EVEN More Presentation Notes

Last day of presentations...

Jess M. - Bullying in the Classroom

You seem like you have to think of every move. You would pause in a speech to walk. And then pause in a speech to change a slide. And then pause a walk to speak. Try to be more fluent. I would take your story, which is great to include, and try to be more professional with it. Also, there should be one slide for each bullet. You talked a lot on each point and had great comments, but I was busy reading. Use a big font and more pictures. Good Presentation overall

Katrina F. - Social media in Music Education

Very relaxed. I felt like we were having a conversation which was fantastic. #MusEdChat is a great PLN you slid in there! Face forward silly. You are comfortable with your presentation and you have it in front of you on your phone. You sound and look super comfortable, but we are sitting to your right. Showing not only how we can use it in our own classroom, but also how national organizations apply these are fantastic. I really appreciated this presentation. Great Job.

Scott M. - Making Music History Fun

Very comfortable. Very funny. Good mix of eye contact, reference to the board, and looking at phone. You can laugh when your funny. We all did. Try to enjoy your presentation just as much as your audience. Sorry I don't have many notes. I was thoroughly entertained. Good Job.

Constance - Erhu

The slides themselves were perfectly related to your topic. I think the erhu is a great instrument to introduce to students at any age. Not necessarily to play, but just to recognize that there are other instruments form around the world. Great use of videos to show how the instrument works. And the audio behind each slide really let the audience get the unique sound in their ear. Great job.

Jen G. - World Music Drumming

I would make notes smaller. You are very open and receptive to your audience and a full sheet of paper creates that barrier. Incorporating tolerance was a great point. "Community into classroom". Very well prepared and clearly enjoy the topic. An interested speaker translates to an interested audience. I would be careful with putting SO much information into 5 minutes. I feel like I learned so much, but I missed so much too. Good video to represent both adults in the program and examples of uses. Overall, fantastic job. 

More Presentation Notes

More Notes on Everyones Presentations...

Audrey - "Why is music Education important?"
Great use of slides, the pictures clearly conveyed what you were speaking about.  I would put the quote on a slide, just to maintain focus on the presentation, because you had to read it (perfectly acceptable).  You covered ALOT in a SHORT period of time. I would slow down, or pick the most important. I think If you had more time this would be perfectly in depth. You hit every important point I could think of and more.

Gabe- "Music Education and the community"
Great topic, contains more than you may think. Trust yourself that you know what is next. When you were reading you seemed stressed, and used the word umm a lot. When you embellished on your own, you had much more fluency in the presentation, which was nice. As it went on, you seemed to figure it out. School, Town, Professional. Great points about the central office. You had a really comfortable feeling in front of the class, which transferred into your audience. Yay Gabe.

Adam-"Drum Corps"
Nice, funny beginning. DCI and WGI. Very Interesting Topic. I did not know much about Drum Corps, and I feel like I know enough now to talk about it. The extreme discipline is insanity. Demonstrating things like snakes and drills helped us "non band" folks understand. I don't have many notes because I watched more of your presentation. Which is Good.

Becky- "Braille Music"
This topic just blew my mind. Valved, Vocal, Piano, Percussion. Technically, Any Instrument. You could definitely look up more. You know what you are talking about, just go with it. I'm glad you focused on equality for all. I would've liked some numbers on teachers who know this and schools that use this. Great overall presentation.

Tessa- "Suzuki Method"
I'm glad you are teaching from experience. I think the best advocate is one who has been involved. The theory of Mother Tongue sparked my interest. I wish you would've went more in depth on that. Overall great, in depth presentation. Sorry I don't have more notes. I've been interested in Suzuki for years and wanted to pay attention.

Jamie- "Kodaly"
Nice research. You can tell you studied up on your topic. Lighten up, it's a music presentation. You know music. Relax and be comfortable. Definitely had room for more slides per each section. Think of each topics as a paragraph in a larger essay. They should relate, but each is it's own entity and deserves the attention of such. Nice ending to sum it up.

Kristen- "Online Music Education'
You are so well prepared. The presentation itself was great, but your knowledge and memory of it was fantastic. The fact that you had notecards but didn't use them is fantastic. Again, not many notes because I was thoroughly invested in the presentation. This presentation just supports everything we do in this class. Great presentation, especially to give to Music Education students who aren't as fortunate as us and don't take this class. Great Job.

