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.

I was today's years old when I found out...

December 03, 2024  /  Amy M. Burns

You know those moments when you discover something so simple yet life-changing, and you just sit there wondering how you've been surviving without it? Well, folks, today was that day for me.

I am embarrassed to say that I was today years old when I found out that Google Sheets has a text wrapping feature. Yes, you read that right. Apparently, this magical little button has been hanging out right under my nose, quietly waiting for me to notice it. Like that one friend who casually mentions they’ve had Beyoncé’s phone number this whole time.

Here’s the thing: I’ve been living in a world of text chaos. For years, every time I typed anything longer than “shopping list” into a cell, it would spill out like spaghetti on a toddler's plate, overflowing into neighboring cells with zero respect for boundaries. I’d squint, resize columns, and mutter things like, “Why are spreadsheets so cruel?”

Then, today, it happened. I accidentally clicked on the text wrap icon. (Spoiler alert: it looks like a tiny rectangle with an arrow.) My cell text obediently folded itself into neat little lines that fit perfectly inside the cell! I felt like I'd just discovered fire. Or sliced bread. Or how to properly fold a fitted sheet.

For anyone else who’s been struggling out there in the spreadsheet wild west, let me save you the trouble:

  1. Highlight the offending cells with overflowing text.

  2. Click the text wrap button in the toolbar (it’s right next to where you adjust text alignment).

  3. Watch your unruly words sit down, behave, and stay inside their cell like they’ve been trained at spreadsheet obedience school.

So here I am, a changed person. My Google Sheets are no longer chaotic wastelands of truncated thoughts and sideways text. They are organized, polite, and—dare I say it—pretty.

Moral of the story: sometimes life’s greatest joys come in the form of tiny rectangle buttons. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have an overdue spreadsheet makeover to tackle. Text wrapping for everyone! 🎉

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