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Embedding ICT across the curriculum

What do songs and music tell us about the past?

Using digital resources to enhance Teaching and Learning

The pupils at Sholden Primary recently took part in a “World War II Dance and Music” workshop with Education Officers from Chatham Dockyard. During the workshop the pupils had the opportunity to learn “The Waltz” and “The Jitterbug” and sing well known songs from the period.

Music and dance from a given period can provide pupils with information about past events and help them understand what people thought then about the issues that affected their everyday lives. Listening to Big Bands, Orchestras and musicians is an opportunity then for pupils to step back in time and consider:

• What people did to relax at home and socialise with others
• Why people enjoyed listening to “Big Band” music
• The part music halls played in keeping up morale during the war
• Why songs like “We’ll meet again” and “Run, rabbit run” accurately expressed people’s feelings and emotions about the period

To address each of these issues there are many “free” digital resources available for teachers and pupils to listen to and view. During the recent World War II project at Sholden Primary school the pupils used the resources listed below. For more information about each, click on the accompanying web link.

1940’s Big Band Music

Where can teachers download “Big Band” music for pupils to listen to?

The Audio Network owns the rights to a huge archive of over 60,000 tracks which it supplies to the international film, television and media markets. The tracks are originally composed and can be edited and re-used in schools. Access is via the National Education Network, therefore you can only access the free music from school computers connected to the network through Kent Broadband. Music files are provided in an mp3 zipped format which works with most software but sometimes will need converting to an alternative format. (Download step by step help sheet )
audio.lgfl.org.uk

Tracks stored on the Audio Network site include:

Learning to dance the Jive, Jitterbug and Waltz?

British Pathe Archive has worked with the South-East Grid for Learning and other Regional Broadband Consortia (RBCs) to provide access for schools to high-resolution versions of its digitised news film. 3,500 hours of film and 12,000,000 stills are now available in their high-resolution.

Connect to the Pathe site from school and discounts of 100% are automatically applied to all items you select, even the expensive high resolution files! The service recognizes your school as a Kent Broadband member and provides free access. (Access at home and you will be charged £25 + per video)
www.britishpathe.com

1940’s Big Band Music videos stored on the British Pathe website include:

What do songs tell us about the past?

BBC Schools Radio

www.bbc.co.uk/schoolradio/history/

Visit the BBC Schools Radio web pages to listen to Vera Lynn singing “We’ll meet again” or “Bud Flanagan singing “Run, Rabbit, Run.” Read the commentaries with each to find out what songs tell us about conditions and life in Britain during World War II?

BBC People’s WW2 Experiences

www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/

To listen to adults discussing their war time memories about a range of subjects visit the BBC People’s WW2 Experiences web-sites. The siteincludes personal accounts on the following subjects:

• The Dance Hall, War Time Escape
  
• Dancing through the War Years
• Entertaining the troops in India and Burma
• Glen Miller’s Trombonist
• My Glenn Miller Story
• A Night at the Flicks

Performing and Sharing our Learning with others

The National Education Network Gallery

The Gallery is a moderated site and, unlike YouTube, can be accessed by teachers in Kent schools.

To share their work from the session with the staff at Chatham Dockyard with others the school has published videos of some of the activities on the National Education Network Gallery. To view the short videos compiled during the workshop click on the web links below.

Learning to Waltz  

http://gallery.e2bn.org/video81235-.html

Performing the Waltz and the Jitterbug

http://gallery.e2bn.org/video81236-.html

“Run Rabbit, Run Rabbit” (song)

http://gallery.nen.gov.uk/video81602-.html

For more information about the Historical Education Workshops offered by the Dockyard visit: www.chdt.org.uk/

Interested in publishing and sharing resources to support a school or cluster project?

The NEN Gallery contains copyright free resources for teachers and pupils to download. Teachers who register may also upload and publish their own materials. To register as a user click on the web link below:

http://gallery.e2bn.org/login.php

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