Skip to main content

S6: E114 Nine Tech Tools I Plan to Use This Year

Season 6
Episode 114
Nine Tech Tools I Plan to Use This Year



Online.  Hybrid.  In-person.  No matter what your teaching situation technology is bound to be a part of it.  I’ve put together a list of nine tech tools that I’ve either used successfully or am beginning to use that I think might be beneficial for you as well.  All of our situations are different and I hope that at least one tool will spark interest for you.








1 - Screencastify/Screencastomatic: https://www.screencastify.com/

Create videos of your screen or of yourself or both!  All you need is a computer or laptop.  Great way to teach content and to allow students to learn from you.

2 - Pear Deck: https://www.peardeck.com/

Formative assessment

Real-time interaction and responses

Works alongside Google Slides

Customize interactive prompts during presentations

Free Version includes: ready-to-teach templates, keeping students in-sync with locks and timers, help with controlling pact of class and project student answers anonymously, interactive questions, polls, quizzes, formative assessments and more


3 - Flat.io - music notation: https://flat.io/

Free version allows you to create 15 scores and allows you to try it out

Yearly cost currently is $49 or you can pay monthly for $6.99

Customize instruments, create scores, advanced notations, exporting, printing, all sorts of sizing

Check with your school technologist as this may be something they can open up for you on your school account!


4 - Hyperdocs: https://hyperdocs.co/

One of the science teachers at my school  - Cindy Barnes - uses Hyperdocs brilliantly.  I was able to see this done throughout our distance learning since my daughter had her last year.  I loved how the document had different sections and she could pre-plan content with links right inside of the document.  There was only one place my daughter had to go to do her work and it was all there.  I’m still figuring this one out and in fact, I have a session online about it tomorrow where I’ll learn more.  Here’s what I do understand:

Sections of a hyperion may include: Engage - Explore - Explain - Apply - Share - Reflect - Extend. These were the five sections that Cindy used.  Then she’d assign one or more parts of the hyperdoc each class after teaching content.  

There are templates available or you can create your own.  It works great with Google Drive.

There are free courses you can take online to help you navigate how to set it up and get going.


5 - Flipgrid: https://info.flipgrid.com/ 


6 - Soundtrap: https://www.soundtrap.com/


7 - WeVideo: https://www.wevideo.com/


8 - Chrome Music Lab: https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/

My favorite is the song maker.


9 - Mural: https://www.mural.co/

I attended an online session a few weeks ago and found it really fun!  You can use templates or create your own.  It’s a great place for brainstorming, responding in groups, working online together, and even collaborating with other teachers.  And it’s free!  Students can respond to posted questions, evaluate musical terms, add virtual sticky notes with questions or thoughts about what they’re learning, insert pictures… so much potential.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Recorder: What to do with Hot Cross Buns

Hot Cross Buns... it might be the bane of your existence, a song to start with students with B-A-G on the recorders that really doesn't affect you one way or the other, or a great song to use that is simplistic and gets the job done.  No matter what your feeling on it, it's likely that you've used it because it is effective at teaching simple rhythms, B-A-G and giving students a great starting place when learning recorder.  Personally, I find it useful but I'm honestly tired of it.  I decided to do something new with it this summer and wanted to change it so that it was more musical.  For many days of my summer break I spent time in the morning playing the recorder.  I wrote down melodies I had improvised and liked, played with modes and scales, added unpitched percussion parts/piano/guitar chords and enjoyed seeing what could be done.  Not all of the pieces were very good but it was a great creative way to figure out some solutions for recorder pitch sets, rhythms an

S6: E127 Mini Soundtrap Project

 Season 6 Episode 127 Mini Soundtrap Project In the last few episodes I’ve shared some Soundtrap lesson ideas that I created and used with students.  Podcasts, Fictional Character Themes, Found Sounds, and Poem with Loops.  Check out the resources provided for each of these lessons in the show notes or on the blog. Today’s episode is about a simple Soundtrap project that could be done as a collaboration by several students or by an individual in whatever time frame you provide.  The benefit of this lesson is that it’s incredibly flexible.  It could be done in as little as 20 minutes or as much as 45 minutes or more.  The idea is to allow students to create a piece containing a specific amount of loops that includes an introduction and ending.  Like I said super simple.  This might be a great way to introduce students to loops and even form structure depending on how you set up your rubric.   This was a lesson I used while I was out this past week and needed something that a substitu

S4: E107 Active Listening Through Storytelling and Classical Music with Robert Franz

Season Four Episode 107 Active Listening with Robert Franz Robert Franz Website Stella's Magical Musical Balloon Ride Ted Talk: Active Listening and Our Perception of Time Robert Franz Bio: Acclaimed conductor, Robert Franz, recognized as "an outstanding musician with profound intelligence," has held to three principles throughout his career: a commitment to the highest artistic standards, to creating alliances and building bridges in each community he serves, and a dedication to being a strong force in music education.  As Music Director of the Windsor Symphony Orchestra and Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival Orchestra, Associate Conductor of the Houston Symphony, and newly appointed Artistic Advisor of the Boise Baroque Orchestra, he has achieved success through his focus on each of these principles. His appeal as a first-rate conductor and enthusiastic award-winning educator is acclaimed by critics, composers, and audiences of all ages.  Composer Bright S