First Blogging Experiences!

I have always wanted to invest time into following, reading, and writing blogs but did not know where to really begin. I would find topics that interest me but never follow through or get tired of the subject. During this class I have discovered how easy and fun it is to follow and write blogs! The Google Reader site has really helped me with this in putting on my blogs in one place so I can follow updates easier. I know once it is discontinued this summer I will definitely moving my blogs over to a new aggregator and continuing my blogs.

In addition to Cool Cat Teacher Blog, Will Richardson's Blog, Larry Ferlazzo Websites of the Day, Free Technology for Teachers, and A Media Specialist's Guide to the Internet blogs, I followed Music Matters Blog, and A Principal's Reflection. I decided to follow the two additional blogs because I am currently teaching band and I am aspiring to be an administrator. These two subjects are very important to me because they have and will continue to shape my career as an educator.

A Principal's Reflection has been great to read as I am working on my Master's Degree in Instructional Leadership. Mr. Sheninger discuses topics on education reform in his state and across the country, technology for leaders and teachers, and daily management of being a principal. I have never believed in using twitter as a tool or following others but after reading his blog I have plans to sign up for my own professional twitter account to integrate next year! Mr. Sheninger's professional web site, Eric Sheninger, has a plethora of information on using social media and technology in the schools. Here is an interview of Eric Sheninger about his change into utilizing social media and technology in his school!

Music Matters Blog has been my favorite to follow and read! It has been a wealth of information from music technology, compositions, recordings, games, instructional ideas, and much more. I have been able to find instructional ideas for my classroom to apply to teaching certain lessons in music. There is a section on Ideas for Parents that has great information for parents who want to help their child develop into a great musician. The section provides a view from the parents so music educators can get a better understanding of what non-musical parents are thinking. The Technology Tips section is great for discovering new music technologies for teaching or how to creatively use old ones. The Music Matters Blog is definitely one I will continue to follow and reference in the future when I continue my own blog!

My favorite blog post so far has been from Week 5 - Instructional Software. There are so many great programs out for teaching music that I love to share it with everyone, even those not so musically inclined. It's amazing what can be done with the use of technology and the internet. I was presenting the technology software SmartMusic that I discussed during my Week 5 blog posts to my principal and she loves it! She is a music major herself and never knew this kind of technology was available. She wants to come up with the funding to pilot the software with one grade level to see how effective it will be for all grade levels. I even used my blog post in part of my presentation to her so she could see my enthusiasm for SmartMusic!

Reading, following, and writing these blogs have given me some awesome ideas for school year next year. One of the areas I need to work on as an educator is communication with parents. I often do not have time to send an e-mail or make a phone call to inform parents of what is going on in the classroom rather it be assignments, behavior, or progress of the student. I want to utilize social media, blogs, school web site, and a new podcast series next year to keep parents better informed! It has gotten me very excited to get started on my new ideas this summer to implement in the fall!

Jordan

Mobile Apps for the Classroom

Music has multiple apps that can be applied to the classroom! Most of these apps I will present are integrated into my daily lessons. The apps are a big help when it comes to classroom organization and teaching tools.

The first app I use mostly with beginning band students who are first learning music but will use it to teach more advanced concepts for upper level band students. The app $1.99 and is called Theory Lessons which is based off the website Musictheory.net that I discussed in Week 5 blog. The iPhone or iPad can be hooked up to a projector or TV to be used in a classroom. When I introduce music theory in my beginning band classes, I use this app to teach staff, clefs, notes, rhythms, etc. before actually playing their instrument. The app can be found at the Apple Apps Store by clicking the link below. There is also a link to a video that gives a short demonstration of the app.

Theory Lessons App

Theory Lessons App Demo

The next app I want to share is called NoteWorks. It is a note recognition game for students first learning their notes on the staff. The game can be customized by extending the range and adding accidentals to the notes. The app can also select different key signatures when the student advances into more difficult music. This is a great tool in helping students with recognizing notes quickly without having to write the note name below each note which most band directors beg for students not to do!

Another great app I use for the classroom or teaching private lessons is called Make Music Inbox which is free! I shared the Smart Music software in Week 5 blog which is an interactive music program that can help students practice at home, grade their performance, and send results to teacher via secure server. Make Music Inbox allows a music educator to access the grades from the iPad, review recordings with students during class or lessons, and type in comments for the students to view later. This is such an awesome support tool for the Smart Music music software they can be utilized anywhere!

The last app I want to share is called Fingering for iPad. This app is great to use for students or the band director to look up the correct fingerings for notes on an instrument. The app allows one to select the instrument, then note on the staff, and it will show you the correct fingering on an instrument chart. The instrument chart looks like the actual instrument so it makes it easier for beginning students to see which keys or valves they need to press. Awesome tool for during class or at home practicing!

It is difficult to find quality apps for music education because the app store is saturated by music applications. There is everything from guitar apps, piano apps, metronome apps, drum apps, etc. that the great music education apps get mixed in the pile. I like the Music Matters Blog because it covers some really great apps that apply to the music classroom. The Sight Reader app is featured and reviewed on one of the blog posts. Sight Reader is an awesome app for helping students practice their sight reading on their instrument. It can be used in private lessons or in class. Another great tool for helping teach music students!

There are many great apps out there for music education and they continue to get better! I am looking forward to exploring what new developers and educators have to offer!

Jordan

Instructional Software

Instructional software can be a great tool to reinforce concepts or even teach a lesson in the classroom. There are thousands upon thousands of educational software available to teachers to apply to their classroom instruction. There are a couple of software programs I will discuss that can be used in a music classroom.

