Final Project

Target Audience: 9^th and 10^th grade

Time: 1^st & 3rd period

Classroom Teacher Ms. Tiffany Tyndall

North Carolina Standards Course of Study area addressed National standards addressed:

- Develop skills in improvising music

- Develop skills in composing music

- Develop skills in arranging music

- Develop skills in listening to, analyzing, and evaluating musical experiences

Lesson outcomes (objectives)

-The students will be able to create their own melody.

-The students will work in groups to establish some teamwork abilities.

-The students will be able to perform in front of their peers.

Music and Materials Needed

-Paper

-Pencils

-Laptop

-Microphone

-Soundation Studio

-Television or Projector

-Camcorder

Step-by-Step Lesson

First, I will put the students into random groups based on the number of students that are present that day. In their groups, the students will have to pick one life lesson they have learned (it can be since they have been in the class or just from their parents), after the life lesson has been approved by me they will have to create a jingle with their group members. They will be given 20 minutes to come up with a melody.  After 20 minutes they have to perform it in front of their classmates. It is important that the classmates can identify the life lesson by their performance without being told what it is. While the students are performing their jingle, I will record it using Soundation Studio (audio) and with a camcorder (video). Soundation Studio allows me to burn a copy for the students to take home and let their parents listen to their jingle.

Conclusion

After every group has performed, we will discuss the life lessons that were addressed. The groups are not allowed to tell the class what their life lesson is until we talk about it as a whole. I will sit down with the students and write out the different life lessons that the students discussed to make sure that they could recognize every lesson from the jingle that was sung. After we have discussed it, the students and I will watch their performance via video. This allows the students to see what was successful about their jingle and what could have been improved and ultimately giving them a chance to actually see their performance for themselves.

Evaluation

-See how well this lesson plan works for the students

-See how well they work with their peers

-See how creative the students are

Reflection

This lesson plan allowed me to see how well the students worked together to create their jingle. When I walked around to approve the life lesson for the jingles, I noticed that everyone was working together and that they had all came to an agreement about what they wanted to use. There was not one team that I saw had just one dominant person telling them what to do. Once they were ready to present their performances to the classroom they did a wonderful job and a lot of the students wanted to see some performances twice. This is a really good lesson plan to use when you are trying to see how creative the students are, I was really impressed. I will combine all of their performances and use Imovie to create a video. I will use this video for the student I have next semester so that they can get an idea of what the students before them did for this assignment.

PE4_SoundationStudio

On this particular day, I allowed my one on one private lesson student to create her own music. She was allowed to make it sound however she wanted and to think of something that she could sing with it.  Of course, I played an example of my song for her so that she would get an idea of how hers could sound.

There were a lot of things that I had to learn how to do. Especially when finding loops that had the same tempo and were in the same key. Sometimes it takes a lot to find everything that you need but you do have the option of creating everything yourself. My next mission is to create everything myself using my midi keyboard that I just bought. Good times ahead. Hopefully,  I will be able to create something that my students will be able to play but we will see.

Follow this link to get a glimpse of what my student and I worked on. The bass line is called a Frog, Let's see if you can hear the affect. She likes frogs!

SoundationLink

PE5_SoundationStudio

So I am becoming more and more familiar with this Web 2.0 tool, Soundation Studio. No, it is not the easiest thing to learn but it works. I have good news to start off, I just got the call today about my new job as an elementary school band teacher. This should be exciting! Ultimately, finding this tool gives me an opportunity to share the music that we do in the classroom with their parents. Concerts are not mandatory in Elementary school and a lot of parents do not realize how gifted their children are. Soundation Studio will provide the parents with an opportunity to listen to their students in and out of school. Every so often, I plan to send the parents a link to what we have been doing in the classroom so that they can hear their children. Hopefully, they will enjoy this listening opportunity and my students will enjoy hearing themselves.

The picture above is a picture of a song I am working on. It gives me some ideas for my students and their music and it sounds a whole lot better than my first song!

PE3_Imovie

As I stated in my last two blogs, I have been going through this process of learning everything about Imovie so I decided to let you guys in on my world of wedding planning. For those of you who are getting ready to get married, here is a prime example of what you will be doing real soon in short form. This video shows you some of my wedding cake ideas, as well as one of my final bouquet choices and the overall look of my wedding party. I hope you all enjoy this video and if you have any questions feel free to ask.

PE2_Imovie

I have come to blog some more about my imovie experiences. It is very hard to combine several months worth of pictures and ideas into a one-minute movie especially when it is a wedding. There are so many things that have to be considered when planning a wedding so I have tried to show everyone the important things.  In this picture you will see a screenshot of one of my wedding cake designs. I used the Scrapbook 3 transition so that through each transition you will see all of the wedding cake designs as well as the bouquets for my bridesmaids. This transition really gives you a visual of what I see everyday in this planning process.

If you are going for the scrapbook approach, please choose Scrapbook 3. It is the best. Just to give you all a sneak peak of the wedding party, I have created a picture on David Bridal’s, “Dress Your Wedding” application on their website.

