KELLY RILEY'S ONLINE CLASSROOM

If you attended the Music Tech Fun Day on October 21 and have not yet completed the survey, please click here to help TI:ME improve future offerings.

Below are downloads and links for my session on SMART Board Basics presented at the TI:ME Central Ohio Music Tech Fun Day.

To open SMART Notebook files, you will need the software. To download SMART Notebook, click here and choose your platform and version. This will give you a free 30-day trial. To fully activate the software, you need a Product Key which can be found on the back of any registered SMART Board.

For a copy of the SMART Notebook file used in my presentation, click here.

For additional links and resources, please refer to my earlier blog post, SMART Boards in the Elementary Music Classroom.

Information on the other presenters' sessions can be found below.

Mrs. Robertson's Music Room

Elaine shared sessions on web apps for music education and creating a spooky soundtrack with GarageBand.

Tom Jordan is Wired for Sound

Tom presented sessions on working with Audacity free sound editing software and iPad apps for music education.

In preparation for the new school year, I have archived last year's Washington Elementary composers of the month here as a blog post. As you revisit these composers, are there any requests for composers for the upcoming year? Like last year, I will be working with Mr. Stevens, our art teacher, to try to find commonalities between the composer and artist of the month. I have not picked any specific composers yet, so I am open to suggestions! If you are a Washington student or parent, please comment below with your ideas and why you would like to learn more about the composers you list. Thanks!

March & April: Camille Saint-Saëns (October 9, 1835 – December 16, 1921).

Here are the Amazon links to both of the Carnival of the Animals books we looked at in music classes: Jack Prelutsky and Mary GrandPre version, Barrie C. Turner and Sue Williams version. We also listened to Saint-Saëns's Danse Macabre, a scary piece that is often played around Halloween. Here is a podcast from Classics for Kids about Halloween music that includes Danse Macabre.

February: Duke Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974).

Here is the Amazon link to the book about Duke Ellington's life that we read in most music classes, as well as the book about the history of African-American music. Here is an excellent website from Carnegie Hall with an interactive timeline of African-American music.

December & January: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (May 7, 1840 – November 6, 1893).

You can listen to some podcasts about Tchaikovsky and his Nutcracker ballet here. Here is the Amazon link to the picture book version of The Nutcracker that grades 1-3 read in music class.

November: Eric Whitacre (born January 2, 1970).

Some of our favorite pieces by Eric Whitacre include Animal Crackers Vols. 1 and 2, With a Lily in Your Hand, and Sleep. Here is information on Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir. The new Virtual Choir 2.0 Sleep video has been released and can be viewed below!

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/21971101 w=500&h=400]

October: Charles Ives (October 20, 1874 – May 19, 1954).

Here is the Amazon link to the picture book we read in music class, What Charlie Heard by Mordicai Gerstein. And here are the Classics for Kids podcasts about Charles Ives.

At a professional development session, my building literacy coach and I presented on how to create a podcast listening library for your classroom or school. Here is our sample reading, We Are in a Book (An Elephant & Piggie Book) by Mo Willems.

[audio http://www.klsriley.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/We-Are-in-a-Book.mp3]

Creating a podcast with GarageBand '08

GarageBand makes it easy to record and edit your own audio podcast files. Here are the steps to creating your own podcast.

From the start up screen, choose Create New Podcast Episode.

GarageBand will open up with a few tracks already created for you:

• Podcast Track: this is the track where you can add chapter markers and images for an enhanced podcast (we won't be using that feature for our Podcast Listening Library)
• Male Voice: this track is optimized for male voices
• Female Voice: this track is optimized for female voices
• Jingles: use this track to add background music

We will only be using one audio track for a read-aloud podcast, so we can delete the tracks we don't need. To delete a track, click on it once to select it and select Track > Delete Track.

To record the audio for your podcast:

• Select the vocal track by clicking on it once.
• Click on the Record button below the timeline or press the letter R on your keyboard to start recording.
• When you’re finished recording, click on the Record button again, or press the letter R on your keyboard.
• Click on the Play button or press the Space Bar on your keyboard to stop the playhead.
• To preview the recording, first use the controls below the timeline to move the playhead to the beginning of the track, and then click on the Play button. To stop playback, click on the Play button again or press the Space Bar on your keyboard.

