Scenario

My strongest attributes as an educator are an excellent knowledge base in music: history, theory, composition, aural dictation, musical instruments, and singing. I am extremely passionate about what I do and will not let anything get in the way of doing what I love. I believe that schools are here to serve the needs of students and that is what I'm here to do: teach students about music from all perspectives and instruct them on how to play a chosen instrument or instruments and perform in different ensembles and in different venues. I am very responsible, thorough, and focused, and I love to create a fun, informative, and inspiring classroom environment. I admit that my patience is short sometimes, but I make up for it with differentiated teaching methods and hands-on activities. In a few years I hope to be teaching 5-12 band in a large school district; I would love to see a little bit of the country and culture of the United States, since I've lived in Kansas my whole life. At first, I do want to stay somewhat close to home, but after I get really comfortable with my career and get into a groove, I'll go wherever the job market takes me! I have a year of coursework left and a semester of student teaching, then I'll be out in the real world. 

In the event that I was instructed to teach students how to use new software, I would first explore it on my own; I would figure out what I could without any instruction manual, then I would refer to the instruction manual to supplement what I had already discovered. I would probably take this same approach with my students: let them figure a few things out on their own, then supplement what they have discovered on their own with instructions. I would give my students a few pointers to make sure they had their eyes out for important aspects, but I would want them to basically problem-solve on their own.

Technology opens so many different doors to everyone! Students get a chance to learn, collaborate, and exhibit what they've learned in so many different ways and so easily. Plus, special-needs students who may previously have had to get extra separate instruction don't necessarily need that anymore; they have the opportunity to be part of the whole classroom, and they get a chance to be an important part of the regular classroom community and effort. Students don't necessarily all have to use the same technology to learn either! There are so many different programs that cater to different learning styles that no student should ever have to try to learn in a way that doesn't suit them. Teachers have the opportunity to implement a learning revolution for their students now that there is so much educational technology available.

Technology has made my education a lot simpler than it was for previous generations. I can't imagine how much more difficult college would be without even email! Communication is such an important aspect of education, and with increased technology comes greater ease of communication. Also, information sharing has directly impacted my education. Not only email, but being able to share videos, documents, sound recordings, and ideas has changed the way people view the world and themselves. I don't feel like such a small person in a big world all because I have access to anything and everything that I could ever want. This means that I can be all the teacher that I want to be. I really have nothing holding me back from anything.

To encourage other educators in my school to use additional/different technology in their classes, I would try to put them in their students shoes: "Did you like sitting in classes where the teacher lectures all day? Did you like having to write pages and pages and pages and pages of notes? Did you like having to do busywork and cram for tests?" Anyone in their right mind would answer no to at least a few of these questions. Then I would challenge them to think outside the box: be the teacher every student loves because you tell them to get their iPods out instead of put them away. There are ways to use all these "distractions" for truly educational purposes. Now go out, figure out how to use them in your classrooms, and implement these ideas. I would even go as far as to require a minimum amount of technology to be used in a given time or in lesson plans. 

I am familiar with Google documents, website tools (iWeb, Wix, Weebly, Google Sites), Garage Band, podcasts, VoiceThread, Animoto, Delicious, Diigo, Glogster, Google Maps, Google Earth, Prezi, Wordle (and other word art programs), comic strip generators, avatar creators, Twitter, Skype, YouTube, Audacity and Smart Music. Since most of these programs are free or have free versions, I would try to implement as many as possible, especially the website tools, Audacity, Smart Music, VoiceThread, Animoto, Google Earth, and YouTube. I really like the audio/video programs because I teach music. Recording is a instant way to receive feedback; programs like Audacity are free, and have lots of cool sound effects, so students can even edit their own music. I would also love to use the website tools to have students create their own websites, and I would love to have students use Google Earth to create a tour of famous composer's hometowns (if I ever taught a music history class). I hope to be as much of a hands-on teacher as possible, and I think that with the help of all these awesome technologies, I can really make an ideas classroom for my students.

My Wow Moment

My "wow" moment was when I found a website format that I liked and really got going with it. Rather than just doing the minimum for the class, I realized that I can put anything I want to on here and really showcase what I like and what I'm about, especially for my content area. Since I am a music education major and this is a technology class, there isn't a whole lot of information that I would immediately implement in my classroom or use for anything at all. I think my website is the single most useful thing that I got from DED 318; if there was one thing that validated this class, it was showing me how to create and use a website of my own. I can use my website as a resume, an autobiography, a tool for music education advocacy, a resource for other music educators, and a cool collection of music related videos. I am really excited to continue to use, personalize, and showcase myself through this website. I am extremely grateful to have this tool at my disposal and to be able to exhibit my accomplishments, education, and love of music to future employers, parents and students, and other educators. 

Podcast Favorites

Most of the podcasts I listened to were about technology, which I didn't always find helpful. I am a music education major, and I thought they were all interesting, but I didn't really find a lot of the technology information helpful. Of all the technology podcasts I watched, I thought the Salman Khan one was the best and the most inspirational and applicable to all content areas. I think that adding the TED Talks to the list of podcasts for the blog reflections was a really good idea. I did stumble upon a podcast that discussed why music isn't just "fluff." It was one of the K-12 Greatest Hits: Best Ideas in Education podcasts, and it is a podcast full of ammo I can use to fire at anti-music school boards, parents, and just general non-believers in the power of music. 

The podcast/presentation I found kind of late in the game was the K12 Online Conference, and I liked those presentations because they weren't all about technology. They were about education in general and how to deal with different situations, good and bad. They dealt with really deep subjects and the kind of topics that really inspire me to be a great teacher. These are the kind of podcasts that all teachers/nearly teachers should be required to listen to and reflect on because they are rooted in the heart of good educational philosophy.

Semester Favorites

My two favorite tools that I learned how to use this semester were all the different Google tools (Google documents, blogger, sites, forms, spreadsheet, etc.) and (this really counts as more than one thing) all the different ways to access and share information and resources - like how to use Twitter productively and the Web 2.0 tools.

