The Internet is a valuable resource for learning. Sending a student home with a few music websites to play and interact with, however, is not nearly as effective as performing games during a lesson with an interactive SMART board. By using various Internet games, students can approach the board and interact with the game through the SMART board or actively participate in groups to guess the answers to a particular game. This encourages active learning and listening from something all students and children are enthusiastic about: games. Students will learn in an interactive and fun way through various online games while still meeting strict curriculum learning requirements.
By planning a lesson around a presentation, you can incorporate colors, sounds, images and short guessing games into a music class. The presentation will help you keep track of the lesson plan itself and create interesting sessions from the creative use of presentation software, which can easily be used on an interactive whiteboard. Short games and quizzes can also be incorporated into a presentation, and students can interactive with slides.
Presentation software can also be a great source of practical learning for students. An assignment can be set for students to present a presentation regarding any music subject using presentation software and an interactive SMART board. Students can present their information to the class and make use of sounds, videos, Internet resources and interactive technologies to aid their presentation. Not only does this promote active learning and listening but it also encourages students to research in their own time at home. In order to present a good presentation, students will have to research their music topic thoroughly and recall key areas of information--much like studying for an exam but in a way that is more exciting and interesting to the student.
Rather than handing out paper for students to write their notes on, you can use the interactive capabilities of a SMART board. Students can then individually approach the board and write their own notes, which can then be printed for reference at the end of the lesson. Sound and videos can also be incorporated onto SMART board software (i.e., SMART Notepad) for additional learning aids and resources. Again, students have the advantage of engaging in a lesson by approaching the SMART board and writing down their own ideas.