Hot Websites

Teaching Pre K-8, Mar 2005 by Lindroth, Linda

Here's a great pick for Music in Education month and a website that can test your students' knowledge against other students from around the world

Dallas Symphony

http://www.dsokids.com/2001/rooms/DSO_Intro.html

What a great find for Music in Education month! From the first click on this comprehensive website, symphonic music from the Dallas Symphonic Orchestra will fill the air of your classroom or lab. Whether you click on Students or Teachers you'll be inspired by the quality and variety of music available for instruction in your classroom.

Students. The opening screen is a graphic representation of a music classroom. The piano links to an Instrument Encyclopedia where students can hear and learn about orchestra instruments. The piano stool clicks on Music Theory with lessons on scales, staff paper, and How Hearing Works. The Computer connects students to music games where students can test their music knowledge with terrific activities like Beethoven's Baseball on composers, or the Composer's Keyboard where they drag notes to a music staff to create and play their own songs. There's even a Time Machine game where students try to return 42 composers to their rightful place in time.

An Orchestra Seating Chart diagrams the location of instruments for the Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Modern periods, all with an option to print. The Radio links to a fairly extensive listening library alphabetized by composer. The index also links to a short biography of each composer when you click on a composer name. I Am A Musician uses an orchestra diagram to link to different musicians in the Dallas Symphony Orchestra to introduce them to students with a short biography. The File Cabinet has dozens of take-home lessons for making your own instruments and learning about the orchestra.

Teachers. The Teachers Lounge features a Bookcase filled with books, Activities with searchable lessons, Composers with background information, Sheet Music for blank sheet music pages and Theory for music background. This website is a must visit for every music classroom - throughout the year.

GetSmarter

www.getsmarter.org

Test your knowledge against other students from around the world. Click on Elementary (third and fourth grade), Middle School or High School to start the action. My students ask to play Goo Lab and Math Safari to practice their math and science skills. This animated testing and learning site is fun to do and helps reinforce critical math and science skills.

While taking each quiz, students get immediate feedback and the percentage of all international students that answered the question correctly (a rollover world map gives the percentage correct for each country). If an answer is wrong, hints are given to help the student be successful with each question. Each time a student takes a quiz, they see different questions which help build math and science skills.

When students are ready, they can try The Real Challenge by selecting from third, fourth, seventh, eighth or 12th grades in a timed test (40 minutes for 35 questions in Math for fourth grade). This is a great way to review for end of year assessments.