Hope you enjoy!!

P.S.- Of course this is not my real wedding dress, I want it to be a surprise for everyone that day!

PE1_Imovie

Whew!!!! I have my certificate of completion for Imovie training now. Full Sail has completely opened my eyes up to a world of different tools that I know will be helpful in the classroom. Imovie is one of the many tools that I had never used before until I became a grad student at Full Sail. Throughout this process, I have been trying to make a one-minute clip of my world of planning my wedding. My fiancé and I love music so I felt that it was important that the audience hears music the minute that the video starts. The only thing is that the track is 4 minutes long and I only want 29 seconds of the song. I almost went crazy trying to figure how to cut the clip up but Lynda.com made this a lot easier. Here is a little help for those of you that may be having similar problems, when you open up the clip trimmer it has already selected the entire track. You have to go to the end of the track and unselect everything that you do not need. This is where I went wrong, I thought I had to select what I needed.

I love the process of creating this movie and I hope you all enjoy the finished product of my wedding planning world that will follow in the blog to come.

BP6_Link Two Comments

Follow this link to my comments on Jacqueline Presley's blog.

PresleysComments

BP5_Link One Comments

Follow this link to the comments on Draney Melville's blog.

MelvilleMania

BP4_Engrade

Hello Everyone,

Thanks for tuning in again! It is time to blog about another tool that I have found that can be helpful for teachers like myself through Web 2.0. This tool is called Engrade. I know a lot of school systems have their own grading sites but most do not allow you to access it from home. Home is the place where teachers spend a lot of time grading assignments but they cannot record until they get back to the school the next day. This is a great tool where you can do both at the same time and focus more on students who need after-school tutoring afterschool.

One of the main things that I have noticed about a school’s music program and the parents of the students is that they do not see music like they see a regular classroom. Music has often been thought of as an extra curricular program and not treated like classes such as Math, Reading, and English. Most parents are surprised when they find that their child has anything lower than an A in the music class. This tool is a good way for the parents to keep up with the student’s progress in my classroom. Engrade allows them to see how they are doing on test, quizzes, and other assignments in the classroom. Engrade ensures that there are no surprises when it is time for progress reports or even report cards.  It is real user-friendly and it allows you to comment on the grades that you have posted so that the parents understand why they have received the grade that they have.

Some of the other tools that you will see is the calendar tool. The calendar allows you to input things that you want the parents to know. For example, I would use it to let the parents know when they have a test or quiz coming up. I would also use it so the parents will know about the concerts. The attendance tab allows the parents to have a record of their child’s attendance. It also has a quiz tab where the students can assess their quizzes online. Overall, this is a very good tool and I would recommend this to everyone that can not access their online grade book from home.

Have a good weekend everyone,

Tiffany

BP3_IGoogleScreenshots

Here you will find my screenshots of my PLE! Enjoy!

BP2_Soundation Studio

In searching through the Web 2.0 applications and tools, it was not hard to find the area that I wanted to work in. I automatically began looking under the music tab to see what applications they had that would be helpful. Recently, my fiancé and I opened a business. It caters to people who want to learn more about their voices and how to play the piano. We also have a studio upstairs where people can make appointments so that they can work on their own musical projects. We are always trying to find new tools that would help with the overall sound as well as different tools that we can make the music for the singers off of.

I chose the Soundation Studio, it was a little different than most music making software but not totally different. One of the first things I noticed is that when it comes to selecting the musical loops for the track, it is set up like Garage Band. One of the other things about the program is that you have to select what aspect of each track you want to work with. Therefore that limits the amount of extra tabs that are on the program so visually it is not as appealing but it does have everything you need to make a track.

In this screen shot you will see 3 tracks. During the process of me making this track, I only wanted a click track. A click track is used in performance but not as volume heavy and important as having a drummer. I made the drum track first which is on the first line and then I made the line with the shakers. The shakers add the illusion of a steady beat. The third track was the congas. This is definitely a track that I can use for one of our clients.

BP7_Commercial Video

Here is my 1 minute commercial for Engrade. Enjoy! This is a wonderful system for all teachers to use!

Tiffany Tyndall

The Juggling Process: Wedding, School and Business Matters

Hello all!
Welcome to my first experience with blogging. I love to talk so this is going to be interesting. Well not too long ago, I was graduating from UNCG and now I am working on my Masters in Education Media and Technology. Yes, I try to stay educated!! 2010 was a great year. I got engaged and we decided to start our own business called "The Music Majors". Having this business has been a lot of work but it has also been fun. There is so many opportunities for growth, I'm just waiting to see what happens.

Now I know you are wondering, when does she do the wedding planning? Everyday, every chance I get is the answer. The wedding is only 4 months away and it seems like I am juggling school and the planning on each hand. So far, I have had a lot of fun planning this wedding. Most of my bridesmaids (which I have 7) have their dresses and everything is falling into place. I am so excited about spending the rest of my life with my fiance' and I am even more excited to see all the years after May 14th, 2011.

You will hear more about the progress of the wedding as well as everything else. By the way, HAPPY NEW YEARS!