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My name is Cortney Hammer and I am located in Madison, WI. This is my last semester in the program before I begin my Capstone. Currently, I teach high school choir in DeForest, WI.

Some technology that I implement frequently in my classroom is sightreadingfactory.com.  Sight Reading Factory is a reasonably priced, $2.00 per student, way to allow students instant access to sight-singing anywhere. Not only does it allow my students to practice their sight-singing skills, but also allows me to assign them specific exercises that focus on each ensembles and individuals needs.

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My name is Alex Judge. I am happy to be starting my fifth course in the online master in Music Education program. I am currently in my third year of teaching in southwestern New Hampshire. Here, my primary responsibilities consist of providing instruction in Kindergarten through Grade Six general music and instrumental music. I absolutely love my work and take a lot of pride in the fact that in many cases, I am the very first person to introduce the wonderful thing that is music to my students.

Technology is something that I do not use nearly as much as I would like to professionally, but is something that I have started to use much more frequently this year. This is largely because my professional development goal for this year is to be a more effective communicator with the parents of my students. With that goal in mind, I started a professional Facebook page for my music class. This page has many photographs and video footage from my lessons. I have found that since this page has been launched, parents have responded extremely well. If you are interested in seeing the page for yourself, the name of it is “Mr. Judge’s Music Class”. I am looking forward to becoming more comfortable with using technology in my classroom as this course progresses.

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My name is Megan Gray. I live in southern West Virginia and teach general music at a PK-5th grade elementary school. I also lead a youth choir of 4th and 5th grade students and I run a beginners studio for piano and voice lessons.  I earned my undergraduate degree in 2014 from West Virginia Wesleyan College and have been teaching at this elementary school for almost 5 years.

The largest piece of technology that I use in my classroom is Quaver Music. Quaver is an entirely digital music curriculum that allows students to interact, learn, and develop at their own rate. I display Quaver using a Promethean Board (basically a giant touch screen TV) and I recently received my own classroom set of iPad's for students to use Quaver individually as well.

I am very much looking forward to what this course has to offer so I can gain an arsenal of ideas to stay on top of the digital focus that is present in today's educational world.

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My name is Jacob Ulm. I live in South Plainfield, NJ, and teach music in Elizabeth, NJ. Its an urban district right across the bridge from NYC. This is my 6th year teaching and I am currently teaching 4-8 grade Band lessons and see my students once a week for 45 minute lesson. This year I was given a few general music classes to teach as well. In my general music classes I use the software Quavermusic. Its a great resource that has hundreds of lessons and tools that cover all aspects of general music. I highly recommend it to anyone teaching general music. Here is a link for anyone who is interested:
Quavermusic.com
Looking forward to working with all of you!

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My name is Veanda Allen. I live in Dallas, TX. Go Cowboys!!
I received my Bachelor's in Music Education-Instrumental in the Fall of 2015 from Grambling State University. Currently, my third year teaching choral music and assisting the middle school and high school marching and concert bands. My primary instrument is flute. This is my fourth semester in the graduate program. (Spr. '18, Summer '18, Fall '18).

I use Finale to compose and arrange music and Sight Reading Factory to assess students' music literacy skills along with Google Classroom to upload and assess recordings.

After viewing the tutorial, Padlet could be used as quick discussion boards for students, and also ways for students to upload recordings, presentations and overall great collaboration.

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My name is Patience Akampumuza and I live in Uganda. I am a music teacher since 2012 working with Aga Khan Education Services Uganda. I teach elementary school general music which includes singing, dancing, acting, and instrumental (usually orff). I also teach instruments e.g Guitar and Piano together with Voice.
I  sing and direct a church choir in my free time.
I love singing opera arias and I am a very good professional mezzo soprano singer. View video at https://youtu.be/S1Gbx3CKnac

Currently I use technology in lots of ways that are actually self taught.
I write lyric videos and am teaching some of my students to do that as well. Here is a link to one of them https://youtu.be/-4FAvrs6Ejg

I also use music programs like FINALE and SYBELIUS to write sheet music and help my students try to write down their simple compositions in sheet music.

In addition, i use technology to edit videos, remove vocals, and change pitch using audacity and cool edit programs.

As a teacher, I use technology to display pictures and videos on the interactive white board in class, and to do research on internet.

I have found Padlet to be interesting and would actually want to introduce it to my students as a way of evaluating and sharing experiences from class. Pupils could post photos and videos of shows they attend for review in class. They could also post videos of their own work so that every one can view them at leisure.

I am very eager to learn more about technology and incorporate it in my teaching to make the experience better.

