Augmented Reality

So I've always felt like I live in a bit of augmented reality, but I should be clear that today's blog post is actually about the technology kind.....

At tech training this summer, I went to a session covering augmented reality or AR as it is sometimes known. All I can say is WOW. This stuff blew my mind. There are several AR apps to choose from - some free, some not. There are some kits to buy as well, such as Osmo....I like that one a lot! It is so much fun! As great as they are for the general classroom, they aren't quite as applicable in the music room. (Unless you have tons of free time to really, really use some creative license in your curriculum...I don't have that much wiggle room in the schedule!)

This week, I found a pretty good use for one called ColAR Mix. I had to miss a day this week and needed a fail-proof sub plan for a non-musical sub. I thought a musical story book and a quick AR coloring sheet to go along with the book would be perfect. I don't normally do this kind of lesson, but I thought it would be a perfect way to introduce the kids (and parents) to some new technology! ColAR Mix's website provides a handful of free worksheets to go along with basic app and provides the directions already at the bottom of the worksheet. So when the kids took their worksheet home at the end of the day, the parents could follow the directions to get the app themselves. (I told them if they don't have a device at home, they can bring it back and I'll show them what it does.)

So I chose the book "De Paseo por la Selva" with CD included so the sub didn't have to sing it. It is full of great animal sounds, which is wonderful for vocal explorations. Not to mention it has a woman's solo voice, a man's solo voice and then a chorus of voices. This is perfect for differentiating between various voices and timbres. Cross-curriculur-wise (is that a word?!), the main character travels to the jungle, the desert, the mountain, the ocean, the river, and more. All of this is in Spanish, but even my non-Spanish speakers could figure out the basics of the story by following the pictures and animal sounds. The song is very catchy as well!

I then paired it with the tropical bird coloring sheet from ColAR. I left directions for the sub to ask them to imagine that the main character had met this bird on her travels. What color is it? What sound would it make? Does it have a song that it sings? Once it was colored, they could take it home, follow the directions at the bottom, and bring it to life.

When I returned to school, I felt a bit bad that some kids got to do this cool lesson and the others didn't....so I continued it today! I'm so glad I did too because they really had a great time. And it was so fun to hear them give voices to their birds. I also got to see their reactions to the AR in person. I was able to activate their birds in class rather than just sending the coloring sheets home. Take a look:

This is not the greatest video; I had my iPad in one hand, and getting this video on my iPhone with the other hand. Multitasking at its best. Sort of. :) If you're careful, you can even put your hand in front of the camera and make it look like the bird is sitting on your finger. The kids just went crazy for that!

So give some AR a try if you have a chance! Even if you're just exploring it for yourself or your children at home for fun, these apps are unbelievable. 

Thoughts on Second Grade Rhythmic Centers

Since my post about my centers was getting long and my day was being cut short by classes and an afternoon trip to the vet (have you ever taken a bearded dragon to the doctor? wacky stuff)....this is part two, my thoughts on how it went. Hopefully if anyone out there is reading and wanting to try this stuff, you won't make my mistakes or will make even better improvements on things that went well!

First of all, I have to just get it out: in many ways, I'm a control freak in the classroom. Yes, I said it. I know musicians are supposed to play well with others (ha ha, see what I did there?) and I do, but we also know how to pick up a conductor's baton and take charge. I had a hard time letting my students just go and do their thing on their own...that was so unsettling! This is something that "regular" classroom teachers have been doing all along, but it's not something that I'm accustomed to in my room due to the nature of my usual constraints. My main issue: I cringed each time I heard a wrong rhythm in the background. How do you deal with that? We can't possibly correct every one of them. I checked around at each station and guided but tried not to hover too much. The sound level of all the different activities at once was difficult to hear as well. And let's not even get into how they man-handled my handmade manipulatives....

Other than that, this particular grade level worked well with each other. That alone worried me and it was all surprisingly fine! I made careful groups ahead of time with the iPad app iDoceo and that really helped. I only ended up making one switch. I also plan on ordering some headphones and a 5-way splitter soon and adding a listening station next time. That will be some simple dictation perhaps?

This afternoon, I'm starting some third grade centers for practicing syncopation. The centers are very similar, just different rhythms (since they did not play these activities as second graders). Instead of Bad Apple on the projector though, they'll get an I Spy PowerPoint, and some writing practice.