Looking through Classroom 2.0 is very time consuming but interesting. On this site, I focused on what I can use for my music class (specifically orchestra related). I was bombarded with columns, titles of various sizes, red highlighted links–there is too much on the page to take in all at once. I had to go through the “tip list” so I can navigate through the site and not miss anything.
Once I looked under the “subjects,” MUSIC caught my eye! Under the tag “music,” someone wanted to know ideas of using Web 2.0 with learning music. Music teachers responded with great ideas!
1. Using Google Calendar for Musical Ensembles
2. Using Protopage is more kid friendly instead of using Pageflakes–both are still great!
Again, there is just so much on the page that I didn’t really know where to start. What I do like is where Classroom 2.0 took me!
Ning in Education was not very helpful for my specific discipline. I put “music” in the search box and got one topic: Introductions–it was not really informative for me and I was hoping that there would be more verbal interactions. Ning in Education is limiting in music. I can see how it would be helpful for administrative and networking in your field but again, I did not see much for music! Which is very sad to see
Pageflakes is allows you to become very organized with all of your favorite websites–it is like a desktop of links where each link has its own cup or tray. Pageflakes would be great to add to edline so that parents/students could look at other things that would interest them in a specific class (orchestra would be my focus, of coarse). I was looking at other pageflakes that are music related and there are some really great ideas out there for anyone to use–teachers, parents, students.
These are some ideas that I would like to do (among all of the additional 43Things…and then some on my list):
Individual boxes for Contacts for Private Lessons, Websites for Orchestra Summer Camps, Practice links
I would have an individual box titled: STUDENTS–links for websites for games, kid-friendly podcasts, Blogging Sites
I would have an individual box for PARENTS–links for advice, ideas to engage your child(ren) to play at home, blogging sites
These are just some ideas that I have and hope to implement after this class is over–still checking things off of my TO DO LIST!
Ok… I know that some of you out there are probably tired of hearing me talk about all of the things that I like about this class. BUT THIS CLASS ROCKS!!! I am in love with Google Spreadsheets! I was not fond of using word but I could just kiss Spreadsheets all over!!!!
You have to know what I have had to go through to understand how wonderful this truely is!
Here’s my background: I have been teaching private lessons for over 15 years and life is simple when you are able to have consistency throughout the week. During the summer, it is another story. To keep students practicing and playing their instrument for the three months that they are out, I tell my parents that students must have minimal of 6 lessons to continue with me in the Fall.
Simple Request Right? WRONG!!! You deal with Family Vacations, Multiple Summer Camps, Work (students w/summer jobs), as well as siblings with their schedual conflicts during the week. You become covered in paperwork/e-mails to communicate effectively to when lessons can be coordinated. I have tried getting parents to physically sign-up on one sheet (times are given on a first-come, first-served basis)–it is harder now since I teach at Woodward where students live close to the school or all the way north towards Gwinnett! I personally live in West Cobb and regardless of what I do it is going to be a hassle trying to get everyone to sign-up for lessons.
Solution: GOOGLE SPREADSHEET! Just like how we notify Shelley on which THING we are currently working on, I am going to use the same idea in communicating with all parents and students. They will sign-up for lessons (via google spreadsheet) and then I will send them a follow-up spread-sheet which all parents are allowed to sign-up directly onto a page that can be accessible to all parents! *SMOOCH* I love you Google Spreadsheets! I will let you know later if it works!
Another thing that will work in my favor, parents who have changes last minute do not need to call me (or e-mail) but instead just go directly to the spreadsheet and “erase”/”sign-up” on another date or time! All I need to do is to look at the Spreadsheet prior to leaving my house to teach and I know who to expect to have lessons! LOVE YOU!
I have always been very fond of YouTube–can just look around by yourself or even gather around with other people and have a laugh (or a cry, a smile, etc) I like the idea of TeacherTube but the content is sort of “slim pickin” I do like it and hope to add to it in the future with my classes. There is so much that I would LOVE to show the kids at school such as the famous “CANON RANT”–it is soooo funny! It shows how music gets “recycled” over and over again. Unfortunately, the comedian saids two words that are not appropriate and, therefore, cannot show it to the kids.
I think someone had the same idea and took the comedian out and just highlighted how Pachabel’s Canon is used in today’s music. Here is his finished clip:
I didn’t realize that this is the reason why we do not need to sit by the television to catch our favorite shows anymore! I have Comcast and in reality all it is doing is Podcasting the shows to our television via “the Box”. I went to Education Podcast Networkand looked under Music Education and found several podcasts that were interesting. Being a classically trained musician, I rely heavily on notes written down on paper to teach me to play. I found a podcast on jazz improvisation that was pretty easy to follow and I think could be followed by middle/upper school students. Musical Examples are demonstrated via podcast which students can copy and play around.
