Thing 21 - Flipping Your Classroom

For this thing we explored how to flip the classroom by creating screencasts. For this thing I am not sure how much I would be able to use in a band room setting. There were a few things that I thought that I might be able to use it for and one of them was filling out practice cards. It seems like such an easy task, but spend a lot of time explaining it, and more than once usually. For my screencast  I captured an image of the practice card we use and added some arrows and information and then created a video of my screen explaining how to fill it out. Here is a link to my video:

http://screencast.com/t/D73Ghvww

I think this will be very helpful for a lot of my students and for their parents. The parents will be able to watch the video and learn how the practice cards should look when they are turned in. Another idea I thought that I might be able to do is record rhythms on the computer. I could use the notation software and the students could go home and work on a rhythm to have prepared for the next day in class. I am not sure what else I would be able to do for my particular subject using this tool, but I am always thinking of new ways to do things!

This has been a great learning experience for me and I feel that I am much more prepared to teach are 21st Century learners.

Thing 20 - Online Video and Audio Resources

For this thing we looked at different place you can get free videos and audio files. As I was working through this thing I did not find a lot of stuff I would use. While looking at TeacherTube and SchoolTube I did not find any videos related to the band world. I would probably use YouTube to help find some videos for a few things. I have found some instructional videos on how to put your instrument together. This would be very handy for my beginning students. After you show them in class they sometimes forget by the time they get home. So for them to have a video to watch would be very helpful. I have found a few on YouTube, but know that I know how to upload my own videos to YouTube I might create my own. Here is what I found:

I am also thinking about creating other videos for my beginning students. There are so many things that they learn when they start and to have something they can reference at home will help.

As for audio resources I mainly use iTunes. They have a great selection of classical music that I can download and share with my classes. The biggest downside to this is the cost to download the music.

Thing 19 - Digital Storytelling

During thing 19 we looked at tools to create videos. This was a fun thing to work on! I used iMovie to create my video. I felt that this program was very user friendly. I had never used it before and found it very easy to navigate. Here is a picture of the storyboard:

And here is link to my website so you can view it http://kvillemsband.weebly.com

I am not sure yet how I would incorporate this into the band room setting. We cannot fit in a computer lab to work on a project that would involve the use of a computer. If we did have access to computers a couple of ideas that I thought might work would be to have the students create a video to share with the class that is about them. Like what there hobbies are and things that they are interested in. I think this would be a fun way for students to get to know each other. Another idea I had was to have a group of students take pictures and videos of use preparing for various performances and then they could put together a video that we could share on the website. These are just a couple of ideas that I have had, and always, I will be continuing to look for more ways to use this tool. I know that I will be using it more for my own personal use as well.

Thing 18 - Virtual Classrooms

For this thing I looked at different tools that will  provide online learning environments. Some option are Moodle and Blackboard. I have opened a Moodle account and I am still trying to find ways to incorporate this into my teaching. I do like the idea of students being able to go home and have access to materials and resources. One site that I am trying to implement into my classroom is SmartMusic. This is a practicing tool students can use at home when they practice their instruments. It is also a communication tool between the students and myself. When the students are at home they can go to this site and pull up the music that we are working on in class. They then play into the microphone and the program assess their performance. It shows the students on the screen which notes and rhythms they played correct and which ones they missed. I can also give students assignments that they need to perform for me and send a recording to me through the program. On my end I can hear what they have submitted and I can comment on it and send it right back to the students. The one problem I have with implementing this program is not all students have internet access, so they need to have access at school. Because students have to play into the computer you can not use a computer lab. I really need to have computers in my band room for the practice rooms. The program also costs money to have access to it. This is something that we could find a way to manage with fundraisers and our booster program, but the computers in the classroom are the main problem right now.  I am going to keep working to find a way because I feel this program is a great way for me to really know what students are doing at home for practicing.

I also looked at a site that takes you through the roles and responsibilities of online learning. I took a look at the students view. In order for a student to be a successful online learner they need to have a lot of self motivation and responsibility. There is not always going to be someone hovering over them to make sure they stay on task. They also need to have access to computers and the internet. Not all students have this at home so the students need to see if something will be available at school. Students also need to know if there is going to be assistance available from someone at school for any online class they take. I believe that there are some students that will be great at online learning, but it is not for everyone.

Thing 17 - Professional Learning Networks

While exploring this thing I looked at different ways to be a part of professional learning networks. The first place that I explored was Michigan Learnport. This site has many professional development resources. I have been using this site for a while and have taken a class with them. It was pretty easy to use and when I did run into some problems with my account the tech support was awesome. They fixed the problem right away so I did not get behind in my class.

