My students need 17 headphone sets to use with our iPads so we can make digital music without simultaneously hearing the compositions of others next to them.
My classroom is performance oriented with a stage, a full set of risers, and more instruments than you would expect in the average elementary classroom. We make music with our own hands and breath, and we do it well. I'm in my fifth year at this school, and in the time I've been here, my students have become multi-instrumentalists on the bass, mandolin, piano, and drums. Some students like to switch around between the instruments, while others have "specialized" and concentrate all their learning on just one. Either way is fine by me, as long as they're learning and enjoying music and school.
My Project
Earlier this year school year our music class had several iPads and headphones funded. They have been great to use with our little ones who, due to their size, don't get to play all the big instruments in our room. If you've ever been around little people, their fine motor skills are not honed like that of an adult or even an older kid. Things like headphones with small parts that need to be manipulated will often break quicker with little ones than if a careful adult were to be using them.
It's not that the students aren't taught to care for the equipment or that they're being destructive.
It's just that their motor skills don't allow them to carefully remove the headphone plug from the jack in the iPad. The wires get worn, the ear foam gets rubbed, and the jack itself can get pulled at the wrong angles making it break more quickly. The 10 that we got at the start of the year have lasted this whole school year with the loss of only 6 of them. If we had 17 of them, it would last us for at least two years and that would be great!
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