Technology in Music at Watauga Elementary
I thought I would share how we are incorporating the new technology we received this year here at Watauga Elementary. With the 5 tablets and 2 laptops we have, I decided to create technology stations. The students are put into small groups and placed at a station. The students then play “rock, paper, scissors” to determine who selects the first game/app they play. After that I start a timer for 5 minutes that is visible on the smartboard. The students take turns using the technology in that time until the timer goes off. After that they rotate to the next station.
Here are the topics for each station:
Tablets
- Listening
- Compose/Create
- Melody
- Rhythm
- Music Reading/Staff
Each tablet has different games and apps that pertain to the topic of the station. Everything I downloaded was a free app from the App Store (or was free at the time), or was downloaded from the BISD App Catalog.
Laptops
- Composers
- Instruments
I found and bookmarked a lot of websites with games and activities pertaining to the station topic and placed them in a folder on the favorites bar.
I tried this out for the first time on Friday with Kindergarten – 2nd and it worked GREAT! The students were already well versed in using the technology, and they were surprisingly adept at taking turns and sharing. What a fantastic way to incorporate technology in the music room while the students engage in self-guided learning. I will be rolling this out to 3rd – 5th this week. It did include a LOT of setup beforehand, as I had to find all the apps, download and install them and then make sure all the correct restrictions were in place. I basically went through the entire General Settings app on the tablets and made sure it was secure.
For the station houses, I repurposed some empty copy room paper boxes and cut them in half. I then shaped them to be more appealing, placed duct tape on the edges for reinforcement and then created a colorful sign to top it off. I put pictures and a short video in my Google Drive. Click on this link to check it out: https://drive.google.com/a/g.birdvilleschools.net/folderview?id=0BwCBCJDfVRx6QURyRlFXN2MzdHM&usp=sharing
Travis Pollan
General Music Specialist
Watauga Elementary
Nice!
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