Amy Burns wrote and intriguing article called Thinking Outside the Music Box: Using Digital Tools to Teach Music. Immediately one could tell that she was an enthusiastic and energetic teacher, even after 20 years of teaching at Far Hills Country Day School in New Jersey. Amy’s strong drive lies in her steadfast commitment to her learners and a forward-thinking embrace of music technology.
Burns realizes the importance of music education in the development of children’s brains and the correlation it has to deeper critical thinking. Technology can enhance the teaching process and reveal complex avenues of learning that on the surface do not appear.
One avenue of learning is musical composition. Burns has seen a tremendous increase in musical understanding through collaborative software tools that lead to complex musical creations. Seven-year-olds are developing melody lines that become vastly layered, multi-instrumental professionally sounding songs. A Cloud-based recording studio makes collaboration easy between users and encourages ambitious students to continue classroom assignments at home.
In the interview, Burns paints a fascinating picture of her whole learner environment. The classroom is filled with singing, dancing, performing, instrument playing, and complex music composition; every student marching to the beat of their own drum. Technology is Amy Burns’ best friend, colleague, and production department – all wrapped into one. It’s an infectiously happy learning environment steered at the helm by a remarkable educator.
Subscribe to edCircuit to stay up to date on all of our shows, podcasts, news, and thought leadership articles.
National Principals’ Day is a reminder that every successful school relies on a principal who…
Teacher burnout is becoming one of the most significant challenges facing education as schools work…
Create your free edCircuit account and start getting your voice—and your message—in front of education…
School boards play a central role in shaping decisions within every public school district, yet…
Reach education decision-makers without ads—and more importantly, without being ignored. Because here’s the reality: Most…
Assessment in the AI era is rapidly becoming one of the most disruptive shifts in…