OneNote Review

While I am admittedly becoming a Google girl, there were a few intriguing aspects about OneNote that I could apply to my organizational practices in teaching. OneNote is a cloud-based note-taking program which is designed to organize meeting notes, lesson plans, and any other documents.  It is accessible by any device which could be helpful for teachers who plan at both school and home.

The feature that I found most interesting was the ability to take screenshots while lesson planning. As I do not have a set of student curriculum books, I often draw information for lesson and unit planning from sources I find online. It can sometimes be tedious copying information, keeping track of websites, and once the website is listed, remembering which website contains which information. The result is having to go back through my research to find what I want. Using OneNote, however, I was able to take a screenshot of a website and save it for later reference.

The other feature I found to be helpful is the 'to do list' feature. I am constantly jotting notes or lists down in many different places (paper, my computer, my iPad, etc). It is never all in one place. With OneNote, I can save it on one device and access it on another.

Overall, I think this program is interesting, and I can definitely see how it could help me (or any other teacher) stay organized in my professional life!

Week 7: Tech for Productivity & PD / TPACK Wrap-up

This week's readings centered around using technology both to increase productivity and as a method of professional development. Throughout my entire teaching career, technology has been an important part of connecting with other teachers, especially the other music teachers in our district. I have often emailed colleagues with questions or advice, and just this simple task made me feel less alone and helped me grow as a music teacher.

Technologies I Use

Over the last few years, I have been increasingly looking to the Internet for professional development and lesson ideas. The most obvious is this class: it is part of my Master's degree in music education that I am obtaining entirely online. Working a full time job, being a mom and wife, and living at least 45 minutes from any college that would offer a music ed degree has made it convenient and achievable. While it hasn't always been easy, I have found certain classes very pertinent to my teaching and have definitely helped me grow as a teacher. Additionally, I have used webinars offered by NAfME to fulfill professional development hours required by my district.

I surprised myself when I realized that I actually like using my PLN to learn about new technologies and articles pertinent to my teaching. In the past, I have had to search out inspiration and lesson / unit plans for my teaching. I think even after this class is finished I will still read items in my Feedly and Twitter accounts, both of which I may keep for professional reasons. Facebook will always remain a social thing for me! 

I have been taking advantage of Google Drive as a way to stay organized this year instead of my flash drive that I hang on my school lanyard (in fact, I could probably take it off - I haven't used it since October!). It has been a great way to share documents and collaborate while planning integrated units and lessons.

Technologies I Plan to Use

Last week, I attended the Magnet Schools of America Conference in Raleigh, NC. Part of the conference was the opportunity to tour some truly inspirational magnet schools, similar to my school. After hearing about Internet-based programs such as DropBox, Edmodo, and Evernote that are being used daily at these schools, I am excited to explore their use in my classroom. Out of all of these, DropBox seems like it will be the easiest to integrate.

While I haven't always been good with it in the past, I know I must start using the Internet to communicate with my students' families more effectively. My students do not always give notes to their parents, and the Internet gives a more direct route for the information. While I cannot use social media as a platform to reach families directly (district policy), part of my professional goal next year will be to communicate with families via email both in group emails or with individual messages. I am also in the process of designing a new website for my classroom using Weebly to communicate with families. I also have just begun to use YouTube links to share performances and student work with families via the use of QR codes.

TPACK Wrap-up

This class has given me a great deal of knowledge that I have applied or plan to apply to my teaching. I am certainly quickly becoming more comfortable using technology, and I am excited about using it with my students!

(As a follow-up to earlier posts: some of my fifth-grade students finished their GarageBand tracks today, and they are FANTASTIC! One group in particular went above and beyond, adding electric guitar to their accompaniment. The students have been so excited to explore the technology, and are proud of what they have composed! It went so well, I am planning on using it in one last unit with my fourth-graders too!)

Week 6 - Responding to Music

This week's topic centers around how students listen to music and ways to engage students in music listening. I found it interesting that students are more open-minded to listening to new or different music at a young age, and loose that interest or willingness as they get older. Bauer never explains why this is, but explains that it increases in adolescence. 

I have two hypothesises based on my experiences teaching elementary students. Firstly, this bend in willingness to listen to new music seems to correlate acquisition of new language - young children that are exposed to multiple languages as a child are more likely to be fluent in those languages when they are older. Similarly, Bauer cites "Early exposure to specific musics may positively impact students' reaction to them later in life" (p.109). While I have no proof of this, there seems to be some sort of correlation. 

