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.

Filtering by Category: Elementary

#techtiptuesday Using Canva's Magic (AI) Tools for Five Little Pumpkins - Song/Embellished Story/Play-Along

October 15, 2024  /  Amy M. Burns

In the past, I researched Canva's AI tools and had it rewrite the song, Five Little Pumpkins, and turn it into a whimsical tale. It was amusing, to say the least. I had fun using Canva to illustrate and record that tale. Most of this video was produced in Canva, with the recording of the song done in Soundtrap, and the final edits to put the three videos together in Final Cut Pro.

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categories / #elmusedtech, Boomwhackers, Elementary, Kindergarten, Play-Along Videos, Preschool, YouTube
tags / #elmused, #elementarymusicteacher, #edtech, #kindergarten, #playalong, #preschool, #elementarymusicteacherlife, #elementary, #elmused tech

New to MusicFirst Elementary? This video will help you with the documentation found inside the curriculum!

November 05, 2023  /  Amy M. Burns

The wise folks at MusicFirst Elementary (MFE) Powered by Charanga have crafted a treasure trove of docs to help you get the most out of their program. If you are new to the program, use this video to assist you with getting started!

  • 0:00-:31 Introduction

  • 0:31-1:05 Getting Started with MusicFirst Elementary (wonderful to read as the introduction to the world of MFE)

  • 1:05-1:20 MusicFirst Elementary Summary (Data about MFE to share with administrators, families, etc.)

  • 1:20-1:41 MusicFirst Elementary National Standards Alignment (Showcases how you are meeting each standard at every grade level)

  • 1:41-2:15 MusicFirst Elementary Curriculum Design (Use the principles outlined in this document to enhance your program)

  • 2:15-2:46 Scope and Sequence (You can use this to check the melodic pitch sets and rhythmic values for each grade level)

  • 2:46-3:05 My Workspace: Setting Up Students and Yumu (see the full video here: https://youtu.be/p3f6_XCuqhc?si=9sL9he4RvB2H4LMO )

  • 3:05-3:40 Musical Spotlights (You can use this to find extensions for lessons, outlines for teaching concert music, and as a springboard for other lessons and unit ideas)

  • 3:40-4:11 Social Themes (Many Essential Questions can be found here)

  • 4:11-4:36 Guided Questions Bank: K-5 (Use these as writing prompts and for writing samples in your older elementary music classes)

  • 4:36-4:53 Documentation found at the top of each grade level

  • 4:53-5:28 Learning Objectives and Content by Musical Element

  • 5:28-5:40 Learning Objectives by Activity (In grades 3, 4, and 5, Music Notepad is added) 5:40-5:46 National Standards Alignment (Checklists)

  • 5:46-6:06 Curriculum Map (Download and give to administrators)

  • 6:06-6:29 Musical Progression Guide (Each song is listed by grade level, pitch set, rhythmic value, activity, and more)

  • 6:29-7:40 Assessments (Checklists, Printables, and more)

  • 7:40-8:18 Creative Tools (A brief overview of the documentation included with the creative tools)

  • 8:18-end Conclusion

What to learn more?

Check out the 16 videos about everything MusicFirst has to offer and a deep dive into the curriculum and creative tools!


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categories / #edtech, #elmusedtech, MusicFirst Elementary, Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3, Grade 4, Grade 5, Elementary, Preschool, Kindergarten
tags / #elmused, #elementarymusicteacher, #kindergarten, #musicfirstelementary

Tech Tips #4 - Canva's presentation tools/goodies to use in the music classroom!

July 11, 2023  /  Amy M. Burns

It's Day #4 of my week of #techtips for #music #education, especially #elementarymusicteacherlife! Today's tech tips show some fun presenter tools in Canva that can intuitively be used in the music classroom. Check back for more tech tips this week!

Like my resources? Please consider buying me a coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech

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categories / #edtech, #elmusedtech, Elementary, Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3, Grade 4, Grade 5, Kindergarten, Preschool, Webinar, Tech Tip
tags / #elmused, #elementarymusicteacher, #techtip, #kindergarten, #edtech, #free, #elementarymusicteacherlife

In the Mood Play-Along (Advanced) for Jazz Appreciation Month

April 10, 2023  /  Amy M. Burns

This new play-along is challenging! The tempo is quick, there are a lot of chromatic notes, the rhythm has a lot of playing on the offbeats, and the play-along encourages one to look ahead when performing it. I would highly suggest slowing down the tempo on YouTube by clicking on the settings choosing the “Playback speed” and slowing it down to 0.75 or 0.50.” Or use the “Transpose ▲▼ pitch ▹ speed ▹ loop for videos” Chrome extension that will allow you to change the pitch and key of most YouTube videos. In addition, I would use the screenshots/file found here in the blog post so that your students can practice this before trying it with the video.

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categories / Boomwhackers, #edtech, Elementary, High School, Grade 5, Grade 4, Middle School, Play-Along Videos, YouTube, Jazz
tags / #middleschool, #elementarymusicteacherlife, #jazzappreciationmonth, #boomwhackers, #playalong

Canva's "Brand New Era" and Examples of it used for Music Class

March 28, 2023  /  Amy M. Burns

Canva’s “Brand New Era” was launched this past week. If you noticed, Canva had ten gift-wrapped boxes that when you unwrapped them, showed you some new tools and fun tutorials for you to use to explore those tools. As I worked my way through the tutorials, I realized that many of these will be useful in our music classrooms. Here are some ways to use these new items. Check out the blog and webinar video to see some examples and ideas on how to use these new features in the music classroom.

To check out more, read Canva’s blog here or check out a deep dive here when they launched it this week.

Like my resources? Please consider buying me a coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech/

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categories / #edtech, #elmusedtech, Canva, Elementary, Middle School, High School, Tech Tip, Webinar
tags / #elmused, #elementarymusicteacher, #free, #edtech, #elementarymusicteacherlife, #middleschool, #highschool, #elementary, #canva

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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.