One thing that my Educational Technology Cohort is really teaching me is the value of Social Media. I have definitely valued social media in my own personal life, but hadn't thought of all the things that it could do in my teaching. I read a few articles about this idea, and realize that the sky is the limit where Social Media is concerned.
The first article I read had to do with teachers in the arts. For visual and music arts, there are many different uses for social media that could be explored in my classroom. With regards to composing, there are so many different applications and sites that can help students create songs. Students can then post their songs and creations on a website for feedback from peers and for instant feedback from the teacher. One of the greatest things that came out of this article though, was the idea of social media as help for the arts teachers to connect. Often times, the music teacher or art teacher is the only of its kind in a building. This makes it hard to collaborate with others and come up with new, fresh ideas for your teaching. The article talks about Nings, blogs, and even Facebook to connect with other teachers. Pinterest is another social networking tool not mentioned in the article but very useful for other teachers to collaborate as well.
The second article I read was about bringing social networking into the classroom. The main idea of the article talked about how students and parents use social media so often in their personal lives that it is second nature to them. Why then, aren't we using this in our classrooms and our schools? Some projects mentioned included students blogging about a trip they took and using Skype to contact schools in another country for a project. The Skype project had a class communicating and had different jobs for each child, including photographer, secretary, tweeters, and fact checkers. It was a great way to engage students in plenty of different ways. Another idea that came up was a project that involved smart phones and ways for students to post questions or comments about homework. Educators didn't think that it would work, but then when they posted a question about linear equations, they had 75 students create videos to help their peers. This article also brings up the idea of Professional Development by talking about the Twitter hash tag #edchat and all the comments and ideas that come from that for teachers.
Social Media is really transforming the world in many ways, so teachers need to jump onto the train. We need to be using different sites for our own Professional Development and also using different Social Media to engage our students in the classroom. With more training and more time to explore, the classroom can extend its boundaries to the home and beyond so students can become more engaged.
Ash, K. (2011). Art and music learning emphasize interactivity, real-world relevance. Education Week, 30(35), S12-S14.
Davis, M. (2010). Social networking goes to school. Education Digest: Essential Readings Condensed for Quick Review, 76(3), 14-19.
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Saturday, September 15, 2012
4th Grade Steady Beat Project
I just wanted to share a project that I do with my 4th Graders called the Steady Beat "Dance". It is just for them to reinforce their knowledge of the steady beat in a fun way. It also offers them an opportunity to work in groups, fostering that independence that we all need to be supporting for the Common Core.
Here is the project sheet for each group:
The kids basically make up 6 "moves" that show a four beat pattern each. I don't limit them on what they can do, so often times they have a few moves where it is one pose or motion that goes down the line (1st person does one beat, 2nd person does next, etc.). They often come up with a final move that ends with something funny as well. One group I have this year made it that on the first beat one kid jumps out and on each beat after that they "punch" the other group members and they fall to the ground for the end. No actual contact is made, but the kids have fun making it look like they are flying through the air to land.
I also have a list of fun songs for the kids to choose from to do their dance ("Call me Maybe", "Good Time", "We Will Rock You", "Firework", etc.). That makes it an even more enjoyable project for them, so we have fun with it. I encourage anyone to try doing this and trying it out with their group. I've found that groups of 3 or 4 work best for the project as well.
Happy musicing!!!
Here is the project sheet for each group:
The kids basically make up 6 "moves" that show a four beat pattern each. I don't limit them on what they can do, so often times they have a few moves where it is one pose or motion that goes down the line (1st person does one beat, 2nd person does next, etc.). They often come up with a final move that ends with something funny as well. One group I have this year made it that on the first beat one kid jumps out and on each beat after that they "punch" the other group members and they fall to the ground for the end. No actual contact is made, but the kids have fun making it look like they are flying through the air to land.
I also have a list of fun songs for the kids to choose from to do their dance ("Call me Maybe", "Good Time", "We Will Rock You", "Firework", etc.). That makes it an even more enjoyable project for them, so we have fun with it. I encourage anyone to try doing this and trying it out with their group. I've found that groups of 3 or 4 work best for the project as well.
Happy musicing!!!
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Journal Article About Podcasting
In response to questioning the use of Podcasting in education, I was forced to look into the many different ways that Podcasting could be used. One article I came across talked about the many ways that they could be used in the classroom and outside for student learning, public relations, and just basic parent communication. When thinking about Podcasting, I first thought about how students could benefit from Podcasting in the classroom themselves.
