Group items tagged

"There are plenty of new Christmas songs each year, but it's not that easy to make a Christmas song that becomes a classic holiday tune. You know, one that you can repeat each year that still feels relevant. Straight No Chaser may have just made the first Christmas song fit for this new Internet 2.0 generation. Together with Kristen Bell, they sing Text Me Merry Christmas, a catchy tune about spreading holiday cheer via text. "

"I am a big fan of music in the history classroom and I have created a number of Spotify Playlists for this purpose. Often this is merely to help create a calm and purposeful working atmosphere, when a bit of Chopin or Debussy sets the tone perfectly. Occasionally it's even possible to have calming instrumental music directly related to the topic in question: for example, Elgar's Cello Concerto in E Minor, which was inspired by the composer watching British troop ships heading off to France in 1914. However, some songs are better used to stoke up some energy during lessons, whilst the very best of all are historical sources in themselves, combining musical feeling with powerful lyrical content. What follows is a list of songs I regularly use in class, organised in broadly chronological order in terms of the topics they relate to, with a brief explanation of how you could make use of them with your own students. What follows is a list of 25 principal songs, but with links to others on similar themes or by similar artists, bringing the total up to over 50. If you have any other suggestions, please contact me (@russeltarr / @activehistory on Twitter) and I'd be delighted to add them to the list (as long as it isn't "We didn't start the fire" by Billy Joel. Which I admit is superb, but we all know this one, surely?)."

"Study Jams is a Scholastic website designed to help elementary school students learn and review math and science information through songs and videos. To use Study Jams students search for a topic in the math or science category. Each Study Jam offers a short tutorial on that topic in the form of a video, slideshow, or song. When there is a song available Study Jams provides a karaoke format for kids to sing along if they like."

"Today at the OTA / EncycloMedia 2016 Conference in Oklahoma City, keynote speaker Shannon M. Miller (@shannonmmiller) shared a wealth of apps, websites, and project ideas in her breakout session, "Igniting Innovation and Creativity in Our Makerspaces With Digital Tools and Apps." One of the apps she shared is "MusiQuest - Music & Beat Maker." The same Denver-based app developer, Edify Technology (@EdifyTechnology) has also published the amazing musical creation app, "Sketch-a-Song Kids." The tagline of this second app is, "Compose in Color." Both of these are FREE and amazing! My wife, Shelly (@sfryer) has been playing with Sketch-a-Song tonight on her iPad, and it's remarkable! Here are a couple tutorial videos which introduce some of the basic elements of both apps."

"The year I started teaching seventh- to twelfth-grade English in Minneapolis, Prince launched his song about urban ruin, "Sign o' the Times." That song was an apt musical backdrop for the lives of my students, most of whom lived in poverty and challenged me daily. That year also afforded me the opportunity to be assaulted with a stone, two chairs, a Rambo knife, a seventh-grade girl's weak jab, and dozens of creative swear words. Fortunately, classroom order improved when I learned that successful classroom management depends on conscientiously executing a few big strategies and a lot of little ones"

"My name is Kristen LaScola, and I am a 3rd grade teacher at Hudson City Schools in Hudson, Ohio. I first came across Jesse Ruben when a family member sent me one of Jesse's most inspirational songs, "We Can." Being a musician myself, I have a great appreciation for music and always use music as a tool to help my students learn. I teach one song per week in my classroom, and after watching Jesse's video, I thought it had a great message, and I knew that we had to learn it!"

Meredith Shareski completed an assignment for an education course by blending song and science. She's shared her resources in the Box.net container, including an extensive guide and all of her songs in mp3 format.

"It's a sheet music reader for the iPad. The app is free and comes with a few classic song sheets (Amazing Grace, Take Me Out to the Ball game, etc.) but every other song you'll have to buy in their small but growing collection. Sadly, you can't upload any sheets on your own, you'll have to rely on their store. What's great is that the app has a built in metronome (audible or visual) so you can keep your tempo right and see where you are in the piece. Also great: automatic page turning as the app will flip the page once you reach the end of the previous one."

LyricWiki is a free site which is a source where anyone can go to get reliable lyrics for any song, from any artist, without being hammered by invasive ads.

Microsoft Research Songsmith - What is Songsmith? Songsmith generates musical accompaniment to match a singer's voice. Just choose a musical style, sing into your PC's microphone, and Songsmith will create backing music for you. Then share your songs with your friends and family, post your songs online, or create your own music videos.

Free from Microsoft Research: Songsmith generates musical accompaniment to match a singer's voice. Just choose a musical style, sing into your PC's microphone, and Songsmith will create backing music for you. Then share your songs with your friends and family, post your songs online, or create your own music videos. (No help if you can't sing) - comment by Kathleen Nann

"One of our seventh grade teachers, Mrs. Kust, would like students to choose a song, more importantly a 30 second clip of the song, to represent one of six themes from the book, The Outsiders.  To do this we are utilizing TubeChop. "

"Music app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch."

"I took piano lessons as a kid, but it's hard lugging a piano around when you want to take your tune-playing on the road.  I tried teaching myself some chords on the guitar, but it turns out that you need big, strong hands to press down on the strings hard enough to make music. My hands are neither big, nor are they strong. So instead I picked up the ukulele, and, using YouTube, taught myself how to play.  The problem is, I've run out of songs to play that are remedial enough for me to learn. That's where Riffstation Play comes in."

"Learning English from songs lyrics and music is a great way to study. In today's activity you are going to be able to watch and enjoy some simple 'stop motion' animated music videos and then find out how to create your own."

Learning English from songs lyrics and music is a great way to study. In today's activity you are going to be able to watch and enjoy some simple 'stop motion' animated music videos and then find out how to create your own.