How Technology Has Changed My Teaching Abilities

This course in its entirety has really given me insight into the world of teaching today. This day and age, new technologies are popping up left and right and it is our job as teachers to stay updated with them. I have talked to several veteran teachers who say, "Oh I do not use that program" or, "I don't keep an updated website because I am not tech-savvy." They are good teachers, but it is still necessary to learn what is being used in today's classroom.

Before this class, I was capable of taking photos and editing in iPhoto, fairly good with Microsoft Excel, Word, and PowerPoint, but that was really the extent of it. I now know how to create interactive lesson plans using flip chart. I now know how to create projects and teach lessons using slideshows, digital stories and brainstorming with storyboards and diagrams. I now know the importance of organization of files, photos and folders. I know how to import, export and save files through different means.

These new technologies will benefit my teaching style in any classroom I end up in whether it is general music or an orchestral ensemble. I am sure I will actively use an updated website to keep all my students and their parents informed of class information. We live in the new age, why not take advantage of all the opportunities in communication and learning through technology!

Digital Story

Using iMovie is one part of technology I have definitely not utilized being a Mac owner. I have used iPhoto and have edited many pictures, but the closest thing I have made to a movie is powerpoint. 

Working on the Digital Storyboard was a lot simpler than I thought it would be. It is basically a slideshow with added captions and transitions put to music.

I am happy it did not involve any acting! I had a little trouble with making sure my pictures were the precise size for the slide so they did not come out blurry and too zoomed in/out.  The transitions were simple and I chose to use them sparingly after only the slides with text only (no picture). The text looked a lot larger on my computer screen at home when making the video than it did appear on YouTube, but I adjusted so it is still clearly readable. I like the most of tools on iMovie as it was simple add/delete and move the slides around.

I should probably spend a little more time being creative with this program. I enjoyed making a "how-to" video, however it wasn't as exciting as I thought it could be. I am not sure I would use this type of program for a lesson plan, but maybe to showcase student's work or showing pictures from our classe's concerts and festivals .

Digital Diagram

Prior to learning about digital diagrams, I had seen and utilized diagrams but not through this program. I believe the diagrams I have seen utilized for classes were constructed simply in Microsoft word or PowerPoint. These programs do not have a multitude of graphic, text and resource options.

The program we used for this project, which will be reviewed below is very simple to navigate and create graphics for lesson plans.

Before actually creating our diagram on the software "Inspiration," we created our story board, basically serving as a draft on paper to what we were going to create for our lesson plan. Like I said above, most of the diagrams I have seen were very simple and didn't virtually "tell a story" like I am capable of creating with Inspiration. My lesson for the 4th grade music class was titles "Classical Composes" and I was able to create simple facts and add notes in the bubbles so that the diagram was not overly busy. I was able to change colors for each sub-topic to make for easy navigating if the students were observing form their seats. In addition, you can essentially type in any name or word, and the graphic resources will search for animated pictures to add to the diagram. Kids love pictures! These really added to my diagram. I used small graphics for each sub-topic like a bright purple "?" for the "fun fact" and a treble clef symbol for "musical works." For each composer I included a picture by their name.

These diagrams would be a fast, simple, way to enhance lesson activities. Although it is not interactive, it is much more interesting than handing out a worksheet or reading from a textbook.

Interactive White Boards

I have definitely improved with navigating the ActivInspire software. It was confusing to learn all the controls only because there are so many to use! I am continually working on using pull tabs, containers, charts, etc. By the time I am in my own music classroom, I hope to be able to fully utilize all the resources, templates, and features on the Promethean board.

I am thoroughly enjoying creating my own flip chart for a lesson plan. Music is such a fun topic to utilize the resources on the IWB.  I was first confused with the actions while creating the flip chart, ie. being in "author mode," "design mode," or "presentation." But once I got the hang of the container feature, it was really easy to match music symbols to the vocabulary terms. I know that when I am more comfortable with using the software, I will be able to create interactive and fun activities for the students.

Whether it is teaching students about music history (composers, musical eras, etc.), or music theory, there will be resources I can use that will benefit my students learning by ACTIVELY engaging. Students can virtually place music notes on the staff (on the IWB) or match dynamics to sound tools or videos. In addition, ActivInspire is a wonderful resource because of how simple it is to share flip charts. It is import friendly and there is "Send as email"access. I think I will have to be careful with overusing interactive white boards in the future!

IWB

Let me start with saying that Interactive White Boards are exactly what they are entitled. However, before my experience with IWB,  I knew of such things like SmartBoard but was not familiar in the least. There was no such thing when I was in grade school. The article about about IWB gave me insight to what is going on in today's classrooms with technology.

