BP3_2010011_Web 2.0 Tool Karaoke Party

Having a leave of absence from this program has given me a chance to give a little more thought to my AR. I am very fortunate to be a music teacher where most of my students really enjoy coming to music. I do try to make it as fun and interesting as possible. I do firmly believe that music is such a great medium to express identity in so many ways. Not only is it a means of individual expression, it connects us to our own culture and the cultures of the world. It does this through the science of sound organized into a mathematical structure. It is, therefore, a great tool to teach across the curriculum of almost any subject. In my AR I am hoping to use it to connect to literacy and English language arts.

I found a fun web 2.0 tool called Karaoke Party that is a start to doing just that. This is the first year that I’ve used an interactive whiteboard to project the music and words of songs we are learning in class. That has helped me in several ways. First of all, I don’t have to deal with the cumbersome textbooks. Some of my students struggle finding page numbers, and even when they do there is no way of keeping their attention on the page. With the pdf projections I can at least be assured that we are all looking at the same page. This has greatly enhanced the depth and speed at which we can study songs. I am now able to use the songs as a vocabulary lesson with any unfamiliar words. Students can see the links to dictionary.com and use the vocabulary in the context of the song.

Karaoke style projection of the songs will further increase the interaction with the music and text. So far, the songs I’ve encountered on Karaoke Party have been free of obscenity and have styles that would be attractive to my students. This is a good starting place for me. However, I am hoping to find a tool that would allow the creation of lyrics to familiar melodies that either I or my students would create. We are in the process of creating core vocabulary list for each subject area at our school. I would like for music to be another place of contact for understand that vocabulary. Karaoke could be another tool to increase understanding and motivation.

Karaoke Party. (2010, Januuary 3). Retrieved from http://www.karaokeparty.com/