140edu

I'm 1/4 of the way through the 140edu conference. A few observations:

1. There is a lot of mental firepower in the room.
2. The emphasis seems to be moving towards personalization of professional development. Something we do not have in many schools.
3. I would love to have the chance to work some of these people. No question that they take chances.

140edu

I'm at 140edu conference which seems to have every one who is in my twitter feed in one room. I'm pretty excited to see how well these folks present.

I'm also excited to have some food and try the pod51 hotel.

My favorite apps

Another list....

I am filling some time during some exam downtime (last day!) and I thought I would write a little about my favorite apps.  I admit I am not really looking for new apps these days.  So some of these are old.

Morris Lessmore:  Transformative app.  Mixes reading, animation, adventure.  Magical experience.
iMovie: So easy.  Film, edit, upload movies in minutes.
Garageband: I think I have used the Mac version maybe twice.  Use this constantly.
Color Uncovered: A great read.  Fun.
ShowYou: Great app that collects videos from all your sources.

On another note, do you think Microsoft can afford to wait until Christmas to unveil the Surface?  And if its a $1000 for a full Windows8 version what market are they going for?

Using Smartmusic for Final Exams

My final exam in band and choir is a solo piece (usually the regional audition piece), scales, and sightreading.  In the winter I always have the students perform for me live.  This spring I have tried to put the entire exam on smartmusic.
Some thoughts:
1.  I need to create my own exercises in Smartmusic.  The set ones do not always match my purposes. 
2. Perhaps I need to employ a checklist.  Too often students leave without clicking submit, or the microphone levels are too low.
3. Students get more nervous singing for me.  I think that might be a good thing. 
4. I like having the recordings if there is a grade dispute.  It is also nice to see the growth.

One of my missions for next year is to embed smartmusic assessments more fully in class.  AND to take the time for assessments out of class.  Students will need to schedule times for assessments.  It was fairly easy in my small classes to schedule time, but in classess of 30 it became quite difficult.

I see how smartmusic on the iPad would be a challenge (huge files) but I wish we could get the exercises on it.  Just the sightreading or the scales would be really cool.

Lesson Plan: Arranging/Composing on the iPad with Garageband

We are finishing up music theory class and I am taking "great songs" and breaking them down a bit.

I wrote out the theme/ostinato for Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor for the class. We practiced playing the theme.  We listened to the entire piece, using the iPad to play the ostinato along with the recording.

Today we took the theme and I asked them to recompose the melody over an 8 bar blues structure.  First I played them an example that I put together.

The students then took garageband and made 8 bar versions.  We had some students plug their guitars in the iPad, some do multi-track recording on the piano, and some use the set patterns embedded in the program.  We had some really good versions.

I like this assignment because they have to connect listening with performing and with composing.  I am seeing big progress in their work.  I think they are starting to get it.

Using the iPad in the music class

I have been a little slow lately.  I feel I am underutilizing the equipment.  Here are some of the ways we have used the iPads lately:

1. Used Garageband to play the ostinato from Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor along with recording in music theory class.
2. Created iMovie trailers using our new iPad2s.
3. Choir used iPads to listen to different versions from youTube of the 24 Italian Songs.
4. Played Dustbuster in Choir.
5. Played chords from "I'm Yours" using Six Strings.

iAlchemy reflections

Our iAlchemy performance took kids who weren't performing in our band or choir (in general) and had them perform on iPads as full members of the orchestra.

From their reflections.

Write about the experience.  What did you learn?  Give specifics and details.

This experience really opened my eyes to the real professionals that are out there. Until that night I never realized how much work and time these people put in. I wasn't sure of how I would feel about the symphony orchestra because it was something that I had never experienced before, but now I would love to go again. I learned that even all of the preparation in the world still can't fully prepare you for things that go wrong, but I also learned that when things do go wrong, you can't stop. You have to push through and make the show enjoyable for the crowd regardless of what happens, and I think we accomplished that. I also learned that pushing yourself pays off. In the beginning this seemed like an impossible task to reach and achieve, but we did it, and I am so proud of that. We put in countless hours of practice for this to try and maximize perfection, which gave us a little taste of what the WSO musicians do every day. I am so thankful for this opportunity because it allowed us to have a professional experience in a real world event, one that marked the start of something new, we werent doing a mock performance in a high school setting, we were in the action, making the difference by showing that students such as ourselves were capable of succeeding in a professional setting.

I thought this was an amazing experience. I was never into classical music, but after seeing the symphony play I was amazed. It was a life changing experience. I had no idea it was possible to make such ear soothing music with all of those instruments. When I first found out about this project I thought it was really stupid and I wasn't looking forward to it at all. After this experience I am so glad we did this. It honestly made me appreciate this genre of music so much more. Everyone of the musicians at this event were extremely talented. This event made me understand the dedication these musicians have. I am honored I was able to participate in this event