Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Hip-Hop
I am starting a Hip-Hop class in the Spring. This is basically set up to be a music appreciation class with some dance/art/literature thrown in. If anyone has syllabus, assignments, ideas, etc...please send them on. I really don't want to reinvent the wheel.
Thursday, August 2, 2012
140edu Reflection
I have returned from the 140edu conference in New York City. This conference is led by Jeff Pulver who is generous to make it happen for $1.40 per educator.
Some reflections:
1. Everyone is on twitter. This is becoming the default position. There was little talk about facebook or google+.
2. It was really nice to meet f2f some of my internet colleagues including Dean Shareski, Steve Dembo, and Chris Lehmann.
3. There is a sense of moving from talk to action. Stop talking about sites being blocked and do something about it. We need to tell our stories better.
4. It is really nice and powerful to be in the room with these people.
5. Everyone has an iPad or laptop open during the talks.
6. Paradigms in different schools are VERY different. Some schools are very closed off, some are very open and innovative.
7. I like the one room, ten minute per talk concept.
Some questions:
1. Teach for America (Im an alum) works hard to support moving alumni to be board members, legislators, administrators, etc... Does the edutwitter space have an effective/similar way to get people in positions of power?
2. Is twitter effective for this change?
3. How can we do this in our schools?
Bear with me, having trouble writing lately (stroke issues...).
Some reflections:
1. Everyone is on twitter. This is becoming the default position. There was little talk about facebook or google+.
2. It was really nice to meet f2f some of my internet colleagues including Dean Shareski, Steve Dembo, and Chris Lehmann.
3. There is a sense of moving from talk to action. Stop talking about sites being blocked and do something about it. We need to tell our stories better.
4. It is really nice and powerful to be in the room with these people.
5. Everyone has an iPad or laptop open during the talks.
6. Paradigms in different schools are VERY different. Some schools are very closed off, some are very open and innovative.
7. I like the one room, ten minute per talk concept.
Some questions:
1. Teach for America (Im an alum) works hard to support moving alumni to be board members, legislators, administrators, etc... Does the edutwitter space have an effective/similar way to get people in positions of power?
2. Is twitter effective for this change?
3. How can we do this in our schools?
Bear with me, having trouble writing lately (stroke issues...).
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
140edu notes
How to share with peop,e that aren't connected?
Eric sheninger. Being connected has saved me a substantial amount of time. Information is waiting for me, the network does the work.
Education can be a lonely place for innovators.
Makes the world a smaller place.
Tom Whitby. Collaboration is changing. helps to decide what's good and what real.
Jenn Swanson. I'm unconvinced that we are communicating any better. Majority of students have not considered how they communicate. How to answer the phone, how to take a message. Social smarts. People who succeed in life can play well with others.
Adam bellow. School, sucks the love out of learning.
Find video for this.
Brian Marnix. Must establish trust in the classroom. Give real input to students. Teacher must surrender all that makes you comfortable.
Dean shareski. The opportunity for deep learning wasn't there. Isolation. Blogging allowed deep reflection with trusted colleagues. Lesson planning and blogging should become tangled up-Dan Meyer. As educators we get caught up in finished product. We aren't magicians. We need to do a better job of explaining our craft. I've yet to hear anyone frame the word accountability in positive terms, distrust is an expensive vice.
If we create cultures of trust accountability is built in. Sometimes we forget about teacher inquiry. Only obligation should be sharing. We have an obligation to extend that beyond local. Where do you make time for deep reflection? How do leaders honors teacher sense of responsibility?
Eric sheninger. Anywhere anytime learning. We've all been a part of bad professional developement. Like herding cattle. Everyone in same direction learning same thing. Or herding cats, we don't really know what we are doing. Being forced to learn what other haven determined is important. What about what I feel has value?
Money drives professional development. Time is one of the biggest excuses for not getting better. Summer provides one of the best times for learning. Why do some instructions rely on one size fits all that puts us to sleep?
Have to have passion for professional development. I have wthe ability to learn what I want when I want. Professional development powered by you. The way we do that is through social media. What about differentiated learning for educators?
We should be modeling life long learning through our social networks. Information flow becomes two way.
Eric sheninger. Being connected has saved me a substantial amount of time. Information is waiting for me, the network does the work.
Education can be a lonely place for innovators.
Makes the world a smaller place.
Tom Whitby. Collaboration is changing. helps to decide what's good and what real.
Jenn Swanson. I'm unconvinced that we are communicating any better. Majority of students have not considered how they communicate. How to answer the phone, how to take a message. Social smarts. People who succeed in life can play well with others.
Adam bellow. School, sucks the love out of learning.
Find video for this.
Brian Marnix. Must establish trust in the classroom. Give real input to students. Teacher must surrender all that makes you comfortable.
Dean shareski. The opportunity for deep learning wasn't there. Isolation. Blogging allowed deep reflection with trusted colleagues. Lesson planning and blogging should become tangled up-Dan Meyer. As educators we get caught up in finished product. We aren't magicians. We need to do a better job of explaining our craft. I've yet to hear anyone frame the word accountability in positive terms, distrust is an expensive vice.
If we create cultures of trust accountability is built in. Sometimes we forget about teacher inquiry. Only obligation should be sharing. We have an obligation to extend that beyond local. Where do you make time for deep reflection? How do leaders honors teacher sense of responsibility?
Eric sheninger. Anywhere anytime learning. We've all been a part of bad professional developement. Like herding cattle. Everyone in same direction learning same thing. Or herding cats, we don't really know what we are doing. Being forced to learn what other haven determined is important. What about what I feel has value?
Money drives professional development. Time is one of the biggest excuses for not getting better. Summer provides one of the best times for learning. Why do some instructions rely on one size fits all that puts us to sleep?
Have to have passion for professional development. I have wthe ability to learn what I want when I want. Professional development powered by you. The way we do that is through social media. What about differentiated learning for educators?
We should be modeling life long learning through our social networks. Information flow becomes two way.
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.
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.
I'm also excited to have some food and try the pod51 hotel.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
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?
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?
Monday, June 11, 2012
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.
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.
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