Money Arrives

I received the grant notification about one month ago and today I received the check. One of the challenging parts of this grant is that I have not been able to order anything until the check arrived and students will be here in a week. I so wanted to have things ready. Hopefully everything will process quickly downtown.

I found Frasier Speirs and I have been following what he is doing. He is launching 115 iPads this fall. He is way ahead of us at this point but I am learning a lot from reading his triumphs and mistakes.

MiFi has intrigued me but I am wondering about cost and filtering issues. I think it would be helpful to be truly mobile.

Dance: Where are the boys?

So I have been watching 50's sing-dance movies (7Brides, etc..). Like many of us I come from a family of musicians/performers. My grandmother taught dance in the 40's and 50's. EVERYONE took her dance class. Boys and girls. This was social/ballroom dance.

We don't do that anymore. Boys almost never take dance.

In fact, boys are maybe 30-40% at best of our music programs. 15-20% of our theater programs. There are obvious exceptions.

Is this something that needs to change? If so, it starts at ages 3-4 with those creative movement classes. It fits into so many areas (obesity, arts, school readiness, etc...).

Anyone have research, grants, ideas?

WCSU Meeting and Ordering

Today I went to Western CT State University to meet with an old friend, Dan Goble. We worked together a lot when I was at Derby High School. It was a productive early meeting and we threw around some ideas of how we could work together. We had these initial ideas:

• Students will visit WCSU for a day and explore offerings.
• Use SHS as a lab for iPad apps and discussions for grad students.
• Use WCSU faculty and students as a sounding board for technology ideas.

I have also started the first round of ordering:

• 15 iPads ordered. No discount for schools.... $20 discount for volume.
• I ordered a storage/charging cart from Spectrum. By far the cheapest. Hope it works.
• Sound system and TV display, probably from Soundtree. I definitely prefer them, but waiting to see how many quotes I need. I've gotten two quotes that didn't beat their price. I trust them.

Budget

I hope to order some things today.

I am over budget. Perhaps I am trying to do too much. I have been hoping for an iPad discount or additional district funds. Neither seem likely.

I think I may have to let go of the recording studio set-up for now. I'm fighting the $1450 for an iPad charging cart, but I don't really see any other option.

Week 2 of iPad grant

A few notes from the week:

1. I have gotten a lot of advice on the Music PLN. This will be very helpful, especially as we start loading applications.
2. I spoke with the Apple rep. There is only a $20 discount for schools if we buy 10 at a time. Not too impressed with that.
3. I head to WCSU on Wednesday to meet with them about our partnership and this grant.
4. I hope to get quotes finalized this week for a sound system, TV, and recording studio computer.

iPad in Music Class

I received a notice today that we received a grant from the Katherine Matthies Foundation. This grant will do the following:

• Outfit a music theory class with iPads and applications. These are new music students.
• Establish and promote a relationship with Western CT State University for mentoring, composition instruction, and other aspects.

I have no other equipment so we also use this grant to purchase sound and mixing equipment and display technology.

I am hoping to use the twitter and blogging world to collaborate with me. I have started a forum on the MPLN network. I hope to blog about the activity here. We will share video and we will tell you what works and what doesnt.

So, help me out:

1. Equipment? What do I need?

2. Data? What should I measure?

3. Apps? What works?

Wendell Logan

Wendell Logan has died. I spent four years at Oberlin in the jazz ensemble. My first year Donald Byrd was there as Wendell was on leave. I spent three years with Wendell, the last two as his assistant and composition student.

It is possible that nobody has ever been more "real" than Wendell. He told it like it is.

He won a football scholarship to FAMU and wrote their marching shows each week. That still amazes me.

He would absolutely ravage me in our sessions. "What else you got?" was a phrase I heard often. Yet, he championed me at the same time. I was the only student who had their music played by the group while I was there. That made a huge impression on me.

He will be missed.