How to Track App Assignments

It's taken me a while to come up with this "how-to" post. In fact, it took me two "tries."  What you'll find below is a pair of articles I wrote for JoyTunes--the developers of THE hottest app, Piano Maestro. The first article discusses when and how to incorporate apps and the next article describes how to keep track of all your APPlied plans.Since there were requests for me to generate a generic lesson assignment/app tracking sheet, I've included that below.Before you check it out and leave this post, I highly suggest reading both articles to help you grasp the idea of integrating apps into your teaching.

#1 When and How to Use Apps

Unfortunately, just accumulating cool music apps will NOT set your studio apart.

Utilizing apps to their full capacity and tracking how they enhance your students’ progress WILL.

Most would agree that this integration process is THE most tricky part of using today’s technology. Each of your students is on an individual musical path, advancing at various speeds. This requires customized assignments and with a studio of 20+ students, this can be a tedious task.

There are various solutions to this dilemma. Power tool apps that provide individual accounts,  feedback and progress like Piano Maestro are extremely helpful—hooray!

However, sometimes other apps must be employed and it’s helpful to keep a record of their use. Before I dive into how I keep track of assignments, it may be helpful to review WHEN I use apps and HOW I design app assignments for each student.

In general, there are three ways to incorporate apps into your savvy instruction:

To read more, click here.

#2 What to Assign and How to Track Apps Assignments

Part one of this series provided general idea on WHEN and HOW to design app assignments during lessons. To give you a clearer picture on WHAT to assign and how to track assignments, here’s a snap shot of how I recently integrated apps into my summer lessons.

Missing gap waiting for attention was determined. As I want to build stronger ear players as well as good readers, I decided that each student would choose one tune to learn and harmonize by ear.

Theme was chosen to create a common studio thread. To narrow down the choice of play-by-ear tunes, I thought it’d be fun to hold a patriotic theme and offer the following tunes from which to choose: America, My Country ’Tis of Thee, Star Spangled Banner or Yankee Doodle—for the early beginners.

Apps to reinforce the play-by-ear patriotic theme. Among other things, developing  ear skills demands aural recognition of intervals.

To read the entire process, click here.

FYI: Here's a macro plan of app assignments I followed during the summer of 2014.

Here's a Pdf of the assignment sheet and the form I used to keep track of Music Tech Time using this macro plan. Summer 2014 Assign

Since the articles were first posted, there has been requests for me to generate a generic lesson assignment/app tracking sheet, I've included that here. Student Assignment Sheet

Interested in hearing how a fellow iPad teacher, Wendi O'Reilly Stunzi  integrates apps? Click here to read all about it at The iPad Piano Studio blog.

How do YOU design and keep track of app assignments? I'd love to hear your secrets!