I liked the Google tools because they allow everyone access to a word processor, a spreadsheet, and a way to create online forms without having to purchase an expensive software package (like Microsoft Office). I love being able to easily make online forms; this could potentially eliminate all kinds of paper use. There are so many possibilities for these Google tools, and they're all free!

I enjoyed learning about all the ways to access and share information because it opened my eyes to many, what I previously thought to be unconventional, avenues for information transfer (like Twitter). I used to get frustrated trying to find information for projects or papers because I would always go to the same couple of resources, and eventually those ran dry. Now I feel like I have unlimited resources and resources where I can find more resources.

Challenge-Based Learning Reflection

Challenge-based learning is taking what we consider "traditional" education and schooling and kicking its butt. It seems that the most popular forming of teaching today is rote: lecturing and regurgitation without useful application. Challenge-based learning is anything but that. In the few videos we watched in class about challenge-based learning we saw students realizing that they can making a difference, even in a short period of time with seemingly small activities. I think challenge-based learning has the potential to change the U.S.'s education crisis and maybe even the world.


First of all, the education crisis in the United States: too much importance is placed on test scores that have to applicable meaning to functioning in society or developing important life skills, and not enough importance is placed on finding individual meaning in everything a student learns. As a public school student myself, I can attest to this. Even though I attended school in a well-off suburban district, there were not many instances where I can honestly say challenge-based learning was implemented. Because there is so much importance placed on test scores, teachers often can't find time to fit in anything but lecturing on the curriculum for the standardized tests. I'm not sure where the change should begin because it seems difficult at both ends, but eventually the governmental requirements for testing need to be relaxed, school curricula need to be reworked to be student centered, and teachers need to shift their focus to the more student-beneficial paradigm of teaching and learning.


Second, I think that challenge-based learning has the potential to empower generations of school children. With challenge-based learning, it makes it clear that EVERYONE can do SOMETHING to make a difference in their community or the world. By giving students a way to start small (like recycling or making another person laugh everyday), they can build on their small successes, and eventually grow up to be a great innovator or leader in their adulthood. It seems to me that challenge-based learning is really emphasizing one point: student empowerment. If we empower school-aged kids now, we can set in motion a very positive force for change.

Podcast Reflection #12: K12 Online 2008 - Leading the Change: Overcoming Entropy

Wesley Fryer discusses how to continue innovating and change the course of education through making the momentum of change overcome entropy. "Reflection of lessons learned in creating change has brought to light successful and unsuccessful ways to balance energy and entropy as well as several barriers and thoughts that should be considered."

Entropy by definition is chaos: a move from an organized pattern do a disorganized one. We can relate entropy to the current state of the American education system and 21st century learning as such: the loss of energy and the chaos of ideas. With educational change innovators and early adopters have a large amount of energy and information: entropy is low and energy is high. Things slip from exciting to routine, and ideas get lost in the exchange. Entropy, however, creates opportunity for change. When we try to get people to buy in to new ideas, we generally get "why?" as a response. It is very important that everyone understands the purpose of the change and in what ways it is advantageous to change; it is human nature to seek out the purpose of something.  

To decrease entropy and increase information, people need to become part of the change. This process is a great outline and procedure for initiating change. It is not everything you'll need to inspire change, but it is a good place to start.

• Tell a story
• Look at others' perspectives
• Look for leverage points
• Seek out their vision
• Lead by example
• Create order with energy
• Be a coach
• Listen
• Empower and build ownership
• Remove Barriers
• Ripples of energy remove entropy
• Embrace quantum leaps
• Communicate

The education system we are dealing with compared to the vast number of resources and technologies we have access to creates a difficult situation. We have so many incredible resources, yet so many restrictions and rules with which we must comply that it is easy to become quickly bewildered. We must remember that we do have the capacity to change the status quo and set in motion a revolution in education. This presentation had a TON of information on just that, but it went by really fast and was hard to get all the good stuff (which was everything that was said). Visit the website and watch it for yourself to learn more.

Podcast Reflection #11: K12 Online Conference 2010 - Shh!! The Students Are Learning: Being an Effective Classroom Faciliator

Dr. Clif Mims discusses how to "be a facilitator of learning rather than a deliverer of information."

http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=728

He said that this idea really dawned on him when he visited a classroom one time, and all the students got quiet because he was a new person in the classroom; they were "on their best behavior," so to speak. Clif said that it should really be the other way around: students' learning should never be shushed, rather the teacher sometimes needs to be shushed in order to let their students' learning and thinking go uninterrupted as often as possible. 

Over time, Clif has asked a lot of people what they want from teachers and other professionals like them; he made a Wordle from all the responses he got, and by far patient and caring came up the most. 

He gives a few tips from an instructional design point of view:

• develop a driving question or scenario that will engage your students
• understand that the students are going to need alternative resources
• as we move toward being the guide on the side rather than the sage on the stage, this kind of information is going to become more and more important
• try to predict what your students might need and have those things readily available in your classroom
• you'll probably need to do mini-lessons
• this will happen if you realize individual students or groups are operating under a misconception
• avoid being the sage on the stage and remember that you're still a facilitator
• it doesn't have to be taught all at one time, it can be done in chunks
• prepare to do conferencing with your students
• talk with your students in small groups or one-on-one
• Does everyone understand the content?
• Is everyone committed to the process and providing assistance?
• How is the process going?
• Is it clear what you're supposed to be achieving and producing?
• think about including organizers
• graphic organizers
• study maps
• outlines
• things that provide support that doesn't necessarily come straight from you
• guide students through questioning
• let students know ahead of time what kind of things they should be aware of and looking for before they jump into the information
• reading strategies
• questioning techniques
• teach them how to guide themselves through the process

Practical tips for teachers: things that will better help you as you go about facilitating learning

