Music Technology Class News

PLEASE NOTE 2020-2022: I have updated most of the quizzes, along with the rest of my site. Please update your links, as all of the quiz links have changed. NEW - December 2022 - Some of the older FLASH quizzes are now playable through a plug-in on the pages. Thank you!

June-October, 2020
The Music Ed Tech Conference, presented by MusicFirst, offers free videos to help with teaching music in coming days where music learning will be combined remotely and in-person. Music Ed Tech Conference Link

June, 2018
Ms. Garrett has retired from teaching band and music technology after 26 years of service in the Birmingham City School System.

April, 2018

The annual Woodlawn Music Tech Camp is now enrolling Birmingham area students for their amazing Summer Camp. Here is a link to the registration information. Info - http://www.woodlawnmusictech.org/about

January, 2018

Congratulations to our school PTA Reflections Winners for 2017-2018... (Music) J. Young, D. Winston, A. Johnson, A. Roshell, A. Hart, (Art) K. Eatmon, (Dance) Ma. Williams, Mo. Williams, (Literature) A. Powell! Their work is posted on our Student Work page.

May, 2017

Congratulations to our city PTA Reflections Winners for 2016-2017... (Music) W. Garner, A. Johnson, D. Rankins, (Art) J. Norris-Howard and (Art, Dance) J. Watson! Their work is posted on our Student Work page.

September, 2013

Ms. Garrett is teaching middle school band full-time at Green Acres now. She will have a few students participating in music technology / keyboard in between band classes, but primarily will teach band.

August, 2013

Ms. Garrett will be the Band Director at Green Acres Middle School in Birmingham and starting a new band program. Information about the band will be posted on the band page at this link. She will be recruiting her old music tech students for band soon!

May, 2013

Congratulations to our PTA Reflections City-Level Winners in Intermediate Music Composition for 2012-2013... A. Effinger (1st Place), V. Lewis (2nd Place) and A. McGhee (3rd Place). The PTA banquet was held on May 19, 2013 in Birmingham. Ms. Garrett received the Birmingham Council of PTA's Teacher of the Year Award.

August, 2012

Students... try out the free Finale Notepad or MuseScore for creating some of your own songs. Because of the number of students in each class and no money for software, we will be using these programs along with Noteflight a lot this year. Link: Finale NotePad or MuseScore

June, 2012


* Thank you to all of the donors who helped us obtain funding for four more keyboards! The project is fully funded. (We received the keyboards in August, 2012.)

* I just posted a new look for MusicTechTeacher.com. Most of the links in the site have changed with the update. Don't worry ...the old content is still here. I will add new content as time permits this summer.

May, 2012
* The All City Band Evaluation was held on May 8, 2012 for the Music Tech Ensemble. Our students played I'll Be There, We Shall Overcome and Tuxedo Junction. They received an A+ grade for their performance. Congratulations to our Music Tech Ensemble members! All City Band Evaluation Video - May, 2012

* Congratulations to A. Effinger for winning 2nd Place in the State PTA Reflections contest!

February, 2012
* Selected members of the Music Tech Ensemble performed in the Black History program on Feb. 28, 2012 at 9:00 AM and 1:00 PM at the school.

* The PTA Reflections Banquet was held on Feb. 26, 2012. Our three winners received their awards from the city-wide contest.

January, 2012
Congratulations to our City-Level PTA Reflections Music Composition Winners for 2011-2012. The winners are V. Lewis (1st Place), A. Effinger (2nd Place) and A. McGhee (3rd Place). Their songs are posted on our Student Work page.

Ms. Garrett attended the annual TI:ME Conference held in Louisville, KY on January 4-7, 2012.

December, 2011
Our annual Christmas Music Program was held on Dec. 13, 2011 at 9:00 AM and 1:00 PM at Central Park School. Sixteen of our students played in the Music Tech Ensemble and they sounded great! Thank you for all of your hard work, students! Pictures are posted on our school site.

Congratulations to our school PTA Reflections Music Composition Winners for 2011-2012. Their compositions will be sent to the City PTA for the next level of the contest. The winners are K. Ruffin, A. Effinger, A. McGhee, V. Lewis and M. Walker. Their songs are posted on our Student Work page.

October, 2011
I have purchased a subscription to Noteflight.com for my students and myself. This is going to be a great resource for providing online access to creating music anytime outside of my class. My students are really excited about it and they are already posting scores for me to review.

May, 2011
Thank you, Avid, Lee Whitmore, Henry Panion and the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus group for working with teachers and students in Birmingham on May 15-17, 2011. We would like to thank Avid for providing $60,000 worth of Pro Tools equipment to the Birmingham City Schools system so our teachers and students may learn to use the programs in our classes!

