Thing 23

Well, I have seen the light, and yes...a middle aged dog can learn new tricks! I have learned a lot on this journey of technological discovery. Most important, I think, is that I don't fear new technology anymore. Most of it is now developed in such a way that it is ridiculously user-friendly and it would be a waste to not delve deeper into all of the resources that are available. I've always been a fan of not "reinventing the wheel" but haven't had the means to narrow the search for finding and borrowing other people's ideas. Now I do. I feel confident that I will be able to incorporate much of what I have learned into my teaching: from great lesson ideas to developing and maintaining a classroom blog. I look forward to being able to spend a good chunk of time browsing through all of the new tools that are available this summer; especially when I know it will save me so much more time in the future.

Thank you for offering this course, and for organizing it in such a way as to be informative, interesting, non-threatening, useful, and relevant. I learned more from this course and the short video tutorials than I have in 20 years of in-services and professional development.

Thing 22

What a great tool! When I saw what this was all about in thing 21, I couldn't wait to jump right in. This is going to be one of the coolest collaborative tools I've ever worked with. This will be so much better to use than sharing a google document when it comes to brainstorming ideas, creating itineraries, developing lessons - and to meet my immediate needs. We are currently developing a marching show between a music writer, drill writer, 2 directors, and color guard, brass, woodwind, and marching instructors. In addition, we are working on the show concept, prop design, and costuming as well as our instructional itineraries. This will be an amazing collaborative tool and I have already gotten started. I can see applications for using the links as well, as our project grows and we need to separate ideas on different pages.

My team teaching partner and I are constantly trying to collaborate online and this will be BY FAR the thing that I use the most from this course. Thank you!

My wiki is at:
http://chargercamp.wikispaces.com/Band+Camp+2011

We have just begun to brainstorm ideas and have only invited one other instructor so far, but will be adding the rest of the team shortly. I showed this to my team teacher this morning and he is as fired up about it as I am!

Thing 21

This is exciting! We are constantly trying to collaborate with multiple instructors for our marching season and our emails get jammed, just like in the little video. What a great tool this will be for us! I did a quick search and found 21centuryteched which looks like something that I will dig into more deeply. I will definitely forward it to my tech people in the middle school where I teach and our building principal. They are always forwarding new sites and great tools and this will likely be very useful to them. In the meantime, I am jumping right into thing 22 to get started on a wiki of our own!

Thing 20

I had a really hard time with downloading itunes at work. I tried several times and finally figured that this was the one thing that I couldn't do there. While I have access to youtube and everything else that I've learned in this program so far, I could not access the itunes store. Once I grabbed an hour to do this at home, it was a piece of cake. Itunes is very easy to use, but again I found that the amount of choices available were vast. I spent a lot of time wandering about until I finally hit on a really neat music educators podcast called musicteachers911. I have to admit, I first surfed for other things that interested me, but I was getting disappointed when I couldn't really find anything great. Once I regained my focus and got back on task it was easy. I preferred using keywords in the search bar and then browsing through the icon list. I plan to spend a good amount of time searching for something that I am truly interested in subscribing to, but in the meantime I feel that I have learned enough to move on to the next thing.

Thing 19

I spent some time looking at a couple of podcasts (http://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/ and http://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,1607,7-140-37818_45256---,00.html) but didn't see anything there that I would choose to subscribe to. I am looking forward to "Thing 20" where I will learn about a better way to search for interesting and useful podcasts, as I believe that learning to use this tool would be a good way to get exposure to new information and techniques, as well as finding podcasts that appeal to my other personal interests. I'm not sure yet how I could incorporate this into my classroom for student use, but I do understand that it could potentially make me a better educator.

Thing 18

I've been searching for a site that had presentations already made to use in my classes, and it looks like this could be it. I was hoping to find more material though, and found that I had to spend a lot of time and try a lot of different searches before finding something that I could really use. I'm hoping that more will soon be uploaded that better meets my needs and I plan to spend some time this summer cruising the site to see what else is there. We've used power points in our class before and have found that it is a great way to engage students when we are directing our attention to different individuals throughout the course of the hour. It's great to keep a presentation rolling so that every student has the opportunity to check out the supplemental material at some point during the class period. It's also a great way to introduce new information that we normally might not be able to get to.