One idea mentioned was recording general classroom activities and making them available for view and listening to all. Students could review a song or an activity you did because they can hear their class actually doing it. The other way students themselves could record is creating assignments for a podcast such as creating a radio show for a subject you are talking about or having students publish a song that they created in a group. In the music classroom this is very valuable because, as mentioned in the article, music is a class that students can not hang on the refridgerator. Aside from productions put on, many don't understand what goes on in the classroom, and this is a way to do that. This goes along with the idea of using Podcasting for public relations. I often have students record songs they created but this idea of podcasting can allow the students to then show their parents what they created as well. Assessing an assignment like this would have to be done using a rubric that talked about different parts that I required, but for elementary students, I would be focusing on content of the podcast and not of recording quality or professionalism. This is a new medium for these younger students, and I view podcasting at this age to be more of an introductory stage. At the older levels, the rubric would include professionalism, quality of recording, and ability to publish where needed (i.e. Dropbox or Google Drive).
The other way that was mentioned was for teachers to create the podcasts for students. In this way, information can be disseminated from the actual class in forms of reviewing for students or supplying a class for students who are absent. One idea mentioned that would fit into my district's curriculum is creating videos for the recorder. Showing your fingers as you play a song that the students are working on. Being able to see this is very valuable for students to work from. Along these lines of the teacher creating podcasts, the article mentioned it as a parent and administration communication tool. Having a podcast that talks about what is happening monthly in the music room, talks about the expectations of the year, or provides dates for parents is a great way for communicating to them.
Aside from creating your own podcasts, the article lastly mentions the availability of many educational podcasts already published. Looking through different podcasts and picking out ones that will fit into your school's curriculum can serve some of these purposes as well. If you were going to create a podcast about how to read the notes on the staff, but there is already one created for that, then you save the time by finding it and sharing the link with your students.
After reading the article and thinking about what I would want to do with Podcasting in my room, I have many different ideas that I feel could work for me. I think that the idea of sharing student work is something that I am very excited about. Students in all grade levels create work that I record rather than have them perform live. By creating a podcast to display this work, students can go home and share with their parents what they created in music that day. This also lets the students get even more engaged because of the idea that they will hear themselves and their classmates in the final product. I am excited to get started.
Kerstetter, K. (2009). Educational applications of podcasting in the music classroom. Music Educators Journal, 95(4), 23-26.
One idea mentioned was recording general classroom activities and making them available for view and listening to all. Students could review a song or an activity you did because they can hear their class actually doing it. The other way students themselves could record is creating assignments for a podcast such as creating a radio show for a subject you are talking about or having students publish a song that they created in a group. In the music classroom this is very valuable because, as mentioned in the article, music is a class that students can not hang on the refridgerator. Aside from productions put on, many don't understand what goes on in the classroom, and this is a way to do that. This goes along with the idea of using Podcasting for public relations. I often have students record songs they created but this idea of podcasting can allow the students to then show their parents what they created as well. Assessing an assignment like this would have to be done using a rubric that talked about different parts that I required, but for elementary students, I would be focusing on content of the podcast and not of recording quality or professionalism. This is a new medium for these younger students, and I view podcasting at this age to be more of an introductory stage. At the older levels, the rubric would include professionalism, quality of recording, and ability to publish where needed (i.e. Dropbox or Google Drive).
The other way that was mentioned was for teachers to create the podcasts for students. In this way, information can be disseminated from the actual class in forms of reviewing for students or supplying a class for students who are absent. One idea mentioned that would fit into my district's curriculum is creating videos for the recorder. Showing your fingers as you play a song that the students are working on. Being able to see this is very valuable for students to work from. Along these lines of the teacher creating podcasts, the article mentioned it as a parent and administration communication tool. Having a podcast that talks about what is happening monthly in the music room, talks about the expectations of the year, or provides dates for parents is a great way for communicating to them.
Aside from creating your own podcasts, the article lastly mentions the availability of many educational podcasts already published. Looking through different podcasts and picking out ones that will fit into your school's curriculum can serve some of these purposes as well. If you were going to create a podcast about how to read the notes on the staff, but there is already one created for that, then you save the time by finding it and sharing the link with your students.
After reading the article and thinking about what I would want to do with Podcasting in my room, I have many different ideas that I feel could work for me. I think that the idea of sharing student work is something that I am very excited about. Students in all grade levels create work that I record rather than have them perform live. By creating a podcast to display this work, students can go home and share with their parents what they created in music that day. This also lets the students get even more engaged because of the idea that they will hear themselves and their classmates in the final product. I am excited to get started.
Kerstetter, K. (2009). Educational applications of podcasting in the music classroom. Music Educators Journal, 95(4), 23-26.
QR Codes
One thing that I learned from my first class working on this ed tech Masters was how awesome it is to create QR codes. As I was working on my information for our curriculum night on Tuesday, I decided that I would create a QR code with my e-mail, phone number, and school website and put it on the handout. Anyone with a QR reader on their phone then has all my information at their fingertips. Here is an example of how I put it on my handout:
Here are a few different sites to try out. The first is just for individual information and you can get a WHOLE bunch of fun stuff with your QR Code on it and the second allows you to create a contact QR code for something like what I did.
