March, 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 will be held in May in Birmingham.

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.)

* 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). V. Lewis' song will be sent to the state contest for the next level of judging. 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.")

T. Winick, K. Garrett, H. Panion, L. Scales, J. Austin, B. Tankard, L. Whitmore, J. Walden and J. McAphee
Birmingham City Council Meeting

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 21st at 10:15 A.M. 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. Information about the Conference is posted at this link.

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.

October, 2008
The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) held a Music Technology Academy Workshop for Music Educators and Music Students on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2008. For more information about the Academy and photos from the event, visit the following link. UAB Music Tech Academy

February, 2008
Ms. Garrett and the Music Tech students are happy to announce that we received a '2008 Best Buy Teach Award' on Feb. 18, 2008! Our class will receive a $2000 Best Buy gift card to purchase supplies and implement new projects related to music technology.

January, 2008
Ms. Garrett attended the National TI:ME Music Technology Conference in Grand Rapids, MI Jan. 23-27th. Pictures of the conference are posted here. For more information about TI:ME, visit http://www.ti-me.org

December, 2007
The Music Tech Ensemble at Central Park School performed several songs in the annual Holiday Celebration on Dec. 18, 2007. Pictures and MP3's from the program are posted here.

October - November, 2007
Ms. Garrett taped an interview on Nov. 9, 2007 with Keith Mason of MusicTechForMe.com. The MP3 podcast about our Music Technology program will be featured on Mr. Mason's website this week and will also be available through iTunes.

We finally moved! The Music Tech Lab moved to a 'larger' classroom on Oct. 31, 2007. We have a 14' x 20' room with air! We have been in a storage room (with no air) for the last 10 years, so this is exciting for us. New photos and videos of the students playing in the new room are being posted. We would like to thank Mr. Leverd Nunn for volunteering his time to install our new carpet. We would not have been able to move so soon without his help. Thank you, Mr. Nunn!

August - September, 2007
I am currently working on articles for a music technology magazine (www.metmagazine.com) and hope to have time to add new content to this site soon. I teach almost 200 students in the 2nd-5th grades at our school each week in addition to working on three school-related websites, a fine arts newsletter and magazine articles.

June - July, 2007
I have posted new information on a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page about our lab. I receive numerous questions from teachers each week regarding our history, materials and funding. Take a look at the information here... FAQ.

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.

Congratulations to music technology student G. Lowe for winning 1st Place (Music Composition) in the Alabama PTA Reflections Contest for 2007! Mr. Lowe was recognized at an award's reception on April 28, 2007. He also was notified at the reception that he was a winner of the Award of Merit at the National PTA Reflections contest in the Intermediate Division. He is one of five students in the U.S. to receive the award. We are so proud of him!

February - March, 2007
Our Music Tech Lab will be featured in an upcoming issue of School Band and Orchestra Magazine. We are excited about the feature and appreciate the opportunity to showcase our students. Thank you to photographer Alex Cohn for photographing images of our students at work in the Lab on March 8, 2007.

TI:ME Conference 2007 pictures have been posted. I really enjoyed seeing all my TI:ME friends and attending the sessions Feb. 8-10, 2007 in Columbus.

January, 2007
Congratulations to A. Hawkins (1st Place), K. Topping (3rd Place) and G. Lowe (Honorable Mention) for their award winning music compositions at the city-level PTA Reflections Contest in Birmingham. They will attend an awards banquet with Ms. Garrett in February.

December, 2006
Congratulations to the following students for submitting winning music compositions in the school-level PTA Reflections Contest: A. Hawkins, K. Topping, G. Lowe and J. Malone.

August, 2006
Ms. Garrett has moved the old lab to another storage room. We have new student desks, a little more space and a jazzy new look for the room.

May, 2006
Our lab is on the move! We are planning to relocate the Music Tech Lab in August of 2006 to the old band room at the school. It is only a few feet wider, but should allow for more students to be in Music Technology class. We are hoping to obtain new computer tables and keyboards for the lab. The 'new look' of the lab will be unveiled in August.

We would like to say 'thank you' to our Birmingham City Council President Pro Tem, Ms. Miriam Witherspoon, for visiting the Music Tech Lab on May 30, 2006.

February, 2006
Ms. Garrett attended the Birmingham City Council meeting on Feb. 21, 2006. She was given recognition by Birmingham Mayor Bernard Kincaid for receiving the TI:ME Teacher of the Year Award.

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