Missing standard?

Well....here we are, I am entering into the final weeks of my Graduate Course.  If you have been following my blog you already know that I have been focusing on the National Educational Technology Standards for teachers over the last 10 weeks.  As I have been reviewing my blog posts I realized that somehow I skipped over standard #3 and I would like to address that this week.

NETS*T3 is focused on how a teacher should Model Digital-Age Work and Learning.  When it comes to this standard I would like to focus on 2 indicators:

c. communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats.

One thing that I have really enjoyed learning about during my Graduate Course has been all of the multiple ways that I can use new technologies to communicate with my students and parents.  Jim has taught us many different ways to use Edline (which I already use to some extent).  We have learned how to use various applications through Google, Blogs, and Wikispaces.  

  d. model and facilitate effective use of current and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze, evaluate, and use information resources to support research and learning

Even in a music class I feel that I have a responsibility to help teach students how to effectively research information.  This year I have had my students complete a few research projects using computer applications such as NetTrekker.com.   I feel that this is a great way to model to my students a highly effective way to complete research for any subject.

I have been thinking about how I, as a teacher, would appropriately address the diverse needs of all learners by using learner-centered strategies and providing equitable access to appropriate digital tools and resources (NETS*T4b).

The great thing about the way I am trying to design my Interactive Board Music Project, is that I truly believe it is completely learner-centered, which fits well with this topic. The good thing about the interactive boards is that it forces the students to get up and be a part of the learning...and the teaching. No longer are they stuck at their seats just listening to a lecture about how a major scale is designed, or how to label the form of a piece of music, but now they can be an active part of that discussion. I can have students come to the board and move musical notes around on the staff to build the scale that we are talking about and then have them check the work by having the computer play the scale through the Sibelius notation software and have everything happen at the students' fingertips.

Webinar

Last week I tried to attend my first "Webinar" experience, in other words an online interactive seminar or class. The first point of frustration I had with trying to find a webinar to attend was that I had a lot of trouble finding one to attend, I did a lot of searching and kept coming up with ones that have already happened, or ones that were scheduled for a month from now.

I finally found one that dealt with using a wiki in the classroom, which I thought was a great one to attend since we have been talking alot about wiki's in my graduate class. I followed the link to the webinar, which immediately brought me to an introduction video dealing with who the presenter was for the session. This is where it got confusing again, I tried to sign in on the chat page, and answer the survey that was being conducted on the page and it would not let me participate in either....that is when I figured out that this was actually a replay of a webinar that had already been conducted. At first I was bummed out about this since it was not an actually webinar that I could be active in, but as I watched on I found it to be a really great class and I am very glad I stuck around and watched the video webinar.

Legal and Ethical Use

When looking through the National Educational Technology Standards for teachers I came across indicator number 4. Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility

As a music Teacher I thought this was a very important indicator to focus on because it deals with the fact that teachers must understand local and global societal issues and responsibilities in an evolving digital culture and exhibit legal and ethical behavior in their professional practices.

This has always been a hot-button topic for music teachers because most of the materials that we deal with on an everyday basis is copyrighted intellectual property. Any sheet-music that we choose to use in our class, any recordings we want our students to listen to, or anything that we want to record would fall into this category.

NETS*T4a says that teachers need to advocate, model, and teach safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources. This is especially true as I begin to use technology more in my classroom. I must be aware that the materials that I place on my computer, or on an Internet site must be properly cited for their source to avoid any infringements on copyright laws. Photocopying music is against the copyright law, so I believe that scanning music and publishing it on the Internet would also be an obvious violation. Placing someone Else's recorded music on the Internet would also fall into this category.

As a teacher it is my responsibility to insure that everything I do for my students is safe and legal.

Technology enriched environments

Last time I started talking about the Nation Educational Technology Standard #2 for teachers (NETS*T2), and focused a lot on the aspect of designing learning experiences which use digital tools in the classroom. This week I would like to focus on indicator B - develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress.


