Google Classroom Settings (and why they are important to your life)

Many school districts are using a Single Sign-On (SSO) platform to house all of their virtual learning. This is helpful because the kids (and parents) know to go to the same place every day to find their assignments. My district has chosen Google for Education for several years now, and I have used it in music classes as well. 

When creating your class in Google Classroom (GC), there are several settings you should pay attention to. Different settings can be found in two different places within GC.  Settings for one individual GC are found by clicking on the gear symbol in the top right corner. This covers settings unique to the class you are working in. 

• Class details
• Class code and invitation to join
• Stream settings (who can post and comment)
• Guardian summaries (to send or not to send)
• Meet link (a permanent Google Meet link assigned to your class)
• Grading settings 

In addition to these settings, there are more that apply to ALL of your classes in GC. To find those, click on the three lines (menu) symbol in the top left corner. Scroll alllll the way down to find Settings. Here you will find

• Your Profile and Password information
• Notifications --this is where to go if you are getting too many email notifications, or not enough. 

Before inviting students to join your class, take a minute to design your settings to fit your teaching style. The most important ones for me are Stream settings (I don't allow students to post or comment), the Meet link (keep it hidden until you are opening up a class meet), and Notifications (some people hate getting 47,000 emails a day). 

After helping several people find these settings, I decided to make a video showing how and where to access all of these.  To see a demonstration in my (dummy) class, along with more details about how and why I use mine, click on the video below: 

I hope you are finding success as you navigate the Google platform for your teaching this fall. I promise, it WILL get easier! 

Keep Singing,

A Musical Rollercoaster

Check out this amazing video on Vimeo!

Visualization of the 1st violin of the 2nd symphony, 4th movement by Ferdinand Ries in the shape of a rollercoaster. The camera starts by showing a close-up of the score, then focuses on the notes of the first violin turning the staves into the winding rail tracks of the rollercoaster. The notes and bars were exactly synchronised with the progression in the animation so that the typical movements of a rollercoaster ride match the dramatic composition of the music.

http://vimeo.com/20462506#

Orff-Schulwerk Awesomeness

Eric Young, at The Orff-Schulwerk Classroom, is a teacher and presenter.  He shared this video on his blog about building marimbas at your school.  I can't even wrap my brain around all of the logistics of making this happen yet, but I know it's awesome!  I especially love the teaching tips after the photo section of the presentation.  For those of us who are Orff-challenged (okay, just less experienced), it helps to see it broken down into baby steps.  I see myself using this soon...I hope you enjoy it, too!

Making Music... Literally on Prezi

♩♩♫♩ Every Good Boy Does Fine - Mnemonics!

I was visiting Krisin Lukow's awesome blog, and found LOTS of great ideas, videos, links, and more.  She is obviously very tech-savvy, and is using it in her classroom.  Check out this awesome video to review/teach the names of the lines of the treble clef!
♩♩♫♩Musical Musings with Mrs. Lukow ♫♩♫♩: Every Good Boy Does Fine - Mnemonics!