I was shocked to see the percentages in test scores and success rates of the interactive white board. This is GREAT news because not only are they becoming readily available, they are so fun for the students. The stats obviously showed that picture and sound engaged the students and participation was much greater. Unfortunately, as I read, some teachers still aren't familiar with the IWB even if they have the privilege of having them in their own classrooms! This is unfortunate as it could be a part of weekly lesson plans for teachers to encourage student participation and a constructive approach in the classroom. If teachers know what they are doing and make their lesson plans fun and engaging, students will WANT to learn which has proven to improve test scores.

The IWB like I mentioned before is very interactive, exactly what it is called. I have been simply amazed with the interaction I have had in the past few classes with just seeing the activities and commands on my computer screen! Once I can fully understand how to utilize and navigate the system, I will undoubtedly use this technology in my music classroom. Students can draw musical notes on the staff, insert music vocab terms to match symbols and respond to listening sample through the system. This can incorporate half if not more of the National Standards for Music Education. How cool! I can't wait to get started and create my own flipchart.

Classroom Website

This was my first experience constructing a website. Although I use social media including Facebook, Twitter, etc., I hadn't constructed a .com page with different links and information.

I enjoyed designing my own page layout with a simple template for parents and students to navigate. I used bright colors for a welcoming feel but made sure it was not too busy as that can be overwhelming. My home page lets my readers know they can click any of the links to find information about my music class and the link to contact me. Constructing the various pages on our class websites wasn't too time consuming and I would recommend anyone to construct a website whether you are a teacher or own a business. Google sites is free! Uploading the PowerPoint and Picasa Album was so simple. The site makes it easy for me to show what tech projects we have worked on in TPTE class. One thing to be aware of is copyright issues. I had to make sure the border image I used for my website was off a site (not Google images)that allowed me to freely use the image.

Classroom websites are very beneficial to teachers. Not only is it fun for students to sign on the internet and see their projects they have completed, but the parents can access it to also see what is happening in class and know what their children are learning about. In addition, parents can see what materials are needed for class and use outside resource links to help their child learn. Many teachers have webpages through schools, but some are not utilized. Although my website is for a general music classroom, I could just as easily have one for an orchestra class where I could post a year calendar with outside of school rehearsal dates, festivals and concerts. It keeps the parents well informed without always having to send letters home (that may never get to them!)I have taken the advantage to make another google site for my personal violin studio. The html now is on my business cards so people have access to all information about myself, lessons, and gig services I offer. Thanks Google Sites! 

https://sites.google.com/site/kabalenviolinstudio/

Digital Photos_ Scavenger Hunt, Picasa and Presentations

Although I love photography whether it is of my family, pets, friends, etc., I had never really had to re-size images from MB to KB and use them in Picasa. In addition, I rarely ever make specific folders for all my pictures which is why my laptop is so disorganized!

In this lesson, our special area (music) divided into two groups to set out on a scavenger hunt and collect photos to match our clues. Although our group took the longest time (after traveling across the street!) we successfully took photos in the iPad and transferred them using Dropbox. A lot of technological resources were used in this activity. After splitting up the photos via Dropbox, each person in our group edited specified photos by re-sizing them and saving them into a specific folder "Scavenger Hunt: Music". This of course was much easier because we had previously done the activity of finding our own images on the web through picsforlearning.com and re-sizing and saving into a folder. I am happy to know how to properly re-size images without distorting them.
Lastly, the most enjoyable part of our process, was the finished product of our slideshow presentations. These were saved through Google Drive (that saves documents automatically!) and then inserted on our webpage. Once you have done it once, it becomes easy to use. 

 You can see the slideshows on my class website here: 
 https://sites.google.com/site/mskabalensmusicclass/materials



This project would be very fun and insightful for a high school humanities course for students to collect photos of artwork from different time periods and such. I think it would be too much ot handle for younger students, however, this is a great teaching tool! Teachers can create slideshows to present in class, OR, teachers can post pictures of students artwork on the class webpage so that parents can see.

Collecting Resources

In this activity, the class basically divided into specialized area groups of education (music, elementary ed, high school English, etc) and collected resources (websites) to utilize in the future. I had never done this before and had only been to a couple sites for music regarding educational tools, games and such.

I enjoyed the activity to see the variety of music sites available for educators, students, performers, and parents. However, the music group had quite a bit of overlapping of websites probably because of our specialized area. One issue I found about completing the resources on the Wiki page was the "steal lock" key because everyone was trying to edit pages at the same time. This proved to be quite problematic. However, introducing the activity, I did think Google Drive was a neat source because it saves your document through your account without having to manually save it.

