Thing 23 – The End and 7 1/2 Habits Revisited

First of all, I want to thank my coach, Shelly Paul, for organizing and presenting this course and thus, all these wonderful tools and ideas for me to use. This is something I am going to use and hopefully expand on as time allows. I also look forward to an update/refresher class in the future.

As I reflect on what I have learned during these last 10 weeks, I tend to go back to the 1st assignment to talk about the 3 most important habits (for me) of “7 1/2 Habits of Life Long Learners” . At that time, I felt those habits most important to me were ;

No.2 : “Accept responsibility for your own Learning” – As I went deeper into the course, I found that I had to overcome my own initial frustrations at not being able to remember a particular format for getting an assignment completed. My first inclination (concerning computers) has always been to “call somebody” but through this course, I have been given the tools to solve just about any question and even experiment on my own. Even if I do have to “call someone” occasionally, I will know more about what to ask.

No. 4 : “Have Confidence as an effective learner” – I had designated this as my most challenging habit and I was correct. My confidence in “Learning how to Effectively Blog” did seem to present a challenge to me every time I opened up my edublog and started to write ” Thing…”. I have always been a firm believer in You don’t really feel confident that you have learned something until you begin to share it with another. “Blogging” is not always about trying to teach something, it is also about sharing plans,ideas,beliefs…etc. My Blogging assignments have given me that confidence and I intend to use it every chance I get.

No.7 : PLAY – This part was not difficult for me. I will have to say that I had sooooo much fun playing with all the new tools that I sometimes forgot that I had somewhat of a deadline to meet. I even think I stumbled on a simple way to lose some weight. There were a couple of times that I was so immersed in what I was doing that I forgot to eat lunch or even a snack and recently, when I weighed myself, I had lost 7 pounds.

I think that if I keep expanding and exploring from this point, I will really have gained some insight into the inevitable trend in education and how it is conducted in the future. We will all grasp the obviously good ideas and tools with gusto and crawl cautiously through the “Tripe” and we will, at the same time, train our students and our own children and grandchildren…etc. to do the same.

Thing 22 – Classroom 2.0 and Ning

I have signed-up for both Classroom 2.0 and Ning. I wanted to see which one would work best for me. Now that I have had a good chance to experiment with both of them, I can see that each one has it’s own value and they also work together. In Classroom 2.0, I have joined the Elementary Classroom 2.0 group. I liked the way the forums worked for both of them.

I am going to have to do a little more digging in Ning to find the kind of Educational Music Network that I have in mind. Of course, it says that I can ” start my own” but that may take a little more time and confidence.

I did enjoy and benefit from browsing through a “Technology (Smartboard) in the Classroom” Forum, a “Digital Resources in the Classroom” forum and of course, a “Blogging” forum.

Thing 7c – Using Smartboard in the Music Classroom

Last school year (2007-2008) was the first time I had the opportunity to use a Smartboard in my classroom. It does have an interactive music notation program on it that the students seemed to enjoy using ( when we had the time). It seems that we never quite took the time to delve into it’s use enough. I plan on making better use of it’s presence ,this school year (2008-2009).

I recently found an article in Amy M. Byne’s blog site, Elementary Music/Music Technology called Smartboard in the Elementary Music Classroom.

This article gave me some excellent ideas on additional ways to use the Smartboard for my music classes. She gives addresses of several sites that have lessons and activities that could be used interactively.

Thing 21 – Casting my Pageflakes

My Pagecast is still a work in progress. I do intend to add more content and resources. I plan to use this tool to create separate pages with different music related themes, such as origins of instruments, Theory Games, puzzles, composers …etc. I also think I can eventually let this page ( with some changes) be a class page that will act as a kind of online Newsletter/Resource page for students and parents.

Thing 7b – Matthew Lipman “From the Top”

I have been so happy to find the podcasts of ” From the Top” on NPR. This is a show devoted to showcasing various ( very) talented young people. I think the show is actually broadcast on Saturdays but I am not always free to view them, so catching a podcast is a wonderful way to see what I have missed. Also, there are several that I would like to present to the students during class. The podcast that I am sharing today features a young ( 16 year old ) Violist named Matthew Lipman. In one video, Matthew is performing “La Campanella” by Niccolo Paganini. In the second video, he is talking about his practice habits and his favorite place to practice ( the bathroom). He is the student ( with wonderful, supportive parents) we all dream about teaching.

Thing 20 – Google Docs ( OH MY GOSH !)