Each time you press the Record button, GarageBand creates a new region in the track you have selected starting from the playhead. The Track Editor allows you to edit the track region to remove mistakes, unwanted sounds, or excess dead air space. To remove a section of a recording in the Track Editor:

• Select the region you want to edit by clicking on it once.
• Click on the Track Editor button.
• When the Track Editor opens, position your pointer somewhere in the lower part of the waveform (until it turns into crosshairs) and drag to make a selection.
• Hit the delete key to delete the highlighted section.
• To close the gap, drag the region to the right of the gap in the timeline until it is next to the previous region.

Note: Be careful to not drag regions over each other, as this will cause one region to overwrite the contents of the one below it. GarageBand ’08 can close the gap when you delete a region. To delete a region and close the gap, choose Edit > Delete and Move.

Some other helpful editing tools are the Split and Join options in the Edit menu. If you want to add something to the middle of a region, move the playhead to where you would like to insert new audio, then choose Edit > Split. This will create a new region beginning at the playhead. Slide the regions after the split to the right to create a space for the new material. (Be careful to not drag regions over each other!) Once you have edited the regions and have them lined up the way you want them, you can choose Edit > Join to turn two regions into one, avoiding the possibility of dragging regions over each other.

When you are finished editing your podcast, it is time to export it as an audio file.

• Select Share > Export Song to Disk.
• Choose the encoder you want to use (MP3, is a more universal format that only supports audio; AAC, is an Apple format that supports chapter markers and images).
• Click on Export and choose the location on your computer where you want to save the podcast file, then click on Save.

Now you are ready to upload your audio file to your school or classroom podcast site. By adding your read-alouds to a podcast site, your students can listen to them in iTunes on a school computer, at home, or even download them to their iPods! In Hilliard, to get a podcast site, all you need to do is contact your tech teacher to set up an account. For our podcast listening library at Washington Elementary, I elected to have a school site created, rather than a personal one so that multiple users can upload to the same podcast. You can subscribe to the Washington Elementary podcasts, by clicking on the podcasts tab at the top of the page.

Handouts

Some of my favorite listening lessons are from Camille Saint-Saëns's Carnival of the Animals. My youngest students like guessing what animal Saint-Saëns was trying to portray with the different instrument sounds and musical styles. I have found that they are very intuitive listeners and can often guess the correct animals! With first graders, I lead the students in describing the pitch, style, and tempo, then discussing what animal that might be. After they get the hang of that, I let the kids act out their guesses for the next animal song, and finally draw a picture for a third. They ask over and over to "play the Carnival of the Animals game."

For the past few years I have introduced orchestra instruments in the second grade because it ties in so nicely with the second grade curriculum for physical science (Ohio Academic Content Standards: K-12 Science,  p. 67). We talk a lot about how instruments from the different families change their pitch and volume, and I play lots of listening examples. Many of my examples are reviewed from Carnival of the Animals. There are no brass instruments used in any of the short pieces, but quite a few feature specific instruments (Fossils=xylophone, Cuckoo in the Woods=clarinet, Elephant=double bass, Swan=cello).

In third grade, we need to review the orchestra families and instruments, but I never found a meaningful way to approach it... until now! Saint-Saëns was my composer of the month for March, so we were listening to Carnival of the Animals anyway. It opened the door to discussing the instruments and how the composer used them to create the impression of the different animals. The kids, of course, were already pros at this discussion after being exposed to the pieces in first and second grade. One of the third grade classes decided that they wanted to come up with their own ideas for new animals. I sent them home with the instructions to brainstorm animals they would like to "compose" for. I subsequently did the same with the other two third grade classes. During the next class period, we made a ridiculously long list of animals on the SMART Board. I broke the kids up into groups of four or five, and they had to decide unanimously on the animal they would be "composing" for. This took some serious negotiation in a few groups. Once an animal had been chosen, it couldn't be chosen by any other group, even in the other classes.

