Readings from week 10

The readings this week were about creating your own webpage, and about tips on how and what to put on websites. They said how only certain files can be viewed by everyone on webpages, and how to put files up. Putting up sound files and pictures of my future band would be an excellent way to communicate with the parents exactly what is going on during rehearsals and shows. Webpages is the way of the future, and virtually every organization has one. Creating a webpage will definitely be something that will come back to me in the future.

PLN 10

In the "Music Matters" blog an article was posted about an author who wrote the book "Iedereen is muzikaal: Wat we weten over het luisteren naar muziek," which basically means "Do We All Have Talent for Music?" In the book the author, Henkjin Honing, talks about how people who are good at music aren't special, and that everyone can learn how to play, perform, and enjoy music. I strongly believe that if a student actively tries, and puts effort in, than they will be able to strongly perform and become a good musician.

PLN 9

On the "How to Practice Guide" I found a blog entry about using more common terms for very young student as opposed to the Italian terms, there was even a downloadable list to use! http://www.pianoped.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/adjectives.pdf

I am half and half ok with this subject. I do believe that using easier terms will help students to grasp the concepts quicker and be able to recognize and produce them quicker, but also students will not be learning the standard terms for all of these words. For example words like accelerando are second nature to musicians, but if young students were always taught "go faster," and they were introduced to accelerando in a higher level ensemble they might be left behind from the other students in grasping the concepts. I believe that using both the Italian term AND a word that is easily recognizable would be best for younger students.

Cutting Students

From a blog about teaching music called "Welcome to Education" I found an elementary and middle school teacher that would cut his students from parts that they were not able to play. Being cut from parts is not an unfamiliar concept to me, this summer, when I marched with the Glassmen, cutting people from parts was one of the quick and easy way to clean certain parts of the show. Although this was a quick fix to clean up some musical aspects of drum corps, I think that it is widely inappropriate to cut students in middle school and especially in elementary school from their band music. When students are learning music for the first time they should NEVER be told not to play and not to try to get something write. This can be devastating for a child. I do not believe in "cutting" students from parts until at LEAST high school.

Smartboards!

One of this week’s readings was about how to buy and use an interactive white board. In high school many of my classrooms, including the music technology class, had interactive whiteboards (smartboards). In the classroom using the smartboard was one of the most fun experiences during class. In fact, one of my teachers even made a point to let every student get up to the smart board and use it for notes once a day. In my AP Music Theory class, the smartboard not only served as a projector, but also an interactive whiteboard. Our end of the year project was to arrange a song and put it into finale 2009. Many of the students did not know how to use finale, and our teacher could show the entire class all at once by using the smart board. Also, when we presented, we could show the class what parts of the song were most difficult to arrange, what were are favorites, ect. We could also watch the score as we were listening to the piece. Overall, the smartboard was one of the best resources our AP Music Theory class had, and can be a great resource for any classroom, even a non-music setting.

Response to Recording Articles

As the article mentions, music technology is an excellent tool to use in the classroom, but only if the teacher has experience or is specifically trained to do so. One aspect of technology, though, is rather easy to apply to a classroom setting in multiple ways!

The author of one of the articles mentions about how he was teaching and could not get his students to understand the concept of legato vs. staccato. He ended up recording himself and students playing legato and staccato, then played it back through a projector using a waveform window, which showed the amplitude and duration of the sound waves. The students understood the concept and could reproduce results. This aspect of teaching applies to both visual and audible learners in the classroom.

Recording students playing can help them to understand how they are playing both visually and audibly. Overall, it is a technique that directors do not use enough that would greatly improve the level of musicianship in their ensembles. Once I start teaching I will definitely start recording students to have them listen and evaluate themselves, and could even use it for tape tests!

PLN 7, Google Wave

Google has been creating multiple apps that have all been not only innovative, but useful in the classroom. For example, in our music tech class we have been using google reader to blog for assignments.

This time though, google has really outdone themself. They have combined email, im, twitter, facebook, and skype. Not only that, but it is all drag and drop easy, live updated, and being constantly redesigned to be improved.

Google wave is not only applicable to social needs, but its also very applicable in the classroom. It can function as a wiki, can be used to playback things that have happened in the past, collaboratively work with other students on projects, and publish sites by embedding them.

Overall, google wave will be able to be used for all kinds of applications once it is released!

PLN Week 6

From the "So You Want to Teach" blog, I found an article that I was very interested in. It was an article about a teacher who was saying that she was very stressed and was going to quit teaching. She often read the "So You Want to Teach" blog and decided to start her own blog to vent and get all of her emotions out instead of keeping them bottled up. After blogging, she realized that she did not want to quit, and decided to submit a blog to "So You Want to Teach" to share her experience. In her blog she states that you should never give up, even when you feel completely useless, to surround yourself with positive people, avoid negativity like the plague, try to learn sometime new with everyone you come into contact with, and to enjoy the journey. With these tips, your professional and social life will both be boosted, and you will have a much better outlook on life in general.

Sequencing

Many say that sequencing and MIDI files could never replace real music with real musicians. When MIDI was first created, this was true. Now that we have new technology, though, many wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a sequenced recording and a real performance. If you record yourself playing live, you will be able to make a convincing sequenced sound bit. A good use in the classroom for a sequencer could be to put in a piece you are working on, and to have the sequencer put out the single parts along with accompaniment to practice along. For choir, here, we use this concept for practice files.