Choir Teachers: January 2009

Songsmith

So I saw this video today promoting a new product, Songsmith, from Microsoft and while I have to admit at first I thought it was a joke. It looks a lot like something that is produced on the onion.

No it's not a bad musical either, even though it alludes to its aspirations to make the world a musical.

What do you think does this help us as music educators or does it make students lazy?

Personally if the songs are really as bad as these videos seem then I don't think we have a lot to worry about. But I am curious what everyone thinks.

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/songsmith/index.html

Goals

Today in one of my choirs we had a goal setting day and this is what one of my students put on the board as we set our goals. We came up with the goals together as a class so that we were all on board from the start. Here is what we came up with. Most of you probably won't appreciate it as much as I do.

Notice the first goal... Have Fun :) haha

So I had to define FUN :)

Which led to one of my favorite quotes from my Dad.

The Next Goal... Respect
Who say's the pianist never gets any respect :) I'm so proud of my students.

That's right respect all around :)

I always tell my students that if they don't like a song then to keep it to themselves because they don't have the right to take away permission for someone else to like it.

Cause when we work together we got the right stuff.
Go Wonder Pets!

Ultimate Unity... They even want to go to the hospital with us when Alli has the baby.

Not sure they quite got the right message on this one.
I tried to explain how singers are actors too.

You like the rewards and consequences list?
My personal favorite... Public Humiliation.

I like the attachment to the reward of a brownie party.

We got a least one Dictator statement in :)

And by the end of the day this was our final product. I love my students. :)

Jon Schmidt

I just got the final word that we are officially bringing Jon Schmidt to perform in our little community. For those of you who don't know who he is, Jon Schmidt is a piano player but not your average piano player. He is a true entertainer. I have many young nieces and nephews who love to watch him perform and after leaving they are always inspired to practice their piano.

He is coming in for a very good rate which is going to allow us to sale tickets to help fund our music tour this year. If you haven't had the chance to see him in concert or even hear his music I highly recommend that you look into it.

Animoto

For those of you who have not yet discovered the greatness that is Animoto well now is your time, They are offering free memberships to educators. http://education.animoto.com/

Animoto is in their own words "the end of slideshows".

All you do is upload the pics you want for a slide show and pick a song to set it to and it does the rest.

Here is an example video I made earlier today:

http://education.animoto.com/

Twitter

Image via CrunchBaseSo one of the things I am committed to doing this year is seeing what all the twitter fuss is about. So far so good - My username is kgard - Add me :)

I think this can be another great place to find other music educators and share ideas and resources with one another.

Here is a resource to help us find other Music Educators who are on twitter -
http://twittgroups.com/group/musiced

Official List of the 100 Music Education Bloggers

It is an Honor to be a part of this list. Please visit them today, congratulate them, and learn from what they have to offer as they do from each other and others like them.

THE OFFICIAL LIST OF THE 100 MUSIC EDUCATION BLOGGER CAMPAIGN 2008-2009:

