Music – iLearn Technology

Check123: Video Encyclopedia

May 8, 2017Kelly Tenkely3 Comments55744 views

What it is: Check 123 is a new video encyclopedia site for kids. All videos are validated and ranked by Check123 professionals, are 1-3 minutes in length, and a curated on just about any subject you can think of. Broad topics covered on Check123 include: history, sports, politics, food, performing arts, economics, earth, nature, tech, philosophy, music, cars, pets, human body, arts, geography, religion, psychology, TV, gaming, science, literature, fashion, media, and space.

How to integrate Check 123 into your classroom: Check123 is a great place for students to begin their research. These videos are between 1 and 3 minutes each, keeping students engaged in a topic and giving them bite-size information. I like that the videos are so well curated, it keeps search results on topic rather than the endless dig for quality content that can happen in a YouTube search. Check123 videos are also wonderful as provocations for further inquiry. The short format gives students just enough information to whet their appetites and encourage additional questioning. Check123 is a great one to keep bookmarked on classroom and library computers for quick reference.

Video is the preferred learning method of 90% of our students at Anastasis, when they do a search, they usually begin on a video site. With Check123, they are sure to get some quality results back to kick start their learning and research.

Tips: Check123 is free for teachers!

Quincy and the Magic Instruments

May 15, 2012Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment4467 views

What it is: Next year we are adding a kindergarten to Anastasis (currently we are a 1st-8th grade school). In honor of this addition, I’ve been digging up some fun primary sites and resources. Quincy and the Magic Instruments is a great primary site to teach students about music and instruments. The site is enchanting with it’s interactive story/video platform. It invites students to take part in the story and introduces them to various “magic” instruments. As students learn, they get mouse practice (dragging dropping) for some fine motor skills; matching shapes, and identifying different types of instruments. Students also get exposed to a variety of types of music that instruments are used to create.

How to integrate Quincy and the Magic Instruments into the classroom: Quincy and the Magic Instruments is a great site to introduce students to some basic fine motor mouse skills. When I taught in the computer lab, I quickly learned that mouse manipulation doesn’t come as second nature for all students. They have to build up that fine motor skill to click, drag and drop. I can’t tell you how many times I had to show students that their mouse wasn’t actually “broken” – they just had it upside down. 🙂

Quincy and the Magic Instruments is a fun place for students to learn about different kinds of instruments and the sounds they make. As the instruments appear, you can help students identify what the name of each instrument is and even introduce them to the idea of major and minor notes. If you are using the site as a class with an interactive whiteboard, annotate over each instrument with the name of the instrument and what part it plays in a band.

To expand on this little online game, ask students to make up a story about how Quincy’s baton got lost and why the magic instruments turned into different animals and objects. How did the instruments come to be magic?

Tips: On any screen students can replay a song or jumble the instruments for an added challenge.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Quincy and the Magic Instruments in your classroom!

Grammaropolis: Personified Parts of Speech

March 5, 2012Kelly Tenkely4 Comments4836 views

What it is: Grammaropolis is a site I have long been a fan of. I’ve written about it in the past in these posts. Grammaropolis recently got a significant upgrade with TONS of new, great features. The site now includes character descriptions for nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions and interjections. In addition to the great descriptions, each character includes a song, videos, book, games and, soon, quizzes. Not all of this content is free, but there is enough free content to be useful in every classroom no matter the budget. All of the content associated with the Noun character is free. Every other character includes the character description and book for free. The music, videos, quizzes and games are “extras” that are available by subscription. You can get your classroom a Grammaropolis passport to access all of the content including the ability to follow and track your students progress within Grammaropolis.

How to integrate Grammaropolis into the classroom: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the Grammaropolis approach to the parts of speech is completely brilliant! I love the way Grammaropolis gives the different parts of speech a “face” and an attitude. For those of us who learn through story, Grammaropolis gives us a unique connection to the parts of speech. The books and videos are fabulous. They are extremely well done, and take the characters a step further by dropping them into a story.

The characters interact true to their characteristics. For example, in the “Noun Places” video, Noun sits looking through a photo album of places. As he flips the pages, he names the places. “Antarctica,” he says. Adjective, who is sitting next to Noun, exclaims, “beautiful!” Verb agrees, “very.” The videos and books are so well thought out and really demonstrate to students how the parts of speech are used. So smart!

