MusicFirst Blog Introducing MusicFirst Junior

MusicFirst Junior is an amazing new Teaching System for Elementary Music Education. Ideal for both teacher - led and independent student use, it's also perfect for flipped classrooms, cross-arts learning, and for differentiated instruction.Using iPads, Chromebooks or any device able to run a standard web browser, MusicFirst Junior gives Elementary Students instant access to Music Learning Tools and Learning Content relevant to their learning level and appropriate curriculum, via a simple carousel selector.Elementary Teachers decide what Music Learning tools and content their Students can use and when they will be available. This is done via a simple Teacher Control Panel.Teachers simply select the dates, class and students they wish to assign tools or learning content. Then, using the App and Media selectors, Teachers can easily locate the tool or content they want, and then drag it to the class or students who should see this on their devices.MusicFirst Junior has the following elementary Music Learning Apps built right in:Groovy Music - Shapes, Jungle and City Create Modes - A series of three exciting software programs for elementary and middle school students. Fun to use, Groovy Music teaches the basics of sound, rhythm, pitch and composition using pictures and animation - progressing to the study of simple notation as well as major and minor scales.Groovy Explore - A growing collection of interactive activities that introduce students to a variety of musical concepts. Based on the extremely popular Explore section of the original Groovy, the topics may be easily combined with other learning content such as from Morton Subotnick's Music Academy, to create unique and exciting learning pathways.Morton Subotnick's Music Academy - This ear training and music making method was created by a master educator and respected pioneer in electronic music and multi-media performance. Here Morton Subotnick presents a child-friendly, experimental approach for learning, creating and performing music that every student can excel at.An Audio Recorder allowing Students to make simple recordings of themselves, with or without a metronome.Teachers can also include their own custom content including video, audio, and other media including images, documents and links to web pages. Combined with the built in Apps and Content, MusicFirst Junior provides a very open ended and flexible solution for Elementary Teaching.Learning PathwaysIn addition to using the App and Media Selectors to locate and assign materials to students, teachers can also work with Learning Pathways. Using different background images, Learning content, Media and Activities can be grouped and/or ordered into an appropriate sequence for presentation to students.MusicFirst Junior comes preloaded with dozens of pre-defined Learning Pathways to suit many different types of curricula - Common Core Standards, State-wide curricula, Orff or Kodaly based, just to name a few. While this is invaluable for Cross-Arts or new Music teachers, more experienced teachers can also modify and create their own Learning Pathways - and share them with other teachers.Student ObservationMusicFirst Junior also makes it easy for teachers to observe what students have been exploring, learning, and creating. A simple Observation panel shows what a class or student has opened, and what their learning progress or creative output has been recorded as they use the program.Classroom Presentation ModeFor those Classrooms equipped with a Smartboard or even just a simple large monitor or projector screen, MusicFirst Junior can be used by teachers in Presentation Mode.Simply double click on any Learning Content, Music App, Video, Audio, Document or Learning Pathway in the Teacher Panel, and it will be displayed in Full-Screen Mode - perfect for the classroom.Teachers can even create Learning Pathways to save their classroom sessions for future use, or for sharing with others!Continue Reading.