Posted by Jerry Bradley on Friday, May 5, 2023,
In :
Technology
- The following is from my Bingchat, now available to all from Microsoft and Edge Browser, thinks it could help in your lessons. I focused on the rhythmic ostinato side, but it gave some other ideas too.
- What do you think? Have you used ChatGPT or Bing in lesson planning?
- Do you have some good prompts for us?
- Email me at orffsite@gmail dot com. (didn't write .com to keep the spammers away!)
- Here we go with guest blogger, Mr. Bing:
- "Thank you for explaining the Orff-Schulwerk approach to me. I un...
Posted by Jerry Bradley on Monday, March 19, 2018,
When I first started teaching at my school I used whatever mallets were available. Later, as my instrumentarium grew, I began to cut down on the number of different styles of mallets I use. Yes, I realize that you get a different sound with a hard mallet as opposed to using a softer one, but at the level most of my classes play, I didn't find it necessary. I chose one style of mallet for my alto and soprano xylophones, a different style for my bass xylophones, another for my bass metalophones... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jerry Bradley on Friday, April 10, 2015,
Even if your 4th, 5th, and 6th graders have done movement in your class, there are some groups who will just stare at you with calf eyes when asked to create some simple movement for a song. Some classes will jump right into it, but I recently had a class that spent more time talking about movement than actually doing it. For this group, I came up with a movement word list and a set of cards that could help them get started. I'm happy to say that it worked for them. My Word files for the card... Continue reading ...
Posted by The Orffsite Webmaster on Wednesday, August 14, 2013,
I've posted a "Trailer" for my book, Orff Adventures for Children. The video covers two lessons from the book. The lessons in the book have been kid tested and worked well with my students. Enjoy the free lessons, and I hope you will consider getting the book for yourself. Purchases will help me keep my website, www.orffsite.com going. Thanks. Click here to view the free lessons. Continue reading ...
Posted by The Orffsite Webmaster on Friday, March 22, 2013,
My new book is now available. Thanks to all the teachers who have already purchased it, even before this announcement.
I hope you find it useful. I think you'd find it's worth the price just for the Gator in the Kitchen song. My third graders love the tune and ask to review it throughout the year. To you who get the book, I will be making available some sound files to accompany the information in the book. I will be posting the files on this website. The book is available through the link at t... Continue reading ...
Posted by The Orffsite Webmaster on Saturday, March 16, 2013,
I'll have a new book out in a few days, Orff Adventures for Children. It will have ten arrangements for body percussion, movement, speech, non-pitched percussion and Orff Instruments. It will have both original and folk song arrangements. It will be available as a physical book and as a Kindle book. These are arrangements I use with my classes and they are well received. Be watching here, and following me on Twitter to see when it's ready. I'll have a special price for Twitter followers and r... Continue reading ...
Posted by The Orffsite Webmaster on Friday, February 24, 2012,
I'm not really a boat rocker. I can be a bit annoying, however. I don't know the history, but some while back, my district thought that giving our 3rd and 4th graders a music assessment test was and idea who's time had come. I'm not arguing that point in this post. I am saying that the current test is not a measure of whether or not my students are learning music, nor a gauge of what kind of job I'm doing in elementary music. I frankly, don't have a clue as to what it is designed to do except... Continue reading ...
Posted by The Orffsite Webmaster on Monday, February 6, 2012,
Originally Posted by The Orffsite Webmaster on Sunday, January 8, 2012
This blog is short and sweet, really sweet! As I told my
Twitter followers, you will want to kiss my feet in gratitude after checking
this out! ha. The folks who put these evaluation rubric ideas together are the
ones who really get what Orff Approach teachers actually do in the classroom.
You won't find much evaluation of music literacy, symbols, lines/spaces, etc.
You will find things like creativity, movement, playing...
Continue reading ...