These sites are very beneficial for music teachers and students. There were resources for six different areas of Educators/Index, Musicology, Music Theory, Music Games, Symphony Orchestra, and WebQuests. My music students could access the Wiki page and click on a link to complete musical activities or research.

Web Inquiry

I really enjoyed the inquiry based activity. Every time I keep using Wiki it gets easier and easier. Through the mineral activity we did in class with our partner, I learned to transfer documents from word easily onto the Wiki pages. This activity was much less teacher-director and I think young students would really enjoy this in the classroom. Not only was it an interesting activity for us, it is another learning tool to utilize in the classroom that is enjoyable and beneficial for students. Because they are not simply reading from text books like almost all their classes, they are using higher order thinking to navigate and find the necessary information from the website. 

I actually learned a lot from this activity. When I was in grade school, there was not much chance do do web-based learning activities. We were rarely on the internet browsing useful websites to find information. The website I used for "String Instruments of the Orchestra" (grade 4) was visually appealing and fairly easy to navigate. The students would read about instrument families and answer the corresponding questions. The website also included sound samples so that they could listen to each instrument to have an idea of how each one was different from the other.

The web based inquiry could easily be utilized in the classroom, especially these days with iPads and such being provided in classrooms. It would be be a fun individual or group activity that familiarizes students with web technology. I could see myself doing a "composer of the month", or "musical eras" with the wiki pages. I would ask members of the class to come up and present on the Smart Board so they each would have a turn. I think this activity is ideal for grades 3 through 8 for music students. Sometimes I had issues re-sizing some objects in my word document so that it would look proportioned on the Wiki page, but that is only because I had shapes added to a part of my last question. For the most part, I think students would feel comfortable, and they could always ask for my help. I am not sure yet what types of subjects I would use for high school music students, but I will keep brainstorming! 

Website Evaluation: Musictheory.net

This website was very user-friendly and included clear links to lessons, exercises and tools. Although the visuals are not colorful and exciting like some younger-based music websites, it was thorough and easy to follow. I found the lessons helpful and each one corresponded with the activities provided.

This website would be a useful tool for middle or high school students to use, and even to be evaluated on. If students have computer access, they can complete "activities" after learning lessons in class, and print out the page that their score is displayed on for the teacher to formally assess with a given grade.

Musichtheory.net is up to technology standards. It even offers a mobile device application for iPhones, as well as the iPad that teachers and students can use on the go. I could practice analyzing chords while waiting for a doctor's appointment! The website of course has social technology access to Twitter and Facebook.

The only thing I was disappointed with was the credibility of the author. I love that he gave his name, however we do not know his credibility or his musical background!

All about Wikis

The first and only thing I knew about "wiki" was Wikipedia. This became a very popular tool to me in my early college years, 2008-2009. Although teachers at first were not so keen on the idea of Wikipedia, I soon found out that it offered anything and everything you would want to know on a topic including its sources for the information to utilize for even further research. Wiki pages however are a little different and I did not know anything about them until this technology course.

The Wiki page is a great communicative classroom tool to introduce to students. Our technology class used it basically as an ice-breaker to introduce ourselves to the class, write a bio and post a picture of ourselves. Each student has their own page and there is a "front page" for the entire class. It is fairly simple to navigate, and you can learn about your classmates and their interests simply by clicking on their name located on the front (home) page. Each student is capable of editing pages to share or update information.

This wiki page may be tricky for younger students to use, but I can see how it can be used in middle and high school classrooms. I think the page gives students a sense of responsibility and ownership because they have their own page in school rather than a Facebook or Twitter. Students can still insert pictures and share what they are learning and their progress in the classroom. This could also be used for after-school programs or band and orchestra programs in schools. Because my speciality is music. my students could have their own page to show their practice progress or I could assign project presentations such as composers of the month or musical terminology.

My thoughts thus far

I am very excited for this class (TPTE) to be underway. Although I am fairly proficient in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and other technological tools,  I am not so savvy with new-age computer technology advancements. Through the first couple of classes I have already discovered file sharing that doesn't require a disk or outside source, but is simply in the "clouds". In addition I have created websites and discovered new ways to communicate through group discussion board and pages that aren't social media tools such as Twitter or Facebook.

Being proficient with these new technologies will allow me to communicate and collaborate with my student's parents and different organizations. It will allow parents to know exactly what is going on with their children as if they were in school with them! In addition, it will be great to commincate with other teachers in my school if they are using the same tehcnologies to share and create new ideas together. I am eager to see how these tools will assist me in making my teaching career progressive and successful.