Other ideas that is seen under Music Education is a Music I-Quiz–or as others would call “Name that tune.” The maker(s) of this podcast have random “slices” of music put together and test yourself to see how many you can identify.
I can see how this could be helpful in a classroom setting: 1. Identify certain sounds: from individual instruments to “Name that tune” for music history–boy, I wished that I had this in college!)
2. Students can challenge each other by making a podcast for other students–make the students become the teacher! One of the best ways to learn
3. Composing music–getting feedback from listeners out there.
I am sure that there are many more ways to use Podcast. I will get back to you once I think of any more!
I am ready to get back into the swing of things! I had so much on my plate last week–my violin/viola studio had their Spring Recital on Saturday as well as coordinating my 30th Birthday party (I have to do it since my husband is not into planning!) Since this assignment is based on Goal Supporting on 43 Things, I would like to state that one of my goals this week is “not to try” BUT to finish K12Learning2.0.
43 Things is a website that allows you to list your goals–by having them typed/written dow you are more likely to accomplish them. This website goes even further in allowing the members to “cheer” each other as they are working towards their goal. If you feel like you are stuck and have no place to go, blog your difficulties and they will try to help you through it. This website reminds me of Nutrisystem and the support system that is included in your membership. It makes a difference!
HERE’S AN IDEA: I know that many teachers have had difficulty in taking this class. Perhaps we should have looked at this website as THING 3 Requirement so that many of the teachers would not get so discouraged. Sometimes we feel alone when we are going through this class and need someone to talk to (or blog to).
I feel that LibraryThing is great for groups (like book clubs) to keep in touch with people who are not present at meetings or to connect with other “similar interest” clubs. This year, I have been inspired to read for fun–I can’t get into books that don’t grab me at the beginning and I relied on references of others to help me find the next book! With LibraryThing, I would personally use this website to find groups/individuals who enjoy reading the books that I have greatly enjoyed this year to help me find the my next book.
For the orchestra, there are lots of books out there for children to read about music and instruments–it would be great to know what books people have enjoyed reading and at what level (like age or grade level). I have already started a collection of books focusing on music–I do not have many that would be considered Kindergarden/Elementary School level for kids to enjoy by themselves. In class, I read the more difficult books–showing the pictures and playing the attached CD’s. I would love to add more music books that allow children to read on their own–LibraryThing is a solution to this problem.
I have enjoyed plugging in tags like: orchestra, string, music, violin, viola, cello, string bass, barrage, string quartet, etc. Using these same words and adding (+ kids, + elementary, + children, + humor, etc) and see what I get. There are lots of books that I did not know that was out there for “little ones” to read and at their level.
To be used in the classroom: LibraryThing would also be great ”search engine” to use for any research assignment.
Overall, I look forward to coming back to this after I complete K12Learning2.0! Need to catch up!
This specific THING was somewhat confusing to me at first. But I noticed that once I got started I started to see what it is trying to do. It is like using your FAVORITES button on your computer–except that you can access it anywhere. This assignment would be fun to utilize if I felt the need to “save” various websites or links to my computer. I usually attach the website to my e-mail address if I needed to utilize it in the future and it is accessible to me the same way. What I do find interesting is that lists are shared and if you utilize the TAG component, you can find other exciting links. Each site has a number of downloads–this informs you to how many people find the site beneficial.
To be perfectly honest with you, I actually skipped Thing 12 and played around with Thing 13. There are so many wonderful things to do on this site that to pick just two would be silly. I went to jigzone.com and found myself behind the class outline for two weeks. If you have not gone to this site yet, you are missing out. This is a website that takes a picture and scrambles it into a mixed up jigsaw puzzle. It is your job to put all the pieces back in their correct order–it is timed which makes it fun. Being a “puzzler-geek”, I would try to beat my previous time. Jigzone can be more personalized or more subject oriented by loading your own pictures. It is just fun.
Quizlet.com is another GREAT site. It is like having flashcards shown to you on your computer. What is cool with Quizlet is that takes into account which words/phrases/formulas you get incorrect and the program “flashes” those incorrect words/phrases/formulas more frequently to (hopefully) reinforce the correct answer together when seen again. I was watching a talkshow about Teen Millionaires. Did you know that Quizlet.com was created by a teenager who had difficulty remembering the names of farm animals in French? If I remember this correctly, he is graduating this year and is going to MIT.
I do believe that this is the young generation who will be teaching us (“grown-ups”) how to think out of the box.