Another way for teachers to network is through Twitter or Facebook. I have been a Facebook user for a few years now. There are some big pro and cons to this site. It took me a long time before I finally broke down and opened a page. The big reason for my hesitation was because I felt it might hurt the professional side of my life. I was afraid of what employers might see on the site. It was not what I would be posting, but what some of my family and friends might post that were not worried about the fact that they teach kids. I think this is the biggest con to Facebook. After creating my page I did make sure that I upped my security so that I knew who would have access to my page. One of the pro to this site is that you can stay very connected to people. This is mainly why I finally opened a page. I wanted to keep up with family and friends that lived farther away. Now I also like just seeing what people have been up to. I have also just created a Facebook page for the middle school band. I think that this will be a great way to increase communication with my students. This next year will be the test run...we will see how it goes!

We also looked at some professional organizations that deal with technology and teaching. The first one I looked at was MACUL (Michigan Association for Computers Users in Learning) After joining this free organization you can have access to their website. They have online learning opportunities and resources for technology. They also have yearly conferences. Another site that I looked at was geared toward music and technology. The site is Technology for Music Education (www.ti-me.org). The purpose of this site is to help music educators use technology in the classroom and to learn the standards of proficiency required to teach using today's technology, and to make the process of implementing it into lessons easy and fun. Some of the benefits you can get with a membership is professional development opportunities, lesson plans, private social network, RSS feeds, Magazine subscription, and joining special interest groups. The cost to join this organization is $40 per year. I think that it is pretty reasonable for the benefits you receive. I have attended some professional development provided by ti-me and it was excellent.

After looking into learning networks I feel like it is just a great way to get more ideas and help. I like finding ways to teach my students and I think these will help.

Thing 16 - Research & Reference Tools

During this thing I explored the Michigan eLibrary or MeL for short. This is a great resource for researching different topics. It is more reliable information than what you might get from doing a Google search because it is a part of the library system. I compared some of the databases to see what was available. I compared InfoTrac Junior Edition and InfoTrac Student Edition. I searched some topics that are related to music and found that the Junior Edition did not have very much available. I also looked in the Student Edition and I found that there was more information available, but the level was more for the high school level and not really appropriate for the middle school level. Overall, I am not sure that I would use this resource for my class. I do not really do any research projects in the band classroom. I definitely focus more on learning about how to play an instrument. We do talk about music history, composers and music, but it is just small tidbits of information. I leave the research projects to the core classes. I did however, find some resources that would be useful for me while I was looking through MeL.

During this thing we also looked at citation creation tools. While doing research in MeL you can use their citation creator if you use the information for your research. It was very easy to use. If you open one of the links on the side bar you can click on the citation maker and a box will pop up with a correct citation for the article you are using.

We also looked at other citation tools that can be used. I took a look at BibMe. This was also very easy to use. You pick what type of resource you would like to use and you search for it, click on it and create the citation. Only took a couple of miutes.

Again, I am not sure how often I will use these tools in my classroom because we do not do research projects. However, if that changes I will now know where to go to give my students some easy and great tools to make there projects great!

Thing 15 - Staying Informed

For this thing I explored RSS aggregators. I have been very curious about that RSS symbol on different webpages that I have been to. With this tool you can subscribe to the feed and get updates from that website. It is a lot like subscribing to a magazine, but you get daily updates. It is also nice that all of the things you want to stay current on come right to you instead of you having to go to each individual website. This save a lot of time! I am not sure how I would use this with my students yet, but I do see the advantages for me. I will be informed about new ideas, trends and news in the education world and music education world. Plus I can continue to add feeds as I find more things I want to keep up on.

Thing 14 - Productivity Tools

For this thing I explored converting files and using Google calendar. I was already very familiar with concerting files and I knew why this is an important thing to know about. At the beginning of this past school year I started sending out monthly newsletters. With the first letter I sent out I found out why you need to know how to convert your documents into other formats. I had the newest version of Word for Mac, so when I sent out my fabulous newsletter no one was able to read it. I first began to convert the letter into an older version of word, but I still had parents unable to read the document. I then began to convert it into a pdf file as well. So by the end of the year I was sending out my letter in two different formats plus publishing it to the website to make sure it was available to all of my parents. You never know what your parents are going to have access to, so you need to have a lot of options.

I did all of the conversions above right in Word, so when I tried Zamzar I saw even more possibilities! This was a very easy tool to use and it had more formats to convert to. I uploaded my band handbook and I was able to convert it to html, pdf, txt, png, jpg, or mp3 just to name a few. I feel this will definitely accommodate all of my parents!

The last tool we looked at was Google calendar. I was also familiar with this tool because my school district does everything in Google Docs. I think that there are so many benefits from being able to share a school calendar with students, parents and other staff. As a band director we schedule a lot of after school events that need to be shared. This makes it very easy to update everyone that you have shared your calendar with and you can embed it into your website! Great tool!

