Emily collapsed theatrically onto the piano stool and we both giggled! “Tiring day?”, I enquired and nodding her head she proceeded to tell me all about her maths test and that PE had been “awful” as the teacher made them run around the field “ten times!”.
Making sympathetic noises, I realised the lesson would be lost unless we found a way to get Emily focused and energised! I opened my tablet and loaded up ‘Goo The Teacher‘. Immediately Emily sat up excited, “ooh a game!” she exclaimed.
Me and Emily take turns under the goo machine. Emily has to name the note correctly to send the goo machine over my head and I get a three second wait under the machine when it’s my turn.
Emily is delighted when she wins the game (loves it when the machine splatters my character in green goo) and excitedly goes over to the leaderboard on the wall and puts a sticker in the box to show everyone she managed to ‘Beat The Teacher‘!
‘Goo The Teacher‘ is one of a collection of games in the ‘Beat The Teacher‘ pack. All the theory questions are set at grade one level and include topics like key signatures (C, D, F and G major), tonic triads, time signatures (2, 3 and 4 beats in a bar), time values, music signs, forming major scales and much more.
In ‘Potion Peril‘, for instance, students get the chance to turn their teacher into a monster if they know their note values (I think Emily was keen to nominate her PE teacher for this one!), and in ‘Planet Semiquaver‘ they can only stop their alien teacher invading with good knowledge of music terms and signs.
The games are playable on a computer, laptop, tablet, smartphone and you simply open a web browser and play! They add some fun and excitement to learning theory and students are fully engaged as they try to stop the teacher from winning.
‘Beat The Teacher’ is available with a ‘Studio’ licence so the teacher can use the games with any of their students during their music lesson. All are perfect for in-person lessons and many work well using screenshare during online teaching.
Find out more about how to access ‘Beat The Teacher’ here.