Clarinet Power Point

View more presentations from srexroat

Thing 17

I would like to spend more time exploring this to find something that is really useful to me. I checked out the "Remember the milk" tool and will see if it is something that I might really use. I would also consider using the 30 boxes calendar tool if I could get my husband on board with using it. Maybe then we'd finally be on the same page with who was taking kid #1 to hockey and kid #2 to baseball!

Thing 16

I am a regular user of Google docs. I love the availability of accessing my work from any computer, and I love that I can share living documents with colleagues. My only negative comment would be that I wish it had document and spreadsheet programs that were more similar to Word. I find that it doesn't have enough of the "details" that I like to use ie: specific fonts, data sorting, etc. I also sometimes have trouble viewing things that I have uploaded, but overall, it's great to "go to the cloud".

Thing 15

Believe it or not, I actually have been checking in with my Google Reader account fairly regularly and have already cleaned it up. It isn't as valuable to me from an educational standpoint as it is from a personal one, but I do see the potential that is there. I have found that technology on the web has become so user-friendly that it's ridiculous to not use it. I have also recently found out that my building principal is planning on having our entire staff take this course, and amazingly, I already feel that I will be comfortable enough to help walk our staff members through the process. That is a really, really good feeling!

Thing 14

Delicious!

I admit it. I used to fear all social sites and technology in general, but it turns out that you really can teach a middle aged dog new tricks. Yes, my kids still have an easier time experimenting with all things computer, but I'm getting the hang of it and every step forward sheds a little more light.

Delicious is a great resource and a good way to access your bookmarks from any computer. I love that I can search through other educator's bookmarks to save myself time. Now I just need to find the time to go through all of these great new websites...

Thing 13

Social bookmarking and tagging are nothing at all like what I expected. The only previous references I've heard regarding tagging were the children's game and facebook photos. Now I can see that there is a valid and very useful educational purpose to it. I have spent hours searching web sites for materials that would be useful in my teaching - occasionally stumbling upon something worthwhile enough to keep up the search. Understanding tagging, and using it as part of a music education community will not only save me time, but will also open up enormous potential for finding new materials and techniques. The biggest disadvantages that I see are in making sure that I use the appropriate tag words to and the fact that it's public.

Thing 12

So here I am, on thing 12. I have been surprised so far at the ease of using all of this technology; it certainly is geared towards being user-friendly. As with most experiments so far, I found that embedding code is easy. The hard part is finding the time to surf through all of the available stuff and finding something you want to use. At this point, I've decided to spend less time searching and sifting in order to focus on learning how to use it and get it on my blog. I figure I can always come back later when there's more time to really dig in.

I don't Twitter or use Facebook, so this whole online community thing is new to me. I especially have a hard time leaving comments and trying to make my blog sound interesting. ;-D While I believe that there is enormous potential for collaboration in the online world, I also think that there is a danger in kids using social networking sites. There are too many predators and too much freedom in the anonymity of it all. Cyber-bullying is the new weapon of choice.

Thing 11

This "thing" probably should have been easy, but for me it was not. I don't really like commenting on other peoples' work unless I am asked for my opinion and even then it makes me uncomfortable. And, thanks to this "thing", I will now be even more paranoid in my own blogging, waiting to see if 1) anyone is reading it and 2) if anyone feels the same way!

As with all technology, commenting and social networking can be used for good or evil...dependent completely upon the writer. It's an amazing tool for idea sharing and for getting a feel for what others think, but the author has to be willing to put their work "out there", and then be ready to hear the feedback.

Thing 10

Check out this cool computer animated music machine!



Again, I found this thing to be a lot easier than I expected. Technology is becoming so user-friendly that even a veteran teacher can figure out how to use it without too great an effort. I can see posting interesting finds like this video on a blog for my students, but there are also a ton of instructional videos and performances available. I can also see giving out extra credit for kids who forward cool things for me to post.

Thing 9

YOU TUBE ROCKS!