Secondly, the willingness to listen to a wide variety of music may decrease because of peer influence / pressure. Students develop inhibitions about themselves around their peers as they advance through elementary school. They are more aware of what the 'norm' is and tend to shy away from things that are deemed 'uncool'. I see this all the time with singing in general music class. When I have moved between schools (as we have 7 elementary schools, it is not unusual to move assignments due to changing the number of classes in schools), I often have to gradually work to break down the barrier for students to participate in singing and especially dancing activities. With the youngest students, it's easy - they enjoy moving and singing, and often get unknowingly swept into the activity. In fourth and fifth grade, it is harder to engage all of the students as they have developed those inhibitions. However, when I was at the same school for 4 years, my fifth graders (who started with me as second graders), were much more willing to participate in singing and dancing - it was the norm in our music class! Perhaps this is the way I need to think about listening to music with my students.

Ways to Listen and Respond to Music

Technology - As I have more technology resources this year than ever before, I have been using technology to help students listen to and even watch musical performances. YouTube has been an excellent resource for this. An example: My 1st and 2nd grade students listened to, moved, and even played along with one or two of the movements from the Nutcracker close to our winter break. After completing these activities, I wanted them to be able to visualize what is happening in the ballet when they hear the music in the future. I was able to find (and pre-watch) a few excellent performances of the movements we listened to. It helped bring the story to life for them, and gave them deeper meaning to what we listened to.

Listening Maps - I use listening maps often while listening to music with my students. As Bauer mentioned in the book, they "are effective ways to help direct students' attention to important aspects of a composition" (p. 113). My students, especially the youngest ones, seem to benefit from having something to look at and track while they listen. They likely develop this skill when they are tracking words while being read to. I use listening maps from John Jacobson's Music Express Magazine or from a resource I have, Music Moves Me. I am very excited to find, explore, and use animated listening maps mentioned in the book - it would be easy to use with my IWB!

Interdisciplinary Connections - I have been struggling with keeping integrated music lessons authentic - meaning that music goals are met along with the goals of the other subject. My elementary school became an arts and technology magnet school this year, with the focus being on arts integration. Our goal is to expose students to a variety of the arts - visual, music, dance, theatre, and media arts. At first, the easiest thing to do was to sing about facts, and that seemed to be what the classroom teachers were comfortable with. But that isn't authentic integration. Our integrated lessons now are more involved and meet goals of all subjects. My integrated unit with GarageBand and writing raps about the branches of the U.S. Government is an excellent example. I'd love to answer any questions about music integration or share some of our successful lessons!

Week 5 - Learning to Work Backwards (Instructional Design and Technology)

I found this week's readings both refreshing and very educational - and I wish I had read them as an undergrad, prior to teaching. Teachers must keep their educational goals in mind when planning instruction - and determine what skills or knowledge will be assessed before teaching the students. 

Images downloaded from Pixabay.com,
free for commercial use.

Analogy

'Backwards Instruction' does make sense; when at a river, you know the end goal is to get across the river. 
Learning Goals: What do you need to do it? A raft. 
Assessment: How are you going to build the raft, and what makes it successful? A rubric might include the raft having wood, oars, rope, no holes, etc. 
Planning Learning Activities: Activities might include swimming lessons, raft-building classes, physics of water or geography lessons... the list goes on.

The final result: the students get across the river.

My Experience

As part of a new magnet school, I have been helping to redesign, and in many cases create, an integrated curriculum that incorporates the arts and technology into the public schools' curriculum. My arts coordinator, a former teacher with years in curriculum design, has been teaching me how this process works and assisting me in the planning. I have seen first hand how it is actually easier to plan instruction when an end goal has been determined. Instead of "I want to teach my students about tempo", backwards instruction requires the teacher to determine "I want my students to be able to differentiate between largo, moderato, and presto tempos". More concrete goals guide the planning process: "I will assess my students by giving them listening examples and asking them to show pictures of a turtle (largo), cat (moderato), and a cheetah (presto)". Then, instruction can be centered around the assessment and learning outcomes.

My undergrad program did not help guide my planning in this way. Perhaps it is due to the fact that I graduated in 2006 (many of the cited resources in these chapters seem to have been printed then or shortly thereafter) and my professors were not familiar with this style of instructional design at that time. Perhaps it is due to too much for us to learn, and not enough time to learn it... that is neither here nor there.