I am going to enjoy discovering more things to do with Google Docs. When I was reading about all the possibilities in the assignment, I was becoming a bit overwhelmed (it does not take much these days). Once I got started, I could not believe how easy it was to at least create a simple spreadsheet and form. After I created the form that I wanted everyone to fill out, Google literally did the work for me in formating the spreadsheet. I decided to indulge my curiosity about how many of our teachers and administrators played (and still play) and instrument or sang in a chorus while they were in school. So I created a spreadsheet with a form that could be filled out called Web 2.0 Music Survey. I think it would be interesting information to present to my students.

I can think of many ways to use this tool, both privately and professionally but I will only put down the three that strike me as being most valuable to my classroom.

!.) Our music library is getting too large to store in my head, so I am going to use a Google Spreadsheet to Catalog it according to skill levels, class level, seasonal,solo parts available…etc.

2.) When the students bring in their personal instruments, I am going to use another spreadsheet to keep a record of the serial numbers and important info about their instrument. Three times last year, we had an incident where one student lost their instrument but rather then tell someone, they kept borrowing other students instruments (without their knowledge). Thankfully, 2 of the instruments were found (not the one lost by the original student) because the parents had a serial number and I was able to trace it.

3.) I would like to expand on the Web 2.0 Survey I am doing now by sending a similar survey to be filled out by my parents.

I will use Google Docs in soooo many other ways like Instrument inventories, DVD/Tape inventories,special lesson activity inventories…etc; just give me time.

Thing 19 – YouTube is an Education about People

I have been a YouTube cruiser for a few months, so I already had an idea of which videos I wanted to present. Yes, there is a lot of inappropriate drival out there but you just have to hunt through it to find some pretty creative and surprising talent. The following video will show how a boy, only 11 years old, can not only play but verbally tell the story of the piece he is playing.

Camille Saint Saen’s “The Swan” played on the Cello by Nathan, 11 years old

In this next video, violinist, Kolja Blacher is playing a Beethoven piece that I have always wanted to play but could not quite perfect.

Ludwig Beethoven’s Romance # 1 in G for Violin and Orchestra

The following video counts as my “How to…” assignment. Some will probably think of it as funny/crazy but he does  bring in a little math. I also two cats who exhibit many of these characteristics.

The Engineer’s Guide to Cats

This next video is my funny/cute catagory. Since I have a granddaughter, whom I have videotaped many times while she is singing ( I never thought of putting her on YouTube, yet ), this appealed to me and the ending is pretty funny.

“Hey Jude”, performed by a 3 year old boy

Thing 18 – My Adventures in Podcasting Land

Once I got over the fear of sounding like a blabbering idiot, the podcast was actually fun. Evoca seemed pretty user friendly for me. I can see where you would need some time and do a lot of planning to really present a polished program. All the poscasts I visited showed me a different way that I could use this tool in class.

This past school year, in the spring, we had an assignment where students were to write a very simple 4 bar composition, using various keys, notes,symbols…etc that they learned during the year. Some used only 4 bars but others just went wild and came up with some very creative compositions. We highlighted some of those in class and picked one student composition from each class to be played by the student during our spring concert. A podcast would be an excellent way to additionally highlight these student’s efforts.

Thing 17 – Podcasting Intro

Being a music teacher, I especially want to explore incorporating podcasting into my teaching. Before I signed up for this class, I had signed up for both the videocasting class in June and the podcasting class in August. With this intro to Podcasting, I am looking forward to the class in August. I think that with planning, a periodic class podcast would be very informative and inspiring for the students as well as allowing them to present their creative attempts. More to follow in the following blog.

I subscribed to the NPR “From the Top” performances and the Learning Out Loud podcasts of ” The Future of Music”. I could certainly show the “From the Top” performances to my students. The ” Future of Music” was suggested as a Personal Learning venue but I could certainly bring what I learn back to the students. I plan to listen to it more when time permits.

Now I am looking forward to getting my toes wet with my own experimental Podcast.

Thing 16 – Library Thing

I am going to love Library Thing ! I do love to read but I can only read for short periods of time because my eyes. Whenever I go to Barnes and Noble, I see and want soooo many interesting books but I am not sure which ones are really going to be as engaging as the cover suggests. I do lean toward informational, fact filled, self improvement and history type books. I have read a Romance book ,or two. Now ,with Library Thing, I can go and check out different catagories and other people’s reviews.

I would also use Library Thing to share books about music history, stories about composers …etc, with my students. Even though we can “Google” for information on just about anything, nothing beats sitting quietly and gleaning new information, new words and expanding on your imagination.