On my PLN I saw an article that was not music sensitive, but I thought was pretty pertinent. Social networks such as Twitter and Facebook have become a staple in the youth of the world. So how do educators deal with their own social network accounts?
The article that I found gave a few tips and hints at what any teacher can do with their social network accounts and why they should do so. Of these were when can you start adding your "student friends" to your group? The most common answer is after the graduate (assuming that you teach high school). The reasons for this were solid. You do not want to have legal issues with pictures of yourself, or for that matter your students. Also you do not want to have friends that are too young, so that you shade away from acquaintances that are closer to your own age.
Overall I feel that social networks are very important. They connect people that would otherwise have a hard time doing so. It is a great way to explore your interests and share them with others. However as educators we do need to be careful. Our career is so important that we need to always be looking out and not find ourselves in sticky situations.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Friday, September 18, 2009
Readings 9/21-9/25
MIDI! MIDI! MIDI! MIDI! MIDI!
That is the theme for this week, I just felt that I had to chant it. But the reading this week were focused on what MIDI actually is. And i can tell you that I am only a bit more enlightened, and a lot more confused.
The first reading by Dennis Mauricio and Steve Oppenheimer was actually extremely helpful and gave some really good information. I was actually interested in what they had to say. Mauricio and Oppenheimer made it very clear what MIDI actually is and made it very easy to understand.
However the other article by Dr. Estrella was very confusing and went way too deep into the specifics of MIDI. If that was the abridged version, then I am very frightened to see what the actual version looks like.
This article just went way to in depth for me. A lot of the vocabulary that it used was very technologically specific. What I mean by this is that you had to have to knowledge of technology to understand what the article was trying to say. As for me, I have no experience, so I was completely lost.
As for the concept of MIDI itself, I am actually quite impressed. I feel that it is a wonderful tool that many music educators can use to their advantage. Although MIDI dies have its disadvantages, it appears to be quite functional.
I strongly believe that I will have a use for MIDI in my classroom. I do not think that it will run my curriculum, but as a teaching aid I think it is very worth it.
That is the theme for this week, I just felt that I had to chant it. But the reading this week were focused on what MIDI actually is. And i can tell you that I am only a bit more enlightened, and a lot more confused.
The first reading by Dennis Mauricio and Steve Oppenheimer was actually extremely helpful and gave some really good information. I was actually interested in what they had to say. Mauricio and Oppenheimer made it very clear what MIDI actually is and made it very easy to understand.
However the other article by Dr. Estrella was very confusing and went way too deep into the specifics of MIDI. If that was the abridged version, then I am very frightened to see what the actual version looks like.
This article just went way to in depth for me. A lot of the vocabulary that it used was very technologically specific. What I mean by this is that you had to have to knowledge of technology to understand what the article was trying to say. As for me, I have no experience, so I was completely lost.
As for the concept of MIDI itself, I am actually quite impressed. I feel that it is a wonderful tool that many music educators can use to their advantage. Although MIDI dies have its disadvantages, it appears to be quite functional.
I strongly believe that I will have a use for MIDI in my classroom. I do not think that it will run my curriculum, but as a teaching aid I think it is very worth it.
Readings 9/14-9/18
I can honestly say that I am confused. The article by Peter Webster was very interesting and easy to read, but I felt that he did not cover his point well. His "teaching strategies" for the teacher were not creative at all. Everything that he mentioned I felt has already been done, or common sense. I felt that as a future educator, I would have done what he mentioned without reading his article.
The article does have a saving grace. The section on what students can do was phenomenal. Here the teacher would have to give the students creative ideas like write their own etude or score a film (which I have done, and loved it). This section was so fun to read and made me think of even more ideas that I could do with my students.
The reason why am confused is that the article was so "bipolar". I felt that the teaching strategies were actually in the "helping students" sections. And that the actual teaching strategies was just more of an administrative way of using technology. As a teacher my goal is to help my students have a deep and personal relationship with music. I think that is why I connected so well with the second part of this article. It gave me awesome ways to help out my future students.
The other article that I found very interesting was the Vermont MIDI Project. This idea is just so cool, I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I am about it.
What makes this Project so special to me is that it came from the east coast, and more importantly New England. Many east coast states have good music programs such as North Carolina, but New England states lack in this area. The focus is more on sports and academics. So, I am excited to see that a New England state has come up with such an innovative way to have students learn music.
What I really like about this idea is that students get to have their music performed as well as recorded. I know that if I got a chance to have one of my pieces recorded by professional musicians, and then recorded, I would be so ecstatic. I am happy that this program exists so students can get that feeling of wonder and amazement.
I am very happy that this article was brought to my attention. I feel that it gives music a push in the right direction. Music is just as important as anything else that the schools can give our youth (in my opinion the most important). Seeing people get creative and push the limits of their thinking is very inspiring, and I can only hope that I can do the same when I am a music educator in the field.
