Pinterest in the Classroom

Some people do not see the value of using technology in general in the classroom setting. While I can understand this in some case, Pinterest is definitely NOT one of them. Using this website to help find ways to educate your students is one of the smartest things a teacher can do. This gives teachers a quick and easy way to produce new and innovative lessons for their students. You can also help provide other educators with ideas that were successful with your kids. Pinterest allows you to collaborate with teachers from across time and distance instantly. I have found several blogs by music teachers who can help me with concert ideas, behavioral issues, and how to help inspire a love of music to my students.

For my Educational Technology we were required to create a project for our future students to create! Here is  a compositional project that I could later use for my elementary kids.

For 1st or 2nd Graders

This project is meant to give students a creative way to compose their own rhythms using a variety of hand picked words! This can help you make sure they know their rhythms, and that they understand the different rhythmic function in 4/4 time.

Step 1:

Have a student pick a category to go off of. They can choose their favorite zoo animals, favorite candy, types of fruits, anything they want! For my example, I have chosen types of birds.

Step 2:

Next, based on the topic, students will pick words that can be used for different rhythmic values based on the number of syllables in each word!

for my example I decided to use:

1. Blue Jay- for a half note and a quarter note
2. Humming Bird- for 2 eighth notes and a quarter note
3. Cardinal- for 2 sixteenth notes and an eighth note
4. Kookaburra- 4 eighth notes
5. Crane- 1 quarter note

Step 3:

Then, I would reserve a day in the computer lab and allow students to find pictures of the items they chose. 

Step 4:

We would print them out in black and white, color them, and then cut them out into circles for the note heads.

Step 5: 

Pick a different color construction paper of each note value (one for the quarter notes, one for the eighth notes, one for the half notes, etc. They would also cut out circles of the construction paper to put as the background of the note head.

Step 6:

The students will glue the pictures onto the construction circles, and then the stems onto the note heads.

Step 7:

For the last step, they would use these rhythms and arrange them however they want to make their own rhythmic composition. They Will glue their notes onto the staff, and viola! They are composers.

Step 8:

Students will decorate their staff with something related to the topic they chose. For mine since i used birds, I cut out little clouds to put in the background.

This is the link to my Rubric and and PBL.


https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByqA7MrzCFq1Zm1qR29Ea2FRdjA/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByqA7MrzCFq1WmRRazNOaTNBdDg/view?usp=sharing

This project can be a gateway to many different ideas that can help students learn about not only rhythms, but harmonies, and form. I could make an entire unit based off this one idea, and having pinterest helped set off my thought process to start it.

This is one of the main reasons Pinterest can be a huge lifesaver in the classroom. Say that you need last minute sub plans? You could easily use this website to pick up a quick, easy, and followable lesson plan for the sub and your students. As a music teacher it can be extremely hard to help out a substitute teacher if they have no musical experience. Hope you find my project useful / interest, I know I have found years worth of valuable stuff on Pinterest, and I can't wait to have my own classroom to try them all out with my little music learners!