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Links to famous works by classical composers. A great site to explore, or use for background music to projects. I started listening critically to classical music at age 14 because of an enlightened high school principal who played classical music during study hours and commented on it, too, and it's always been a joy.

" YouTube Audio Library Compared to finding copyright-friendly images and video clips, finding free background music for video editing can be pretty discouraging. I've featured some free background music sites previously, but I often find the choices limited. I typically associate YouTube with video, but I was surprised to stumble across this resource." T/h to Nick LaFave

"Description: A wonderfully designed site with lessons and tools to create digital music and teach music theory. Lessons start at a very basic level and build to advanced compositions." For middle and higher students. May get the uninterested moving.

This blog links to a miscellany of music that is free to download and listen to. This is a nice way to get students involved in aesthetics and thinking about the emotions of music.

"History is so often seen as boring and meaningless to students who can't grasp why they need to learn about events and people from the past. These two music videos from Soomo Publishing have high production value and utilize current pop music songs with a historical twist on the lyrics. The first one is about the Declaration of Independence and uses One Republic's Too Late to Apologize. The focus of the second video is women's suffrage and it uses Lady Gaga's Bad Romance to tell this important story." Maybe these could be a model for student-created videos.

The Internet Archive has millions of free books, movies, software, music, etc., and the Wayback Machine, which can help you find things that have been removed from the Internet. A great resource for content- or project-based learning, or research in general.

Another of Nik Peachey's excellent blog entries, this one included ideas for teaching and an example activity for students: "I've found that in class most students enjoy lessons based around songs or music. More recently I've been trying to discover and develop activities that students can do online to actively engage with the vast variety of resources that are available. "These are six things that I have discovered so far. Each one links to an example activity that I have developed for students."

A podcast series of original music and lyrics played and sung by Tim Murphey for English language learners. Soft, gentle music with lots of repetitions and useful phrases and expressions, e.g. "raining cats and dogs."

"Creating music tracks used to be time consuming and expensive. But with sites like this, anyone can make their own synthesised tracks using virtual mixing desk. Click on launch to start the app. Choose your equipment or use the default desk to get you going. You can listen and even remix tracks from other members on the site." T/h to Martin Burrett @ICTmagic You will need to create an identity and log in to use the tool. Music can be a real attraction to get and keep your students' attention, and can be used in many ways in the classroom.

Online lessons for students 9-12 using jazz to learn poetic concepts

Eventually, schools and colleges are probably going to fall in step with the trend toward digital portfolios as a way to assess applicants. Schools of art, music, and writing are already using them. Give your students a chance to learn this valuable skil.

"A fun method to learn and improve your foreign languages like English through music and typing in song lyrics" This is an activity that many of us like to use in the EFL/ESL classroom, and here it is online. There are at least six languages and a fairly wide set of choices in songs.

This site, The Blues Maker, as described by Nik Peachey, lets the user create his/her own blues tune, and as Nik points out, is an excellent way to improve listening skills, vocabulary, and pronunciation. The 10 steps are an excellent project to help students begin to learn more about this type of American (and now international) music.

Royalty-free audio, categorized by types, e.g., animals, people, music loops, office setting, comics, etc. (Requires userregistration and login.) Good place to look for sound fx for projects.

Teaching English through Songs in the Digital Age is the first of 4 articles on this topic in this blog. This might be of interest to many, as music is a great way to interest students and to give them a sense of the rhythm, lyricism, and poetry of language.

Play lectures anywhere. Download courses, faculty lectures, interviews, music, and sports. Play on your iPod, Mac, or PC, or burn to a CD.

This is a fascinating description of what FMRIs have found about brain function and playing music. We should all out our guitars and tune up the piano.

Dvolver is a simple online cartoon movie maker (formerly Dfilm). Students select a background scene and add a type of scene, characters, costumes, music, etc., and write dialogue. The program then runs the scenario as an animated movie. Note: Some character costuming will be offensive to conservative students.

"Whether you are searching for a one-act or full-length appropriate for your High School, a musical your Middle School students will adore, the perfect Christmas Play for the holiday season, the next big hit in your Community, Professional or Youth Theater, or a collection of monologues or plays by your favorite playwrights, we've got it! You can also search a variety of instruction and technique books perfect for the classroom, or your own personal library. " Reading plays aloud might be an interesting way to get your students into pronunciation. Some plays may also be recorded so students can listen and compare. The menu selects by age/grade level and type.

The New York Times offers poetry paired with visuals, in this case an animation, and music, as well as two or more related poems. Readers are asked to write what they think, and the comments are very interesting also. Some adult content may be found in the sidebar, so this is for older students, not small children, though the idea is a good one for inspiring writing at any age. You may be able to strip the video and text and use the materials offline (being careful of copyright issues).