QRStuff
ZXing Project
Other ideas for all this QR code stuff is to create QR codes with clues around the building and send kids on a scavenger hunt that uses QR codes to tell them where to go next. This if you have iPod touches or iPads in your classroom you can use something like this around your classroom where kids have to identify symbols and see if they are right or not. There are a bunch of fun ways to use it, but I thought that the most practical and not scary was for basic contact information. Enjoy!
Here are a few different sites to try out. The first is just for individual information and you can get a WHOLE bunch of fun stuff with your QR Code on it and the second allows you to create a contact QR code for something like what I did.
QRStuff
ZXing Project
Other ideas for all this QR code stuff is to create QR codes with clues around the building and send kids on a scavenger hunt that uses QR codes to tell them where to go next. This if you have iPod touches or iPads in your classroom you can use something like this around your classroom where kids have to identify symbols and see if they are right or not. There are a bunch of fun ways to use it, but I thought that the most practical and not scary was for basic contact information. Enjoy!
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
The First Day of School
Back to school!!! This post really isn't going to have anything that is remotely productive for the rest of you, but I just want to tell you all that we are back in school in my district as of today. There is just something about that first day back with all those kids looking at you and getting excited about the new school year.
There is comfort in knowing your past students so well that it doesn't surprise you when one of them is crawling like a dog around the floor during the game because he is CLEARLY not used to being back at school again. There is comfort in the hug that you receive from the one who hugged you every time they came into music last year. There is joy when a parent comes up to you to tell you that their son said that the thing he was most excited about for this school year was getting to see you again. There is joy in meeting a new student for the first time and they smile and laugh when you say "Who are you and Where do you come from??" in a voice that tells them that you are just trying to be silly to make them feel welcome. There is pride in introducing yourself to a new group of 1st graders and having a few raise their hands when you ask them if they know your name and then tell you that their big brother or sister talked about you all the time. There is pride when you open the doors in the morning and the parents drop the child off and say "Don't worry, Miss Rains will make sure you get down there okay!"
My favorite really is getting the younger siblings for the first time in first grade. Today we didn't do much in first grade music, because it is my tradition that I have every student sing me their name. In between rows we sing "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" and I start to take out words and the little ones giggle like someone is permanently at their sides tickling them. I watched one of those younger siblings today, who I knew from when they were just a baby, and my heart sang when the smile never left his face. He giggled, he sang his name, he laughed through singing "If you're Happy and You Know It Shake Your Booty" (because that is the best version... that and do the disco), and I could tell that all that his siblings said before came true before his eyes. Miss Rains really is as crazy as they've said she was all these years.
I LOVE the first day of school.
There is comfort in knowing your past students so well that it doesn't surprise you when one of them is crawling like a dog around the floor during the game because he is CLEARLY not used to being back at school again. There is comfort in the hug that you receive from the one who hugged you every time they came into music last year. There is joy when a parent comes up to you to tell you that their son said that the thing he was most excited about for this school year was getting to see you again. There is joy in meeting a new student for the first time and they smile and laugh when you say "Who are you and Where do you come from??" in a voice that tells them that you are just trying to be silly to make them feel welcome. There is pride in introducing yourself to a new group of 1st graders and having a few raise their hands when you ask them if they know your name and then tell you that their big brother or sister talked about you all the time. There is pride when you open the doors in the morning and the parents drop the child off and say "Don't worry, Miss Rains will make sure you get down there okay!"
My favorite really is getting the younger siblings for the first time in first grade. Today we didn't do much in first grade music, because it is my tradition that I have every student sing me their name. In between rows we sing "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" and I start to take out words and the little ones giggle like someone is permanently at their sides tickling them. I watched one of those younger siblings today, who I knew from when they were just a baby, and my heart sang when the smile never left his face. He giggled, he sang his name, he laughed through singing "If you're Happy and You Know It Shake Your Booty" (because that is the best version... that and do the disco), and I could tell that all that his siblings said before came true before his eyes. Miss Rains really is as crazy as they've said she was all these years.
I LOVE the first day of school.
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Binder Organization
I thought that I would do a couple things in this entry to talk about organization for an elementary music teacher. This is HUGE!!! Most schools don't have either a set curriculum or a set of resources for the music teacher, so it becomes a hodge podge of creating your curriculum from what you know and what you can make or get with your tiny budget! Being inspired by a 1st grade teacher who puts all her stuff into binders, I decided to do the same thing. I seperated by binders into the following categories...
The reason why I had Instruments and Rhythms in their own binder is because we do both in every grade level in my district, so they have a LOT of resources.
