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.

Have You Checked Out Midnight Music's GarageBand/Soundtrap/Bandlab Course?

July 10, 2022  /  Amy M. Burns

Have you checked out Midnight Music's GarageBand/Soundtrap/Bandlab Course? This new course from Katie Wardrobe’s Midnight Music will give you lessons for using these specific apps with middle or high school students.

What is the course about?

From the website: “The collection of lessons will include: creating simple raps, found sound compositions, reimagining the Blues, sampling and remixing, film scoring and video game composition. Each lesson will include extension options for those students who need an extra challenge.”

Here is a sneak preview:

Do I need to join the course live or online for a certain hour per week?

Nope! You can take and complete this course in your PJs when the time is convenient for you. This is a perfect Summer PD project, or a goal to complete over a school year.

Which app should I use?

This depends on your teaching situation, your IT support, your students’ devices, and your comfort in using the app. GarageBand is specific to MAC and Katie will be using the version made for the laptop and not the iPad. She does have a course for the iPad that she taught a few years back and is available. Bandlab EDU (the educational version) is free, students can collaborate on projects, and is web-based. There is no iOS app for the educational version. Soundtrap EDU is web-based, students can collaborate on projects, has great podcasting tools, and is not free, but is subscription-based. They also have an iOS app, but it is very limiting.

Katie wrote an article to help one with the options to make a choice that fits their needs.

How do I sign up?

To learn more, you can go here to sign up for more details as the course just launched!

I am very excited about this course as I am creating the video instruction for the Soundtrap portion of the course. But, I will be able to learn more about Bandlab, which is one app I have not explored, and am curious to know more.

categories / Music Creativity, Middle School, High School
tags / #summerpd, #middleschool, #highschool, #soundtrap, #garageband, #mused, #bandlab, #edtech

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