• think like a coach
• you want to be on the side, get them prepared, practice with them, but you cannot do the heavy lifting for them. They must do the competing; they must be the ones putting the effort in.
• the same is true of learning
• we must resist the temptation to come in to the rescue and make everyone feel good regardless of the situation
• you REALLY learn when you have to struggle a little bit, and there's gratification at the end when you know you've accomplished something on your own
• bring earplugs
• as a teacher, you may not be comfortable being in a loud classroom, but often it's okay because students are still on task
• ease your way into more facilitative lessons
• it can be hard to develop these lessons, and it can be hard to get used to these types of lesson in action
• you need to become comfortable with these types of lessons and you need to find success so that you're more likely to replicate it and continue to use these kinds of lessons
• a great starting point is one or two of these kinds of lessons a semester
• get some help
• take advantage of online PLNs - blogs, Twitter, podcasts, etc.
• a lot of schools have help in the building or in the district
• technology integration specialists
• literacy coaches
• other facilitators
• often these resources could even let you take the side while they teach the information on which they are experts
• you are learning, too!
• if a student asks you something and you don't know the answer, don't be afraid to say you don't know! Make a teachable moment out of if and model how research and learn more about the topic.

For more information on Clif's profession development ideas, visit the professional development page on his blog: http://clifmims.com/site/consulting/professional-development

Podcast Reflection #10: Seedlings at Bit by Bit Podcast

SEED - Spreading Educator to Educator Development (A Group of Educators in Maine) - the source of the "Seedlings" name. 

The guest speaker, Stephanie, in this podcast got her degree in Instructional Design at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston. She recently go a job developing learning initiatives and developing online courses and programs at the University of New Hampshire. Previously she was the technology coordinator at a school district in Maine, which is how she got into SEED. Instructional designers serve a lot of different purposes in different schools; at Wentworth, she was basically a curriculum coach, an assessment analyst, and tech help person. Also at this school, it was a laptop school, which created an understanding among students and teachers how to handle and deal with laptop schools and curricula. Stephanie said that while she was at Wentworth, a new provost came in and was somewhat appalled that this "institute of technology" had no online courses, so the provost turn to Stephanie and others like her to develop these online courses. They partnered with the professors and successfully developed a lot of hybrid/online courses. They were successful because they considered not what makes a good online/hybrid course, but what make any course a good course. This experience at Wentworth inspired her to get things going at UNH.

A few things they found about online classes and programs is that students are much more likely to present their true opinions and thoughts on an online discussion board than in regular class discussion; also it gives them more time to think out an intelligent way to convey what they really think. Stephanie said that all the teachers who head the online classes have said the discussion board is THE MOST important part of the online class. She also said that some students don't really have a frame of reference for online classes and don't know how to deal with it, but I don't think this will be any big issue in the future, since technology constantly growing as a player in learning and social networking. Stephanie also discussed how these online classes are truly different than physical classes, or the same depending on how you think about it. You don't show up to online discussion with a Power Point presentation, because it's about collaboration and real discussions, not lecturing. This is another area where people's views of education and class discussion are changing for the better. 

Podcast Reflection #9: Salman Khan: Lets Use Video to Reinvent Education

When Salman first started making his videos, he was an analyst for a hedge fund and was tutoring his cousins in Louisiana and made videos to do so. By using the “automated version” of him, they said that they didn’t feel like they’re wasting his time, they could rewind and fast forward, and they could go back and review after a long period of time. As people stumbled on his tutoring videos on YouTube, he got some really good feedback from people around the world. A lot of people thought what he did was a REALLY good idea. Parents of an autistic child had their kid watch his videos and it got through, after many other methods had failed him. It started to occur to Salman that if these videos could stay around, they could also help people in the future.

He also got feedback from teachers say that they were using his videos in class to teach. They said that “what used to be homework is now what the students do in class." It doesn’t take 15 times to reexplain information and teach by rote; students get it the first time and work on it in class. The teachers have used technology to humanize the classroom. This seemingly inhuman bit of technology has created a much more people-oriented classroom. The Khan Academy videos fundamentally different from traditional classrooms because you don’t advance until mastery has been achieved, and there is no penalization for trying something that fails. In traditional schools, you advance to other topics whether or not you master the preceding skill. Khan equated this method to teaching someone how to ride a bike, then making them try to ride a unicycle when they are still unsuccessful at riding the bike. The Khan Academy also analyzes each student's progress and where they are in the lessons. There is a knowledge map, which visually displays where you are topic-wise in a web graphic organizer.Research was done at Los Altos school (2 grade school classes participated) on the Khan Academy.

• There is a teacher, but every kid works at their own pace.
• There is a grid that tells where each student is on each concept. Green is proficient, blue is in progress, and red is stuck. This is where the teachers come in to help with those red areas or bring in the proficient students to help.
• Data on videos – looks at what parts of the videos classes stop on the most, what activities classes participate in the most, etc.
• There is also tracking for each individual student. It shows how students may take longer to master some skills, but after they do they often race ahead through the next skill sets. In regular classrooms, these students would most likely be labeled as slow before they ever got the chance to master the skill and race ahead.

The Khan Academy wants to globalize and humanize education. The following are areas that are vital to this transformation: improvement in student to valuable human time ratios (rather than just student to teacher ratios; other students can act as effective peer mentors); adult learners who are embarrassed to go back to school and catch up or relearn what they didn't exactly get back when they were in school; kids who must learn on their own because they have to work (instead of go to school) to help support the family; and a peer-to-peer tutoring network, where anyone who wants to mentor/tutor can and anyone who needs help can access it easily. A global, one-world classroom is the Khan Academy's ultimate goal.

Podcast, Website, and Blog Mid-term Critiques

The two websites/blogs that I reviewed were those of Lauren Gocken and Jared Schelp. 

Part 1: Podcast

Lauren's Podcast:

StumbleUpon is a site where you can select topics that your interested in and literally stumble through items related to your topic. This can be a very helpful tool, because you do "stumble" onto a lot of useful things, but it's really fun, too! This search comes up with everything: videos, websites, blogs, and everything! You also have the option to like and dislike, which will influence further stumblings. When you like it, it will put the site in a favorites folder, so you can go back and look at them later. 

