More Disclaimers: Camtasia breaks both of my cardinal rules -- 1. it is not free 2. it requires a download. Again, I make the case that I do not have students use it, and that is why I make the exception here. It is simply too powerful a tool to pass up!
In my last post I discussed how I use the tunes of children's songs with rewritten lyrics to help my students learn various vocabulary and grammar concepts. This year, I decided to "kick it up a notch" and create music videos to add a visual dimension. So far, it has been very effective.
Camtasia is a video editing program, that, in addition to allowing you to edit already created videos, has a screencast feature to allow you to take video of whatever is happening on your computer screen. There are two free screencasting apps available in the cloud -- screenr and screencast-o-matic, and Jing, which is free, but requires a download. I prefer Camtasia because of its editing capabilities.
So, allow me to guide you through the birth of a music video...
Step 1: Create the video portion. I use empressr, a free, cloud-based tool for creating presentations similar to Powerpoint or Mac's Keynote.
Step 2: Run through the slideshow while running Camtasia, to take a screenshot of the slideshow beginning to end.
Step 3: upload the sound file
Step 4: use Camtasia's editing features to adjust the timing so the video and music are synchronized
Step 5: Publish! I use youtube for no other reason than my students are familiar with it. It has recently been unblocked at my school (for teachers), so that is not an issue.
So far I am finding that the visual aspect is very helpful to students, even more so than simply having a copy of the lyrics -- the next best thing to "follow the bouncing ball"
Here's an example of the one I made to help them with the verb être:
(Please note: the song/chant is not an original, it was posted to MFLResources on yahoo. The "singers" are my students from several years ago.)
What do you think?
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Music and Learning in the FL Classroom -- Part 1: Audacity
Disclaimer 1: I am a Mac girl from way back. My true preference of tool for this purpose is GarageBand, but my district moved from the Mac platform a number of years ago, so I adapt....until I get home. Also, Audacity is free, therefore that is what I will blog about.
Disclaimer 2: Audacity breaks the second of my rules about tools I blog about -- it requires a download. I am making this exception because I rarely use Audacity with students, but more as a tool for myself to prepare lesson materials for them.
***UPDATE**
3/1/12 -- I just found a way to run a web-based version Audacity. Sadly it is only available for Windows machines, but one step at a time!!
With that out of the way, I don't remember the first time I used music with my students, but it was about three years ago that I really kicked it into high gear and began researching, collecting (special thanks to Deb Blaz), writing, and enlisting students to write songs to help my students learn vocabulary and grammar concepts. The majority of the songs I use are under a minute long, some under thirty seconds. The tunes are familiar -- almost all children's songs -- so the melody and rhythm do not have to be taught. Many of the songs are just plain corny. My students frequently tell me they get "stuck in their heads", to which I respond with a victory dance. The songs are rarely forgotten. When students ask questions during the writing process, I break into song, rather than offering a dry grammar explanation. Does it work for all students? Of course not, but what does? It gets to the point where if I introduce an irregular verb, they ask for a song, and get all over my case if I don't happen to have one.
So....from pedagogy to technology. I found most of the background music I use by doing Google searches for midi files of children's songs. I import these into Audacity, and then record the vocal track with a headset mic. Audacity allows you to export the completed product in a variety of formats, although I usually use mp3 files. I make the songs and lyrics available to students via our school website, and (believe it or not) some students have been known to put the songs on their ipods.
As an example, I'm posting my favorite original -- The Passé Composé Song (obviously I didn't spend any time coming up with the song titles).
What do you think?
Disclaimer 2: Audacity breaks the second of my rules about tools I blog about -- it requires a download. I am making this exception because I rarely use Audacity with students, but more as a tool for myself to prepare lesson materials for them.
***UPDATE**
3/1/12 -- I just found a way to run a web-based version Audacity. Sadly it is only available for Windows machines, but one step at a time!!
With that out of the way, I don't remember the first time I used music with my students, but it was about three years ago that I really kicked it into high gear and began researching, collecting (special thanks to Deb Blaz), writing, and enlisting students to write songs to help my students learn vocabulary and grammar concepts. The majority of the songs I use are under a minute long, some under thirty seconds. The tunes are familiar -- almost all children's songs -- so the melody and rhythm do not have to be taught. Many of the songs are just plain corny. My students frequently tell me they get "stuck in their heads", to which I respond with a victory dance. The songs are rarely forgotten. When students ask questions during the writing process, I break into song, rather than offering a dry grammar explanation. Does it work for all students? Of course not, but what does? It gets to the point where if I introduce an irregular verb, they ask for a song, and get all over my case if I don't happen to have one.
So....from pedagogy to technology. I found most of the background music I use by doing Google searches for midi files of children's songs. I import these into Audacity, and then record the vocal track with a headset mic. Audacity allows you to export the completed product in a variety of formats, although I usually use mp3 files. I make the songs and lyrics available to students via our school website, and (believe it or not) some students have been known to put the songs on their ipods.
As an example, I'm posting my favorite original -- The Passé Composé Song (obviously I didn't spend any time coming up with the song titles).
What do you think?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)