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.