Since we didn't actually have the resources (or the time, with only a few weeks of school left) to compose for orchestra instruments, I asked the kids to design posters for their animals, indicating the instruments they would choose to represent each animal. Once the animals were selected, the kids drew a scene on scrap paper of their animal and the instruments they would choose to represent it. Many groups asked me to play clips of specific instruments, to project images of instruments or animals, to look up their animal's habitat or diet, and for my opinion of their instrument choices. I was blown away by how detailed the posters were becoming!

These third graders were so articulate as to why they chose specific instrument sounds, that I knew this had to be more than just a poster project. The final few class periods were devoted to finishing a final copy of their poster, writing a short script about their animal and instrument choices, and filming each group's project. Below is a video of one class's completed projects. (I swear the kids wrote all of the script.) The other classes' videos can be seen on my Vimeo page.

[vimeo=23686011]

Here are some close-ups of a few of the more detailed posters. (Click on any photo to view larger.)

And here is the overflowing bulletin board display of all 18 finished posters!

The final results - both the posters AND the videos - were amazing and you can see just how much thought the kids put into choosing instruments appropriate to their animal. However, I don't know if I would do this project again for a couple of reasons. First, it took FOREVER. From instrument review to finished videos took us about eight 50-minute music classes. Second, this was an entirely student-driven project. Next year's third graders might want to go an entirely different direction. In either case, I'm sure that this Carnival of the Animals poster project will be a spring-board for my teaching of orchestra instruments for years to come. (I'm already trying to figure out how to do something similar with Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf!)

Well, it's that time of year - teacher job interview season! In my eight years of teaching I have held four different full-time teaching positions in three school districts. My first teaching job lasted a year, and I resigned because it was not a good fit for me. My next position was for two years, and I would probably still be there today if I hadn't been a victim of district-wide cuts. Next, I was hired as a one-year replacement for a music teacher on family leave (I had to write a letter of resignation and post-date it before the district would let me sign a contract). In that same district, a brand new elementary school was being built and was scheduled to open the following year. I interviewed for the music position created by the building opening, and that is where I am teaching today. My school is now in its fourth year of operation, and I love love love teaching there!

I have also been on the other side of the table, serving on interview teams several times. After honing my own interview skills and seeing some really stellar interviewees, I have compiled this list of tips. I have given this to my student teachers  for a few years, and they seem to have benefited from the suggestions (all of them are gainfully employed).

Planning ahead for the interview

• Most school districts have online application systems. Make sure your application is up-to-date with the districts you have applied to, and remember to update if any of your information changes. Have electronic versions of as many documents as you can - resume, cover letter, reference letters, transcripts, license, etc. Your resume and cover letter should be in pdf format so that they can't be altered, and so that the files won't open with little red lines under anything the computer thinks is spelled incorrectly.
• Not all districts post jobs externally. If you find one of those districts, make a friend on the "inside" who will let you know if a job does open up that you might be interested in.
• Sometimes job postings say not to contact a building or principal directly. In that case, send a very brief email to the principal with your resume and cover letter attached. If you know the principal or someone in the building, call the principal to state your interest. In my opinion, nobody can be too motivated when it comes to looking for a job.
• Look at the school's website to try to come up with questions based on the school's philosophy or activities - something to show you did some research.
• You can also call the secretaries and ask them about the school if the website isn’t helpful. Secretaries usually don’t mind taking a few (brief) minutes to talk to prospective teachers…and they will probably drop your name to the principal.

Portfolio

After eight years of teaching, my portfolio is massive. I keep it in a 3-inch binder, with each document in a clear plastic sleeve. I update it periodically whether or not I am anticipating applying for a job, just so I know that it is current when I do choose to apply.

• If you don't already have a portfolio, start one immediately. Items that absolutely MUST be in your career portfolio include: resume, a generic cover letter, transcripts, teaching credentials, letters of reference, sample lesson plans (preferably with photos and student work samples), statement of your philosophy of music education, and classroom management plan. You might also include recital programs, copies of assignments you completed that show some aspect of your preparation that you feel might not be represented in your field experience, letters from students or parents, and any other items you feel are relevant.
• Use your portfolio to highlight your answers to the interviewers’ questions. Know it backward and forward. Not all interviewers will ask to see it, and those who do usually don't know what they are looking at or looking for. If you can use your portfolio as a tool to make your verbal answers come alive, that's the best way to use it. If your portfolio is electronic, bring your laptop but assume there will not be internet access in the interview room.
• Take a mini-version of your portfolio that the interviewers can keep and look at again later. Include copies of your resume and cover letter, a few really great reference letters, a sample lesson plan, copies of  your teaching license and transcripts, and any other information that you feel are pertinent. It will also help the interviewers remember "which one was he?" if you have a photo of yourself teaching on the front cover. DVDs, CDs, and websites/blogs are great additions to that, but just remember that not every administrator is tech-savvy.

