Bring Your Own Laptop Sessions
The Midnight Music “BYO laptop” workshops were run for the first time in early 2010 at the Statewide Resources Centre in Carlton, Victoria on behalf of the Association of Music Educators (Victoria).The first four workshops quickly sold out. More were scheduled, and a total of 15 workshops were run in 2010, with around 200 teachers attending from all over Victoria. Due to the success of the these workshops, plans are now underway to take the workshops “on the road” Victoria-wide (Geelong and regional venues) as well as interstate to Tasmania, South Australia and Queensland. Teachers bring their own laptop to the workshops (or borrow one!) and install free software or demo versions of paid software applications ahead of the session. Sessions include “how-to” instructions and curriculum integration suggestions. No prior knowledge is assumed (unless specified) and the atmosphere is fun and relaxing. Rates:
- Full-day workshops: $150 per person
- Host school/institution entitled to one FREE registration
How To Host A Bring Your Own Laptop Workshop
Hosting a workshop is easy. You’ll just need to provide the following:- a classroom with tables and chairs (adult-sized!)
- access to power for workshop attendees
- morning and afternoon tea provisions (tea, coffee, hot water, milk, sugar, cups. Biscuits would also be nice!)
- Workshops will run for a full day from 9.30am – 3.30pm (or 10am – 4pm)
- Teachers from other schools will bring their own lunch
- All workshop bookings and enquiries will be handled by Midnight Music
- The workshops will be run with a minimum of 10 attendees
Workshop Descriptions
Sibelius Basics: Scores and Worksheets
Learn how to get started with Sibelius the right way in this course for beginners. Set up a new score, discover the most effective ways to enter notes (with and without a MIDI keyboard) and learn quick copy and paste methods. We’ll also cover lyrics and guitar chord symbols, repeat signs, dynamics, articulation, copying and pasting methods, basic layout tips and methods for sharing your scores with non-Sibelius users such as students and other teachers. The latter part of the day will focus on creating worksheets from scratch and using Sibelius’s inbuilt Worksheet Creator.Interactive Whiteboards in the Music Classroom
Easy ways to adapt your current activities for your interactive whiteboard, without rewriting your curriculum. Interactive whiteboards (IWBs) have become a permanent fixture in many music classrooms, and can be a great tool for making music literacy and performance fun and engaging. They are part-regular whiteboard, part-projector screen and part-multimedia tool all rolled into one.This session will explore ways in which you can enhance your delivery of music content to students by integrating audio, notation, video and animation. Learn how to adapt and rethink your current activities without having to re-write your curriculum. Discover why it’s not about finding a one-size-fits-all software program and why IWBs are not just for showing Youtube videos. During the session we’ll talk about effective (and fun!) ways to use your IWB for:
- Teaching music literacy skills
- Delivery of aural training exercises
- Creating a bank of learning resources that can be used many times across multiple classes
- Recording student performances
- Enhancing listening classes
- Creating soundscapes, arrangements or compositions
- Effective class ensemble performances
Amazing Audacity
Easy recording, editing, sound stories and backing tracks. Audacity is free audio editing program for PC and Mac and an indispensible tool for music teachers. This all-day workshop will look at some of the great ways that Audacity can be utilised in the music classroom and instrumental teaching studio:- Learn how to edit songs from your iTunes library – change tempo and pitch, remove vocals, create fade-ins/outs, alter the song form
- Edit audio files to create short musical examples and embed them in your Powerpoint or Keynote presentation
- We’ll cover the basics of recording student performances and discuss the equipment options to build a simple recording kit
- Record your own fantastic sound stories: make your voice sound like a chipmunk, Darth Vader, a ghost, a robot, or sound like you’re in a concert hall and learn create sound effects from scratch
Great Ways To Use Technology in the Music Classroom
This all-day workshop offers an overview of the many innovative ways to incorporate technology into the secondary music classroom. The day will be divided into 3 parts:- Part 1 – we’ll look easy ways to create backing tracks and record student performances. Discover how to remove vocals from a recording, edit the length of songs, create fade-ins/outs and automatically identify chords from an audio file (no transcription necessary!)
- Part 2 – learn tips and tricks for notating arrangements and making your own worksheets. Learn how to enter notes the quick way, transpose with the click of a button and make professional looking custom worksheets
- Part 3 – discover a fantastic range of free resources online which allow you and your students to record, mix, publish, perform and enhance aural skills
