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.

Best of Pandemic #Elmused Tech Episode 5: Seesaw

October 24, 2021  /  Amy M. Burns

Seesaw (web.seesaw.me) has been an amazing tool during the pandemic for music educators. Many of us used it before the pandemic, but when the lockdown occurred, numerous schools assigned Seesaw as a platform for #elmused to use to teach music. It consists of numerous tools to enhance advocacy, teaching, showcasing items, and so much more. Here are some examples of how Seesaw can continue to be used post-pandemic.

Advocacy

Seesaw has the capability of connecting the students’ journals with the students’ caregivers and families. It shows the families that music is more than concert preparation as you can add videos from class to their journals, showcase their assessments, their retrieval practices, and more. It delivers this all to the families’ mobile devices. And, you, the music educator, are the gatekeeper that allows what items can be posted for the families to see.

Seesaw Activities

There is a library of 100s to 1000s of lessons/activities that are made by educators for other educators to use. By performing a search, you can find many music activities filtered by grade level. These activities range the gamut from note reading to recording themselves singing.

Tools

Seesaw provides the students with various tools to help them respond to activities or to post to their journals using multiple modalities. These tools are recording audio, recording video, screen recording, adding links, adding pictures, taking notes via writing or audio, uploading videos/audio/pdfs/jpgs, and using a drawing tool that integrates the other tools into it. It gives the student a platform for them to reflect, express, and learn in a way that works well for them to succeed. It also helps you by giving your shyest student a safe place to record a solo. Plus, if you need recordings for virtual performances, Seesaw can be a tool to acquire those recordings.

Pricing

Seesaw is free+. You can begin with the free version and do all of what I stated above. To upgrade to Seesaw Plus (individual subscription) or Seesaw for Schools (where the school pays per student) gives you more activities to save, more classes to use it with, and allows you to keep track of the students’ progress.

Seesaw Courses

Seesaw is currently holding its annual conference, Seesaw Connect, from July 26-August 13. There are sessions available for all and mini-courses only available to Seesaw Learning Community (which involves becoming a Seesaw Pioneer, Ambassador, or Certified Educator). One of the sessions available for all is one I created titled, “Elementary Music + Seesaw = Success!”. Check it out today!

I am also running a Seesaw for Music Teachers Course through Midnight Music, which can be taken, asynchronously, at your own pace and timing.

categories / Seesaw, Pandemic, #elmusedtech
tags / #elmused, #elementarymusicteacher, #elementarymusicteacherlife, #edtech

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Any info, student examples, pictures, graphics, etc, may be used with permission. Please contact me personally before using any info, student examples, pictures, graphics, etc.