TeachJ is a resource for English/Journalism teachers (her content area). It includes general tips, lesson plans, and ideas for everything in this content area. 

Pop Photo is a website for photography resources. It is short for popular photography and has lots of useful tips, links, and pages. 

Jared didn't have a podcast as far as I could see. 

Part 2: Website/Blog

What I took from critiquing others' blogs and websites was this: neatness, organization, and consistency make a very professional website. The farther away you stray from that, the less professional your website/blog will look. Also, the easier something is to read (having to do with color of text, font, color of background, etc), the more likely you'll be to read it. It also helps to go beyond just what you have to do for class. Eventually, you're going to use your website (to show to prospective employers), so you might as well prepare it as if they would be looking at it today. 

Fun with Text

An easy way to get kids a little more enthused about any of the language arts is to have them do fun text projects. CDK's Resource Wiki is full of great sites and resources for fun text projects.

Wordle, a site where you can create "word clouds" could be used for many creative and descriptive projects, but it can also be used to check essays or papers to see what words you are using the most and if you need to vary your word choice. Here's how it works: you paste in text or type it in, the website creates a word cloud, and the words that appear most often in the pasted or typed text are the largest.

My personal favorite is Spell with Flickr. This particular tool is for single words or short phrases. Here's how it works: you type in your word or phrase, and the website generates the word spelled with pictures of letters. This would be great for making name tags for kids (or having them make them for themselves). This would also be a fun site for helping kids practice and visualize spelling words or vocab words.

AmazType is also another fun tool. This website spells the word that you type in (the keyword) using it as its basis for pictures. It takes the pictures from Amazon books, music, and a couple other places.

The point of these tools isn't that they'll do your teaching for you; the point is that they're FUN! They can all be used for neat little supplementary activities and creative activities. Plus, using these resources means you're teaching in a way that fosters 21st century skills.

Comics in the Classroom

Comics may seem like an innocuous form of entertainment and only that; however, they have great potential as teaching and learning tools. While exploring a few of the comic-creation resources I found several different programs, each with its own degree of freedom and individuality involved in creating comic strips. The one I used is very simple and very "kiddie." It is called Make Belief Comics, it's very simple, and it doesn't allow you a whole lot of creative freedom, but it is easy to understand. One that is very customizable is called Bit Strips. This website actually features a lot of people who do their own annual comic strip, and they allow you to create your own as well. I explored a few others: The Hero Factory, The Marvel Superhero Squad , and Comic Brush (this website is actually not working at the moment).

One of the best ways to use your own comics in the classroom is to introduce material to kids that otherwise might seem boring or hard to grasp. By starting with something usually viewed as enjoyable and recreational, I think you'd have a better chance of making a deeper connection with your students.

Another great way to use preexisting comics would be to examine the social undertones and stereotypes exhibited in them. This would especially work with political cartoons in history/social studies classes. You could also apply this idea to regular comic strips from the newspaper; they can be a great window into society, especially when you compare comics from other decades to comic strips now.

Podcast Reflection #8: 21st Century Learning with Dr. Patrick Faverty

There are two beliefs in education about teaching that must be replaced:

1. We must teach children rather than encourage them to learn, discover, or figure things out on their own.

2. There are certain things that everyone ought to know.

Rather than admit that that neither of these things are reasonable or even possible, we argue over what essential knowledge students must know and how we can hold them accountable for learning it. It is not naive to think that children should discover things on their own. Students discover things on their own for a reason: because they use the knowledge. All human learn what they need to know out of interest and curiosity. Real learning - learning that stays with us for a lifetime, not something we learn for a test and then forget - is what we should aim for. There is no way for us to compile a list of essential knowledge for every culture, gender, and walk of life. (If we were to argue for the "essential knowledge" belief, this is what we would have to do.) However, every child needs to have basic reading, writing, and math skills in order to function in any society; additionally, we must include 21st century skills of multimedia development and technology use. 

What is it that we need our education system to provide our children in the 21st century?

It seems quite simple. We have to eliminate one thing: compliance, and we need to try and understand a bit more about how the learner learns. There are several other things we need to look at:

1. The learner controls the learning, not the teacher.

2. Learning must be about building meaning, not memorizing information.

3. Learning itself is about experience, and life experiences are what make up our prior knowledge.

4. All new learning is based on the learner's prior knowledge.

5. All input to the brain is through sensory input; our 5 senses are the only way information becomes embedded in our brains. Also, the more ways we can receive input, the more neural connections will be made and the better embedded it will be.

In school, we use a lot of seeing and hearing, not a lot of touching, smelling, and tasting, which is unfortunate because those are very powerful senses. We should also ask ourselves, which is going to better teach a topic? Doing a worksheet or doing a hands-on activity? Listening to a teacher lecture about it or doing a dance about it? These are questions we ask ourselves as learners and we must ask ourselves this as teachers: what is going to get the idea across better and what is going to connect to the students' prior knowledge better? The more active the lesson, the better. Too often, students are stuck sitting quietly at a desk, listening or watching. 

All humans learn by thinking, viewing, listening, and speaking. We need to stop kidding ourselves. Kids don't learn because WE want them to; they learn because THEY want to. Why don't the two of our sides meet? The adults and the children; the teachers feel they know best because they've been there and done that. Parents tell their children all the time, do as I say, not as I do. Does it ever seem to happen? Not often. But that is how people learn: through trial and error. You can't understand the good and bad of a situation unless you've been there; of course, this isn't necessarily true of everything, but it would be a good rule to apply to our teaching. Learning is a process of individual choice and motivation.We each choose what we learn; what we tend to overlook as adults is that when we are immersed in something we want to do, we learn. Why don't we consider this when we design our schools and classrooms? 