(From Avid - "The Birmingham portion of the tour concluded with The Bus parked outside City Hall. Avid Education Segment Director, Dr. Lee Whitmore, joined Henry Panion in City Council Chambers to present a gift of 200 Mbox MINIs with Pro Tools to the Mayor and the Birmingham Public Schools in support of a state and city technology and education program. Avid was honored at that time with an official "city seal" in recognition of our support of music and arts education.")

Congratulations to the Music Tech Ensemble for receiving a 'Superior - Grade A' rating at the All City Band Evaluation on May 5, 2011! All City Evaluation Video

December, 2010
Thank you to all of the Music Tech Ensemble students who performed in the Christmas Program on Dec. 15, 2010! Your performance was outstanding. The video from the concert is posted here: Concert Video from Dec. 15, 2010

September, 2010
Congratulations to Corey Walker, the first recipient of the Rising Star Award from the Alabama Symphony Orchestra on September 10, 2010! Corey received a trombone, books and five years of music lessons from a symphony member. Follow this link to see the photos.

May, 2010
Ten of our students performed at the Alabama Symphony Orchestra concert on May 21, 2010. Thank you to all of my students for all of your hard work this year and for performing well at the concert! Thank you to Composer-in-Residence Paul Lansky and Alabama Symphony Orchestra Education Manager Meaghan Heinrich for working with my students this year! Concert Performance Video

Congratulations to all of the students who participated in the All City Band Evaluation on May 4, 2010 in the Central Park School Music Technology Lab. The Ensemble made an 'A' (Superior Rating) for their performance!

March-April, 2010
I am currently going through some of my 'oldest' quizzes and updating them from Hot Potatoes and older Flash software (2000-2006) to newer Flash software and Articulate Quizmaker so the scoring, printing of scores and randomization of the questions will work better. Thank you for using the site!

February, 2010
Paul Lansky visited our Music Lab again on Feb. 4, 2010. The students are doing well with their compositions and are preparing to play before an Alabama Symphony Orchestra Coffee concert on May 21st.

Congratulations to C. Walker for winning First Place in Music Composition in the City PTA Reflections Contest. His composition is posted on the Student Work section of this site. A banquet was held on Feb. 21, 2010 in Birmingham.

December, 2009
The Music Tech Ensemble performed at the annual Christmas Music Program at Central Park School on Dec. 16, 2009.

November, 2009
The UAB Music Tech Academy and the Alabama Chapter of TI:ME Conference was held on Nov. 14, 2009 at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Ms. Garrett's presentation is posted here.

September-November, 2009
Selected Music Tech Students will participate in a special, year-long project in cooperation with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra Education Division and composer-in-residence Paul Lansky. The first session was held on Sept. 18, 2009. The second session was held on Nov. 5, 2009. Pictures and information about the project are posted at this link.

April, 2009
Congratulations to all of the students in the Music Tech Ensemble at Central Park School! The students received a Superior Rating at the All City Band Evaluation on April 30, 2009.

We were sad to hear of the loss of our Birmingham City Councilor, Miriam Witherspoon, who died on April 21, 2009. Councilor Witherspoon has been a wonderful supporter of our school and district. She was also responsible for giving us the funds to purchase all of the new keyboards for our Music Tech Lab in 2007.

February, 2009
The National TI:ME Music Technology Conference was held in San Antonio, Texas from Feb. 11-14, 2009. Presenters from all across the U.S. taught others how to use technology as a part of the music curriculum. The conference was held in conjunction with the TMEA (Texas) Music Educators' Association Conference.

May, 2007
The new Yamaha PSR-e403 keyboards arrived the last week of May! We are so happy to receive the keyboards as a result of funding from our City Council. We look forward to using them when school starts in August.

April, 2007
Thank you to Eliahu Sussman for the article and feature about our lab in the April, 2007 issue of School Band and Orchestra Magazine. We appreciate all the interest in what we are doing with music technology to enhance our students' learning and enjoyment of music.

January, 2006

Ms. Garrett is very excited about being named the TI:ME Teacher of the Year for 2006. The award was presented at the national TI:ME Conference in Tampa in January.   TI:ME / FMEA Conference Pictures 2006

News Articles (Archived)
This article is available through fee based archives at the Birmingham News.
Below is a screen shot of the Jan. 25, 2006 News article ID number MERLIN_2998408.

This article is available through fee based archives at the Birmingham News.
(Below is a screen shot of the March 13, 2002 News article page ID number 430701.)