Grammaropolis can be used as a whole class using an interactive whiteboard or projector-connected computer. Learn about, and explore, the different parts of speech as a class. Choose a new part of speech character each week and encourage students to spot the part of speech character in their own writing with a colored pencil or marker that matches the character color. Books can be read as a class on the big screen. Each book begins with the cast of characters with a short description of each part of speech. As you read together, discuss the way that the part of speech characteristics are revealed by their interactions with other characters. The same can be done with the videos!

Students can play the games on classroom computers as a center, or on individual computers in a lab or 1:1 setting. After your students familiarize themselves with the parts of speech characters, they can write their own creative stories featuring the characters. This is great for older students! Students will have to remember that the characters have to act in ways that are true to their nature.

Tips: There are a few different options for a Grammaropolis subscription, the options are very reasonably priced. Grammaropolis also has a brand new store that has some fun grammar shwag. If you have an iDevice, check out the Grammaropolis app!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Grammaropolis in your classroom!

An advent calendar for everyone including my Web 2.0 calendar and app-a-day calendar!

November 29, 2011November 29, 2011Kelly Tenkely5 Comments4364 views

It is almost December again, which means the beginning of Advent. Advent calendars are a fun way to reveal information and “surprises” for your students to look forward to each day in December leading up to Christmas. Last year I thought I would make an advent calendar of my own using Wix. I created a Web 2.0 advent calendar by choosing 25 of my favorite web 2.0 tools for the classroom. Each day you can check out a new one. (I’ll let you in on a secret, you can cheat and look at them all by clicking on the bird to get back to the calendar page…shh don’t tell anyone!) You and your students can create your own custom advent calendar like I did using Wix. Students can create an advent calendar of pictures of their school work, trivia for their parents, special audio notes, or anything they are learning. To create your own Wix advent calendar, choose a template, add shapes to the template to create your calendar pieces, add 25 pages to the site, add links to those pages. You could also create an advent calendar of your own using Glogster. Create a customized advent calendar for your students with fun surprises, quotes, video clips, sound bites, etc. It can be related to the learning they are doing in your classroom, suggestions of books to read, or reveal special rewards like extra computer time, time playing a favorite game, time for reading, etc. Be creative! I’m hoping to make a new advent calendar this year…we will see if I can find the time to make that happen! In the mean time check out these other great calendars to use with your students!

Woodlands Jr has a great online advent calendar every year that tests students knowledge about Christmas around the world. The Woodlands Jr. 2010 advent calendar is a fun one, I am hoping that they come out with one for 2011 in a few days. 🙂 This is a fun way for students to test their knowledge and learn about the ways that Christmas is celebrated all around the world. As an extension, plot the places around the world that they are learning about on a world map.

BBC Radio has a fabulous Bach advent calendar. Each day your students can listen to a story about Bach or music.

The National Museum of Liverpool has an advent calendar that reveals a piece of art from the museum each day.

The Dirt Dirt advent calendar is purely fun, each day click on a number and an animation will be added to the tree.

For those of us who are app inclined, you can download a free app for your iDevice every day from Appvent Calendar!!

Below you will find my interactive advent calendar finds from last year. You are bound to find one that is a perfect fit for your class!

What it is: It is December! This means the beginning of Advent along with the anticipation and excitement that it brings. The Internet is full of interactive advent calendars that you can use in your classroom to teach about how the Christmas season is celebrated all around the world. These advent calendars reveal fun facts, interactive activities, and stories.

Santa’s House Advent Calendar– This advent calendar tells a fun story. Each day reveals another secret about what goes on inside Santa’s home on the 24 days leading up to Christmas. In each picture, there is a little mouse hiding. When students click on his ears, he jumps out.

Christmas Around the World Advent Calendar– Each day students click on the date to reveal a fun fact about how countries around the world celebrate Christmas. The facts are accompanied by great illustrations and pictures. This site shows up very small inside my Internet browser (Firefox). To remedy this problem, click on “view” in your menu bar and choose “zoom”. You may need to zoom in several times.