I have often struggled when designing instruction - my first few years teaching general music were simply survival mode, planning activities more than long-term lessons or units. As my teaching has evolved, I have of course developed units of study for each grade. From this year forward, I imagine I will be using more of a backward design model when planning teaching. It is an adjustment - but once you get the hang of it, it is much easier. 

Criticism 

This does sometimes feel a little bit like 'teaching to the test'. There has been recent push back against so much standardized testing, blaming teachers on teaching only the materials and skills that are on the test. But as long as we, as teachers, make sure to teach skills or concepts that will make the students well rounded musicians and critically-thinking learners, I believe that this method of instruction will not only make our teaching more efficient, it will allow us to make the best use of our limited instructional time. 

Chromatik & Smartmusic - Musts for Music Enrichment

Chromatik

Any program that has me running for my flute (because it is quickly assembled) and playing for more than a half hour definitely has two thumbs up from me. While I played my flute, I literally had a sing-along with my (almost) three-year-old daughter! (She left the movie she was watching to come sing!) It was a ton of fun, and it had a decent selection of songs that she knew to make it more fun.

I can see how Chromatik would be highly motivating for students of nearly any age. To play along on an instrument, students would have to be experienced (high school?) players. Some songs had huge ranges, so players either have to be able to play extreme ranges (Flute low Bb in "Gaston", for example) or be able to transpose the octave easily. The key signatures are original and often difficult when transposed for different instrument (clarinet or sax). I also appreciated that there is an 'easy' keyboard version (even if it is still difficult)!

Chromatik, a free online program, uses YouTube videos as the audio accompaniment for the songs. The advantage: you hear the original song without midi accompaniment, which at times sounds tacky. The disadvantages: some songs have explicit language that is censored in the sheet music but not in the audio, and some of the videos are 'no longer accessible'.

Overall, Chromatik has definite applications for experienced players for sight-reading skills, motivation to play, and just fun. Students would likely spend quite a bit of time playing their favorite songs, and exploring music from different genres.

But what about the elementary music classroom?

As with many of the programs in this class, much of Chromatik's content would be too difficult for elementary students. However, I could imagine using this as a reward or extra-curricular activity. If you select the 'Vocal' choice (or really, any of them as they all seem to have the lyrics in the music), students could follow along with the sheet music and sing along. I would use this on my SMART Board, with the goal of students improving fluency (following along in the music isn't always easy). Many music videos with lyrics go too fast, and don't allow the reader to look ahead.


SmartMusic

SmartMusic is a subscription program in which teachers can assign playing assignments, assess students' playing, and monitor student growth. Students use an Internet connection to play along with lesson book songs, technical exercises, or even ensemble repertoire.

I have heard of this program in the past, but technology and budgetary limitations (and our district's instrumental program being cut) have prevented me from exploring its use. Now that I have reinstated an instrumental program at our magnet school, and the use of technology is encouraged, I hope that I can roll out use of SmartMusic over the next year or two.

The program seems very motivating - students not only have accompaniments that they can change to a playable tempo, but the program gives the student instant feedback on pitch and rhythm issues in their playing. The program can give them an instant score - and who doesn't want to keep playing their 'game' to get a perfect score?

Testimonials on the website give high praise to SmartMusic. Students and full ensembles seem to advance more quickly in their playing abilities, performing more difficult music.

With all these things in mind, I think adding SmartMusic to my new band program could be 'instrumental' to its success. I am having a difficult time motivating my students to practice, and adding this program could increase playing times and student achievement.

But you have mentioned that your families may have financial and Internet connectivity issues?!

In a school like mine, I couldn't make the use of SmartMusic a mandatory exercise. I would offer the families the opportunity to subscribe to it at home (possibly with magnet funds paying for part of their subscription), but I would also have several 'practice room subscriptions' available at school for student use. I can imagine the students using it on indoor recess days, signing up to use it before school, or during the after-school program.

In Conclusion... I definitely want to find a way to use both of these programs with my students!

Week 4 - Technology for Music Performance & Practice

When I started the readings, I was worried about limitations I might find in using the technology discussed this week with my elementary students. After all, my students are young, so therefore limited in ability, and socio-economically disadvantaged, so therefore may not have access at home. For the time being, I cannot assume that my students can either connect to the Internet to visit certain websites, nor can I assume that my students can afford to purchase subscriptions to performance programs.

