I. Need..A...Skittle.....

Speaking Volumes

I am going to reveal a story about my childhood.  
This story will speak volumes as to my character of today.  
Most likely, you will not be surprised.

When my siblings and cousins got together at my Grandma's house, we would turn every square inch of her basement into a fort. We would use blankets and every piece of furniture to form rooms and doors and secret hiding places.  Of course we always had a mission to accomplish.  

On one memorable occasion, something happened to my brother.  OH NO!! He was losing his power!!!!   He needed to power up- but how??  That is when he reached down to his spy watch that had a secret compartment.  (This was back in the 80's, so his secret-compartment spy watch was the size of a house camper.) He opened it up  and pulled out a Skittle- popped it in his mouth and said, 

 "I. Have. POWER!" 

And off he flew.  

I, of course, was losing my power every 2 minutes after that, and required an entire bag of Skittles to reboot my power over the afternoon play session.  I am sure you can image all the "power" I had after all of that sugar as a small child.  

 

'Pop A Skittle' Every Now And Then To Power Up Your Internet Searches.

Google is a powerful tool.  With great power, comes great responsibility...I believe a famous superhero's uncle said this.  

Eh, why not? We were on the topic of superheros.

Google produces an obscene amount of results when searching.  Nobody has time to get to the 317th page to see if it has the answer you are looking for.  Check out these videos to narrow down your searches.

Pretty cool, huh?  

Is Google Getting A Run For Its Money?

I see some competition for Google.  Have you heard of Wolfram Alpha?  This seems to be an amazing tool.  It gathers results of your search and places them all on your search page, rather than having to sort through a list of sites like Google makes you do.  It is second nature as to how quickly we can sift through all of the information that Google provides us to find the best-fit site.  However, this seems to do that for you!  Check this out!

How can we use this in the music room?  So glad you asked!

• Study sound waves
• Comparisons of so many things!
• composers
• instruments
• genres
• artists
• musicians
• music eras
• visual arts and music
• Study frequencies
• Scales
• And so much more!

Copyright?  Yes, Copyright.

I am a visual learner and love using them whenever I can.  However, artists need cred for their work, people!  Respect the time and effort they put into this.  Take a look at this last video to see how your students can find images and use them properly with Creative Commons.

Pretty "super" how some people are so giving of their intellectual property.  As a visual person, they are my "hero."

...And I Will Leave You With This.