Christmas Mice Advent Calendar– This calendar tells the story about a mouse family who celebrates Christmas. Each day a little more of the story is revealed. Each picture includes some animation.

Santa’s Advent Calendar– On this advent calendar, each day reveals a new song or activity for students to complete. There are some fun Christmas themed mysteries to solve, stories to read, and activities to work through.

French Carols Advent Calendar– This is a French advent calendar. Each day contains a new French Christmas carol sung by children. This advent calendar would be a fun one to include in a study of Christmas around the world.

Christmas Around the World Advent Calendar Quiz– This advent calendar tests students knowledge about how other cultures celebrate Christmas. Each day students are asked a question and given hints to help them answer. When the answer is revealed, students can click on links to learn more about the Christmas celebrations in that country. This site also includes great activities and teaching resources for Christmas.

Christmas Advent Calendar– Follow the adventures of Zac the elf as he tries to find a Christmas present for Santa. Each day a little more of the story is revealed.

Christmas Activity Advent Calendar– This advent calendar has fun little games and activities to play each day. The games and activities are quick and easy to complete, building mouse and keyboard skills. This advent calendar would be a good one for the classroom computers as a center activity.

How to integrate Interactive Advent Calendars into the classroom: The season of Advent is always filled with eagerness and expectancy. Build some of that anticipation into your school day by allowing students to unlock a new secret on the advent calendar each day. Use these advent calendars with the whole class on an interactive whiteboard or projector, or set them up as a quick center activity that students can visit. Use the advent calendars that reveal a story to practice looking for foreshadowing clues, using context clues to guess what will happen next, or as story starters for students own stories. The Christmas around the world advent calendars are wonderful for teaching students some of the history of Christmas and the way that other cultures celebrate the familiar holiday.

Tips: Each of these advent calendars has some fun goodies and hidden surprises, find the one that best fits your classroom needs.

Leave a comment and share how you are using Interactive Advent Calendars in your classroom.

Admongo: “Aducation” learning about advertising

November 17, 2011Kelly Tenkely1 Comment2798 views

What it is: Admongo is a website from the FTC all about advertising. The site aims to improve “advertisement literacy” by raising awareness of advertising and marketing messages, fostering critical thinking skills to help students analyze and interpret messages in advertising and demonstrate the benefits of being an informed consumer. These concepts are introduced in the form of a game. Students get an “aducation” by playing a game where they are introduced to the world of advertising. Students create a character, game name and password. As students play they collect advertisements, watch videos about the different kinds of advertisements and are asked to think about the advertisement and how it is used. Students are asked who the target audience of the advertisement is, who created the ad, what is the ad saying, what does the ad want them to do.

How to integrate Admongo into the classroom: Advertising is all around us, Admongo helps students identify the ads that they are surrounded by every day and prompts them to think deeply about the purpose and aim of advertising. Students at Anastasis are currently completing an inquiry block all about advertising. A look at advertising can introduce students to persuasive writing, the effect of different music, colors and mediums, critical thinking and problem solving.

I like to have students to consider both sides of advertising. First, what does it mean to be a consumer and how does advertising play into that? Second, how would you create an advertisement that reaches a target audience? Advertising asks students to carefully consider their audience, the objective, and the tools that they use to spread a message. You can also tie advertising to history by asking students to look at World War II posters. Students can analyze the purpose of the poster, the call to action, the colors used, the intended audience and the message being “sold”. Students will need to do some digging to find out why the posters were successful and what events were occurring that made the posters necessary. After students explore actual World War II posters, they can plan and create their own.

There are so many places to go with an advertising unit and Admongo is a great starting point. Students can go through the game independently on computers or use an interactive whiteboard/projector-connected computer to take turns navigating through the game. Stop and discuss each question that pops up as a class.

Tips: Be sure to check out the “Teacher” section for lesson plans, print materials and videos.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Admongo in your classroom!