The article does have a saving grace. The section on what students can do was phenomenal. Here the teacher would have to give the students creative ideas like write their own etude or score a film (which I have done, and loved it). This section was so fun to read and made me think of even more ideas that I could do with my students.
The reason why am confused is that the article was so "bipolar". I felt that the teaching strategies were actually in the "helping students" sections. And that the actual teaching strategies was just more of an administrative way of using technology. As a teacher my goal is to help my students have a deep and personal relationship with music. I think that is why I connected so well with the second part of this article. It gave me awesome ways to help out my future students.
The other article that I found very interesting was the Vermont MIDI Project. This idea is just so cool, I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I am about it.
What makes this Project so special to me is that it came from the east coast, and more importantly New England. Many east coast states have good music programs such as North Carolina, but New England states lack in this area. The focus is more on sports and academics. So, I am excited to see that a New England state has come up with such an innovative way to have students learn music.
What I really like about this idea is that students get to have their music performed as well as recorded. I know that if I got a chance to have one of my pieces recorded by professional musicians, and then recorded, I would be so ecstatic. I am happy that this program exists so students can get that feeling of wonder and amazement.
I am very happy that this article was brought to my attention. I feel that it gives music a push in the right direction. Music is just as important as anything else that the schools can give our youth (in my opinion the most important). Seeing people get creative and push the limits of their thinking is very inspiring, and I can only hope that I can do the same when I am a music educator in the field.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
PLN for 9/14-9/18
This week on my PLN I discovered a way for music educators to stay on their toes. eHow makes learning instruments easy.
I know that there will be times in my career that I do not remember some fingerings, or slide positions, so having the eHow recourse will be very helpful. eHow is essentially a search engine for instructional videos. So if I need a refresher on how to hold mallets, I just search "different mallet grips" and a list of videos will pop up.
I know that it seems silly that this may be the only use for eHow, but I got to thinking that the videos could help students too. Since the how to videos are free, thee student does not have to pay for lessons. This way they can still learn their instrument, while not having to pay an exorbitant amount for private lessons.
At the end of the day I feel that eHow will become a wonderful "quick fix" for music educators. It is readily available and cheap. After all we are all starving artists aren't we?
I know that there will be times in my career that I do not remember some fingerings, or slide positions, so having the eHow recourse will be very helpful. eHow is essentially a search engine for instructional videos. So if I need a refresher on how to hold mallets, I just search "different mallet grips" and a list of videos will pop up.
I know that it seems silly that this may be the only use for eHow, but I got to thinking that the videos could help students too. Since the how to videos are free, thee student does not have to pay for lessons. This way they can still learn their instrument, while not having to pay an exorbitant amount for private lessons.
At the end of the day I feel that eHow will become a wonderful "quick fix" for music educators. It is readily available and cheap. After all we are all starving artists aren't we?
Thursday, September 10, 2009
PLN for the Week
But Wait, That Wasn’t In My Job Description!
That is the title of the article that I read. Having two teachers for parents I understand that educators always go beyond the call of duty. And from my work with bands (both high school and college) music educators are expected to go that extra mile.
This article deals with a hardship that many music teachers face; students that have no interest and desire to be in a musical group but are. The article gives a few examples of what an educator must do with this situation. The main thing that I got from the article was that you have to be flexible, and find ways to get kids interested.
This either means taking things very slow, picking music that your students enjoy, and dealing with a few hardships like a bad sound.
The article says that it would be easier to quit, but if you hang in there, you will be rewarded greatly. I feel that no matter what, a music teacher's job is to instill a love of music in every person that they can touch. Once students start to have a love of music they will start to sound better because they want to become better. Once a student starts to love music they will be more motivated to try new things and get their friends involved. That is why is it is so important not to quit. Give your students a chance to discover a passion that they never knew they had.
That is the title of the article that I read. Having two teachers for parents I understand that educators always go beyond the call of duty. And from my work with bands (both high school and college) music educators are expected to go that extra mile.
This article deals with a hardship that many music teachers face; students that have no interest and desire to be in a musical group but are. The article gives a few examples of what an educator must do with this situation. The main thing that I got from the article was that you have to be flexible, and find ways to get kids interested.
This either means taking things very slow, picking music that your students enjoy, and dealing with a few hardships like a bad sound.
The article says that it would be easier to quit, but if you hang in there, you will be rewarded greatly. I feel that no matter what, a music teacher's job is to instill a love of music in every person that they can touch. Once students start to have a love of music they will start to sound better because they want to become better. Once a student starts to love music they will be more motivated to try new things and get their friends involved. That is why is it is so important not to quit. Give your students a chance to discover a passion that they never knew they had.
Music Tech Readings: 9/7 - 9/11
This week our readings were on music notation software. The software includes programs like Cakewalk, Sibelius, and Finale. I thought that the readings were very uniform and spat out the same information. I felt as though I was rereading the same article three times.