We don't care what the previous generation learned. We live in our own world, and it's different than our parent's world. So why do we keep trying to mandate learning through compliance in schools that looks the same as when we were in school? It doesn't matter what we want, it only matters what we do, and the doing in education has to be about providing the environment and the experience for students rather than telling them what to do, what to remember, and how to do it. We can't make every student successful in the same way. No two students remember the same way or are the same at all. It's time to give up the issue of compliance. 

It's ridiculous that policymakers and government officials believe that learning can be forced to comply with standards. This belief cries for a challenge, yet no one challenges it because we can't imagine the alternatives. 

It is so sad to say this, but it easier for us to force compliance than for us to trust creativity.

Learning is the most natural function of the human brain. Why then do we struggle to have students be successful? We blame the students, the teachers, the parents, the society, yet the human brain is nothing more than a learning machine. If a child can learn how to walk and talk (two of the hardest things to learn), then they can learn anything!

If schools in fact did engage the mind, we would have to force children to go home at the end of the day because they would be so enthralled about what they were learning at school. 

We need to stop the mandated compliance in order to better serve our children and their future. We are only doing a disservice to every child in school and to the future of the human race by forcing everyone to be at the same level at all points in time. It crushes creativity and the human spirit. It's okay if everyone doesn't learn everything; it's okay if some people know more about some things than others - it ends up being that way anyway. Not everyone is a nuclear physicist, and not everyone is an expert in 17th century European music either. People will truly learn only the things that interest them.  

Podcast Reflection #7: Parent Involvement - Keys to Success

Engaging Parents as Partners in Education

Strategies Educators can Use to Assist Parents in Becoming Partners with the Community of Learning

Michael Armstrong discusses the role parents play at his school in North Carolina

Parents are crucial in everything we as teachers do. Parents are trained in every concept that teachers are. There are parents who help compose documents for the school, help train teachers on ESL programs, and other things like that. 

Often the problem is not that parents don't want to be involved (a big misconception among teachers), it's that they don't know how to get involved. 

Training parents on understanding educational topics and issues is crucial for getting parents involved. Knowledgeable parents are helpful parents, and it raises their helpful involvement. They need to be able to understand data on the same level as teachers, and they need to be thinking critically like teachers do, too.

Parents also need to know what to ask at parent teacher conferences.

Beyond the Bakesale is a book that helps parents ask questions about real issues their child may have with learning, not just behavior. 

Parents come with a different perspective than teacher often; therefore, we need to train parents how to think about education in a way that is in line with the teacher's thinking and in a way that is beneficial to their child. There are parent workshops that help parents understand how to support their children and engage them in their academics. Parent evaluation of these sessions are also critical for serving the parents and their informational needs. Parents should be invited into school so they can also see exactly what is going on in their child's classroom; this will also help parents understand what kids are learning and how they are learning it. Parents always appreciate an invitation like this. 

Parent involvement that is linked to greater student learning has a strong correlation with greater achievement in school. 

Parent resource centers are also a great idea. These centers are a place where parents can connect with each other, learn about what their children are studying, learn about how their children are being taught, and understanding their child's progress. This can also be a great opportunity for parents to suggest ideas for school policy, lessons, fundraisers, or anything. A parent resource center is a great way to make parents feel involved and feel like their voice and concerns are being heard. 

Podcast Reflection #6: Moving at the Speed of Creativity

Interview with Ryan L'Esperance - On board the John Lennon educational tour bus in Yukon, Oklahoma

The John Lennon educational tour bus is a completely portable recording studio. Students from the Yukon public schools had the opportunity to record on the bus and shoot a music video as well.

Ryan spends about 10 months out of the year aboard the bus, giving kids hands-on experience and advice on multimedia and audio recording and production. He started off in music production, and now he wants to do everything that has to do with multimedia production and recording. Ryan is editing and putting the kids' project together, as well as teaching them about what he's doing. He said the most challenging thing to coordinate is getting large groups of kids to collaborate, break out of their shells, and let their creativity out. The most rewarding part is getting kids to show their talents and individual creativity through all this great technology and media, as well as getting these kids' ideas out there to hopefully promote themselves and their craft. The challenges associated with working on the bus are (obviously) space limitations. However, there are three separate studios on the bus: front is video production studio, the middle is the audio production suite, and the rear studio is an isolated vocal booth as well as a 370 degree green screen. There are also living quarters aboard the bus for the staff. You have to be an engineer, a producer, a maid, a roommate, so it's kid of hard to find people to work on the bus. It is one of the tougher lifestyles because you really have to have the technical skills as well as very personable social skills who are willing to put up with the somewhat grueling conditions. This is a great program, it fosters immense creativity, and it provides opportunities for expression that some kids might not otherwise get.

The Black Eyed Peas, Natasha Beddingfield, and Will.i.am work on the bus a lot, as well as a few up and coming artists.

Podcast Reflection #5: Tony Vincent - Learning in Hand

Educational Apps

The list of applications for the iPod touch, iPad, and iPhone grows by about 700 apps per day. This can be daunting when trying to figure out what can be helpful to you as a teacher. When searching for apps, you can limit your results to only free apps by clicking power search. Sometimes non-educators review the apps, so don't always take other people's words as true when it comes to the value of an application. The "customers also bought" is a helpful tool as well; it tells you what else people bought when they bought the same application you are viewing or downloading. 

There are several websites and blogs that are helpful in finding useful educational tools among the thousands of apps.

• igear.org - all the reviews of apps are done by educators (I could not find this website online or via Tony's website)
• Recess duty blog - a middle school teacher reviewed the 99 iPod touch apps she used in one school year
• Macworld - extensive app guide with categories including education genres
• Connsense Bulletin - very extensive listing of apps with short descriptions of each app's educational use
• 24 page document on scribd.com (by Eric Sailers) listing tons of apps for iPod with a focus on special education
• Kindergarten teachers at St. Mary's Episcopal school in Tennessee's "Poddy" Training app - geared for young children using iPods

Tony's site, learninginhand.com, has even more lists of lists of apps. He has also learned about apps through Twitter.

