OneNote Review

Being an organized teacher especially when you do not have a dedicated space is very challenging. Keeping track of concert dates, fieldtrips, appointments, lesson plans and many other important notes can be stressful. I have been using my iCal for a while now and I have synced all the reminders with all my devices but always wished for something that could do more than just reminders. Things like lesson plans, assignments, assessments and more. Well, that wish came true when I explored the OneNote for Teachers. Now teachers can do all that and more. You can save links, send online articles directly to it, link together lesson plans and homework and do other multiple tasks without having to switch back and forth to other apps. The feature I liked the most was the quick note. For instance you can add a concert date and send it to a multiple email list. I am pretty sure that there is a lot more to learn but it is definitely worthwhile the time. This will be an app that will keep me proactive for a while and I plan to use it during this coming school year mainly for lesson plans and reminders.

Week 7 - Productivity and Professional Development

This week’s reading focused on technological tools that assist teachers to be productive, and tools that help teachers to continue to be proactive with professional development. Two of the main topics that caught my attention are communication and professional development. I have found that communication on a regular basis is one of the most important aspects of teaching, especially between parents and teachers. Regular communication with parents has helped me achieve great teaching results and has helped me enjoy tremendous support from parents. Clear communication is an indicator of a high level of commitment. Until now, my communication has been mainly via email, because hard copies of concert reminders and other important information never make it home. For instance I communicate regularly with parents the night before instrumental classes and remind them to bring their instruments to school. This has helped increase student participation and band retention. In the past, I used to forget to remind them until I started using a free reminder website called http://www.memotome.com. However, emails sometimes can be tricky. According to Bauer (2014) teachers need to be careful with the frequency of emailing because sending frequent emails “can begin to be perceived as spam, with the recipient quickly deleting them without reading” (p. 170).

After reading Chapter 8, I was happy to see other technological suggestions that may help improve communication. For example I did not know until now that teachers can create professional closed groups on Facebook. I am looking forward to exploring the Facebook close group feature because it might be a great tool for reminders and also may be utilized as a discussion platform for topics students learn in class. Also, a website sounds like a great idea, but the problem with it is that it may take some time to design one because it will require a great deal of extensive planning for its content.

As for the professional development, this class has been a great example of a master class that helps teachers bring new ideas in the field and utilize them for better and more appealing teaching approaches. I have recently been talking to some of my colleagues that teach music production in my district, about new tools and new project ideas that I plan to use this coming year. They are very excited to hear more about my music technology class experience. I personally spend many of my teaching hours utilizing technology to teach instrumental music, music production and general music classes. This class has been a real treat for me because it has been relevant to my personal interests. It has helped me to discover other web-based collaborative ways that will help me sustain my professional development for years to come. Blogger, Twitter, Facebook, Feedly, Edmodo and Google+ are some of the excellent tools that will help me make share useful teaching information with other colleagues and other teachers around the world.

References

Bauer, W. I. (2014). Productivity and professional development. In Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and responding to music (p. 170). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Week 6 - Reflection

This week’s reading focused on music listening skills and how students respond to music. The opening of the chapter resonated with me strongly because the experience of Ms. Elizabeth is very similar to my first three years of general music teaching experience.

I have been teaching sixth, seventh and eighth general music classes for the last seven years. Although I have gotten better at teaching and classroom management, I still find those classes challenging for many of the same reasons mentioned in the book. The quality of education is often compromised due to misbehaved students who do not want to be there, making teaching and learning difficult. However, I have observed that all students, including those who show no interest in general music class tend to use iPods and iPhones in recess, homework centers and hallways. The use of these music technology tools is an indication that they love listening to music.  Perhaps students have not been engaged in my listening lessons because the lessons were taught as “formalized listening” (Bauer 2014, p. 108).

After reading this chapter I looked back for a minute and remembered that the music that I loved to listen to twenty years ago was much different than the music I listen to today. As I grew older, so did my listening skills, taste and musical expectations. Listening to music is a part of my practice routine. I listen to music carefully with an analytical ear. The problem with that though is that my ear became the barrier between students and myself. I cannot expect my students to listen to music that took me years to digest. According to Bauer (2014) listening to music with understanding and appreciation seems to be a result of prior experience with that particular style.

Chapter 5 is truly an eye opener. After reading it, I realized that I would have greatly benefited, had I read it before I started teaching those classes. It is a good reminder that listening, responding to music and appreciating it, takes time and patience because it has to do with intellectual growth and it is an “education of feelings” (Abeles, 2010, p. 53).  It is also important to remember that the students we teach today are digital natives and even simple discussions about music might become more engaging to them when incorporating appealing technology. The technology mentioned in Chapter 5 is worth mentioning because it might help increase student participation. To conclude, Blogs, WebQuests, Spotify, SoundCloud and other web-based tools mentioned in Chapter 5 are great suggestions and I am looking forward to use them in September.

References

            Bauer, W. I. (2014).  Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and          responding to music.  New York: Oxford University Press

Abeles, H. F.  (2010).  Philosophical perspectives of music education.  In H. Abeles and L. Custodero (Eds.), Critical Issues in Music Education: Contemporary Theory and Practice.  (p. 53).  Oxford:  Oxford University Press.

 

Week 5 - Reading Reflection

This week’s readings focused on assessment and curriculum design.  Assessment in music, both psychomotor (performance skill) and cognitive (knowledge) certainly resonates with me.  In the district where I work, the music department is always concerned with the importance of assessments, but not all teachers share the same practice or assessment tools. For instance, not all band teachers use SmartMusic, and even then, those using SmartMusic assess only the psychomotor skills, but never assess cognitive skills. These teachers appear more concerned with the performance outcomes (sound).

According to Bauer (2014), assessment serves as an indicator that shows if students are learning and if teachers are teaching effectively. In addition, Bauer points out that assessing music knowledge (cognitive) is a complicated process because “a cognitive understanding of something doesn’t necessarily translate to the ability to do that thing (of course the opposite is also true)” (p. 134).

When it comes to music learning, and especially the psychomotor aspect, technology has made assessment easier than ever before. The available technology focused on the development of performance skills can help teachers keep records of progress by actually keeping track of practice and individual recorded performances. In my fourth grade instrumental classes, I use SmartMusic and performance rubrics to regularly assess students.  In general, my students respond favorably to this program, and parents have indicated that students seem to practice more often since they have been using SmartMusic.  Many of my students volunteer to perform individually in the classroom, and don’t seem to feel the pressure that they are being evaluated.

Although this kind of technology has been helpful, it is not without limitations.  SmartMusic only assesses the psychomotor part of music learning. I find that when I use tests designed in Microsoft Word, these assessments seem to be unappealing to my students, who are digital natives. Google forms and Flubaroo.com provide great tools, but when using these, students may feel like they are taking just another standardized test. In order for the 21^st century music teachers to assess music students thoroughly, these teachers must have access to technology that is designed to assess cognitive understanding.  The technology must also be as engaging as the technology used for performance assessment.  For example, it would be helpful if a site existed that allowed teachers to pull interactive materials into a single assessment or game. 

To conclude, Chapter 6 is a great resource for instructional design and assessment, but I would have preferred more specific and attractive cognitive interactive assessment tools that match the level of sophistication of the technology used for assessing the psychomotor (performance skill) aspect of music.   

References

Bauer, W. I. (2014). A conceptual framework for technology - Assisted music learning. In Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and responding to music (p. 134). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.