Interviewing

When I was on an interview team, the candidates who went above and beyond always made the most lasting impact.

• It probably goes without saying that you should dress über-professionally and arrive early.
• Be prepared for a single administrator to conduct the interview or a whole panel of teachers, parents, and administrators. Each person on the interview team is selected to be there for a reason. Don't feel weird about writing down their names and positions so that later in the interview you can direct questions to the person to whom it most directly applies.
• Don't be afraid to sing songs you might use in a lesson (but don’t expect the interviewers to sing back). I'm a general and vocal music person, but if you're an instrumentalist, it probably couldn't hurt to bring along your instrument (unless it's something gigantic like a harp or a marimba or something - that might be a little awkward).
• Talk as if you already have the job. Instead of, "If I get the job, will there be..." try, "When I am the music teacher here, will there be..." Some administrators might think this seems overconfident, but I think it helps the interviewers actually envision you in that position. Do not think of it as an interview, but instead a meeting about the job.
• Answer questions honestly. If they ask what pieces - titles, composers, etc. - you would program for a seventh grade boys' choir that will prepare them for a contest choir in high school but also addresses changing voices (yes, I have been asked that one), and you have no clue, tell them you have no clue but then prove that you know where to start looking for appropriate repertoire.
• ALWAYS have a list of questions prepared ahead of time. People I interviewed who had NO questions seemed like they did not really know anything about the job, did not care enough to plan ahead, or could not think on their feet. Some areas that you can ask about are the daily schedule, curriculum specifics, extra-curricular duties, fundraising and budget, student demographics, and building-wide discipline policy.
• Take notes during the interview. Use the list of questions you prepared on which to take notes (you don't want to ask a question that has already been answered).
• ASK WHEN A DECISION WILL BE MADE AND IF YOU COULD PLEASE BE CONTACTED EITHER WAY. Then you won't be sitting around wondering if somebody has already been hired, if you will be called, etc. Seriously. Put it on your list of questions, or you will be kicking yourself later.

After the interview

• Send a thank you card if you feel the interview went really well and the job would be a good fit. Take thank you cards with you and write your note in the car right after the interview, before you even leave the premises. MAIL it though...do not just leave it with the secretary, unless the timeline is too short for it to reach the interviewers in time for it to impact their decision-making.
• Sometimes, the interview proves that a job is just not going to be a good fit. In those cases, I just assume I will not be offered the job and don't take any more steps (if I felt it, I am pretty sure the interviewers did too).

…Finally

• Try not to get discouraged if you get a “Dear John/Jane” letter now and then. Sometimes these are sent to applicants who are not even chosen to be interviewed, sometimes to interviewees who are not chosen for the job. Some jobs are “filled” before they’re even posted externally. It’s not you, it’s them.
• It is OK to ask what you could have done better in an interview or what skills/qualities you were lacking that they were looking for.
• An interesting idea from MusicEdMajor.net (I think this is a great idea, and I can't believe I never thought of it myself!)

"If you don’t get hired after giving an interview, call them back and ask who was hired and which school district they are coming from. Not all schools will give out that information, but if they do, you have another school to apply to. Chances are that the district the other person is leaving hasn’t posted their opening yet."

A great interview is a lot like a great lesson plan - each detail planned and every scenario considered. Good luck!

*Addendum, May 30, 2011: Dr. Kathleen Kerstetter from Florida International University has these additional great interview tips for teachers of all disciplines. Interview Questions for Recent College Grads

*Addendum, July 3, 2012: Joe Guarr at The Trombonist's Mouthpiece has some more excellent advice for music educators interviewing for an ensemble director position that involves a teaching demonstration element. What DO Those Interview Committees Want?