http://www.mustech.net
Dr. Joseph M. Pisano- MusTech.net
http://digitalmusiceducator.wordpress.com
Owen Bradley -The Digital Music Educator
http://etobiasblog.musiced.net
Evan Tobias- Catalysts & Connections
http://musiced.about.com/
Espie Estrella -About Music Education
http://jamesfrankel.musiced.net/
Dr. James Frankel- Music Technology in Education
http://weblog.siba.fi/msalavuo
Dr. Miikka Salavuo- Music Education, Technology & Social Media
http://pwhitfield.edublogs.org
Pete Whitfield- e-Learning for Music
http://www.musicedmagic.com
Chad Criswell- Music Ed. Magic
http://jsavage.org.uk/
Dr. Jonathan Savage- Jonathan Savage
http://musictechforme.com/
V. Keith Mason- Music Tech. for Me.
http://tjweller.wordpress.com
Travis J. Weller- Composing Like Mad
http://mystro2b.edublogs.org/
Ken Pendergrass- Music is Not for Insects
http://www.soyouwanttoteach.com/
Joel- So You Want to Teach
http://stengel99.wordpress.com/
Steve Engel- Music Ed. Lounge
http://fsharpbflat.wordpress.com/
Linda Granite- Bb, F#
http://doublebassblog.org
Jason Heath- Double Bass Blog
http://musicisfree.ning.com/
Robert Brannan- The Music is Free
http://dvzmix.wordpress.com/
Deborah Valdivia-Zwolinski- DVZ’s Mix
http://choirteachers.blogspot.com/
Kyle Gardner- Choir Teachers
http://www.pauldraper.org
Paul Draper- Draper’s Blogspot
http://johnwilborn.wordpress.com
John Wilborn- John Wilborn’s Weblog
http://iknowithink.blogspot.com
Leo Park- I Know…I Think
http://gluedtothestring.blogspot.com
Stan Haskins- Glued to the String
http://musicedtech.wordpress.com
Barbara Freedman- Music Ed. Tech.
http://tomrudolph.berkleemusicblogs.com
Dr. Tom Rudolph- Make the Most of Notation Software
http://teachingthewirechoir.com/
Dale Lewis- Teaching the “Wire Choir”
http://docandry.edublogs.org
Dr. Kevin Andry-Dr. Andry’s Band Blog
http://sperham.wordpress.com
Steffany Perham- Perham’s Prattlings
http://alexruthmann.com
Alex Ruthmann- Alex Ruthmann’s Blog
http://www.beatechie.com/
Carol Broos- Be A Techie:)
http://musicanthology.org
Geejay Arrioloa and Jeffrey Langlois -Music Anthology
http://southiowamusiced.blogspot.com/
Michael Compton -Southern Iowa Music Education Network
http://qachsband.edublogs.org/
Eric Wright- QACHS’s Band Blog
http://alleyjazz13.wordpress.com/
Alison Hulihan- Marching Music
http://rogerwhaley.blogspot.com
Roger Whaley -The BandEd ToolShed
http://mgrondin.edublogs.org
Martha Grondin-Artful, Tuneful, Beatful
http://percussioneducationonline.com
Kevin Tuck -Percussion Education Online
http://www.musicteachersblog.com
Janice Tuck -The Music Teacher’s Blog
http://bnceducation.blogspot.com
Steve Raybould, Kriston Feldpausch -Band and Chorus PMS/PJHS
http://musicedshare.wordpress.com
Kyle Krstolic -Music Education Share
http://musicedforall.blogspot.com
Dan Leeman -Music Education for All
http://amymburns.musiced.net
Amy Burns -Elementary Music/Music Technology
http://www.music.erinnwrobel.com
Erinn Wrobel - Notes From The Mitten
http://dougbutchy.wordpress.com
Doug Butchy - Confessions of a Band Director
http://studiobeemusic.com/mutech
Rich Blenkinsopp - Studiobee Music
http://musicmiddleschoolandweb20.blogspot.com/
Susan Hurst - Music, Middle School and Web 2.0
http://www.kirki.co.uk
Dr. Phil Kirkman -Music Education and Technology Blog
http://tufsdblogs.org/winze
Ann Winze- WI Orchestra
http://thirddivision.org
David DeVoto - Third Division
http://collaborativepiano.blogspot.com
Dr. Chris Foley - The Collaborative Piano Blog
http://bandguys.wordpress.com
Matthew Pelandina and Mike Lewis - The BandGuys’ blog
http://tanbur.wordpress.com
David French -The Music Education Blogspot
http://musicteachers911.blogspot.com
Larry Marra -Music Teachers 911
http://www.pianoteacherblog.com
Rebecca Brown -Piano Teacher’s Retreat
http://wordtogo.wordpress.com