PLN: Video Grabber

PLN: Video Grabber

So this website is a little sketchy but it is so useful. Video Grabber is aside that will pull the video file from a website. Websites like youtube hold fantastic videos for the classroom. Classroom can use performances, recordings and even "lesson helpers". While on youtube though, you can see the ads and comments, which aren't always appropriate. Youtube should never be brought up in the classroom. Video grabber takes just the video and saves it to your computer as a file. This can then be shared in any way. Recently, I used it to insert a movie into a keynote. Without this site, it is very hard to embed in anything that isn't still on the internet. Reinstating something said earlier, this isn't the nicest website around, but it gets the job done. A job which few other websites will do.

VideoGrabber

Something interesting...

This is a really short article that I think everyone should read...

Basically, there is a bill out right now asking to extend class time in schools in 5 states, including Conneticut and New York. I disagree so much. Kids will not learn better from the amount of class, it all depends on the quality of the class. I think this is a horrible idea.

Time Extensions on Class

Presentation Notes

Notes on everyone's presentations 

Becki- "Bullies are bad"
Yay.

Alex- "Pop music vs. Classical in the Classroom"
It doesn't have to be memorized. Just go with the flow. Instead of stressing, just think of what you have to say. What you WANT to say. You got into that sense of comfortability around the 4th or 5th slide. Also, you need an ending to grab the attention of the audience. A great ending can make a presentation all the more memorable.

Ben- "Why music shouldn't be cut"
Good topic. SUPER useful. Touching story about 9/11. Heavy, but touching. Music vs. GenEds is always a great way to promote music. Funny and entertaining. "Astrology was the study of the external. Music is the study of the internal."

Papa-"Improvisation in the classroom"
These are great ways to show how to incorporate improv. into the classroom but I wish there was more of why it is important. Great use of NAFME in both your comparison to the standards and to their "recommendations" for improvisation. Creating the need and want for soloing in students is a huge part of this, I would focus on that more. Great job and GREAT topic.

Rob- "Uke in the Classroom"
Great Beginning. Very attention-grabbing. OOKOOHLAYLAY. I forgot to take notes for the rest of it because I was entertained... haha. That's a great thing though. Awesome presentation, not only in it's content, but in the presenting itself. My own recommendation is loosen up. When you get into teacher mode you tense up. Knowing you as a person and seeing the slides on their own, you should take that energy you constantly have and let it show through your body and voice.

Bec- "Pop Music in the Classroom"
Very well rehearsed. You seemed very comfortable and happy to be in front of the class. I would focus a little more on the evolution of Classical to Popular and how that should be a focus. OOKOOHLAYLAYs again. Using Hooktheroy and showing "Back and Marroon 5's similarities" pulled this whole presentation together in my opinion. It really demonstrated your theory.

PLN:Wordle

PLN: Wordle

Sometimes children need ways to brainstorm that aren't just just  a class dicuassion. One really useful way is a word cloud. Wordle creates simple word clouds in the design of your choice after you put in your "words". This is great for class collaboration projects as well as thinking after lessons and summarizing. Wordle is a fantastic application and website for any age grade. I highly recommend just playing around with it before class to find all of it's hidden features. Wordle is a great free classroom tool.

PLN : Chromatik

PLN: Chromatik

With such an emphasis on apple products, the first question someone asks when confronted with technology is, "Is there an App for that?" Earlier in the week I was introduced to Chromatik online. It is an app that allows a teach to communicate with the student via apple products. You can send music privately and securely, as well as make markings on the music while the students have it. Your annotations will be sent to their music. Teachers can attach audios of other performances to let the students familiarize themselves with the music as well. Another important part is that it introduces the flipped classroom to music. You can watch lessons on your apple device, as well as send teachers your practice sessions. I think this is hard to incorporate in public schools, seeing as though many students do not have apple devices. In a private classroom, or for private lessons, this tool could be amazing. It offer the child more ways to practice rather than just alone in a room occasionally. I think Chromatik will be talked much more in the future, as education continues to integrate technology into the classroom.

Chromatik | A True Musician's Platform. from Chromatik on Vimeo.