In each binder there are lesson plans that go with the subject. That way you can just add lessons as you come up with new ideas every year and take out ones that weren't successful.
All of the resources I use from books were also copied. This way you don't have to go through your books looking through to find where it is. You have the resource written down on the top corner (5th grade book, 4th grade book, Railroad CD, etc.), and I highlighted the CD track number so I could easily play the song for the kids.
I also like to use power points in my lesson, so I print out the power points so I know what is coming next and when I've got to switch slides nd whatnot. All making your life a little easier!
The reason why I had Instruments and Rhythms in their own binder is because we do both in every grade level in my district, so they have a LOT of resources.
In each binder there are lesson plans that go with the subject. That way you can just add lessons as you come up with new ideas every year and take out ones that weren't successful.
All of the resources I use from books were also copied. This way you don't have to go through your books looking through to find where it is. You have the resource written down on the top corner (5th grade book, 4th grade book, Railroad CD, etc.), and I highlighted the CD track number so I could easily play the song for the kids.
I also like to use power points in my lesson, so I print out the power points so I know what is coming next and when I've got to switch slides nd whatnot. All making your life a little easier!
Then you've got tests and projects in there as well, so you have a master to make copies from if you need them.
Again, all of this is so you can have everything in one spot when you are lesson planning. Then, paired with my lesson plan book, I look through the week and decide what to do. In the example below, you can see that there are some classes with X's in them. That's what I do when I know that I won't be seeing a class that time. So 2K and 2G miss their class the first time that week, and resume with Steady Beat lesson 1 on their 2nd meeting time.
Having all these lessons to pick from is also good because I KNOW that there are some lessons that we put in as filler lessons for those classes that never seem to miss music. When you have it all laid out in front of you, you can then decide that since one class is behind, they can skip a certain lesson or game and still get the objective that you are aiming for! Anyways, that was my random idea for the new school year, and we'll see how it works out!!
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
My Classroom
I thought that I would let everyone check out my new theme for the school year!! Our school theme is genres, jumping on board with the Common Core Standards and working on academic focus. Well, of course, I'm going to use this opportunity to talk to the kids about musical genres as well.
The above picture is what is going on in the front of my classroom, my "desk" (two random tables) is there on the left, with my randomness bulletin board that has my schedule. The black cart next to it houses my document camera every year, which is quite nice. Then the top runner has Country, Pop, Jazz, Classical, and Rock artist around it so kids can see all different people in music.
Then we have the back of my classroom with the digital piano, some boomwhackers, and our theme title. The blue stripe on the back is an idea I stole off Pinterest of having a timeline. I'm going to have the kids talk about what they learned at the end of each unit and we're going to put up some cool stuff for what we've done.
The white bookcase (a new donation from my third grade pal Nicki) has crayon boxes, markers, white boards, dry erase markers, white boards, clipboards, and basically everything that the kids need to work on all their stuff in class.
On this front board, I'm going to put different reminders up about upcoming dates and tests and things like that. I just laminated some cardstock, so I can use a vis a vis or I can use dry erase markers on it.
Here are my file folders for 2nd-5th grade. Each class is a different color and each student has a numbered folder. This way, when they are doing group projects or anything like that, they can just put things in their folders and it is their responsibility to make sure it is in the right place. It's actually quite nice to have them keep track of their stuff!!
So that is my classroom basically. My other wall has a bunch of boring cabinets that you don't want to see. For now that's all I got going on, and I'll be posting some new stuff later on as we are getting into the school year.
The above picture is what is going on in the front of my classroom, my "desk" (two random tables) is there on the left, with my randomness bulletin board that has my schedule. The black cart next to it houses my document camera every year, which is quite nice. Then the top runner has Country, Pop, Jazz, Classical, and Rock artist around it so kids can see all different people in music.
Then we have the back of my classroom with the digital piano, some boomwhackers, and our theme title. The blue stripe on the back is an idea I stole off Pinterest of having a timeline. I'm going to have the kids talk about what they learned at the end of each unit and we're going to put up some cool stuff for what we've done.
The white bookcase (a new donation from my third grade pal Nicki) has crayon boxes, markers, white boards, dry erase markers, white boards, clipboards, and basically everything that the kids need to work on all their stuff in class.
On this front board, I'm going to put different reminders up about upcoming dates and tests and things like that. I just laminated some cardstock, so I can use a vis a vis or I can use dry erase markers on it.
Here are my file folders for 2nd-5th grade. Each class is a different color and each student has a numbered folder. This way, when they are doing group projects or anything like that, they can just put things in their folders and it is their responsibility to make sure it is in the right place. It's actually quite nice to have them keep track of their stuff!!
So that is my classroom basically. My other wall has a bunch of boring cabinets that you don't want to see. For now that's all I got going on, and I'll be posting some new stuff later on as we are getting into the school year.
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