• Long division app - students can solve random long division problems (long or short) or insert their own problems. iDev Books is the developer, who also has developed other math apps.
• Story kit - app where users can create digital story books. Includes an image, text, and audio recording.

Hashtags on twitter archive tweets. #edapp is the tag for educational iPod applications. This way, non-twitter users can search resources posted via twitter. 

• Twapper Keeper - a site that helps you use twitter and all its features to your greatest advantage and archive and analyze tweets with hashtag references.
• Twubs - is a site built around content aggregated from hashtags.

Other great apps

• iCell
• iCut
• FacesiMake
• EnterState
• Read Me Stories - costs after the first 10 free books
• 3inchRuler
• Numbler
• Mental Note (free and pay versions)
• Podcasting for Education - set of tutorials on how to make podcasts with Garage Band
• Brainpop featured movie app
• iPad resources - a tutorial on the ins and outs of iPad, since it can be limiting and frustrating
• pages, keynote, numbers (the main suite)

Sometimes apps go on sale, change names, or disappear all together. 

Retweets are a good indication that the content is really good and worth repeating (and checking out). 

Bit leap - a service that shortens URLs so they can be placed in tweets without taking up a lot of space. Use this to short the URLs of apps when you copy them from the iTunes store. 

Additional Podcast Reflection: K-12 Greatest Hits - The Best Ideas in Education

Music Education is Fluff Right? WRONG! Why Music Education is Essential to Learning

Eric Jensen, the author of Music with the Brain in Mind discusses why the arts, especially music, should be kept in school.

The first thing he notes is that if more parents were aware of what is going on in a child's brain because of music, we wouldn't have an issue with trying to keep the arts in schools. The first thing everyone needs to understand is that there is a difference between LISTENING to music and actually PLAYING music in terms of brain activity. Just listening to music can alter the emotional state, which in itself is good. In order to play music, several certain changes must happen in the brain, all of which are good. The first two skills that must be developed are the ability to focus on something for an extended length of time and the ability to exclude external distracters and influences. These skills help kids focus and concentrate in class and in life. Kids also learn to work individually and as a group when they play musical instruments in an ensemble setting, like band, orchestra, and choir. Playing music helps strengthen short-term memory, which will help kids remember teachers' directions in class. Short term memory, also known as working memory, is extremely important in academics as well as social settings. Music fosters the acquisition of learning and life skills!

In the past, music was considered to be more of a right-brain, fluff sort of class. This couldn't be more untrue. Music helps build essential life skills and academic skills. It is a discipline in and of itself that can measure up to any other discipline, and we educators should take it seriously. Studies have shown over and over again that the more time a student has spent in music, as a general rule, the higher the math and reading scores are on college entrance exams. Every year of exposure to music increases exam scores. The research used in Jensen's book was from several years ago, but the recent research still has the same strong correlation between time spent in music and high college entrance exam scores.

Jensen mentions that the Frances Rauscher and Gordon Shaw study (deemed the "Mozart Effect") showed that music must be used in order to not be lost, but this isn't necessarily true. In the studies conducted by Rauscher and Shaw, the subjects only listened to music for a matter of minutes. This says nothing about the effects of playing music. In fact, musicians who do not play for long periods of time (decades even) often pick up their instruments again quite quickly because the muscle memory is so deeply engrained. Studies have also shown that the more educators use music to teach material, the more quickly it will become embedded. This is because music uses more pathways in the brain; music can activate the emotional center, the auditory centers, the visual centers, and the memory centers. Music makes a person use more of their brain than any other activity known.

Skeptics of the power of music find one bit of doubt and generalize it across the board. For example, the Mozart Effect, the inadvertent name for the Rauscher and Shaw study, was generalized by the media and public, and once people found out that it wasn't a guarantee for success, they totally disregarded the findings and lost faith in music. It is extremely short-sighted for people to look for something that will improve test scores tomorrow. Those who are looking for a long-term solution are the intelligent ones, and that's why intelligent people know music is essential in schools.

Classroom 2.0 Reflection

Classroom 2.0 is a social networking site for teachers basically. It has the potential to be very helpful because you can post question, post answers, share wisdom and experience, or just browse around and get ideas. You have to create an account, but it's all free! These kind of resources make me think that teachers are quite possibly the most helpful toward each other people in the world. There are so many quality resources for teachers (like Classroom 2.0) that I feel even more strongly that my decision to become a teacher was the right one. These kind of resources also remind me that no matter how bad I think I have it, there is always someone I can turn to for advice or help. 

As I browsed through the website, I found that a lot of people were asking questions or asking for suggestions, and a lot of those people got answers. However, a lot of them didn't get answers. Although this website is a great resource to have, and it has hundreds of users, that doesn't necessarily guarantee that you'll get an answer or even any helpful information. So it has the potential to be helpful, but it may not be in all situations when you have a specific question you need answered. But if you are browsing through, just looking for ideas, I would say there is a 100% chance you will find something you can use. 

Overall, Classroom 2.0 was a great idea and is a great resource for teachers. It promotes cooperation with others in our field, and it reminds us that we are all fighting the same fight. 

EduTecher Reflection

A few good resources I ran across while browsing the EduTecher website were playmusic.org, brainpop.com/artsandmusic/, and kidsknowit.com. 

Playmusic.org is a fun animated site for kids where they can explore the musical instruments in the orchestra. Kids can learn about instruments, what they sound like, and learn about/contact musicians and composers. This would be great for younger students to use. It could be used in elementary or general music class, but I think what I would primarily use it for would be teaching students about the different instruments and what they're like. 

Brainpop.com/artsandmusic/ is a the arts and music page of the comprehensive site brainpop.com (which covers all the core subjects as well as health, engineering, and technology. It is free for educators, but it does cost upwards of $70 a year for kids or entire schools to get access to it. The arts and music page has information on the instruments as well as singing and audio recording. The educators page includes lesson plans (sorted by content and age group), educator blogs, standards (look up by state and content), lists of training sessions and webinars, and a featured resource of the day. The things that would be most useful to me would be the lesson plans and featured resources. If I ever had to teach a virtual class, this is something I might have my students actually purchase (they have rates for virtual classrooms and other situations also). 