Posted by The Orffsite Webmaster on Monday, February 6, 2012,
Originally Posted by The Orffsite Webmaster on Saturday, July 23, 2011
I've
written previously about building your own Personal Learning Network (PLN)
using Twitter. The news is getting out. It is a valuable resource for
elementary music teachers and music teachers in general. Unfortunately, the
word hasn't seemed to have spread across the land of Orff-Schulwerk . So far
I've discovered only about ten folks who Tweet anything related to Orff
process, instruments, lesson plans, books, use of ...
Continue reading ...
Posted by The Orffsite Webmaster on Monday, February 6, 2012,
Originally Posted by The Orffsite Webmaster on Monday, June 6, 2011
It's summer time! Time for many of you to take more training in
your profession. I have taken Orff Level classes for the last three summers and
am "taking off" this summer. I'm actually going to be busy writing
arrangements and lesson plans. I'll be brushing up on my djembe technique via
YouTube lessons and completing a couple of podcasts. Back to the subject...
I hope
that as you take the Orff Levels you are beginning to cr...
Continue reading ...
Posted by The Orffsite Webmaster on Monday, February 6, 2012,
Originally Posted by The Orffsite Webmaster on Tuesday, May 31, 2011
It is really tough weeding through all the irrelevant and even
offensive posts when conducting a Twitter search using Orff for the search
term. I just want to find tweets concerned with how others are using the Orff
Approach in the classroom. I'm looking for Orff based lessons, books, musical
instruments etc. Instead I find 500 comments on Orff's "O Fortuna",
which is fabulous (but I've heard it, already!) The worst is find...
Continue reading ...
Posted by The Orffsite Webmaster on Monday, February 6, 2012,
Originally Posted by The Orffsite Webmaster on Sunday, April 10, 2011
You've recently attended a great Orff workshop. The presenter
methodically guided you through the lessons and gave you detailed notes and
exact procedures. You get back home and are excited to share the lesson with
your students. You begin the lesson just like you witnessed it, but sometime
before step 3, you get this sick feeling that you've lost them. Something's not
right. You taught them exactly like your workshop pres...
Continue reading ...
Posted by The Orffsite Webmaster on Monday, February 6, 2012,
Originally Posted by The Orffsite Webmaster on Monday, September 6, 2010
Talking about approaches to teaching elementary music can
sometimes resemble a discussion about religion! My purpose here is to share a
way that's worked for me and not to bash another approach. In fairness, here's
an email I recently received. Elementary music teaching is a big world.
Orff-Schulwerk is the area I'm exploring, but it's not the only part of the
universe. Dive in. The water's fine. Here's an email comment...
Continue reading ...
Posted by The Orffsite Webmaster on Monday, February 6, 2012,
Originally Posted
by The Orffsite Webmaster on Friday, July 16, 2010
The Orff Approach is like teaching a kid to
swim. You don't first sit them down with a book and tell them to read it and
learn the terminology. With Orff, you put the kid in the water first. You have
the whole process of swimming broken down into elemental pieces and start with
the easiest and build on it until the kid is swimming. They learn to hold their
breath and make bubbles in the water. Learning is a game. They play ...
Continue reading ...
Posted by The Orffsite Webmaster on Sunday, February 5, 2012,
What I Learned in Level
III
Posted by The Orffsite Webmaster on Monday, July 12, 2010
Well, I'm officially certified in Orff-Schulwerk. That means I
know enough about the approach it to be dangerous! My Level III instructors did
a great job in dealing with process and sequence, which is really what
attracted me to Orff-Schulwerk in the first place..no it wasn't identifying
Lydian modes and playing the recorder, although I improved at both. I was
pleased to find out that no matter how badly ...
Continue reading ...
Posted by Jerry Bradley on Wednesday, January 11, 2012,
Posted by The Orffsite Webmaster on Saturday, July 31, 2010
As an Orff-Schulwerk elementary teacher and a former secondary
music teacher, I can say I'm glad to have almost gotten out of the music
contest level of instruction. In secondary music, recruiting and comparing my
first division with another schools first division was of primary importance.
Outside performances was next on the list, after all, a performing group must
perform. Sure, I had non-varsity groups where students with lesser...
Continue reading ...
