GarageBand in the Classroom

I worked with a 6th grade class at Columbia in Garage Band. It has been so much fun! After giving the students background information about how recording music has changed in the music industry, why tracks are used in this software program, and allowing the students to explore in GarageBand, the students did a fun project using a Thanksgiving Poem. I gave each of the students a Five Little Turkeys. They read the poem and added a different vocal for the narrator and each of the turkeys that spoke, as they recorded their voices in GarageBand. Some of the students had time to add music to their poem. Here is a recording of one of the poems today.

Five Little Turkeys: (There is no way to upload an MP3 larger than 100 MB on my blog, so if you would like to hear an example, please email me and I will share it with you.)

Mrs. Buttars, the teacher, is having them draw a picture in KidPix, and then the individual pictures will be attached to their recordings. I also gave her a reader's theatre play called the Ugly Turkey. This is another great way for students to work in groups and record a play using sound effects, different vocals, and adding music. Any questions, please feel free to email me.

Quote: "Those who believe they can and those who believe they can't are both right."
-Henry Ford

Skype in Elementary

I had the opportunity to work with a G/T Specialist, Deanna Taylor, in our district. She is over the program Monster Math and agreed to teach about it to a 6th grade class via Skype. We did worry about technical difficulties, so she taught her lesson in the school, but from the computer lab. She skyped into the class through the teacher computer and taught about problem solving processes, showed a powerpoint in Skype, and then had the students work in groups on a Monster Math problem. The following are comments students made about using Skype as a Web 2.0 tool in the classroom.
(These students wrote comments with the understanding that they were the first class we taught using Skype.)
*I loved it. I am so glad you picked us to do it.
*I had fun doing math.
*I think using Skype is very cool!
*I thought it was kinda weird, but cool because it was just like she was in the room with us.
* I liked using Skype because it gives us an opportunity to connect with teachers in different places.
Thanks to Mrs. Buttars and her 6th grade in Columbia that let us work with them and thanks to Deanna for her wonderful job of teaching Monster Math and being willing to implement a Web 2.0 tool into her 21st Century Learning Classroom.

Completed Project by a 6th Grade Team!