OneNote Review

Hi All,

This week I reviewed a program called OneNote.  I have personally never heard of this program and I am extremely excited about what I found out about it!!! I think this program would be an amazing addition to any classroom.

I teach a variety of music classes that range from elementary general music to wind ensembles to independent study courses like music theory.  In watching just the opening video I could see the many ways OneNote could be utilized.  First, the program is very well organized and has everything located in one central area; this makes it easier for students and teachers alike to learn and adapt to the program.  Below is a screen shot of the program to demonstrate how everything is organized and located within the program. As you may notice there is a notebook for 'Marine Science' and within this notebook you may find different tabs for Lesson Plans, Research, Assignments and so on.  To see more the basic abilities OneNote offers they have a video at the following link: http://onenoteforteachers.com/en-US/Guides/Getting%20started%20with%20OneNote

OneNote is not only a way to keep the educator organized, but is also a great way to give parents and students the ability to access their classes from home.  This is a great aspect of the program! If a student is absent from school for one day or an extended period of time, they would still be able to see lectures, have handouts available, and see required homework assignments without ever falling behind on work.  And by having the ability for the teacher to grade the assignments on the computer, there is feedback for all students!!! This will also help students keep track of their homework, because as we know there are always ones that lose worksheets.  The following link is a video on how to create interactive lessons! http://onenoteforteachers.com/en-US/Guides/Creating%20interactive%20lessons%20with%20OneNote

OneNote is a great program.  I am definitely going to do more research on it! Hope you all enjoy this also.

H

Week 6

In this week's reading of Music Learning Today by William Bauer the topic of responding to music was discussed.  The first interesting point of the chapter that stuck with me was the opening story.  I seem to have found myself in a very similar situation.  My primary area of focus is in instrumental instruction.  When I was hired I found out that I would also be teaching a few general music class.  This was complete shock and I struggled with similar problems as "Elizabeth" did.  I love the end result.  I think it is very important to somehow relate school music with the music involved in the students daily life. 
The second point in the reading that I responded to was the difference between hearing and listening.  For all of us that teach, we know that students have an incredibly ability to hear what is being said/played but are not always listening.  In order to insure my students are building their listening skills I like to incorporate aural skills into weekly lessons, music theory classes and ensemble rehearsals.  I will be extremely happy for the day when our school has the resources to purchase technology that helps with implement this process.  Until then, I do utilize online programs such as musictheory.net, as mentioned in the chapter, to provide exercises and online instruction to build skills.
The last point that stuck with me this week was the discussion of world music and the positive effects it can have on a student.  I personally believe that exposure to other cultures and musics should be part of every persons life.  Such exposure opens up the ear and mind and broadens horizons. 
Once again the list of activities at the end of the chapter have sparked some ideas for next years lessons!
Until our last and final week
H

Week 5

Hi All,

This week's reading from William Bauer's Music Learning Today focused us on the assessment process.  Assessments are a crucial part of being an educator.  As Bauer put it, "Not only is assessment necessary to determine whether students have learned what teachers think they have taught, but is also informs the design of instruction and can direct adjustments of the specific teaching and learning strategies that are used over time." (Bauer, 2014, p. 131).  If you think about all the assessments you have given throughout your teaching career, you will probably realize just how true Bauer's statement is.  Even in my short time teaching my assessments and strategies have changed from semester to semester based on the outcome of the past assessments.

As Bauer says all of us use formative and summative assessments.  For my SLO (student learning outcome) exams I like to use scale testing.  This is an Authentic assessment that helps build students foundational playing skills.  I do benchmark testing once a quarter (summative) to keep track of student growth.  After the students take their benchmarks I show them the score they had at the beginning of the year, the score they had at the previous benchmarks, and the target score they are aiming for at the end of the year.  This provides students with feedback and allows students to realize what they need to work on.

I also use Project Based Learning in a few of my classes.  The general music classes have a few projects a year.  These range from composition projects to internet research.  The current project my 6th grade is working on is Around the World.  Music, instruments, and culture from countries around the world, and compared to countries of the same and different regions.  I loved reading the list on p. 151 of project ideas!! My favorite is "How is music used in everyday life?" (Bauer, 2014, p. 151).  This would be a great project for students to realize how much music they are actually exposed to in a day.  I think I may use this project next year with my 6th grade class!

Until next time
H

Bauer, W.I. (2014). Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and responding to music. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Week 4

Hi All,

This week in Bauer's Music Learning Today was focused on performing music.

There were many items mentioned in the reading that I incorporate into my music program.  The first I came across is a problem that all music teachers seem to face, the epic battle of practicing.  Of course there are some of those students that are intrinsically motivated, but I think most of us would agree the majority of students will respond more based off of an extrinsic motivator.  In order to ensure my students home practice (especially the beginners) I have an eighth note chart.  Hanging on the wall is a list of all beginning instrumental students.  Every lesson, once every 6 days, they are eligible to gain an eighth note on the chart.  When they reach 8 eighth notes they receive a special prize out of the prize bin.  In order to get an eighth note students must 1) come fully prepared to the lesson (instrument and music), 2) arrive on time, 3)have a signed practice sheet, and 4) put 100% effort and have a great attitude through out the lesson.  If a student accomplishes all of these things they will choose a DumDum at the end of the lesson and receive an eighth note.
My first year I did not have anything like this in place.  Students were kind of lazy and seemed to make excuses why they were not practicing.  As soon as I started offering prizes to those that measured up to a certain standard (pretty much the ones that were already intrinsically motivated) students seemed to be applying themselves more. 