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Hello from Iowa! My name is Claire Thompson and this is my 3rd class in the program. I live in the small town of Decorah, Iowa and teach in the tiny town of Mabel, Minnesota. Mabel is about 25 minutes North of Decorah. I graduated from Luther College in 2003 and directed choral programs for 4 years in Des Moines, Iowa at 2 of the biggest high schools in the state. After that I took 10 years off to raise my children while staying involved with music through directing community and youth choirs, performing and directing community theater and giving private voice and piano lessons. Last year I reentered the public schools teaching 4th-6th grade general music and 7th-12th choirs. Mabel has a student population of 250 students K-12th grades. I have 1 computer, a doc reader and a projector in my classroom. This allows me to show online resources to my students. It would be wonderful to have more technology available for the students to interact with. I utilize musictheory.net for my JH and HS students who can access the internet in the computer labs.      My husband and I have been married for 17 years. He is a family physician who also delivers babies and works in the ER.  We met back in HS choir and sang together all the way through college. We have 3 children, ages 12, 9 and (almost) 8 who keep us running!

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Hello from Iowa! My name is Claire Thompson and this is my 3rd class in the program. I live in the small town of Decorah, Iowa and teach in the tiny town of Mabel, Minnesota. Mabel is about 25 minutes North of Decorah. I graduated from Luther College in 2003 and directed choral programs for 4 years in Des Moines, Iowa at 2 of the biggest high schools in the state. After that I took 10 years off to raise my children while staying involved with music through directing community and youth choirs, performing and directing community theater and giving private voice and piano lessons. Last year I reentered the public schools teaching 4th-6th grade general music and 7th-12th choirs. Mabel has a student population of 250 students K-12th grades. I have 1 computer, a doc reader and a projector in my classroom. This allows me to show online resources to my students. It would be wonderful to have more technology available for the students to interact with. I utilize musictheory.net for my JH and HS students who can access the internet in the computer labs.      My husband and I have been married for 17 years. He is a family physician who also delivers babies and works in the ER.  We met back in HS choir and sang together all the way through college. We have 3 children, ages 12, 9 and (almost) 8 who keep us running!

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My name is Bradley Long.  This is my second semester here in the Master’s of Music Education program. I received my Bachelor’s in Music Education-Instrumental from Southeast Missouri State University back in 2005.  I am in my 13th year teaching in the Ferguson-Florissant School district.  This district is located within 3 suburbs north of St. Louis, MO.  It is a large district with 17 elementary schools, 3 large middle schools, and 3 large high schools.

I have been a part of some very unique opportunities while teaching in this district for the last 13 years.  Not only have I taught elementary vocal music, but also been in a pilot program the district tried out to have a vocal music teacher also teach band at the same school.  The program did not work out very well because of a lack of teachers willing to teach both at the same time. The opportunity arose to teach full-time band in the district, so I moved to that position about 6 years ago.  This is a unique (to the St. Louis area) setting to be able to teach 4th-6th grade band in elementary schools.  I currently travel to 4 different elementary schools within the district, but there have been years where I serviced a total of 5 schools.

Because of my traveling nature, I do not have a classroom to myself at any building.  My ability to use technology in these classrooms is limited to what I bring with me.  I do use a metronome app on my phone amplified with a bluetooth speak in class most of the time.  My district uses the Google suite for email, etc, so I am very familiar with all of those apps.  I keep my method books and sheet music digital in Google Drive so I do not have to carry much around. I am also familiar with Finale and Sibelius notation softwares.

I am excited to see what this new class with bring to the table!

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My name is Wesley Knust, and I am a music educator based in Michigan. I teach in the city of Midland at a place called UpBeat Music Academy. I teach private brass and piano lessons, as well as group classes using the Harmony Road curriculum. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Harmony Road, it is a sequence of piano-based musicianship courses that begins with children as young as three years old. Children learn fixed-do solfege in this program as well. The program places heavy emphasis on training the ear. I have six year old students who can sight-sing better than some freshman music majors!
I use technology in different ways. I use YouTube on an iPad in my group classes to show YouTube videos. I also use the iPad and a wireless speaker to use singalong tracks in my group classes. I use Google Drive as a way to store warm-ups and other exercises I have designed for use with my private students. I use an app on my iPad called Moosic to keep track of my private students and the repertoire they are learning. I use the MetroTimer app for a metronome. My favorite feature of the MetroTimer app is that it allows you to tap the tempo you want to use and it tells you what tempo you have tapped. I use the TonalEnergy app as a tuner with my brass students. It displays a green smiley face that grows larger the longer the student holds the note in tune. When the note goes sharp or flat, the smiley face changes to a more inquisitive face, for lack of a better term. Even high school students find the smiley face rewarding and want to see how long they can hold the note in tune! It makes tuning exercises fun for the students, which is a sentence I never thought I would type. Here is a picture of me teaching one of my private piano students. We are in the studio on the right. I look forward to learning even more new ways to incorporate technology into my teaching. I also am looking forward to another semester of collaborative learning with my peers!