Isle of Tune: Create a musical journey

May 31, 2011February 10, 2012Kelly Tenkely3 Comments8329 views

What it is: Isle of Tune is a site that has just significantly impacted my productivity today- I can’t stop playing! Thanks to @Matt_Arguello and @dancallahan for this share today on Twitter! Isle of Tune lets students create musical journeys out of street layouts. Roadside elements act as instruments and cars are the players. Students can create whole islands of music by creating a street layout, adding objects that generate different sounds and adding cars to play the music. Each object has an object panel where students can adjust the sound, volume or clone the object. Students can determine when a sound will be played based on the ground lighting up when the car passes. Junctions change the course of passing cars or can “loop” a sound. It is easy for students to get started, they just click “Create a new island” and away they go. Students can name their island anything and save to return to it later. No need for registration, the Internet browser they are using just needs to have cookies enabled (this is a bit of a problem for shared classroom computers with a single account).

How to integrate Isle of Tune into the classroom: Isle of Tune is an enchanting place for creation. The sky is the limit as students create music based on visual creation. Aside from teaching some great music principles, Isle of Tune would be a fantastic way to teach students pattern. Students can use Isle of Tune to construct patterns of objects and actually experience the connection between math and music as they “play” their pattern tune.

Isle of Tune would also be a fun place for students to learn about maps and ordinal directions and basic graphing. Students can start with oral directions about where to lay their street “Four street squares North East, two street squares West”. After directions are given, students can customize their islands with trees, houses, lamp posts, etc. You can quickly tour the room for some formative assessment while students complete their island. Let students take turns listening to each other’s Isle of Tune, noting similarities and differences based on the patterns made.

Use Isle of Tune as a creative writing prompt. Students can create an island and tune and write an imaginative story about the island they created. The saved island makes a nice visual-aid and soundtrack for their finished story.

Isle of Tune makes a great interactive whiteboard, or projector-connected computer activity. Students can work together to create a giant island of tunes. Use the annotate over the desktop feature to label directions, coordinates and patterns.

The shared songs are pretty incredible- many of the “top” shares are popular music that has been created using Isle of Tune.

Tips: Isle of Tune is currently available on the web, keep an eye out for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad versions coming soon! If Isle of Tunes inspires your students to want to become architects or engineers, point them toward online CAD Drafting classes.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Isle of Tune in your classroom!

NASA’s 50th Anniversary Flash Feature-best website ever!

April 19, 2011Kelly Tenkely3 Comments4416 views

Have I mentioned lately that I have the most AWESOME readers? No? Well it is true, you all are awesome and you keep me going even when I am running on low. Thank you for that! I’m currently working on starting a school (actually 3) in the next 2 years. This is proving to be an exciting and, oh yeah, exhausting task. Then I get encouraging emails and site suggestions from you all and it puts some major pep back in my step. Thank you! This website is one such recommendation. You know you are a true geek when getting a cool website in your inbox revives you 🙂 Thank you Ryan!

What it is: NASA’s 50th Anniversary Flash feature is a website that is absolutely not to be missed. Seriously, it won’t even hurt my feelings if you skip reading my post and just head right on over to dig in and check it out yourselves! This interactive timeline highlights each decade in our space program from 1950 to 2000. Until we get time travel sorted out, this is a pretty good substitute! The site encourages exploration and discovery as students move decade by decade through the site. I love that this site goes so far beyond just space exploration. While students explore, they will hear music representing each decade, see animations, listen to virtual radio broadcasts of actual news headlines (including NASA news and other news from the decade), original video, listen to speeches of the decade and even launch rockets. I can’t tell you how happy it made me to hear Johnny Cash mixed in as I was playing on this site (in the upper left corner of the site you will be able to change songs on the jukebox, record, tape, CD or mp3 player). First thing I heard when I clicked on the 80’s “Tonight on Dallas find out who shot J.R.”. *LOVE THIS SITE!* This blog post took me about 2 hours because I got sucked right into exploring and playing. The site reminds me of Epcot’s Tomorrow Land, complete with robot guide. This is what online learning should look like, when I close my eyes and dream, this is the experience I imagine for kids. Can you imagine if there was a site like this for history? How cool would that be?!

