Final Exam

I made it! I have had a great time working through this course. I am still very much a techno-newbie and realize that I've merely seen the tip of the iceberg. However, I've been encouraged to just try things out and believe that that's the best way to learn.

My husband and I recently canceled our Mac website subscription...just too expensive and we weren't taking full advantage of it. Blogging makes more sense, is free, and we can both do it (he was the website manager). We haven't set up a family blog, yet, but I full intend on doing so as soon as summer rolls around.

I think the RSS and Google Reader assignments were the most frustrating to me. I have a really hard time keeping up with and sifting through all of the information. Felt like an e-mail inbox that was totally out of control. I do see the benefits and will continue to feed and read my reader.

Thoroughly enjoyed looking over the Cool Tools...I had NO idea there were so many options out there. Good thing I don't have much time to sit around on the computer...if I did, I WOULD!

I love having the Delicious account. I was at a string teachers' conference in late March and slipped into a session on technology in the music classroom. Well, first of all, I was really proud of myself for being familiar with most of the tools that the presenter was presenting. (I realized that there are many people much further behind!) At the end of the session, he gave us his Delicious link to all of his tags. WOW! What a find! I almost feel like I'm cheating since he did all the work. But he offered... Fabulous tool.

I'm proud of my class wiki and look forward to seeing what the kids will contribute.

My goal from here is to keep up! I don't want to inundate my students with technology...as I mentioned in a previous post, my students like being unplugged and offline. They're "on" in nearly all of their academic classes. However, I see that there are many opportunities to "ease" some 2.0 into orchestra classes. I'll move forward with the wiki, blogging, especially for recording and posting performances for critique.

I've enjoyed this class! The pace and workload is very doable. I especially like all of examples you provide (existing blogs, wikis, etc.). It's very helpful to see how colleagues are implementing.

Thank you for this opportunity!
Elizabeth

Task 12- Sharing what I've learned

I've shared my wiki with music colleagues and we have started brainstorming how we can take advantage of this tool together. Each of us could have a separate page on the same wiki...we can collaborate and the students can collaborate across divisions. Neat! We think it will be especially helpful with cross-curricular projects...something we've considered but never set in motion because it's hard to get everyone together. Not so anymore.

I taught my husband (a fellow music teacher) and other about RSS feeds and Delicious. He thought the latter was especially interesting. No more sifting through endless bookmarks on our home computer.

I'll be sharing more at our last music faculty meeting coming up soon...

Task 11- Implement a tool

I have recently set up a wiki for my 8th Grade and Upper School Orchestras. I've posted YouTube videos of concerts on which the students are commenting. It's been a slow start, but I think they're starting to get a hang of it. Interestingly, when I first set up the site and was excited to tell them that we were going to implement some technology, the response I got was "Mrs. Lamback, this was the only class we didn't have to open our laptop. We liked that!" Hmmm...got me thinking that sometimes it's good to unplug!

I also created flashcards on Quizlet (link on the wiki) for the kids to prepare for an upcoming music term quiz. I'll know by next Monday if the students really took advantage of the tool!

Task 10- Cool Tools

I found a couple of tools on the list to be particularly interesting...could be pretty useful:

Gliffy - concept mapping; might be neat to use as we work on our music curriculum mapping at HI.

Mnemograph (now called TimeGlider) - create neat music history time line...

The others didn't really jump out at me.

HOWEVER, I did come across Last.fm. Very cool! Free internet radio and online catalogue. Last.fm can recommend music based on your likes/dislikes and also gives concert listings in the area. Check out Yo-Yo Ma on last.fm. You can read his bio, look at photos and videos, etc. I think this would be a great tool for my music students.

Task 9- Delicious account

Task 9 completed. Here's a link. The more I get used to it, the more I like it. Thanks, Joanne, for helping me out!!

Task 8- Setting up wiki

I set up my page on the Pi20 Wiki Sandbox. It's pretty boring right now...but I'll keep working on it.

Thing 8- Wiki Stretch

I plugged in "violin" on Wikipedia and found a very detailed article including history, how the instrument is played, construction and mechanics famous violinists, etc. There's a huge list of "Contents" and a lot of links to other related articles.

The main points of discussion are whether a fiddle is a violin, if the bass is part of the violin family, tuning, etc. No interesting controversy! One contributor was interested in raising the article to "Good Article" status. I'll find out what that means...

Task 7- Wikis

I looked over a number of the listed wikis and saw a lot of neat examples. I particularly like seeing student contributions (some wikis seemed like more of a class website with announcements, homework assignments, etc. from the teacher).

The literature class wiki includes detailed instructions on how students should discussed specifically assigned quotes. Students are to add their discussion in page order and comment on another students' thoughts. Very neat!