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Hello Everyone,                                                                         My name is Colby Baker and I am a high school choral director in New Hampshire. Along with directing two choirs - a concert choir (what I call my “come one, come all choir”) and a select women’s choir - I teach music electives (piano, guitar, music theory). Furthermore, I conduct weekly sectionals and voice lesson during students’ free periods and music direct our school’s annual spring musical.                                                                                                                                                  I am very eager to incorporate new ways of using technology to improve the education my students receive and to engage them on deeper and more productive levels. Students in my Piano Lab class compose original works using a free notation software called FLAT (see excerpt below of one what student created this past semester). My Guitar Lab class will use a free infographic creator (piktochart.com) to complete thorough research and create infographics about important guitarist (e.g. Andre Segovia) or guitarist-songwriters/composers (e.g. Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana). I’m excited to be part of this class and to incorporate what I learn in the classroom!                                           Cheers! 

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Hello Everyone,                                                                         My name is Colby Baker and I am a high school choral director in New Hampshire. Along with directing two choirs - a concert choir (what I call my “come one, come all choir”) and a select women’s choir - I teach music electives (piano, guitar, music theory). Furthermore, I conduct weekly sectionals and voice lesson during students’ free periods and music direct our school’s annual spring musical.                                                                                                                                                  I am very eager to incorporate new ways of using technology to improve the education my students receive and to engage them on deeper and more productive levels. Students in my Piano Lab class compose original works using a free notation software called FLAT (see excerpt below of one what student created this past semester). My Guitar Lab class will use a free infographic creator (piktochart.com) to complete thorough research and create infographics about important guitarist (e.g. Andre Segovia) or guitarist-songwriters/composers (e.g. Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana). I’m excited to be part of this class and to incorporate what I learn in the classroom!                                           Cheers! 

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My name is Beth Rygg. (Elizabeth Rygg is what you will see on my posts.) I am in my 21st year teaching elementary general music in the Sioux Falls, SD school district. We have 23 elementary schools in our district so, I have the privilege of working with 25 other elementary music teachers throughout the year. We have a solid curriculum that we follow, but unfortunately, we do not have district wide technology that we are required to use. I am currently experimenting with borrowing classroom iPads and downloading apps that students can use to create sound and songs. I have chosen a Relax Melodies app and Soundtrap app and plan to begin the projects soon. This is a work in progress! I do use an iPod and a Smartboard on a daily basis. In addition to teaching general music, I also have a private voice and oboe studio; and in the summer, I am the music director at a performing arts center in Sioux Falls. My pride and joy are my three children; Shanna who is 20 years old, Kyle who is 16 years old and JoElle who is 5 years old. I am married to Jason, who is a French horn playing- middle school band director. The picture is of the five of us from last spring.

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Hi everyone! My name is Heather Kani and I am a second year music teacher in the School District of Philadelphia. I teach K-5 General Music which is about 950 students out of our school of 1250. If a class doesn't get music during the year, they definitely get art and vice versa. We are working on getting all the students both arts specials. I also teach 4th and 5th grade choir which includes 100 students.
I teach in the auditorium, so my access to technology is a little limited. I have my computer and a white board that I project onto. I like to incorporate a lot of play along YouTube videos in my classroom as well as aspects of Quaver to teach music. Here is a photo of me with 9 of my students who were selected to participate in All-City choir. I like using Snapchat to cover their faces with emojis so that I can post about my awesome kids!
In regards to Padlet, I think this a great resource for the students to have discussions outside of the classroom. They will be able to interact with everyone! It is also an easy way to create a "classroom" page for each grade level I teach. I can post whatever videos and links we use in class so they have easier access at home. I am still trying to figure out communication, and I think this would be a great parent communication tool!

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My name is Wendy Lanxner - hello! I'm a private music teacher, composer and music director for theater, and a performing musician. I teach mostly flute and guitar (flute was my main instrument as an undergrad); and in theater I work mostly with youth and adults with disabilities.  I'm a bass player in a rock band, I play flute and sing in a jazz duo, and I often lead singalongs with seniors.

I use technology in many ways in my work: I create scores with Sibelius, I record song ideas constantly with my phone, I share videos and other materials with students through email; and I create teaching materials such as exercises and lead sheets. The only way I use technology interactively in my teaching is through using playalong tracks during lessons as a fun way to practice improvising. I'd be interested in exploring other ways to use technology in my work.

If you want to read more about me, visit my website ... or my newly-created first Padlet!

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How to Add Audio, Video, and Pictures to Padlet

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How to Add Audio, Video, and Pictures to Padlet

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How to Add Audio, Video, and Picture Notes to Padlet Walls