Large display charts are both a necessity and a headache in any classroom. Music teachers are even more affected than other teachers. They need display charts for teaching points or inspiration (like any other teacher) - but they also need loads of song lyric charts. And these chats need to be stored between usage. The storage alone was an issue for me in my teaching days. I was always getting bouts of sinusitis from dusty sheets of paper and cardboard stored either in open, wedge-shaped 'chart mangers' or in space-consuming drawer files. And then there was the rush of changing charts between classes (which was mostly chaotic with the constant stream of classes I had).
When we were developing Music Room, we decided to put all of our artist's beautifully created charts in the back of the book. We considered also producing large-format sets of them but decided against this as the manufacturing cost was so high and we would have had to charge a small fortune for them. But we knew that resourceful teachers would be able to take the charts in the book and 'blow them up' on the photocopier (and maybe even laminate them).
Then one day we got a request from a teacher in South Australia for what she called 'electronic file' versions of the charts. This had never occurred to us and we were very excited about the idea. So we now have a full set of CDROMs that contain the Music Room charts, lyrics, music, arrangements, certificates etc for each book.
If you haven't seen them, you can find them, you can find a chart sample with
one of the free activities we have published. Also, more
here.
The beauty of this format is that not only can you put the CDs into your computer and, using a data projector, display the chart or song lyric on a screen or whiteboard, but ... you can store all of them on your computer and simply summon up the song or chart that you need at will.
AND ... you can enlarge them in your computer and print them out for display purposes.
It certainly seemed like a brilliant solution to problems of storage, dust mites and ease-of-access. And it's inexpensive (especially compared to the cost of large-format charts).
Some teachers have asked why the CDROMs are not included in the Music Room package.
The answer is that not every teacher will use the charts in the above-mentioned ways or have access to a computer or a data-projector etc. So they won't need the disks.
And, of course, we would have to have to charge a higher price for the package.
The CDROMs are not essential, but are a convenient 'supplementary' tool. Hopefully, they make the teacher's job just a little easier.
Our basic aims in all our titles are:
Give the students material that is fun, engaging and inspiring.
Package it in such a way that it is easy for the teacher to use and makes their job easier.
If we achieve these aims it was a successful project.
Cheers till next time
Mark Leehy
Publisher - Bushfire press
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