How to integrate NASA’s 50th Anniversary Flash Feature into the classroom: This is one of those sites that you could let kids loose on just for exploration. Without any guidance from you they will learn plenty! Ideally kids would explore this site in partners or on their own in a one to one computer lab setting. If each student has a computer, headphones will be a necessity. If individual exploration just isn’t in the cards, visit the site as a class with an interactive whiteboard or projector-connected computers. Invite students up to the computer (whiteboard) to take turns guiding the class. The site has plenty of interactive content to give each student a chance at the computer (whiteboard). Unless you have a good chunk of time dedicated to the site, this is one that I would stretch out over a week. Each day students can explore a new decade.

The space exploration component of this site is amazing and could keep everyone plenty busy with learning. With older students, discuss what the music of the decade reveals about that time in history. What does the music tell them about people, community, values, events of the day? Take it one step further and ask students to dig into other historical events in each decade, discussing their impact on space exploration, culture and where we are today. One thing that I missed out on in history was all of the stories that make it so rich. For me, history was reduced to names, dates and places. Give your students the opportunity to put themselves into history and learn about how the events influenced each other.

NASA’s 50th Anniversary Flash Feature would be a great one to use in connection with We Choose the Moon. If your students are like mine, they can’t get enough of this stuff! Obviously I can’t get enough of it either. Full disclosure, I have always loved space exploration. When I was a kid I spent many summers at Black Rock Desert at LDRS (Large Dangerous Rockets) with my dad. My dad built wooden model rockets- first wooden rocket on record to break sound barrier! In answer to your next question: yes, I have always been a complete and total nerd. 😛

Tips: What? Your still here? Go on, visit the site! (channeling my inner Ferris Bueller today).

Please leave a comment and share how you are using NASA’s 50th Anniversary Flash Feature thesauruses in your classroom!

History for Music Lovers: Brilliance

February 8, 2011February 8, 2011Kelly Tenkely7 Comments6606 views

What it is: Thanks to a tip from Jan, an iLearn Technology reader, I learned about the History for Music Lover’s YouTube channel yesterday. Oh. My. Goodness. Instant love. Seriously, if I had learned history this way, I would have rocked it! As it turns out, I actually met @amyburvall, the genius history teacher behind History for Music Lover’s at ISTE 10 in Denver and didn’t make the connection (feeling like a jerk for not figuring that out!). I starred in a video with one of the stars of the MansaMusa video “Magnus” the fashion police guy at ISTE. Small world. You MUST check out this YouTube channel, even if YouTube is blocked in your building. (As a side note…someone remind me WHY we block students from learning opportunities??)

History for Music Lovers is a collection of music videos (high quality I tell ya!) centered around events and people in history set to popular songs. Amy Burvall, IB high school history teacher, is the creator and star of the videos. Coolest history teacher ever. My high school history teacher sang one song to us: I’ve Been Working on the Railroad. True story. It was not engaging, inspiring, or helpful in my learning of history.

On the History for Music Lovers YouTube channel you’ll find:

I think it is awesome that the 80’s is so well represented in this list 🙂 that Amy Burvall is one talented girl!

How to integrate History for Music Lovers into the classroom: This is my new favorite way to introduce a history topic. If this doesn’t grab student attention and leave them wanting to learn more, I don’t know what will. The collection of videos is a fantastic place to start learning. The lyrics give students just enough information that when they begin fleshing out the period or figure in history with additional reading or research they will have a solid base to build from. The lyrics are catchy, students will forever associate William the Conqueror with Sexyback.

Students can embed these videos in their own history Web 2.0 creations and presentations. I’m currently using Capzles with a group of 8th graders and imagine them embedding these videos in their timelines along with images, and their blogged reflections.

Are your students as inspired by music as Ms. Burvall is? Encourage students to tackle a figure or historical time that hasn’t been done yet and create their own historical song parody.

Tips: For those of you who don’t have access to YouTube in your building (again I have to ask why?) you can still use these awesome videos in your classrooms with a little bit of pre-planning. Download and save YouTube videos so that you can show them at school without accessing the YouTube site. Use KeepVid, YouTube DownloaderHD, Kick YouTube, SaveVid, or Zamzar. Some of these tools will even let you download at school if you know the YouTube url. The downloaded video should have no trouble playing at school!

Follow History For Music Lovers, historyteacherz on Facebook and Twitter.