PLN: MBNBD

PLN : Make Beats Not Beat Downs

I am always tentative to support a foundation without fully researching it. This week, our assignment is to pick any Music Education topic and make a Keynote presentation on it. The topic I picked was Bullying in the classroom and what teachers, specifically music teachers, can do to prevent and overcome. 1 in 5 children and consistenty bullied in schools, with little to no intervention by teachers or parents. I came upon the site “Make Beats Not Beat Downs” when searching for Keynote research. Basically, the goal of the site is to decrease bullying through the use of music. The website is surprisingly through, including a synopsis of the foundation along with it’s history and major goals. It also gives you ways to “join the cause”, such as starting a club in a school, or fundraising with t-shirt selling. I am a huge advocate for this cause and think other teachers or teacher-hopefuls should look into it as well. MBNBD is a great example of how music teachers can influence and aid children in need.

PLN: Stumble upon

PLN: Stumble-upon

Stumble upon is an odd website. It is basically a website roulette. You type in what your interests are and click stumble. It brings you to random website that pertains to your "likes". It could be a ame, or an image, or a quote, or a store, or anything really.Once on the site, if you like it, you click the thumbs up on the Stumbleupon bar at the top of the screen. The more thumbs up you give, the more Stumbleupon sees what you like and gives you more websites that you would personally enjoy. Once "thumbs up'ed", the website gets saved on your profile to be viewed again at any time. This can be used for musicians every where. When you set up an account, you put your interests as music and anything music related. You will be supplied with hundreds of websites that involve music. Since there are so many websites, not all of them are great, but most are very interesting. I use this site when I'm bored, just to get new ideas, both in music and in general. This could help you discovered many new PLNs, which can then be passed on. Used in the right context, this site can be surprisingly helpful in expanding your PLN.

Noteflight in Use

Choral Warm-up for intermediate students

This warm-up can teach a variety of lessons. The syllables sung are do mi fa sol and ti. This can teach pitch in general, but they also create the tonic and dominant chords. It is also written in 6/8, which could aid in coating a piece later on in the class. As almost every warm-up does, this piece also create chords to let the teach help the class tune together.



Warm-up Sheet music


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PLN: You-Tube

PLN: You-Tube

While this one seems quite obvious, there is much to be said about You-tube. In my high school, it was blocked, so students did not waste class time watching irrelevant videos during class time. Now that I think about it though, there are many benefits to using You-tube in the classroom. If you are performing a piece, you can look up recordings and even videos of high level orchestras that have performed it. This gives student she ability to listen to expensive, professional orchestras without the cost and hassle of a field trip. Also, you can have student's parents upload videos from concerts. This can be an opportunity for reflection and possibly even celebration. The children can watch and hear themselves play in a performance setting and either listen for "things they can do better" or be proud of the final product they have produced. There are also many videos of things rarely done that are interesting to musicians. There is a video of a man beatboxing while playing flute to inspector gadget, or the videos of the Acapella group Pentatonix, who take modern songs and sing them sans instruments, or even the countless videos of 4 year olds playing the mozart concerto on violin you've been studying for your senior recital. These videos, while genuinely enjoyable also pose new questions and experiences to students which might make them more interested. While You-tube is still a place where "Charlie Bit Me" can become a global phenomenon, it also can provide children with musical resources outside of their limits.

RR: Midi

Reading Reaction: Mauricio and Oppenheimer

This article began to explain the difference between a Midi and Digital Audio. Basically, it said Midi is better to create non-authentic tracks. You can easily transpose and change the instrumentation. Midis also take up about the third of the room of digital audio. I though the article was very interesting but I'm still baffled at when to use which one. Personally, I don't like the sound of non-authentic music, so I feel like I would never choose Midi. This article made it seem like Midi is so much better. This article answered many question, but it didn't go much in depth at all.

PLN: Noteflight

PLN: Noteflight

Note flight is a compostitional tool on the internet. It is virtually free (allowing you to make 10 scores under one email without charge). For $49.99 you can buy the program, which allows you to do little more than change the color of pieces on the score and make more than ten pieces. This is such a fantastic tool because it does the same as finale and sibelius, but doesn't cost $300. I used note flight this week to arrange a piece for my acapella group. It was so easy to use and extremely convenient in its set up. In the classroom, this can come in handy in so many ways. From arranging songs and cannons and warm-ups, you can always use sheet music in class. The ability to make your own is so helpful. This is the most useful tool we've had so far.