Steve Mugglin -Creativity and Songwriting in Music Education
http://totalmusiceducation.blogspot.com
Greg Albing -Total Music Education
http://teachingmusicbs.com
Ben Baker -Teaching Music
http://susanadavis.blogspot.com/
Susan Davis -Music Technology Musings
http://www.howtopractise.com (yes it’s a “s”, it’s an English spelling)
Mike Saville - How To Practise
http://www.free2create.com/blog
Valerie Kampmeier - Free 2 Create
http://musicmattersblog.com
Natalie Wickham - Music Matters Blog
http://theresawhite.edublogs.org
Theresa White - Education In Music
http://africlassical.blogspot.com
William Zick - Africlassical
http://discoverlearnplay.blogspot.com
Eugene Cantera - Discover, Learn, Play (MusickED.com’s Blog)
http://mstrismusic.com
Ms. Tris - MsTrisMusic.com
http://www.learn-theory-music.com/learn-theory-music-blog.html
Julian Partridge - Learn Theory Music Blog
http://www.guitarticles.net
Tennyson Williams - Guitar Articles.Net
http://creativekidmusic.wordpress.com
Dan Thompson -Creative Kid Music
http://educacionmusical.blogspot.com
Oscar - Educacion Musical - Music Education (Our first, in Spanish, ME Blog!)
http://rizzrazz.vox.com/
Dr. Eric Rasmussen - Rizz’s Blog
http://reband.wordpress.com
Mr. ReBand
http://www.techtempo.com
Brenda Muench - Tech. Tempo
http://www.thomasjwestmusic.com/blog.htm
Thomas J. West
http://musictech4ed.edublogs.org
Andrew Spang -MusicTech4Ed
Click this link. (A very log blog URL…)
Jon Ensminger -Pedaplus
http://techtoysandtunes.blogspot.com
Richard McCready - Tech Toys and Tunes
http://downpressup.wordpress.com
Derek -Downpressup
http://listenlearnmusic.com
Rachel Rambach - Listen and Learn
http://jazzworks.wordpress.com
Allan Perkins - Jazz Works
http://msgallant.edublogs.org
Alexandra Gallant - The Misadventures of a First Year Music Teacher
http://www.acousticpath.com/blog
Cameron Grant - Acoustic Path
http://musicteachercafe.viviti.com/
Scott Ashby - Music Teacher’s Cafe
http://www.frogstoryrecords.com/player_journal.html
Stever Carter - Frog Story Records/Player’s Journal
http://thirdstream.musiced.net
Cary Stewart - Third-Stream Music Education
http://michiganstatepianopedagogy.blogspot.com
Derek Polischuk - Michigan State Piano Pedagogy
http://fromthevoiceof.blogspot.com
Elizabeth McDonald -From the Voice of…
http://urbanmusiceducation.org
Sarah Johnston -Urban Music Education
http://musiced.jasoncrews.net/
Jason Crews - Music Education Resource Blog
http://www.classicalguitarblog.net
Christopher - Classical Guitar Blog
http://willie42.globalteacher.org.au/
Andrew- Split Three Ways
http://mjsheetmusictips.blogspot.com/
Marilyn Johnson - MJ’s Music Teaching Tips
http://www.musicteachershelper.com/blog/
Brandon Pearce - Music Teacher’s Helper Blog
http://jeane-metroyo.blogspot.com
Jeane Goforth - Scrollworks and Metropolitian Youth Orchestras
http://www.oparp.blogspot.com
Dr. Robert Phillips - The Opinionated Arpgeggist
http://www.wikyblog.com/CynthiaWunsch
Cynthia Wunsch - The Unlikely Entrepreneur (Click the Blog Tab)
http://mineoladrama.blogspot.com
Joe Owens - MHS Theater
http://andyzweibel.com
Andy Zweibel - Music Musings and Other Randoms…
http://musicschoolsbc.blogspot.com/
Stephen Robb - Music Schools BC
http://paulbailey.us
Paul Bailey - Paul Bailey’s Blog
http://edubuzz.org/blogs/alancoady/
Alan Coady - Alan Coady’s Musical Blog

http://mustech.net/2009/01/01/a-bold-new-year-the-official-list

What The Future Holds

I ran across this the other day and while I am sure many of you may have already seen it I still think it is worth posting. I have discussed manytimes with my mother who is now in her 70's about how the world has changed so much from when she was in school but for the most part schools are the same. Its something to think about.

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