Also, did you know you can become a fan of iLearn Technology on Facebook? It’s true! I don’t have a fancy dancy Twitter account especially for iLearn Tech but feel free to follow me on Twitter. I like talking education, technology, and am in general a geek 🙂

** This is the LONGEST it has ever taken me to write a blog post, I got sucked right in and watched each and every video. On the bright side my knowledge of history has increased substantially today.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using History for Music Lovers videos in your classroom!

Just Doodling: Making Math Relevant for Students

January 11, 2011Kelly Tenkely1 Comment3840 views

What it is: This has got to be one of my new favorite videos on YouTube. I ran across this video and tweeted about it a few weeks ago, but felt that it deserved a blog post. Doodling Stars (above) is a stream of conscious video about doodling in math class instead of learning about factoring. As the video unfolds, you quickly realize that she has learned all about factoring through her doodles. I would have connected in some major ways to this video when I was in school (maybe that is why I like it so much now), it would have given me that “wait that was math?” moment. Doodling Stars is a video by Vi Hart who has a blog where she has other great math videos. Her other videos include: Binary Trees, Snakes + Graphs, Infinity Elephants, and sick number games. Explore the blog a little further and you learn that ViHart is serious about her math. In addition to videos she has mathematical foods, ways to play with balloons as mathematical models, paper instruments (relating music to math), music boxes, bead work, and a variety of other math/music resources. Vi describes herself as a mathemusician, dig into her blog and you will know why!

How to integrate Doodling Videos into the classroom: Math shouldn’t be a subject confined to a textbook, seen only in terms of equations and functions. I think I was in college before I figured out that math was all around me. I had truly never made the connection to the formulas I was learning and their applications in real life. Oh sure, there were the “If you left Denver at 1:05 pm driving an average speed of 63.2 miles per hour and arrived at another point 12 hours later how many miles have you traveled?” But really? That is not real world…I have NEVER calculated any sort of trip that way, and anyway, now there is an app that will give me all of that information if I really want to know. If someone had told me that math was in my doodles, in the music I listened to, in patterns of nature? Now that is something I want to explore more. I’m sure you have students who have never made the connections between the formulas they are learning and the applications that are all around them. These videos will have them visualizing math in a whole new way. Dig a little deeper into Vi’s blog and share her math foods, balloons, and paper instruments. See if your students don’t start viewing math differently! Use Vi’s blog as inspiration for your next math lesson. Use the videos to help introduce or reinforce concepts, or have students complete balloon math models.

Tips: If you can’t access YouTube at school, use a tool like Kick YouTube or Keepvid to download the video for offline viewing.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Doodling in Math Class Videos in your classroom.

Rock Our World: Using music to collaborate and change the world

January 3, 2011Kelly Tenkely7 Comments3485 views

What it is: Rock Our World has one goal, to give students authentic global collaboration opportunities by connecting them with music. Rock Our World has been doing just that since 2004. Students and teachers collaborate in composing original music, making movies, and meeting each other in live video chats. Using GarageBand (Apple), each country creates a 30 second drum beat. Every Friday, the drum created rotates to another country, where the bass guitar is added. It gets passed from country to country with another instrument added at each stop. When it gets back to the original country, it is an original piece of music that has been created with the help of kids around the world.

While the music is being passed from country to country, students have opportunities to meet and discuss various topics of curriculum in live video chats. Incredible companies have been involved in this project including Apple, Fablevision, Discovery, American Film Institute, Smart Technologies, NASA, Visual Learning Company, Lintor Publishing, Mariner Software, actor Will Smith and more. Pretty impressive!

Applications for Rock Our World will be accepted for pre-kindergarten through university in January. You can sign up for membership by providing your email address to be alerted to the exact date you can begin applying.

How to integrate Rock Our World into the classroom: This is an incredible opportunity for your students to work and collaborate with other students around the world. Not only will your students be learning and interacting with new cultures, they will also be learning more about music. Your students will be a part of creating a unique song by adding their piece to it. At the end, each country will have a song touched by students around the world. How cool is that?!

It would be really neat at the end of the project to create an iMovie of the final song that includes the globe animation zooming into each country as their bit of the song is played and including a slideshow of students from each country.

Tips: Take a look at previous projects by clicking on the “Media” tab.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Rock Our World in your classroom.