, rhythm patterns, etc. Since I have a SMART Board, I have become addicted to their application called Notebook. I love Notebook because you can easily add links to other pages in the file and add music and videos. In addition, since Notebook has music notes built into it, you can easily create rhythm patterns in this application (see figure 1). Since a high percentage of elementary music educators have access to presentation applications and know how to use them, it comes in as #1 on this list.
Learning the Concert Songs
Powerpoint, Keynote, Notebook, and Google Slides all can be used by the elementary music educator to create projections of music, lyrics, pictures, rhythm patterns, and more, to assist the students in learning the songs. If you travel between schools or classrooms, you can save these files in your google drive, dropbox, or in your planbook (planbook.com allows you to attach your teaching files to the planner). When you go into another classroom, you can open them as long as the device your using has the app you need to open the file. If you are one who travels a lot, I would highly suggest making your manipulatives in google slides so that you can open them from any device that has internet access.
Ditch the Concert Program
Figure 2: This was our first slide to our holiday concert.
Years ago, we decided to stop xeroxing programs and project each song on a powerpoint slide. Each slide would include the title of the song, the composer, the names of the musicians that accompany the song, and the grades of the singers who are featured singing the song. If there was a soloist, the slide would feature the name of the soloist. This worked well as we no longer had 200+ programs discarded after the concert. We also included the option that if parents wanted a program, they could contact the music teacher to send them a copy.
After a few years, we decided to add a narrator to introduce each song. This way, the video and the
Figure 3: This was the next slide, which was our opening song. It gives the title, the composer, the grades singing the song, and the class that was featured on the tone chimes.
narrative provided a great and natural transition into each song. If my students were about to put on sunglasses for Teresa Jenning’s “Santa Claus Rock,” the slide and narrative provided the necessary transition so we could easily and quietly hand out the sunglasses. Our narrator was a teacher; however, if you have capable students, have them narrate. If you do this, make sure you have students who will be at the concert and a few students who could easy narrate if the narrators are absent from the concert.
To do this, you need a presentation application on a device, a projector, and a screen. I would not choose to airplay the projection as the network could skip. I would hardwire into the projector.
Bonus
What do you do if you have students who cannot participate in music class during concert preparation? Technology can be a great tool to give those students an opportunity to learn music. On my website, I have a thorough list of sites for several purposes. Some of these sites, like the NY Phil Kidszone, can be used as musical activities for a student to work on since they cannot participate in class. Check out that resource here.
Stay Tuned!
Figure 4: Dessert buffet – do not eat the whole buffet!
A webinar will appear here and on my website tomorrow. The webinar will feature the tools included on this list. You can view it in its entirety or just catch the parts that you want to see. As I wrote a in a previous post, this list is not meant for elementary music educators to use all 11 tools at once. It is a buffet of tools like a buffet of desserts. You do not want to eat everything in the buffet. It is for elementary music educators to decide their concert goals and then see if there is a tool on this list that best fits that concert goal.