Kidsknowit.com is a website that happens to have a huge collection of educational songs (among other teaching resources). There are no music-for-the-sake-of-music songs, but there are hundreds of cross-curricular songs. A lot of these songs would coincide perfectly with things that elementary school students learn in their core classes. The only downside to this site is that you may not be able to download the songs, and you won't be able to get an accompaniment part if you want to perform the song at a concert. You would have to play the song itself as accompaniment or just have your kids sing a capella. 

Kan-Ed Reflection

The Kan-Ed website has more resources for kids than I expected. The ones I especially liked were KidsInfoBits (under 4Kids, which is for younger students), WorldBook Kan Ed (for high school), and Academic OneFile (for anyone doing research). The WorldBook was my favorite because it had information on how to do research (great for introducing younger kids to it), how to cite research, and different way to search. There was also a biography center on the site; it wasn't extremely thorough, but it had a lot of people kids in school would study. It also has fun things like trivia quizzes, featured site links, and a "surf the ages" section - a section that puts history into the format of a newspaper. Kan-Ed also has lots of information on the great state of Kansas, as well as a tutoring page; however, this tutoring page is limited to math, science, social studies, and English.

As a future teacher, I would definitely take advantage of the kids' sites. You could create scavenger hunts to familiarize kids with the websites, so that later on when they use it for real assignments and help, it will be familiar to them. I would definitely take advantage of the research resources on WorldBook, such as the "How to Research" page. I also was very pleased to see that music was the front page subject on Thinkfinity's website. March is music in the schools month, so they had a great compilation of resources and links that had to do with music education. There were numerous resources for lessons (especially cross-curricular lessons), discussions and activities, and getting kids and parents more involved. A couple really good websites that I was lead to from this page was readwritethink.org and illuminations.nctm.org (learning music through music). 

The only things I disliked about this website was the fact that some of the resources here and there were a little thin, such as the student tutoring section. You can't expect a computer to do your job though, so it's not really an issue. This website is an incredible resource for teachers, and I'm very glad to have it. 

Podcast Reflection #4: Driving Questions - Rural 21st Century Learning

There is an agriculture-based charter elementary school in Walton, Kansas, called the Walton Rural Life Center. The school bases its curriculum on problem and project-based learning. Kevin Honeycutt was impressed with this school because they are very good about staying centered around their rural life theme, and the agrarian lifestyle is woven into everything they do. The passions that drive the school are making a difference for kids, making kids excited about learning and making them responsible for what they learn, and hands-on learning and how important it is for kinesthetic learners and diverse learners. 

Each classroom is sponsored by a local farm family, which students visit periodically for field trips to see how things are run in the real world. Last year, the Walton Rural Life Center Charter School received the Governor's Achievement Award; however, their lowest scoring section was measurements. So, on their next field trips, they measured tires on tractors and trucks, and they learned how to measure an acre. The families also helped by contributing the formulas they use to figure out how much and how dense to plant crops. The kids also did a salsa project where they had to grow all their own ingredients and make their own recipes. After they had made their salsa, there was a taste-test, and the winner was determined. The kids also had to weight and measure volume to figure out how much salsa they produced. This is an excellent example of kids learning assessment material and real-life, useful skills at the same time!!

This school also participates in the Earth Partnership for Schools project. They use a plot of land to plant Kansas-native prairie plants. They plant them the same way they would be spread naturally (pretty much just springled on top of snow and ground), and then the students monitor the progress and growth of the prairie plants. This is one of the more observation-based projects they do. The kids also made stepping stones to go through the plot of prairie plants. They also participate in the Wind for Schools project. They have a turbine that is operated by a windmill, which produces enough energy to power their greenhouse, which apparently is comparable to many high school greenhouses. Kids have prepared prediction of how the windmill's generated energy will be affected at different times of year, etc. They will be able to measure this once they get the software that hooks up to it. They also received an old-fashioned, working windmill that also can be hooked up to a pump or generator. The kids are preparing compare/contrast projects for studying the two windmills.

The kindergarten class participates in hatching chicks every year. Currently they keep some of their hatched chicks, keep them for eggs, and later on sell the eggs. The2nd graders study the incubating and hatching eggs; they candle them, study the data produced by the state-of-the-art incubator (that hooks up to a computer). 

This school also has an art teacher, a music teacher, and P.E. They also get exercise by walking their mascot, Petey the goat, around the school on days when they don't have P.E.

I think this is a fantastic idea, especially in the field of agriculture, since it kind of seems to be a dying profession. It is amazing and very encouraging that the teachers at that school are so successful, and I applaud their success.

My Avatars

  

Podcast Reflection #3: Two Tech Chicks: Tech Forum Southwest

In this episode of Tech Chicks, they discuss themes and ideas from the Tech Forum Southwest (from which they are returning home during this podcast). A big topic was the 21st century learning environment and skills. They noted that it is somewhat arrogant of us to define these 21st century skills when they aren't even solidified yet. They are still developing and changing. This was the main idea of a presentation done by Dave Warlick. You can't really teach with the end in mind because we don't know what the end is yet. We are still holding on to our old mental models of teaching, and that's okay, except we need to suite them to these 21st century skills that we are supposed to be teaching. Project-based learning was a huge topic at this conference. Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach presented on project-based learning. This is an excellent way to actually teach kids something in a way that is conducive to being meaningful, as opposed to the drilling that goes along with standardized assessments. Everything now is so assessment driven that we don't make the information connect to a meaningful idea because we are too busy trying to get through all the material that is being assessed. This situation is extremely frustrating for teachers because we know that all kids are different: they have different personalities, different learning styles, different aptitudes and weaknesses, but they are all given the same standardized tests and all on the same time line. We are acknowledging their differences, but the government requires us to treat them all the same when it comes to standardized tests. Because our hands are basically tied, we have to find our own ways to actually teach in a meaningful way. The Tech Chicks mentioned that if teachers could create a brand new assessment system from scratch, there would be no timelines, and kids would be able to construct their own learning.

