Using Garageband in the Classroom: Working, Saving, and Sharing

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So now that I’m actually in the classroom, co-teaching with a fabulous English teacher and using Garageband with students, there are a few things we’ve learned that may be useful to you. 
N.B.We are using shared devices. 

The Assignment

Students were asked to take two poems and the song lyrics of one song that share the same theme and create a “Mash Up”.  The result will be an entirely new poem which they will recite and put to music using GarageBand.  This is a senior English class, so what the teacher is looking for is a fairly comprehensive explanation of student choices including an analysis of poetic devices.  You could definitely do this same assignment with younger students, with the focus being oral/reading fluency, rather than analysis. 

Check out the website here.

Step 1:  Student work periods

If possible, assign the iPads to partners or triads so that they can continue to work on their creations on the same iPad for more than one day.  Working within the App is ideal for editing, and we found one work period to be insufficient time.

Step 2:  Moving your GarageBand creations off a shared device

Option A:  
Airdrop the GarageBand creations from shared iPads to a teacher iPad or to a teacher Macbook–this is ideal if your students still need to edit.
Option B: 
“Open In” Google Drive (as per these video tutorial instructions)
Option C: 
Share to your Youtube Channel
 

Step 3:  Playing your GarageBand creations

For Option A:  
If you are not using shared devices, or if you’ve Airdropped your creation, you may play directly from the GarageBand App
For Option B:  
If you have saved the device to Google Drive, you will need to be in the Google Chrome App to be able to listen to the creation on your iPad.  OR you can access your creation on a desktop or laptop provided you have Reeltime, Quicktime, etc…  
**OR download Drive Tunes from the Google Chrome store to play directly from your Google Drive account.
For Option C:
Play directly from your Youtube Channel
 
If you teach English, and want to assess students’s speaking skills (Oral Communication strand) as they work, feel free to use or modify this Assessment Checklist we created.
 
I can’t wait to share the student samples!  They are working so hard and LOVING it.  
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