Sunday, May 9, 2010
Friday, May 7, 2010
Action Research
Thinking ahead to publication... When I first heard the rumor that we would either have to publish or present, I (like most people) freaked out. I'm glad that we are just preparing it for that possibility. However, I did find the idea of presenting at a conference intriguing. I kind of like to talk and I really love my project. I looked at the TI:ME website and found that they were looking for presenters for the Ohio Music Educators Association conference for next year. The date for submission is at the end of May. I may be crazy--probably crazy--but I think that I'd like to present.
Failed Levy
Unfortunately, I have a very divided school district. There are three very different areas that were grouped to make one district. Butlerville is a very rural area. Most students do not have access to the internet and many don't have a computer. Most of the families make their living from their farm. Morrow is working class. Many of the adults do not possess a higher educational degree. Finally, there is Maineville. Most of the growth that had happened in the past ten years has taken place here. Most of the adults are college educated. By my description of these three areas, you can probably guess how voting went.
It is a shame that school districts are forced to beg for money to run a school. Frankly, I am not sure what the state is going to do when they take over. There have been people from the state that have spoken with our district. They are stumped as to how this could happen to our district. We have been working at the minimum allowed by the state. Our district has been rated an "Excellent" district. Our treasurer has earned awards for running the district so frugally. I am just not sure why this has happened. I would blame the economy but I know that isn't the sole reason. Our district has a history of failing levies. There has been talk of dissolving the district and having a neighboring district take responsibility for educating the children. In a way, I hope this happens. Every neighboring district has higher taxes--by almost double.
Wk 1 Comment Post #1
Several months ago, I was planning on recording my students during class. Our department had a portable CD recorder, and as I was setting it up that day, it stopped working! The students were planning on creating the recording that day, and I didn’t really want to change gears, so I pulled my iPhone out of my pocket and recorded them using the Voice Recorder. Then we plugged the phone into a boombox with an iPod jack to listen. (Now, I record into Garageband, and get better recordings than the CD recorder every produced.)
Another time, I was planning on having my students use Noteflight (a web 2.0 tool) for a composition project. As I walked them through the process of setting up an account, we realized that the confirmation e-mail was being sent to their Spam folders, which they did not have access to in their school e-mail accounts. So I quickly created a class account that they could all access and they worked that way.
Kelly McKinley says:
@ Therese
I had the same experience. I was trying to use the digital recorder to record my students performing in class but the battery died. I then went over to my computer, turned it to face my class, and recorded them with Garageband. I was able to make a few fixes within the program and the recording was so much better! I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it before.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
BP15__2009103_Reflective-Media-Assets
My students said that they could not view the videos that I posted to my website. This was my solution.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
BP14__2009103_Web 2.0 Tools-JamStudio
JamStudio.com is a great website where people can create their own songs. It is very similar to Garageband in that there are prerecorded loops that you click and drag onto the music. What I like about JamStudio is that the user has more control over the direction of the music. You are able to click and drag chords onto a staff. You are also able to change the time signature and add bass guitar, electric guitar, piano, and drums to fill out the arrangement. If you are a member (membership is free), you can save your project.
There is a grant for educators. The grant provides teachers and students an all access pass to JamStudio. Although much of the site is free, there are portions that have a cost. The "All Access Pass" usually costs $10 per month per person. The "All Access Pass" allows students to get mp3 mixes of their songs that they can then submit to their teacher.
This program would be a really great tool when teaching students about chord progressions. With younger students, it could be used for experimentation and when introducing students to chords and meter.
References
JamStudio.com. (2009). JamStudio.com:The online music factory. Retrieved October 15, 2009 from http://www.jamstudio.com/Studio/index.htm
Our school is well-equipped with computer labs and computer technology teachers who are very willing to help teachers in the lower, middle, and upper school. We have students kindergarten through 12th grade. This year our kindergarten and prefirst classes installed Smartboards, and the teachers have found interactive ways to bring content to the children. My art classroom is scheduled to be relocated and with that move the plan is to install a Smartboard and four deep sinks. As an art teacher of little ones, my priority would be to get the sinks, but seeing how the teachers have used the Smartboards to set up systems of communications and organization with the children, I’m sure the Smartboards will be equally helpful. At this point the use of videos and creation of videos to prepare for an art project has brought added interest and motivation to my art class.
Kelly McKinley says:
Although I agree that four new sinks is a blessing for an elementary art teacher, you will find that having a Smartboard will come in handy. I don’t know how many classes you teach per grade level, but I am always asking my students if we talked about certain things in class. For some reason, I will get further with some classes than I do with others. A Smartboard can help you with that. You can save documents that you were using with one class, keep it in a folder and bring it out then next time you see that class. Then the next time a kids says, “We didn’t talk about that”, you can bring up their folder and find out for yourself!