The AP Environmental Science wiki was also very easy to navigate. Interesting links were added, along with a calendar and News Feeds. Students were involved in editing the site.

I particularly enjoyed the elementary class wikis. How impressive that the students can participate so early on! 5th grade wiki project, Turn Homeward Hannalee is really great. Included are chapter summaries (contributed by students, I assume), visuals (idiom interpretations), "Reader's Theater" (students read segments of story) and other links. It is so well organized and contains some fabulous material.

I'm planning to set up a wiki for students to discuss listening assignments and concerts. I originally thought a good old blog would be the place to do that, but it appears that the wiki might allow us to do more. My honors students have a research element to their grade and it would be neat to see how they collaborate. I wonder if students can compose music together...

Task 5- Feeding my reader

I've found a lot of interesting items for my reader. As mentioned earlier, NPR is well represented...Fun & Games, Music Interviews, Driveway Moments, and StoryCorps. I've found some friends' blogs to add, too.

Professionally speaking, I've added a MENC link (Music Educators National Conference) as well as FL-ASTA (FL America String Teachers Association). I hope that GMEA and ASTA will have links to add, soon.

It really is convenient to have all new information in one place. My eyes are getting used to scanning the material...though I'm still finding it a little overwhelming. Next project is to organize my reader.

Task 6- Cool Tools

Skype- I have been using iChat for while now and I'm pretty happy with that...not interested in changing. My experience with Skype is limited to what I catch on Oprah every once in a while. She's really into it. Impressive endorsement!

Quizlet and Flashcard Friends- As a student, I was always making flashcards and coming up with study tools. I would have been addicted to these sites if they had been around then! I will play around with making music theory flashcards and study guides. Interesting. Audio in Flashcard Friends could be used in ear training.

30Boxes and Ta-Da List- I'll stick with my paper To-Do list. I get a lot of satisfaction out of drawing that line through a completed item!

Another tool that I'm committed to learning more about is SmartMusic software. This is a practice, grading, teaching tool for instrumental and vocal music classes. It looks very interesting. I've avoided it because it has to be downloaded (for a fee) onto student computers. But I think it would be worth the effort and money.

Task 4- RSS feeds

I set up my Google Reader and had a great time adding various feeds. Most are from National Public Radio...

I am a NPR addict. This is the only radio station I listen to (well, except for a little Dave Ramsey every once in a while). My children seem pretty content with it, so far, just like I was growing up. In fact, hearing the theme music for "All Things Considered" makes me very nostalgic. That music conjures up a very comfortable feeling...sitting in the back seat of my mom's Volvo wagon, relaxing (maybe dozing) after a long school day, snack in hand, on my way to a piano or violin lesson. We were probably running late...

One of my favorite programs, now, is NPR's StoryCorps. I love it so much that the theme music can even get me misty-eyed! It's a wonderful short segment, contributed by listeners, of "regular" people interviewing other "regular" people. The stories are beautiful.

Link attempt #2

Let's try this again. Here are the blogs that I particularly liked:

http://spmath816.blogspot.com

http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?p=133

There! That looks much better!

Task 3- Blog relective

Interesting blogs listed on the syllabus. They are, in general, very easy to read...conversational, sort of like a journal or an e-mail back-and-forth. I get a little distracted by all of the "stuff" on the front page of many blogs. They are very busy looking...I'll make sure to clean mine up!

I particularly like the "Scribe posts" in http://spmath816.blogspot.com/ (Math 816). (Is that how I'm supposed to create a link?) I can envision my students taking turns discussing a listening assignment or evaluating the day's rehearsal.

Commenting is important to the blog because it creates conversation. How neat to bounce idea off of each other! Enjoyed http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?p=133 (Why I Don't Assign HW)...especially the comments.

Very cool! How many posts before I can call myself a blogger?!

Task 2- My first post!

I'm excited to have this opportunity to dig into Web 2.0. I've always been a little intimidated by technology, and, because my classes (MS/US Orchestras) can run quite smoothly without it, I haven't really jumped in with both feet. But now I'm ready! I am eager to be exposed to different possibilities...and look forward to incorporating into my classes. Above all, I really want to keep up with my students!

On a different note, a little about me:

I've been at HIES for seven years, joining the faculty right after completing my MME at FSU (BM from Furman). I am married to Mark, a fellow music teacher, who is the choral director at Heritage HS in Conyers. We have two precious little ones: Katherine, 2.5 years, and Samuel 10 months. They keep me very busy, but I'm convinced that working outside the home keeps me sane!

Looking forward to "meeting" everyone through your blogs!