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: Grade 4

Countdown to 2023-10 Tech Tools or Tips for Elementary and Middle School General Music: #2 The trick of adding - between the t and the u in the URL

#2 The trick of adding - between the t and the u in the URL

This is a quick video for #2. And “oldie but goodie” tip.

This is a trick that sometimes works, but not all of the time. To make the YouTube video become full screen with no ads, no comments, and no videos that will play right after, take the YouTube video’s URL that you would like to show, add a - between the t and u, and refresh the screen.

There are a lot of other ways to do this. Another way is to load the YouTube video you would like to show, click on the share button, and click on embed. A large iframe code appears. Click copy and paste the iframe into a new tab. Look for where the https begins and the URL ends, usually with letters. Delete the other items so you have a URL in the tab. Click refresh and the video is now embedded onto the screen with no ads, comments, etc.

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Holiday Medley Rhythm Play-Along from 2021 with Downloadable Teaching Manipulatives

Last year, I created a mashup of popular holiday songs from holidays celebrated in the States during the month of December. This year, I include slides for you to teach the rhythm patterns and musical elements that are found in the play-along. Read for more and if you like my resources, please consider buying me a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech

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Being Thankful/Giving Thanks/Thanksgiving Music Activities

Need musical activities for early childhood and elementary classes for this shortened week? Take a look at the Being Thankful/Giving Thanks/Thanksgiving Music Activities Wakelet (https://wakelet.com/wake/zeVd8qvk_TuEbRCXzbL4I) and read the blog to see some of the highlights from the Wakelet!

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October Elementary Music Wakelet: Pumpkins, Corn, and Play-Alongs, Oh My!

Need an elementary fall-themed video for preschool through grades 4? Or a Halloween-themed video? Rhythm Play-along? Boomwhacker? Song? Games? Look no further! Here is a Wakelet, along with a YouTube webisode and blog to give examples of how they can be used in the classroom this season!

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We Are Dancing In The Forest Kodály and Orff Schulwerk Inspired Play-Along (Boomwhackers, Percussion, Recorder, and Ukulele) and Manipulatives

This is the fifth installment of my summer project of creating play-along videos of songs and concepts found in the Kodály and Orff Schulwerk approaches. This week, I feature We Are Dancing In The Forest Play-Along (Boomwhackers, Percussion, and Recorder) video.

Each video (found on my YouTube page) will be accompanied by lesson manipulatives. The lesson manipulatives can be found on my Teachers Pay Teachers page starting in September (these free manipulatives are now showing up on my TPT page). Up until then, you can have them for free (as seen below and beginning to show up on my TPT page). This gives you the opportunity to use the video for free to work well with your classroom approach or purchase the lesson that goes along with the video on my TPT page. Either way, the videos are free to use in your classroom.

Google slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1fHjgrbaRpyIiBY6aLjXf0XuRk8G-96EGEj94rr9w2_w/copy

PDF File: https://drive.google.com/file/d/10_7A9PKoapFKYa7ZvIojoJ55OizNpaY9/view?usp=sharing

Seesaw Activity: https://app.seesaw.me/pages/shared_activity?prompt_id=prompt.49b4ebe7-65bd-48d8-802f-a95ce1a54873&share_token=DmycA2--QjqHlOUx6gERkw

YouTube Play-Along Video: https://youtu.be/hCwj2SRlunY

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Long-Legged Sailor Play-Along (Boomwhackers, Percussion, and Recorder) and Manipulatives

This is the fourth installment of my summer project of creating play-along videos of songs and concepts found in the Kodály and Orff Schulwerk approaches. This week, I feature the Long-Legged Sailor Play-Along (Boomwhackers, Percussion, and Recorder) video.

Each video (found on my YouTube page) will be accompanied by lesson manipulatives. The lesson manipulatives can be found on my Teachers Pay Teachers page starting in September (these free manipulatives are now showing up on my TPT page). Up until then, you can have them for free (as seen below and beginning to show up on my TPT page). This gives you the opportunity to use the video for free to work well with your classroom approach or purchase the lesson that goes along with the video on my TPT page. Either way, the videos are free to use in your classroom.

Here are the resources and blog of the lesson plan:

Blog: http://amymburns.com/elmusedtech/lls

Google Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1yZc3cVj3E5cecZ8lBgcx0KsRdEhQlcXopEJMAfvgyXw/copy

Seesaw Activity: https://app.seesaw.me/pages/shared_activity?prompt_id=prompt.ef00279b-e26e-4235-a8ea-94d66cb93e73&share_token=rfB59kRcRnKJQVr-jd5TXQ

PDF of Slides: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aEsBUC9yEyPGZ6fiBMnAagNL_6ZjYV85/view?usp=sharing

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Rhythm Play-Along: Happy Birthday!

This video is for birthday celebrations if you can celebrate them in your music classroom. This video will cover all of your students' birthdays throughout the school year. Like my videos? Please consider buying me a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/elmusedtech The musical concepts covered are 3-meter, 4-meter, accents, quarter, half, dotted half, whole, and eighth notes, along with triplets.

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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.