General Internet Resources

At a recent regional professional development, a high school teacher demonstrated how his jazz band and music history students use blogs. He will embed or link to a piece of music he requires his students to listen to, and students are required to respond to it, usually answering a question. This reduces the time he has to spend playing music for his students in class, and gives the students a more free place to discuss what they have listened to.

If I had time to arrange it, I could do this with my students either as an extra credit or as an in-class / free time activity with my students. My students have access to plenty of technology at school, so would likely be able try it in our building.

In addition, a colleague shared a safe search for students (especially important at the elementary level):http://www.safesearchkids.com/ . It is a search engine powered by Google. There seem to be a lot of ads, but my students have used this during integrated music lessons, and I have felt confident that what they find will be appropriate for their eyes.

Technology for the Music Classroom

My beginning band students' lesson books do have DVD's that accompany each exercise in their book, and I wish I had taken advantage of them earlier this year - the video mini-lessons are fantastic! I didn't introduce the DVD's to my students until it was late for them to really use it. They do, however, enjoy playing along with the accompaniments. Disadvantage of their DVD's - no tempo variations or way to manipulate the tempo!

I would love to give my students access to programs like SmartMusic to improve their beginning instrumental skills. Not only would it give them instant feedback on their performance, I anticipate it would motivate them to practice more than their DVD's. But again, I am limited by what resources my students may have at home. Most of my students borrow their instruments from the school for little or no cost.

I have, however, begun to use technology to record my students and give instant feedback to my students. I have used my iPad to take video and pictures of my students' instrumental playing so they can assess themselves. I have also used the same feature in whole class instruction when 'performing' a song during class. Sometimes, it is hard for my students to take class performances seriously without a 'real' audience - taking video gives them an audience and motivates them to sing / play better. I've even suggested to my students that I could have my principal FaceTime into our classroom to check in (although I don't think he has the technological skills to achieve it)!

In a third grade integration class, the students are writing 'simile raps'. They will be using video to record themselves performing their raps over a pre-recorded beat (found at www.flocabulary.com/warp/beats/). I hope to share at least a few of their videos on my teacher website so that parents can view the work they have done - a 'concert' opportunity that can be viewed online!

Week 3 - DAWs

I was glad to learn some of the information about digital music in this week's readings about DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations). Both due to this course and in my teaching assignment, my technology use has drastically increased. I am quickly becoming comfortable with the software, websites, and other media. However, the most beneficial information of the reading was about audio files and how different types create different types of audio compression and, in return, sound quality. Much of what I use is MP3, but I never considered that other types of files that I have used take up more space (WAV). For my purposes in the classroom, the loss of data in an MP3 file is acceptable. I could see how a teacher in a music studio (or even a professional!) would of course prefer a file that uses 'lossless' compression.

Composition

Just like improvisation, my general music classes have spent little time on composition projects. It is hard to teach something that the teacher has little experience with; I took one composition and arranging class in college, and haven't done much since (other than a simple arrangement of "Jingle Bells" or "Hot Cross Buns". Not only do I have little experience with it myself, but I never really learned how to teach it. 

In addition, composition takes valuable time away from my once a week 40-minute general music classes - a quality project would take at least 4-6 classes. I'd be looking at spending at least one month doing that, not counting days off, field trips, assemblies... I'm not saying that composition is an invalid way to use my time with my students - but much of the time, I prefer to have my students making music with their voice or instruments than to spend time writing. I have done small projects in my older students, but not anything in great depth.

Enter DAWs. I am so excited to be able to have my students composing either with DAWs (in my school's case, GarageBand) or on more traditional platforms (MuseScore or Noteflight). DAWs allow some of those previously considered 'non-creatives' a chance to shine. 

As some of you may know, I have recently started an integration project in 5th grade social studies in which my students will be writing raps about a branch of the government with GarageBand accompaniments that they are will compose. A few classes in, and all of the students are engaged and composing through the use of drum loops. I have been teaching them the basics of GarageBand, but over the next two weeks, we will begin composing the accompaniments for their raps. I realize now that I will have to spend time guiding them through the revision and analysis processes. I am in the process of writing the exact criteria for the GarageBand component of the project; this will be crucial for their success!

My fifth grade students have taken so easily to the DAW GarageBand that I look forward to trying it with younger students! 

That being said, I'm frustrated that GarageBand doesn't have a 'cloud' feature - my students need to use specific iPads to compose, and can't use another device to continue working on their projects. Perhaps Soundation could be a solution...!