Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Strategy for my target audience
For this reflection I chose to focus on gifted and talented students. In any classroom one can find a variety of learning styles. Since more instruction time is given in a regular classroom, it is important for the fine arts to present material in a variety of ways to encompass all learning types. This is particularly challenging due to the minimal time that we have to meet with our students. (At my previous position, I only had them once a week.) To ensure that all students understand and apply the concepts being taught, the pace is not always as fast as a gifted and talented student desires. Although, there are things that I can do to prevent any boredom or behavioral issues from occurring with these students. In "Technology and the Diverse Learner" it discusses "extension technologies" that help support these students. Instead of a "drill and practice" approach (which is needed for some learners) this strategy focuses on the creativity and exploration for the student. The world wide web is given as an example for this strategy. This tool can help those students guide their own exploration and make new connection to the subject matter. Multimedia technologies is also used as another example in the book. Instead of the student just watching a technological presentation they should be encouraged to create their own which will allow them to gain additional knowledge and connect content with the subject matter at hand. (This strategy is found on page 50-51 of "Technology and the Diverse Learner." ) In my classroom, I need to give more opportunities for those students to create more, whether it's a composition piece, rhythmic body percussion, or instrument playing. I need to be able to recognize those students and be prepared to let them explore their creativity in my music classroom.
Monday, March 29, 2010
MuseScore Reflection
I really enjoyed learning the software of MuseScore. I look forward to use it on future lessons in my teaching. I have always desired to know how to use notation software. Other software that I was aware of was only provided for a cost. So when I came across this free download I was very excited. At first the software was quite tricky to use. On the online website it does provide a manual for this program. That was very helpful in teaching myself how to use it. I also found a few video tutorials on youtube.com that helped in the learning of MuseScore. The person who created those tutorials is continuing to produce additional learning videos. So I will definitely keep checking back for more videos.
I found it fairly easy to create my instructions to start using MuseScore. From the beginning I tried to make my instructions very clear and as detailed as I could. From the peer reviews in class I received a couple suggestions that I later added to my instructions. They were minor wording additions that will eliminate any confusion. I also had my husband, who is not very musical, follow my instructions to create and use the program. He found the instructions to be very clear and in my opinion he rather enjoyed composing his own piece of music and hearing it played back to him.
So in conclusion I feel that I successfully created and completed this assignment with flying colors, and I am excited to share these instructions with others!
I found it fairly easy to create my instructions to start using MuseScore. From the beginning I tried to make my instructions very clear and as detailed as I could. From the peer reviews in class I received a couple suggestions that I later added to my instructions. They were minor wording additions that will eliminate any confusion. I also had my husband, who is not very musical, follow my instructions to create and use the program. He found the instructions to be very clear and in my opinion he rather enjoyed composing his own piece of music and hearing it played back to him.
So in conclusion I feel that I successfully created and completed this assignment with flying colors, and I am excited to share these instructions with others!
Monday, March 22, 2010
Two reflection questions in one!!
How might technology enable a teacher or a person in rural Oklahoma to impact others in the world. Make a suggestion and explain how it might have global impact? Is this realistic here?
I think it is definitely realistic that one person can have a global impact. The ideas, suggestions, and actions of one person have the potential to be very contagious. Even though it may seem that a teacher in rural Oklahoma might not make a difference, the web as enabled us to expand our resources and share them with our students. I can't help but think of a commercial where Ellen Page is visiting her old elementary classroom and the students are so excited because they are going on field trip to China! Of course it's through the web and cameras that you find out this is possible. She then comments about her only field trips were to the local farm. My point in being that the web as enabled so many new technologies for us to expand our students' knowledge and experience.
Do we have too many things going on at once? Are there problems with overlap? Are we dividing our efforts? Will it get to the point that there are just too many things to use, and not different enough to make it worthwhile to learn?
Although there are so many technologies out there, I don't think that there are necessary too many going on at once. There are things out there that cover the same idea or material, but often they provide differences that work well with certain people. Everybody has different learning styles and preferences and the plethora of possibilities out there allows us to choose which one would work best for the individual. From all of the new technologies, new ideas will be spun and reinvented to make the web an even better place. I think that there is always room for improvement. And as the saying goes...what will they think of next? I'm so excited to find out!
I think it is definitely realistic that one person can have a global impact. The ideas, suggestions, and actions of one person have the potential to be very contagious. Even though it may seem that a teacher in rural Oklahoma might not make a difference, the web as enabled us to expand our resources and share them with our students. I can't help but think of a commercial where Ellen Page is visiting her old elementary classroom and the students are so excited because they are going on field trip to China! Of course it's through the web and cameras that you find out this is possible. She then comments about her only field trips were to the local farm. My point in being that the web as enabled so many new technologies for us to expand our students' knowledge and experience.
Do we have too many things going on at once? Are there problems with overlap? Are we dividing our efforts? Will it get to the point that there are just too many things to use, and not different enough to make it worthwhile to learn?
Although there are so many technologies out there, I don't think that there are necessary too many going on at once. There are things out there that cover the same idea or material, but often they provide differences that work well with certain people. Everybody has different learning styles and preferences and the plethora of possibilities out there allows us to choose which one would work best for the individual. From all of the new technologies, new ideas will be spun and reinvented to make the web an even better place. I think that there is always room for improvement. And as the saying goes...what will they think of next? I'm so excited to find out!
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Writeboard.com
http://writeboard.com/ is a free product where your text revisions are never lost! You can go back to any version and even compare between two different edits by working alone or collaborating with others for personal or business use. The possibilities are endless! One can get to a writeboard from ANY computer because the text document is saved on the web. To share it all you have to do is invite others with their email address. They follow the link and BAM, they can now view and edit whatever you wrote. Every time one saves it a new version is saved so one can also go back to a previous edited version. One can send any version by email or export it to a text file. The down side is that if you have multiple writeboards you must bookmark the URL’s along with remembering passwords to access them. Although one can create a “Backpack” account and organize all of your writeboards there. Check it out and let me know what you think! What do you think you could use this site for?
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