Music Cue App

Since you need to have music on your device in order to use the Music Cue app, I thought it made sense to provide some mp3s you could download and import into iTunes. After all, iTunes is the easiest way to organize music on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch.

Alarms
With that in mind, here are 20 alarms you can import into iTunes and then use to initiate procedures.

Instructions for how to download a song can be found here.

Any one of these alarms will be a much better cue than your words could ever hope to be. It's just how the brain operates.

For the record: Using words to initiate a procedure--"Please take out your copy of Frindle, and get ready to take some notes."--can get the job done. But only if each student in your room was not, at that moment, using his Pre-frontal Cortex for some other task such as completing an assignment independently. When they're in that mode, the PFC is being used to process the information in front of them. Consequently, your spoken message about getting ready for the book study isn't being received.

An alarm, though, sends a wake-up call. And since each alarm is different, students quickly learn to recognize them and the distinct message each one sends.

In the example below, an alarm would send each student a packet of information.

Take out your copy of Frindle.
Find your learning journal and a pencil, and place them in a handy spot.
Have it all done before the alarm is over.

At the first few notes of the alarm, your students will be alerted about what to do. And with just a bit of practice, they'll be able to complete the task before the alarm ends.

Bottom Line: Without a word from you, every student will be ready to begin the book study lesson.

Magical.