So, What is “The Bitmoji Classroom”?

• Kate Testani
• Posted 8/2/22
• 1 comments

“You’re on a cart this year.”  

How many of us heard those words this year? And for some of us, it’s every year! Just when we thought coming back this fall teaching would be back to normal in our comfortable musical classrooms, music, art, PE, and library are turned upside down and find themselves traveling from room to room. Additionally, some of us, including myself, are teaching students both in-person and virtually. At the same time, others have found ourselves teaching entirely online. 

Why bother with a BitMoji Classroom? 

With various online teaching platforms and learning hubs available to classroom teachers, what is available for music educators? Where can we go that’s a “one-stop-shop” for all of our music class materials. Where can we add videos and activities, assignments, and collaborate with other teachers?  

Many of us don’t have “a place of our own” for in-person learning or virtual learning. Instead, we have become a “topic” in learning hubs like Google Classroom. Whether you are in your own music room, sharing a classroom, or on the couch at home, the BitMoji classroom can work for you. 

“You don’t need a BitMoji classroom to be a great online teacher.” However, this kind of virtual classroom can have a positive impact on our students.   BitMoji classrooms are beneficial to students learning at home and can increase music class participation.  Additionally, the BitMoji classroom provides students an opportunity to add a little more music to their day. 

Make it work for you. 

Your BitMoji classroom doesn’t have to look exactly like your classroom at school, and it doesn’t have to be perfect to be a useful tool for your students. It doesn’t need to change with the seasons, and your BitMoji doesn’t need a new outfit every week, and most importantly, it doesn’t have to consume you.  

All it needs to be is yours. The BitMoji classroom is where you can post all of your material- lessons, videos, assignments, and exit tickets.  Then you name it, and you can link it. After linking the tasks and materials in your virtual classroom, all you need to share is one link with your students – the BitMoji classroom link. 

Where do I start? 

Create your BitMoji classroom in Google Slides. Yep- it’s just a slideshow! 

If you teach multiple subjects at the secondary level, you can have different slides to separate subjects or sections. Or if you teach different grade levels (like myself), each slide can be a different grade level.  When students click the link and enter the BitMoji classroom, it takes them to “the main lobby.” The main lobby is the first slide, which redirects students to their appropriate grade level. 

On this main page, I also include “the song of the week.” On this slide, I can share music students are listening to during the week in music class. I linked traditional Latin American music during Hispanic Heritage Month, opening a class discussion about different instruments and sounds we heard.  

Also included in the main lobby a link to the parent’s corner.  This second page (slide) has links and information on using Google Classroom, our school’s website, and other useful resources related to music education. As music educators, we would ​love​ to preach the importance of music education to families. We would love to tell the parents of kindergarteners why they should dance with them as often as possible and why singing lullabies to their children is vital to their development. In the Parents Corner, you can! 

Collaboration 

Collaboration between teachers is simple.  Write the directions on the virtual whiteboard, and students can easily navigate to their next activity. In the kindergarten room, you can see that our art teacher “visited” us! Clicking on the art teacher BitMoji opens a chrome lab activity where students can “paint” their music and listen to their painting. 

Not only are students creating a musical masterpiece, but Kindergarteners are making connections with their study Kandinsky’s art class. Implement collaborations with any teacher in your building, including homeroom teachers, TESOL, and other specials such as PE and Library. 

A Closer Look 

Let’s look at everything in this room. Not everything links to something, but we might as well make it a little fun, right?  

In a shared online learning space such as Google Classroom, we are often limited to posting ONE item for a lesson. And if we can assign multiple things, often it is overwhelming for families at home? In this example of the BitMoji room, there are seven active links, similar to the number of activities students do in a typical music class. “Click on the drum to learn about percussion instruments,” “Click on the clipboard for the exit ticket.” The beauty of this “room” is that there is only one link for families to follow.  However, there are multiple resources at their fingertips. Not only is it one link for families, the link never changes, no matter how many times your “classroom” is edited.  

Send the link once, and you’re done!  

Any changes made to the BitMoji classroom are updated automatically, so there is no need to send out another link. 

Experiment pictured BitMoji room –  Click Here 

In a school year of at-home teaching, cart teaching, and shared classroom teaching, the BitMoji room is you can claim as your own. Do you have a TON of material you’d love to share but can’t find the time to squeeze everything in? Do you miss being creative, hanging posters, making bulletin boards in your beautiful classroom?  Add it to the room.  

Music deserves a creative learning hub. The personal connection between students and teachers is severely limited this year, Let’s recreate that connection digitally. 

References

Chrome Music Lab. (n.d.). Retrieved October 29, 2020, from https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/Kandinsky 
ULC, B. (n.d.). Your own personal emoji. Retrieved October 29, 2020, from https://www.bitmoji.com/ 

This article was originally published by Music ConstructED on November 30, 2020.