The other item I would like to address is feedback.  It is so important for students to receive honest critical feedback, whether it be from the teacher, peers or technology.  I do a lot of recording in my classroom of rehearsals.  I will play back recordings to the ensembles and we will have group discussions about what could be improved or what went well.  I also have students fill out a performance evaluation on how they thought their concert went.  After the initial eval is filled out we will listen or watch a recording of the same performance and students will fill out the same evaluation.  It is interesting to see how the mind perceives a performance and how it appears when you rewatch everything.  It also gives the student more of an awareness of what they should be focusing on in future performances.  As for practice feedback, SmartMusic is amazing.  I worked with it while I was student teaching and the students responded fabulously to it.  They loved to work with it and they loved that they could instantly see where they made mistakes in their playing.  Unfortunately this is the only time I have been able to use SmartMusic with students.  My district has graciously purchased a couple practice room subscriptions, but unfortunately our outdated computers do not support the program.  The choral teacher and I have been pushing for new computers so we can utilize this program, but that is easier said than done.  Our plans over the summer is to write a grant for a much needed updating of many aspects of the department including technology.

Until next week
H

Chromatik and SmartMusic

Hi all,

Today I will be reviewing my exploration of Chromatik (https://www.chromatik.com/) and SmartMusic (http://www.smartmusic.com/).

Lets start with SmartMusic.  This is a common program that many music teachers have heard of, and most likely have used at some point in their teaching experience.  As far as navigation and use of the program it is fairly easy and straight forward.  Students would need a tutorial on how to navigate through it, but would probably pick it up right away.  SmartMusic is a software made to enhance and promote student practice.  It is available for school and home use, however there is a subscription needed.  For a one year educator subscription the cost is $140.00, which you could build into your budget.  Unfortunately the cost does not stop there.  In order for students to have their own account that is accessible to them outside of school a yearly student subscription is required, which runs $40.00.  This is another cost that could be built into your budget if finances allow. The following link gives more information about what subscriptions are available and offer, https://store.makemusic.com/store/?tab=smartmusic&_ga=1.93946781.1061081139.1428324440.
If you are thinking the program seems a little pricy for you, my advice would be to just explore the website and see all it offers because it is completely worth the cost!  The software is aligned with the National Music Education Standards and offers huge inventory and accessories.  Within the inventory you will find a variety of method books, sight reading/singing activities, jazz patterns and more.  On top of this there are scale activities (major, minor, whole tone, pentatonic, ect.).  There is a built in tuner, metronome and digital recorder for the student to utilize.  For more features of the program see the following link, http://www.smartmusic.com/products/educators/features-and-benefits/. 
For the educator, SmartMusic has an integrated gradebook that will keep track of every assignment for you, making assessments a breeze.  The teacher has the ability to create and send assignments home that students may access on their accounts.  Students are able to perform the assignment as many times as they want and submit their final recording back to the teacher where the grade is updated.
SmartMusic is a great tool to have in your music program.  When used properly it is capable of furthering student growth, performance, and lets face it, because it is online and uses technology students are more interested in the practice at hand.  It also allows them instant visual feedback and the ability to play with an ensemble, making the sometimes tedious task of practicing more interesting.

Unlike SmartMusic, Chromatik is a web based free catalog of sheet music.  There is no subscription required, which is amazing for those with limited resources and finances.  The site itself is very straight forward and easy to navigate and use.  Students would not need nearly as extensive of a tutorial as with SmartMusic.  Students would be able to set up their own accounts and just explore around the site in order to figure out the program.  Chromatik offers a variety of popular music (many different genres) as well as classical music.  See the following link to see all the categories offered, https://www.chromatik.com/.  Since this program offers more popular songs students are very interested in learning new music.  Students are able to record, save and share themselves playing the selected tune.  On the tune they select there is a video attached so allow students to listen to the song and play along with it.  The following link shows the basic set up of the page once a song is selected, https://www.chromatik.com/static/about.  I think the best use for this program would be to incorporate extra songs into the students repertoire. 

As an educator I strongly believe that SmarMusic is a better program to incorporate into your music program.  Not to say that Chromatik could not also be integrated, both programs have their place.  However, as far as student growth SmartMusic seems to offer more than Chromatik.

Hopefully this was a helpful review for those of you looking to adopt these programs to build and further your music program. 
Until next time,
H

Week 3

Hi All,

In this was all about composition and DAWs.

I love incorporating the use of DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations)into my classes when I am able to. This year I have used Garageband and Soundation on various projects with my 9-12 grade students. They worked on everything from creating loop based songs to original compositions. I also love using notation programs, mainly Finale, where students are able to notate original works or arrangements of existing works. I have one student that is very interested in composing and arranging. He uses Noteflight while he is at home (and actually helped me with questions I had regarding Noteflight in week two)to write his own pieces, some of which we have used as full ensemble warm ups.

I think including these programs as much as possible in music teaching now is extremely important and beneficially. The world we are living in is technology driven. Bauer mentioned the differences between the "Digital Immigrants" and the "Digital Natives" and how they use and view technology (Bauer, 2014, p.5). Just by seeing the names assigned to these groups (Natives vs Immigrants) you can tell that one groups will have an obvious advantage to understanding technology having had it been there their entire life. Sooner or later our Immigrant generation will have moved on and all that is left is a society that doesn't know a time where there wasn't the use of technology. Whether we want to face it or not, technology will become the foundation for most things, including our educational system. It is important to start the use of these programs to stay up to date with the latest technologies available to us.

In my classes, students seem to have a much higher interest in creating compositions when they are invited and asked to use technology. The benefits students receive from composing we all see in our classrooms. As Bauer suggests, "Beyond the opportunities for creative thinking and expression, engagement in composition can also result in a deeper understanding of music, its structure and form." (Bauer, 2014, p. 68).

Until next time

 H