In my music classroom it has always been difficult to create an atmosphere that included technology right there in the classroom. However, after starting my graduate course I have already been trying to find new and exciting ways to create this technology enriched environment. The first way I have tried, and mentioned a couple weeks ago, was by checking out one of our schools portable laptop carts to allow the students to use the computers in our classroom for research.

My next step, which I am very excited about, is being able to use the new smart board technology that is being installed in all of the classrooms - including mine! At first I have to admit that I was not looking forward to this, because I had no idea how I could use it. But, now I have done so much thinking about different projects I could have the students actively engaged in right there in my classroom by using this technology. With programs such as Finale or Sibelius I can have my students writing their own music and then listening to is as the computer plays it back for them. There are so many opportunities out there and I cant wait to start exploring them in my new technology enriched environment.

I'm here....really I am

Hey there everyone! I must apologize for my lack of a blog update last week, it was very hard to find any time on the computer as I was spending literally 19 hours a day at school everyday last week (not an exaggeration, unfortunately). Our production of "You're A Good Man Charlie Brown" went Amazingly and I could not have been happier!!! Now it is back to real life...

The topic of my blog last week had to do with the NETS*T2 standard. According to this standard a teacher in the 21st century classroom should
a. design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and
resources to promote student learning and creativity
b. develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to
pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their
own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own
progress.

As I have stated previously, I often find myself wondering how exactly to incorporate digital tools into my music classroom as a way to help the students learn and create in a different way. But I would like to focus on one tool that I have actually personally designed which has helped me in the past. I was sitting at home watching television one night and I flipped past the game shows "Don't Forget The Lyrics" and "The Singing Bee" both of which were helping to bring the art of live performing/singing into a new type of entertainment. As I watched these show I thought to myself, what an interesting way to challenge my new singers, into developing the drive to make music independently (Which is one of our National Music Standards).

So I started to think of a way to incorporate a game similar to these shows in my classroom, and after hours of playing around with PowerPoint I was able to design a touch game based on "The Singing Bee" using a mixture of popular songs from the radio, and songs that we were learning in class. I introduced this game to my classes with a very positive outcome and response.

That was my first real experience with designing a relative learning experience which Incorporated this sort if Digital Tool, but now I am still looking for even more experiences similar to this, which can help break up the every-day routine of the music class.

Trying something new

This past week I have been insanely busy trying to prepare my drama troupe for their upcoming performance of the Broadway musical "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown" (Feb. 27 & 28.....shameless plug!!) and it really has me thinking about ways that I can improve communication within the group outside of rehearsals.

We don't really have a website or anything to post information to, have discussions on, or even just have fun with. It's always been something that I've wanted for my group, but my lack of website design knowledge has prevented me from trying.

In the rare few seconds of free-time that I had this weekend I decided to try to make a wiki page which could be used to post rehearsal notes, pictures and have a place for the students and parents to be able to check out what is going on. So, I signed up for a free wiki page using wikispaces.com and have set out to create KingsBackstagePass (Thanks for the name idea Jim!). So far the site is still only being designed and has not been made available to users, but I hope to have the site working in time for our next major production. I am coming across some limitations due to the settings the company has placed on free sites. So far I can either make the space public (open to anyone), or private (open to only approved people) but I can not mix them. In other words, if I wanted my homepage to be public, but for the page dedicated to "Charlie Brown" to be private for cast members only I can not because of the limitations.

There are defiantly some kinks to work out, but at least I am trying something new and opening up myself to the ideas of web 2.0 and the 21st century classroom.

Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity

According to the NETS-T1, as a teacher I should be using my knowledge of subject matter, teaching and learning, and technology to facilitate experiences that advance my student
learning, creativity, and innovation in both face-to-face and virtual environments. I find this to be a very interesting challenge, because I have quite a bit of experience in all of those categories, but have not really combined them all together before.

