Whitnall High School (Greenfield, WI) updated
- Instructor: Barb Keyes
- Class Title(s): Music Tech 1 & 2
- Grades Levels Included: 7 & 8
- School Profile: Public middle school grades 6-8; enrollment 900 students
- Structure of NTM Class(es): One semester class, 24-27 students, 7th & 8th grade.
- Software Used: Music Ace, Garageband, Band in a Box, iMovie, iTunes, Internet, iPhoto
- Hardware Used: iMac, Korg keyboards, Korg audio system, with a few eMedia keyboards.
- Class NTM Activities: Bell work of Music Ace Students: Create their own theme song, eventually putting it to pictures/movies of themselves. Create family/friend theme songs. Turn themselves into superheroes creating theme songs, stories & visuals. Create Blues songs. Discover favorite blues & jazz artists & have to share with the class why & present their music. As I said, it is still evolving from here. Started out as 9 weeks, now a semester. A great challenge to have - I love it.
- History: Students can only tolerate general music and learning instrument families for so long and then they rebel. This is the premise I met when coming into Middle School General music for the first time in 1990. I found it extremely boring and frustrating. I tried things like the history of Rock & Roll, using Orff instruments to create music, teaching alto recorder, teaching ukulele. All of these made a positive change to my class, but still there were those uninspired students, who I knew were creative & talented, but this bored them. Doug Babb is the first person who introduced music technology to me for use in the classroom in the 80's. Talking to Doug about it, I wrote grants, found different sources that would bring in computers and synthesizers for student use. This was the key. I saw a change in attitude in my class. Discipline problems were fewer and fewer. This evolved and now I have 27 iMac computers with Korg keyboards and various amounts of software. We are still evolving, but I love teaching this class.
- Success Stories from NTM Activities: One of my students wrote poetry, put it as a rap and created his own album as his special independent project in Music Tech. He is now well known around the rap scene in Indy.
- Advice to Others Starting NTM Project: I hate the phrase "think outside of the box," but truly, let your imagination run wild. Listen to the students. I heard things and it will jolt something in my brain & becomes a brand new project. CREATIVITY! Don't follow rules.
- Additional Comments: Trust yourself even when no one else gets it, but the kids!
- Date Submitted: July 2010