PLN: Soundpainting

PLN: Soundpainting

            Soundpainting is an unique tool. It is basically just the improvisational layering of sounds and instruments with little to no form. It is purely creative and expressive. The reason I think this is a great educational tool is because it can be used at any age level. It is just as easily done with preschoolers as it is in a college lesson. Another major plus of this form of creation is the broad spectrum it enables to create. Soundpainting has been demonstrated in special needs classrooms around the world. It is truly an all encompassing musical tool. It is the easiest way, in my opinion, to begin to introduce or expand upon Bloom's higher level thinking, like create. Hopefully, I will be able to try this or even to take a class on it in the future in order to fully understand it. I have attached the URL which does a much better job explaining than I do, but also shows links and different performance clips. The website is very informative and I've been exploring it for days now. I hope it sparks more minds than just my own.

"I envision Soundpainting as a viable methodology for improvisation and composition within public school and private school-venues, K-12. Soundpainting gives music educators an alternate tool for composition and improvisation, one different form traditional jazz and technology-based methods."
                                                Dr.Jody Kerchner, Department of Music Education
                                                                                                 Oberlin Conservatory

http://www.soundpainting.com/

PLN: CPDL

PLN: CPDL

The CPDL is the Choral Public Domain Library. It is hundreds of thousands of songs that have either outdated their copyright or never had one. These songs are amazingly useful tools, because you do not need to buy the rights and such. Great educational uses could be for sight-singing or practicing harmony in all ages. This is a way to save money effectively, and still have valuable resources. The only negative is that the material isn't of the highest quality. They wouldn't be able to use for performance settings, but as previously mentioned, they work great for a classroom lesson setting.

Choral "Wiki"

Just For Fun

A video version of what garageband basically does

... without the crashing and burning in the end. That's just because it's Beaker.

PLN : Garageband

PLN : Garageband

Garageband is the best addition to my PLN thus-far. It is a multi-track recording tool, meaning it "records many tracks" and overlaps them, allowing you to create and arrange your own music. In the classroom, this tool is incredible. It can be used to record music for the background of story-telling, as demonstrated, or to cut a full song to a version that they would be preforming. It both enhances the already established classroom techniques, and leads the way for easier resources. 

Applications

Google form : 1

Here is my first google form. It is a simple solfeg test (with bonus question)

Solfeg Test

PLN : Google Docs

PLN: Google Docs

Unlike my post on Google in general, my Google Docs (Google Drive) post comes with a warning. This is amazingly useful for creating all types of useful forms. From online assessments to printable quizzes, this is a great tool for all types of educators. Starting to make the document is as easy as pushing a giant red button, literally. From there, it is easy to configure and finish the document. In my opinion, it is hard to sure and edit the document, but I am still inexperienced at it. Hopefully in time I will become an expert at it.

RR : Bauer and Bauer

Reading Reaction : Bauer and Bauer

I was very surprised to hear that "most music educators are not making an extensive use of technology." In my opinion, advancing technology, when used correctly, makes music easier to both teach and learn. Teachers now have aids they can use, which weren't available to them before. Students, tied to technology more now than ever, can benefit by having further means of communication with other musicians, more at home help, and a more exciting way to learn in general. If more teachers actually invested time into examining their own PLN and use of all three sections of TPACK, technology, pedagogy and content, I think the musical classroom could be improved vastly.

Same with the other Bauer reading. As a teacher, a PLN can be a great way to help yourself be a teacher and your students to be better learners. Your PLN let's you connect with other teachers and create an easy way to see what resources they have, some of which might help you. If studying through PLNs could help teachers, they could help students too. Instead of just giving a child resources in school, now they can have them out of school too, by following their teachers PLN.

While technology will never be the predominant method of etching music, it can definitely be a helpful guide. As we progress with technology, I believe we should progress with technology in our education programs.

PLN: Diigo

PLN : Diigo

Diigo is a "social bookmarking site" used to remember and post websites publicly. I, so far, have used it to organize my resources which were currently all over my computer. My resources include blogs, websites, and wiki accounts based on, or having to do with, Music Education. In the future, I hope to also use this tool to connect to other music educators, and view the resources they find helpful. Diigo is an amazing tool, which has added so much to my PLN.

PLN blogger

PLN : Blogger

This is my first blog about my "Personal Learning Network". So while I have had a google account for years, I simply only used it for Gmail. I am now a part of Blogger and finding it so useful. It is so easy to control and manipulate, and even easier for others to see your ideas and thoughts. Blogger allows me to communicate with my classmates and music educators from all over. It provides an easy way to stay connected which is amazingly useful in the education profession. In my opinion, this was "one small step for my blog, and one Giant leap for my PLN."