News: SAEF Grant Enriches Music Program

Students huddled around a laptop during music class and after successfully attempting a series of rhythms using a special program, they broke into huge grins and each gave a strong thumbs up sign. This action was repeated as small learning groups of third-graders at West Broad Elementary School met similar challenges all around the room. During one of their two music classes in the five-day cycle, students explored music on the Internet under the guidance of their teacher, Eric Stover. Students learned about composers and their time period in history, ear training, listening, singing, instruments of the orchestra, music reading, playing music, and creating music. Using an interactive presentation, students were assigned a task, and then used the SMART Board to present their finished task to their classmates.

Stover researched ways to make SMART Board technology useful for this generation of 21st century learners. A SMART Board is a large interactive whiteboard that displays a computer’s video output on a screen. The screen is touch-sensitive so that a user can interact with the display much like a keyboard or a mouse with a desktop or laptop computer.

“These presentations serve to introduce, teach, and assess concepts that are part of the music curriculum,” said Stover. “I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Souderton Area Education Foundation for making the funds available to purchase a SMART Board and the related accessories for use with my music classes at West Broad Elementary School.” Stover also uses this technology for an after school Chess Club.

“Cool,” was the reaction given by Nicole after a session evaluating music performance. A list of web sites that students explored in class was shared with parents so that at home they could continue to foster a life-long love of music and the arts.

“Thank you once again for providing me with a way to make music education even more meaningful for my students,” said Stover.