Hello, Readers!

This week, a Grade 7 class creates a music library for their school. Who needs to worry about copyright when your students are creating the music!?

Music to our Ears 🎶

By Carlo

When a student approached me to troubleshoot an iPad, I had no idea it would set the stage for a fun music project that could benefit other students working on creative projects. The iPad fix was an easy one– turn it off and on again. The reason they needed the iPad working was much more interesting. 🤔 The Grade 7 class was experimenting with the GarageBand app on their iPads to compose their very own musical pieces.

Their music teacher, Julia, gave the students some basic instructions, and encouraged them to explore the vast array of features, like sound effects and musical loops available to them. While there were some frustrations along the way I could tell that the students were really getting into the groove as they dived into their sonic adventure. It was fascinating to witness their problem-solving skills at work and observe their growth and wonder throughout the process.

When I asked Julia what the plan was for the songs, she hadn’t thought about it much beyond experimentation. With the end of the school year approaching and assessments concluded, this final creative project served as a fantastic opportunity for students to apply their problem-solving abilities and learn through play.

We continued to brainstorm, and thought, “why not compile a catalogue of stock music specifically for the school?” These compositions could be made accessible to all students for use in various digital projects, like videos and slideshows. Excited by the notion, we decided to pursue the concept. This would be one option for students to use royalty-free music for their creative projects.

The next steps were for Julia to organize the music files into a single shared folder, made accessible internally to the student community. We even toyed with the idea of eventually creating a Google Site, which would not only showcase the music but also serve as a platform for sharing student-made stock photos, videos, and maybe even highlighting exceptional student projects.

Remember! If any student wants to remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, they should give proper attribution to the creator. To learn more about this, check out https://creativecommons.org/about/cclicenses.

Imagine a resource brimming with music 🎶, visuals 🖼️, made for and accessible by the creative kids at your school. You too can empower your students to create a valuable resource for future projects at your school..

Until next week,

The Classmate Team

If you don’t have access to iPads and Garageband but still want to make fun jingles with your students like Carlo’s teacher, check out BeepBox!

It’s a web based music making site that makes it relatively easy to … jam out. 🎸