As I have stated before, I really have not been utilizing the world of technology in my classroom very much in the last few years of teaching, but I am just now realizing the many ways in which I could use that technology to model ideas for my students and help them advance in their learning.

In order to "promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness" in my classroom through technology I could be using programs such as Finale, Sibelius, Audacity, or even Garage Band to have my students creating their own music. As we discover the "rules of music" or musical theory I could have the students write their own music by following the rules we have learned and inputting their creativity onto one of these software platforms.

Just this week I took an opportunity to have the students "engage in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources." I decided to have them do some real world research on the music of the Beach Boys, the decades that they were popular, and what was going on in the world at the time. I enabled the students to do this research in class by scheduling time for one of our school's laptop carts, then I had the students use the website nettrekker.com as their search engine. This is a new educational website that our school district has been granted access to, which allows students to search for topics using websites that have been filtered for their educational value.

Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership

Professional Development is something that I feel is fairly important to me, especially since I am still a fairly new teacher and I am still striving to become the best teacher I can be. When it comes to utilizing technology in the classroom and with my students I have to admit that I have a lot of to learn about.



In doing some research about how to apply the NETS-T5 a. participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning to my own career I came across a few different resources for Music Teachers to share ideas and thoughts in a community setting. Many of these I feel would be a great resource to use in my professional growth. Some of the learning communities that I came across are:

Teachernet for Music Teachers

National Association for Music Education

Choral Public Domain



Of course those are just a few of the many on-line resources available. There are also many resources that are not on-line. A few examples of the resources that I already use off-line are:

Triad - a Monthly professional publication for Music Educator supplied by the Ohio Music Education Association (OMEA).

OMEA - The professional organization for Music Teacher which sponsors an annual 3-day professional development conference.



NETS-T5c Is to evaluate and reflect on current research and professional practice on a regular basis to make effective use of existing and emerging digital tools and resources in support of student learning

One of the better aspects of the Triad magazine mentioned above is the fact that it if filled with research done by actual music teachers who are actively involved in the field. The research usually deals with new teaching techniques, repertoire tips, and sometimes even involves a write-up about the newest tech tool for our industry.

After doing a lot of research I would have to say that one of the leaders in the research is using technology in the music classroom has to be the Technology Institute for Music Educators (TI:ME). This website has a plethora of information including articles written by music professionals on topics ranging from Starting with Technology in School Music all the way to Starting an Online Fundraiser.

I'm really glad that I have been asked to do more research into this area of teaching, because I honestly would not have known that there are so many ways to use technology in music. I always just assumed that the extent of technology I would use would be sound systems with microphones and maybe some recording equipment. I am very excited to continue my research on ways that I can support my student's classroom learning with the technology tools that are out there.

A New Beginning

Welcome to "Scott's Think Tank"

The purpose of this blog is to document my findings as I explore the world of 21st Century Classrooms in the world of Eduction, and specifically how I can incorporate the National Education Standards for Technology (NETS) in the Musical classroom.

As a professional music teacher I am always looking for ways to keep my students interested in the content we are studying, which most of the time is centuries old. I am very excited to see how I can add technology in the classroom.

My goals for this exploration are to find ways incorporate the NETS into my current classroom teaching. For example I want to be able to have students expressing their creativity and innovation by finding ways to use their everyday technologies to learn about music, or critically thinking about the music they are singing in class and doing authentic research at home.

Currently I use technology to communicate with parents and students about events and grades, however this is about the extent of it. Now when I look at the NETS I am seeing many ideas on how I can have the students working in many different ways to further enhance their learning opportunities.

Not only do I have to think about the students when it comes to these standards, but there is also another list of standards specifically for teachers. For the beginning of this exploration I will be starting with NETS T5...Engaging in Professional Growth and Leadership. My first step in this process is this blog, which goes along with Standard 5a. participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning. It is my hope that through this blog community I can share my findings as well as discover how my fellow teachers are working towards their goals.

As I work in my graduate course I will be updating this blog with my new findings and thoughts.