Introduction

While slideshows are a big part of Google Slides, there are many other ways they can be useful for music teachers.

Here are just a few ideas:

As a starting point for group research projects

Like a procedural or musical diary

Like a practice journal

As a lesson guide or for project layout

In this blog, I'll show you some simple ways I use Google Slides to create teaching tools and resources in my music classroom and with my students. Plus, you'll learn some quick tips to make using Google Slides even easier!

#1: Save time with templates!

As music teachers, most of us are constantly pressed for time. Using templates to create presentations is a big time saver. You can create your own template and edit it every time you use it, or visit some of the free sites that provide great templates.

Providing templates as a basis for group work

Group work is always a great way to engage students. However, we often spend too much time on technical matters and too often students, especially my middle schoolers, Trending songs this week can easily become distracted by the many options available. By creating a template and sharing it with different groups, they can focus on musical fundamentals and reduce time discussing layouts.

#2: Diaries

Process diaries or music diaries

In our school, we ask students to keep a process journal or a music journal. This is a living documentary that includes text, videos, audio, images, drawings that document their growth as musicians. I tried many different formats and finally decided to use Google Slides for this. It's a place where all formats can be stored, easily edited and images can be organized in different ways - chronologically or by topic.

Exercise diaries

Keeping a practice journal is often a good idea to remind students of their daily practice. When I used paper exercise journals, it was easy to simply write down the entry. Using Google Slides as a journal, students can add evidence of their practice as well as embed explanatory videos they like.