The website Music Theory.net utilizes tutorial lessons for teaching music theory then follows up with drill and practice exercises for the student. A student can follow the lesson then practiced what they learned in the exercise sections. The exercise sections can be customized to fit the student needs. Once the exercise is complete the student can print a progress report for the teacher! The exercises can be used to score students on their knowledge of music theory. Here is a tutorial video below that walks through a couple of sections of the web site.

Another great drill and practice software program is Musition 4. This software provides music students with several music theory lessons. Here is a tutorial video on the music software.

Smart Music is an awesome tool for the instrumental classroom! The music software is an excellent integrated practice tool for students that can be used at home, in the classroom, or during private lessons. I currently use Smart Music to administer playing tests and chart student practice records. This has been a huge help to parents who do not know much about music. They can visually see note mistakes students make at home to help play the correct notes. Students use it to practice in the practice rooms as well to work on a specific section of music he or she may be having trouble with in the music Smart Music definitely makes practicing more fun for students!

Reading through the Music Matters Blog I found a post briefly talking about a free software program that comes from the same company as Smart Music called Make Music. The name of the program is called Finale Notepad which is a smaller, free version of Finale. I use this program in class so students can compose their own music. Students can hear what the music sounds like as they write it to make any corrections they may need. Then the file can be e-mailed or loaded by jump drive to my computer to be graded or played for the class! Here is an example of Finale Notepad.

These are just a few examples of music software that is available for music educators or students to utilize in the classroom or at home. I use most of these software tools weekly as part of my instruction. These software programs have really proven to be a dynamic help in increasing the level of musicianship within my band program!

iPad in the Music Classroom

The iPad is one of my favorite tools to use in the classroom when it comes to technology! There are so many apps for education, especially with music, that the options for integration into the classroom are endless. In my middle school band classroom I can use my iPad as a metronome, recording device for audio and video, playback recordings, show sheet music, play music, music theory apps, and much more.

The music classroom has many options when it comes to apps to use for the classroom. Music Tech for Teachers presents an app called PracticeMusic for the iPad or iPhone that can be used to track practice sessions at home. Students can record their practice sessions and upload them to the web site. Teachers can then hear what the students are practicing and critique them in class. This is huge because now many of us rely on practice logs signed by parents who may not know if the student is effectively practicing or not. The teacher and the student can listen to the recording in an after school lesson to review what needs improvement.

One of my favorite lessons with the iPad is using the music notation app Notion. The iPad is projected up on the 32' flat screen in my room (don't be too jealous, it's my personal TV I provided for myself) with the Notion app. I select an instrument that is in my band and I can write out a short two measure exercise for the students to learn. The music written is usually a technique I want students to work on during the warm up. I can then have students also write their own two measures using the notation tool and they have to teach it to their section. When it comes to teaching music this is awesome because the student gets to compose music, peer teach the music, and evaluate the composition he or she wrote.

 Here is an example of the Notion app plus the Educreations app.

At the end of the lesson you can save it to use in the future for other lessons. Some schools require students to have a technology portfolio so a student can save their composition and upload it to their technology portfolio! Great way to continue to use the iPad as a teaching tool!

Jordan

Tech in the Classroom

Welcome to my Music Geek Tech blog! I will be showing and discussing different technologies that can be used in the classroom for all subjects but mainly music since that is my forte (sorry, had to be a music geek). This week I will introduce the Music Matters Blog that I am following and demonstrate my favorite technology I have used so far in the classroom, vodcasts!

The Music Matters Blog has a wealth of information about what's going on in the world of music education. It blogs about music technology, podcasts from Carnegie Hall performances, music masterclasses, building a music studio online, technology tips, and much more! There are so many applications for music educators that are useful and can be applied to the classroom.

The most fun I have had with technology in the classroom was when I used Vodcasts! Vodcasts are very similar to podcasts except they are videos instead of audio only. A person can subscribe to podcasts or vodcast through iTunes or any website that has an RSS Feed. (See image below)

When I taught in a technology school in Broward County, Florida, I piloted vodcasting for the school district. I set up vodcasts first for my guitar classes then eventually moved into providing weekly class updates on news and information for my band program. The guitar class vodcasts were instructional so the students could see at home what they were practicing for the week. Here is the news article from The Miami Herald on the pilot podcasting program for the district.

Podcast evolves into teaching tool: Educators and students at Broward Schools are discovering podcasting as a new way to teach and learn.

The technology I used to create the vodcasts were a video camera with USB, iMovie, Photoshop, GarageBand, MacBook, and Apple account to upload videos to iTunes. Here is an example of one of my
vodcast videos.

This is a great instructional tool for any classroom! You can teach quick lessons for any subject for students to view at home so it will reinforce what they are learning in the classroom.

My favorite technology tool I have used thus far in teaching has been the vodcasts (and some podcasts). At the high school level they are a great tool to prepare students for future collegiate or technical courses that are online. Most colleges are offering online classes or even full degrees so the need for learning from videos or online instruction is crucial. The vodcasts I presented for my guitar class helped guide student practice at home and allowed the student to receive instruction on their own time.

I am currently teaching at a Magnet School that is applying for International Baccalaureate accreditation. I plan on integrating vodcasts or podcasts into the classroom instruction so student can have self-guided practice at home and parents can see and hear what their child is working on in class. This is a great way to keep even the non-musical parents updated on what is being learned in the instrumental classroom!

Jordan