However, that's just not the way it is, and we would never be able to convince any higher powers to let us do that, so we just have to keep fighting the fight. It is maddening that teachers have to drop all these great activities and lessons because they're afraid they won't have enough time to get through the material being assessed. These exams are pretty much eliminating all authentic learning from schools, so kids don't really find legitimate reasons why they need to know what they're being taught. The whole idea here is authenticity: we need to make information relevant to kids in their own world, and project-based learning is one way to do this.

Our situation as teachers is similar to the story "Horton Hears a Who." If we keep shouting, eventually someone will hear us.

Animoto in my Classroom

Animoto is a great way to introduce students to slideshows other than the Powerpoint format. Because Animoto allows very little text, this would encourage students to learn more about the topic of their presentation since they can't just read off the slides (like Powerpoint). This goes both ways: the teacher can teach more about what's on the slideshow rather than the students just reading off of it. Also, this type of presentation addresses different learning styles than the traditional lecturing does. Visual and auditory learners will love presentations like this. 

Also, you can't deny that this type of presentation is just plain more fun and more interesting than a Powerpoint presentation. You can include music in the background, the way the pictures move around and change are visually interesting, and Animoto presentations will definitely grab students' attention better than Powerpoints. 

Animoto presentations could be used for just about anything. They can function as the main presenting material, or they can function as supplemental material. They can be fit to any topic and time period. They are fun, colorful, visually interesting, and easy to make. Teachers and students alike will love these presentations. 

Using Twitter as an Educator

I have to admit, when Twitter first came out, I thought it was one of the most insignificant, shallow things that could ever be invented. Up until a few weeks ago, when I was assigned to create a Twitter account and use it, I still held this belief. As time goes on, my heart softens toward Twitter, especially when I get on and see what all of my education and politics "followees" have to say. I still think that using Twitter for the purpose of informing all your followers that you just went to the bathroom or got a new pair of shoes is plain stupid, but I definitely see how it can be used for intelligent endeavors.

For one, it is useful for spreading news quickly. This is always good because we live in a fast-paced world; there is no time to wait on information to arrive. Also, you can include links to articles or resources so that there is no searching for a topic someone may have mentioned; the path is already there for you. If I were a teacher using Twitter, I would use this capability to link students to specific help website, websites with supplemental information, or just cool websites that have something to do with what we're doing in class. Also, if the students find websites or resources that could be helpful to others, they could tweet them and help other people. I think a cool way to maybe do extra credit or just have fun would be to tweet a question and have your students tweet back ideas or answers. This could be used in virtual classrooms, on snow days, or over the summer to keep in touch with students and to keep them from losing a lot of information they learned during school.

I've only listed a few ideas and thoughts about Twitter here, but there are tons of possible ways to use it in an educational setting, among educators, among teachers and students, or among students. Plus, kids will appreciate their teachers making them do something other than type a paper or fill out a work sheet. Supplemental activities don't have to be boring and old-fashioned.

CDK's Website

While exploring CDK’s Education Technology Place, I discovered a lot of helpful technological resources for teaching and for general use as well! I learned about her family, her educational philosophies, and education technology colleagues and others like her out there. The first link I explored was the KSU Catalyst link. The Catalyst provides resources, technology, creative and instructional support, technology training seminars, and many other things for education students to utilize; it also coordinates with the other technology labs and organizations on campus like ITS and iTAC. The next link I explored was the “100’s of Teaching Resources” link. There were literally hundreds of teaching resources that would be extremely easy to understand and use. Although we discussed the blogs you follow in class, I took the time to look at a few, read, and appreciate them. I found not only a lot of wisdom from experienced professionals, but also a bit of humor and satire. I enjoyed this very much and appreciate good humor, especially in the face of some of the ridiculous situations teachers face these days. Another link I explored was the “Celebrate Kansas Voices” link. This was a link to a website that is part of an initiative to preserve oral history (of Kansas, in this instance) through digital recording; I think this is a brilliant way to preserve the oldest form of historical archiving through one of today’s forms of historical archiving. The last link I explored was the “Creative Excuses for Not Using Technology” link. Here I found lots of excuses why people don’t want to put the effort into using the technology they have, and I think this is a clever way to convince those who aren’t so eager to make the most of their technological resources to change their minds. No good teacher should pass up the opportunity to teach their students or broaden their (technological) horizons. I am also glad to have access to other DED 318 students' websites, so I have an idea of what I will accomplish in this class. This is a very resource-rich website, and I am glad that I have this in my arsenal for use as a future teacher.  

Technology Bits Bytes & Nibbles

Technology Bits Bytes & Nibbles has so many resources and information it is a little overwhelming at first. You can search by blog CDK follows, you can search by tags, or you can search by keyword so you can get down to business if you’re looking for something specific, or you can browse and check out anything that looks interesting. Everything is also archived by the month it was added to the blog. The post at the top of the page when I happened to begin my investigation of the site was a short article about DonorsChoose.org. DonorsChoose.org is a website that matches anonymous donors to classroom supply requests usually from underprivileged schools. I appreciate the fact that this blog gives publicity to philanthropic sites such as Donors Choose, as well as keeps teachers on the cutting edge of classroom technology. I also love the little philosophical things here and there on the blog, such as the video from Jay McTighe. He discusses how he gained a newfound appreciation for young learners and encountering frustration and difficulty as he learned to surf at 57 years old. He said, “it’s a reminder, to all of us in a learning profession, what it’s like to try to learn something new.” I also find websites like these helpful because it makes technology not seem as daunting as it did before. As a future instrumental music teacher, I never thought I’d have to use much in the way of technology, other than audio recordings and the occasional YouTube video. However, with resources like this website, I’m sure I will find lots of things that will make teaching easier for me and learning easier for my students. Music has been taught the same way for hundreds of years, and it might just be time to freshen up the methods used in the band room.