It's Fun to Learn!

IT’S FUN TO LEARN!
MUSIC AND TECHNOLOGY TO ENHANCE LEARNING

This project is based on the idea that learning should be an enjoyable activity; to accomplish this, we are planning to engage our students in the learning process with the help of both Music and Technology. We are also seeking to prepare students for their optimum performance in a world that is already demanding multiple skills and extensive use of technology. This project represents an effort to combine Music and Technology for teaching other areas in the curriculum like Social Studies, Health, Math, Language Arts, Fine Arts, and Science. At the same time, students will have the opportunity to learn how to use technology to produce multimedia presentations and built web sites. Multimedia presentations will be use to enhance the school musical programs and promote cultural integration and bilingualism. Finally, the resources will be used to document the complete process and produce electronic portfolios for the participants.

CURRICULUM ALIGNMENT:
Students will use the macro mode of the OLYMPUS FE-140 CAMERAS as virtual microscopes to explore different habitats, observe plants, soil, and insects and other creatures. Then, the students will download those images on electronic files and build web pages. They will apply the scientific method to collect and analyze their findings, write notes and titles. They will add music and sounds using either their original work produced with the MUSIC BUNDLE software or by re-creating traditional songs. They will produce multimedia presentations, use TOOL FACTORY WEB HOME PAGE software and publish their work on the web.
Students will use the panoramic mode of the OLYMPUS CAMERAS with an xD CARD to collect images related to Math, Social Studies, Language Arts, Health, Fine Arts, etc., They will either use those images or download photos and clip art with MULTIMEDIA LAB V, animate those images, add music and sound effects, and build multimedia presentations and web pages. Individuals and small groups will work in small projects to produce a specific theme for example, to illustrate the ABC song.
Students will use the Video Clip mode of the cameras to produce small presentations with music and sounds to illustrate concepts from other classes in the curriculum, i.e. a presentation about the life and career of Abraham Lincoln, Life Cycle of a Frog, Life Cycle of a Butterfly. Individuals and small groups might choose to document Life Styles in the Community, Memoirs of a Veteran, Career Choices, Keep your Teeth Clean, Fire Safety, etc. as themes for their projects.

MUSIC INSTRUCTION:
Students from K to 6th will complement their musical instruction with the use of the Tool Factory software programs included in the MUSIC BUNDLE. Students from grades K to 3 will use the TOOL FACTORY MUSICAL MONSTERS software to explore musical concepts and moods, listen to diverse instruments and sound effects, compose tunes and save them to MIDI for both live and web presentations. BLACK CAT COMPOSE will be used to encourage creativity and experimentation in musical composition and produce original plays for multimedia presentations and web pages. MUSICAL LEAPS AND BOUNDS will be used to help students develop visual and listening skills, increase attention span and concentration, and develop fine-motor skills. Students from grades 3 to 6 will use FIRST CLASS MUSIC to learn the elements of music, compose, and add their original music and sound effects to multimedia presentations, live presentations, and web pages.

MUSIC PROGRAMS:
Every grade level from K to 6th will be assigned to produce a musical presentation during the academic year. Teachers, parents, and students will work in a collaborative way to produce musical presentations with different themes like: Earth Day, Grandparents’ Day, Valentine’s Day, Veterans' Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Mother’s Day, Cinco de Mayo, etc. Students from every grade level will be encouraged to take pictures and video clips or use the ones they already made for the curriculum alignment part of the project and download them to MULTIMEDIA V, to produce multimedia presentations including the lyrics in one or both English and Spanish, to complement the live musical presentations. Also, during those musical programs, some students will take photographs and short videos to document every event, and publish the photos in the school web site. Finally, photographs and short videos will be stored in CD’s to produce the artist’s electronic portfolios.

BILINGUAL EDUCATION:
Pearson Elementary is a school serving more than 630 students. More than 90 % are economically disadvantaged and more than 99% are Hispanic with a significant percentage of parents who are fluent only in Spanish. This project will promote cultural integration and facilitate learning in both languages: English and Spanish. Students will either translate or write bilingual lyrics, subtitles, and scripts for musical programs, multimedia presentations and web sites. They will practice their skills in both languages and at the same time, they will facilitate participation and understanding for students, parents and members of the community that use only one language. By making this project fully bilingual, we are seeking to develop respect for the traditions and contributions of diverse cultures.


SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT:
Teachers, Library and Computer Lab staff, parents, and other volunteers will be invited to become facilitators and participate. Therefore,they will be trained in the use of the TOOL FACTORY software, web sites, SHUTTERFLY accounts, OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAS, and other equipment. Consequently, they will use the DIGITAL CAMERA BASICS WORKBOOKS to promote the optimal use of this resource. This project will also improve the use of all resources already available at Pearson Elementary.