Yes, we've already used it in our classroom. You definitely have to preview what you use, but there is such a VAST amount of resources available there. They have everything from musical performances to instructional videos to presentation resources, and in a format that kids love to watch. I use it often for myself as well, especially when searching for new composers, artists, and songs. This is an excellent medium for musicians and the applications are plenty.

I lost time and ended up surfing there for a loooooong while today. I checked out a bunch of videos for my class, but ended up leaving my comment on a post from Justin Unger - a new Christian artist. Some of his uploads showed what it was like to be in the recording studio, and I think that even that would make for something amazing for my students to see.

Thing 8

Once again, I found that both Image Generator and Big Huge Labs was easy to use. I made a calendar with Big Huge Labs, but the heading here was done with Image Generator. http://www.txt2pic.com/logo-maker/?allow=102306480&text=Musicians+Rock%21&texture=blobbed_green&texture2=&color=darkslategray&fontsize=40&font=Joy&moveh=&movew=&cartoon= I also spent some time playing around with mosaics of composers and instruments.

I imagine one possible application for my class would be to have my students make posters/flyers that advertise upcoming concerts. I would use the calendar application if I could figure out how to add events on the dates instead of just adding the photo. I'll have to play around with it some more to get around it well.

Thing 7

Uploading to Flickr was really easy. I usually use Snapfish to store my photos, but can see how the sharing application of Flickr would be more beneficial to the classroom setting. I envision using this site to share trip photos or photos taken throughout the year with only our band families. I could also see how kids could use this site if they were preparing a research project. Potential problems would include making sure that only our families had access to the students' pictures and also making sure that kids didn't use copyrighted materials in their presentations.

Thing 6

This was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I was confused at first with all of the code that showed up instead of the photo when I tried to upload, but I figured it out quickly enough. I made the mistake of jumping right in before completely reading the instructions and was frustrated by the number of cool photos that were copyright protected. That advanced search feature certainly is a time-saver!
I like that you can choose who sees the photos that are uploaded. This would be a great way to share photos of a trip (such as our recent HS trip to Orlando) without worrying about predators and other creepy people seeing your students.
By the way...I chose this photo because it is my main instrument and because it reflects the beauty of the instrument as well as the art of music.

Thing 5

I used technorati to search for a blog that I wanted to read. I found a ton, but limited myself to just a few, and plan to search for more as time allows. I find that it is very easy to subscribe to a blog and to manage them in my reader. I think the harder thing for me will be to make time to find new blogs and to make time to read them all. Luckily, many blogs are short and to the point.

Thing 4

I am finally beginning to feel like this technology thing is do-able. I can follow my building principal, and am seeing some great ways to utilize this in my classroom! I found that it was pretty easy to subscribe to a blog using any of the methods. It seems that the hardest thing to do is find the blogs that you want to keep track of.

Thing 3

I found that there are an overwhelming number of blogs out there! Some were cool...others not so much. I did however, see a few great ways to use a blog for my classroom. I think that I would be able to start a blog right away that has my basic handouts, upcoming events, and maybe important reminders. I am particularly interested to see if I can utilize the download-able audacity recorder. I would LOVE to find a way for my students to record themselves and send it to me. What an interesting way to occasionally assess without taking class time! I would also like to learn more about adding links. There are some great instructional videos out there, as well as some really innovative videos of musical performances.

Things 1 and 2

I am a newbie in the vast new world of technology. Sure, I can text and email with the best of them, make a power point, and surf the web - I can even "go to the cloud" - but how can I make this all relevant to teaching my students? This is what I hope to gain from this "class".

Instrumental music is unique...students are constantly hands-on and the teacher is always making informal assessments and adjusting instruction "on-the-fly". We pretty much always have a handle on our students' individual progress because we can hear how they're doing every day. We are all active participants who create on a daily basis, so we're already accustomed to being both consumers and producers. How then, can I use all of these incredibly cool technological tools to engage my students even more? How can I take advantage of the skills they already possess to make better use of the time that I have with them? If they are master multiple-taskers, then I need to do a better job of tapping into that so they can be completely engaged the entire hour. I do not choose to be "The Teacher Who Fears Change", but I also want to be sure that I am not adding technology for technology's sake. It must be intentional and meaningful. I hope that this "class" will lead me toward the best ways to do this for my students.