However the article by Dr. Tom Rudolph, I really enjoyed. I thought that it explained the programs well and how an educator could implement them in his classroom. I do not know if it was the tone or the style of the article, but I felt as though I connected to it better.
I enjoyed how Dr. Rudolph gave many different examples of how to implement software. I think he understood that since there are an infinite amount of ways to teach; therefor he gave a myriad of examples to compliment many teaching styles.
Personally, I feel like music notation software is a must for a music educator. Beyond having your musically inclined students work with software, it is a good way to get non-musically inclined students interested in music. With software like Sibelius, it is easy for a non music student to compose and analyze music.
Before I end I just want to stress how fun it is to work with a computer accompanist. I tried it out when I was in high school, and it really helps out your playing. Of course it cannot replace a piano, but it does let you hear how your music should fit in.
I would definitely use music notation software in my classes, I feel as though it would be very beneficial for my band, and my mental health. However I am still not sold on fully relying on technology for my classroom. There are just some things that humans need to go over with other humans.
However the article by Dr. Tom Rudolph, I really enjoyed. I thought that it explained the programs well and how an educator could implement them in his classroom. I do not know if it was the tone or the style of the article, but I felt as though I connected to it better.
I enjoyed how Dr. Rudolph gave many different examples of how to implement software. I think he understood that since there are an infinite amount of ways to teach; therefor he gave a myriad of examples to compliment many teaching styles.
Personally, I feel like music notation software is a must for a music educator. Beyond having your musically inclined students work with software, it is a good way to get non-musically inclined students interested in music. With software like Sibelius, it is easy for a non music student to compose and analyze music.
Before I end I just want to stress how fun it is to work with a computer accompanist. I tried it out when I was in high school, and it really helps out your playing. Of course it cannot replace a piano, but it does let you hear how your music should fit in.
I would definitely use music notation software in my classes, I feel as though it would be very beneficial for my band, and my mental health. However I am still not sold on fully relying on technology for my classroom. There are just some things that humans need to go over with other humans.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
So you want to teach?
On my PLN I subscribed to a blog named "So you want to teach?". I was really impressed by how the site was set up. I think that it will end up becoming a wonderful resource for me.
One post that I liked was one called "Laying Out a Legacy". The post was about what kind of legacy, or impression, that you ( a teacher) would like to leave after you retire.
I think that this topic is on all educator's minds. I know that it is on mine. I see all these great music programs around me, and I say to myself, "I wish that I could do this one day." I really hope that someday I can truly figure out what I want to accomplish. In a perfect world, I would have the best band in America. But I know that I should have more realistic expectations.
Anyway, this blog already seems very good to me. I know that what is on my mind, is on other educator's minds as well. This sight is more than just a good resource; it is a place to feel included and to know that in the world of education you are not alone.
One post that I liked was one called "Laying Out a Legacy". The post was about what kind of legacy, or impression, that you ( a teacher) would like to leave after you retire.
I think that this topic is on all educator's minds. I know that it is on mine. I see all these great music programs around me, and I say to myself, "I wish that I could do this one day." I really hope that someday I can truly figure out what I want to accomplish. In a perfect world, I would have the best band in America. But I know that I should have more realistic expectations.
Anyway, this blog already seems very good to me. I know that what is on my mind, is on other educator's minds as well. This sight is more than just a good resource; it is a place to feel included and to know that in the world of education you are not alone.
Bicycle Built for Two
Here is a link to the piece "A Bicycle Built for Two" that I rewrote using Noteflight.
Noteflight
I am so happy that I was introduced to the Noteflight website. For what it is, a free website where you can write your own music, it is fantastic. It was very easy to use, and accessible to anyone with the internet.
Like I said, the site was not that hard to use at all. In fact it was very easy to start, and then got even easier when I learned the "shortcuts". I had a fun time using all the functions that the site had to offer. I think that having a website as simple as this is excellent.
My only qualm with Noteflight is the lack of slurs. You are able to write in ties, but no slurs. A lot of music that I would put on this site has slurs. So when I hear the site play my composition back to me, I am a bit disappointed. However other than this one thing, I am so excited to have this site at my disposal.
P.S. I will add what I wrote later, as it is not finished yet!
Like I said, the site was not that hard to use at all. In fact it was very easy to start, and then got even easier when I learned the "shortcuts". I had a fun time using all the functions that the site had to offer. I think that having a website as simple as this is excellent.
My only qualm with Noteflight is the lack of slurs. You are able to write in ties, but no slurs. A lot of music that I would put on this site has slurs. So when I hear the site play my composition back to me, I am a bit disappointed. However other than this one thing, I am so excited to have this site at my disposal.
P.S. I will add what I wrote later, as it is not finished yet!
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