Amy M. Burns

Elementary Music Technology and Integration

Amy M. Burns has taught PreK-grade 4 general music for over 25 years at Far Hills Country Day School (FH) (https://www.fhcds.org/). She also teaches grade 5 instrument class, directs the FH Philharmonic, is the Performing Arts Department Manager, and teaches privately in the after-school conservatory after being the director for over 20 years. She has authored four books and numerous articles on how to integrate tech into the elementary music classroom. She has presented many sessions on the topic, including four keynote addresses in TX, IN, St. Maarten, and AU. She is the recipient of the 2005 Technology in Music Education (TI:ME) Teacher of the Year, the 2016 New Jersey Music Educators Association (NJMEA) Master Music Teacher, the 2016 Governor’s Leader in Arts Education, and the 2017 NJ Nonpublic School Teacher of the Year Awards. Her most recent publication, Using Technology with Elementary Music Approaches (2020), published by Oxford University Press (OUP) is available from OUP and Amazon. Burns is also the Community Coordinator for Midnight Music (MMC) at https://midnightmusic.com/, the General Music Chair for NJMEA Board of Directors, and the Elementary Music Consultant for MusicFirst (https://www.musicfirst.com/), a company built by music educators for music educators, dedicated to helping music teachers and their students make the most of technology in the classroom.

3rd Grade Music and Science: STEM to STEAM

February 01, 2022  /  Amy M. Burns

Since the spring of 2014, Jen Wagar (FHCDS science teacher) and I collaborated on a STEAM project that involved third graders using recycled materials to create instruments that they would use to perform their two-part compositions. In science and music classes, the students learned about sound, pitch, sound waves, vibrations, instrumental materials, and ensembles such as the New York Philharmonic, the FHCDS Philharmonic, and the ArtEco Band. This helped them discover how to make a working instrument that could produce sound and pitches with recycled materials. They also used their knowledge of composition to compose a melody using the notes G A and B on the treble clef staff using quarter, eighth, half, and whole notes. To add another element of integration, the students wrote lyrics to their melodies using facts they learned from their “Adventure America” social studies unit.

At the end of the unit, the students performed their songs using recorders, hand-made guitars, and hand-made drums. 

To read two blog posts about this project, please scan the qr codes in the photo gallery above.

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