Podcast Reflection #7: K-12 Online Conference: The Heroic Journey Project

I discovered that this Podcast was about using google earth, google maps, google sites, other books, and imagination to complete a project. Kevin Hodgson created a journey for students to take so they would end up learning more than they could ever have dreamed of learning, all by being creative, thinking outside the box, and viewing learning as a journey! The concept was for students to start out reading "The Odyssey". After that, the read another book called "The Lightning Thief". The assignment was presented as "a journey", which entices students to embark on an action-packed trip across the globe! Students use google maps and google earth to record their journey online. After they have come to the end, they used google sites to share their tale with others on the world wide web.

I would have been so pumped to do assignments in high school if they would have been anything like this! Students learn to integrate technology with their lives and their educational experience! I can't stress how much positive comes out of prior planning of lessons, units, and creative outlets for students!

Podcast Reflection #6: Speed of Creativity #340

This podcast comes from Edmond, OK. This particular one was an interview about the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus. This bus is a portable recording studio. It inspires creativity and original music from students around the nation. Students can work with professional musicians, record music, and even make a music video.

Audio, video, and multimedia experience for students is such a positive way to inspire students to create and post music in a safe place! What a cool way to foster students' collaboration skills, musical creativity, and other knowledge! It's fun, non-judgemental, and students can work with famous musical artists such as Brian McKnight, Yoko Ono, and the Black Eyed Peas! They have a website at www.LennonBus.org.
Check it out!

Podcast Reflection #5: Ed Tech Talk: EdTechTalkWeekly #180

These gentleman talked about Wikipedia on this podcast. They shared their opinions and some resources about encyclopedias, the internet, and where research is going. The question of wikipedia's credibility has been a point of concern since it has come about. They mentioned the strengths and weaknesses of this online research tool. Interestingly enough, the point was made that actually, wikipedia wasn't created too much differently than the Oxford Dictionary of English Language. I really thought that was intriguing. I never thought about the fact that nobody really ever used traditional encyclopedias as anything ever than a reference, so why should they expect anything more from wikipedia? For as much flack as wikipedia has caught, we sure set high expectations for something that never claimed to be anything more than what we already knew.

Podcast Reflection #4: Tech Chicks Episode 47

After spending the day at Tech Forum Southwest, the two ladies mentioned how when attending a conference, they were recognized from their online networking efforts. This just goes to show how connected we are able to become through all of the difference social networking sites. It's absolutely wonderful how we can reach out to one another and connect so closely with those in our professional family. We can still be close with people even though how we are connected is (sort of) impersonal. I like to listen to people talk about progressive thinking. Not only does that excite me for the future of teaching, it inspires me to learn more about what teaching was, is, and will become.

Podcast Reflection #3: Driving Questions: iCiL Conference

From this Podcast, I learned about an "unconference" hosted in Colby, KS and in Salina, KS. Before, I had no idea that anything like this was even happening, much less an hour from me! I was excited to learn that there are sessions at the conference that are about technology, learning, and connecting with others. I thought it was really cool how she mentioned that you can go to as many sessions that day as you can, as you don't have to sit through a 45 minute session each time if you want to catch another one that is happening at the same time.

Now that I'm informed that conferences such as these take place annually, I'll definitely be growing as a teacher and learner by trying to catch them each year.

Eduteacher Site Reflection

I found these resources that I thought might be helpful to me someday:

1. AudioPal- this program allows you to record audio messages and embed them on a website! This would be useful when creating a music department, band website or a choir website. You could post a personal greeting on the web to all who visit your site. I also thought this would be a great tool to use with students. You could embed student testimonials on the music website, record yourself saying the homework assignments, and other uses!

2. From the Top-

For the past decade, From the Top has been the preeminent showcase for America’s best young musicians. Through award-winning NPR and PBS programs, online media, a national tour of live events, and education programs, From the Top shares the stories and performances of pre-collegiate musicians with millions each week. Each program provides a compelling and entertaining window into the world of a diverse group of young people, who pursue life with passion, determination, and joy.

I thought this was extremely cool! Any way to showcase the work of musicians is okay in my book!

3. Jam Studio.com- This site is proclaimed to be "the garageband of the internet world." Simply put, this is great because not everyone has garageband. This site makes recording and mixing available to all students on one level.

Classroom 2.0

Wow! I loved exploring this site. As we dive deeper into connecting with others through different social media outlets such as twitter, facebook, plurk, blogs, etc., I'm finding that I love having so many ways to talk to people all over the globe about my profession. It is so easy to visit sites such as Classroom 2.0, find a group who is discussing something you're interested in or even having a problem with, and get some answers! I liked how there is blogs to read, discussion groups to get involved with, and podcasts and shows to watch! All these fantastic resources to support education and teachers are right at your fingertips at Classroom 2.0. It is empowering as teachers to have a site like this to visit to connect with our colleagues, learn new ideas, discuss similarities and differences, and any other empowering action. We are in this business to connect with people, share ideas, hone our skills, and change lives. With Classroom 2.0, networking and sharing/receiving information are easier than ever!

Kan-Ed Reflection

After exploring the Kan-Ed websites, I came to some conclusions about how they will be useful to me as teacher in a music classroom. I really thought that the KERC website was one of the more helpful parts of the site that I found. I've actually used this resource before, but now that I am closer to being a teacher in the field, I realize that this may be helpful as I begin my career. I really liked how the standards were addressed on this site. There are links to lessons plans pertaining to each standard and its sub-sects. However, I thought the layout of the home page was a bit jumbled and disjunct. I found it a bit challenging to navigate through the amount of sites listed. I've noticed that I become overwhelmed with websites if they are too overkill, meaning that the ratio of blank space to text is heavy on the text side. Also, the tabs on the top of the page are helpful as search tools, but they weren't what I expected them to be when I clicked on them. I initially thought that under each tab would be more information about it, but in most cases, clicking on a tab jumped you to a search bar. Overall, I thought that the information contained on this site is useful to students and teachers alike as a resource, but was a bit overwhelming to learn to use.

Using Twitter as an Educator

After using twitter for about a month, I've discovered that I really enjoy following teachers. Most of the teachers I follow tweet everyday, multiple times a day. They retweet others' tweets and in essence, I follow twice as many people just through those retweet posts! Their tweets often contain links to sites, news articles, and other pertinent information. There is more information out there about music, education, technology, and classrooms than I can ever hope to know about, but I like having twitter to connect me to updates from people who are interested in these topics.

Animoto in my Classroom

I had a lot of fun creating video clips with animoto. It's simple to use, has a variety of music, pictures, and layouts to choose from, and uploads quickly. When I envision using animoto in my future classroom, I think about introducing topics to my students. I may try even making an introduction video to each piece we play on a concert. Or maybe I would introduce new concepts such as a new rhythm, a new musical period, or a new/unusual instrument/genre to the class. Something that also went through my mind as I was putting these together was the thought of a fun animoto at the end of each week featuring pictures of the section that was most improved, or had the highest participation level, or something else along those lines. I think it could be used as a teaching tool as well as a reward tool.