Thing 13 - Online Interactive Learning Tools

During thing 13 I explored Google Earth. This is an interactive tool where you can look at different places around the world. You can zoom in and look at cities, building or structures any where in the world. I worked with this tool in college in my geology class, but have not used it since. I am not sure how I would incorporate this into my classroom yet. I am thinking that if I did a music history lesson this would be a good way to let the students really see the architecture and landscapes of the area we are discussing. I am also thinking that if we are performing a piece and it represents something or a certain place, we could look at it through Google Earth. This would give the students a better understanding of what the music is trying to represent and will help them perform it better. These are just a few ways I thought this tool would be useful. I am sure I will come up with other ideas as I work with my curriculum. Here are a couple of pictures I took while experiencing Google Earth:

This is where I spent my undergraduate years!

I also looked at Quizlet during this thing. This is a flashcard making tool. This will be a great tool to use with my students. When learning to read music my students learn a ton of new symbols and terms. With this tool I will be able to create flashcards of all of the things they are learning. I also did a search a found many sets of already made cards that I would be able to use! I also like that you can get a Quizlet app for your phone. My students are always on there phone and now they can study with it!! This will be something I use a lot! Cannot wait to continue creating cards for the upcoming year!

Thing 12 - Assessment/Evaluation and Survey Tools

For this thing we first looked at Survey tools like google forms and survey monkey. I have been on the receiving end of both of these tools and I have found them very easy to follow and fill out. We use the google forms very often in our district when our administration would like to get a feel for where the staff stand on various items. I had never created a form myself until the quiz for thing 9, so now that I have used it twice I can see that they are very easy to set up and send out. I believe that I will be able to use this tool a lot next year to survey the students and parents. I will be great to get feedback from both parties to see what is going well and where the area of improvement need to focus. I have started by creating a form to send out to the parents about volunteering during the school year. I am hoping this will help get our parents a little more involved.

Another tool that we explored was Rubistar. This is an online rubric creator. This site was great! I was not sure what they would have available for a band teacher, but they had a lot of options. I was also to create a rubric for a playing test. I give out many playing tests throughout the year and with this I can create a specific rubric for each exercise instead of using a generic one that does not always fit the situation. Here is a sample:

We also looked at different data tools and explored what our schools have to offer. In my district we use power school as our  students information system. I really like this system. We use it for attendance, grades and discipline records as well. It is nice to have all of the information in one place. You always know where to look. We are also piloting DiscoveryEd right now. For me this tool is not very useful, but I do see the advantages for the other classroom teachers. They can test the students and get immediate feedback on the students and the questions they asked. These are the two main tools used at our middle school.

Thing 11 - Presentation Tools

For thing 11 we took a look at Prezi. Prezi is alot like PowerPoint but is more interactive. Unlike PowerPoint the graphics move to different locations which I think will help keep the learners interested longer. It is also nice because your creations are saved on the web, so if you create it at home it will be waiting on the web for you when you get to school. You do not have to worry about forgetting it! I can see a lot of advantages with using this presentation tool in the class room. While starting a Prezi for this assignment I can see myself creating one for all of the major topics that I cover in the band class. It will also be nice to create them once and then just make slight alterations to them year after year. Here is a look at what I have created so far:

I did not get very fancy seeing this was my first one, but I am sure as I explore this tool more I will be able to use all of the bells and whistles to help keep the students focused on the lesson.

We also looked at a tool for zooming in on a website to highlight a particular picture or graph or statement. This tool was not very helpful to me seeing how it was a windows product and was not available for a mac. I also work with macs at school so it will not help me there either. I did use the zoom feature for mac (command +/-), but I did not find it very useful to use. It just makes everything bigger. Here is an example of what I could do:

I can see this being helpful so that people in the back of the room can read the words better, but that is about it for that tool.

Thing 10 - Digital Images

During this thing we explored digital images and how we can share and edit those images. Using picasa I have taken an image and made some basic alterations to it. Here is the before:

Here is the after:

I added some text, adjusted the sharpness, brightness, highlights and shadows and I added a vignette. I think that if I printed out my finished copy I could try selling it as a postcard! Looks pretty good! For this assignment I only used some of the basic tools, but there were a lot more to choose from. I am not sure of how I would use this in the band room yet, but I am thinking about the possibility of taking pictures of all the band instruments and labeling the different parts to help students remember. That is all I have so far, but I sure I will come up with some more ideas!

You can also use picasa to share photos. I have shared a great family photo with you all. You can use the following link to see it!

Family Photo

Thing 9 - Copyright and Creative Commons

As I explored this thing I found that there were many misconceptions that I had about copyright. Being a band director you deal with copyright a lot. In the fall when we create our marching show we arrange our music and have to be sure we are in compliance with the copyrights of those pieces. For the rest of the year we perform sheet music which also deals with copyright. I thought that I had a pretty good idea of what was allowed, but after reading this material I was wrong. I put together a questionnaire and had the other band director that I work with take it to see what he knew. He was also very surprised at the correct answers. The thing that we both found the most interesting was the copying of student performances. We have always recorded the performances and then made copies of the performance for the students that brought in a CD. I now know that according to copyright I am not allowed to do this for our students.

We also explored creative commons during this thing and I made a creative commons license for my website.

With this license other educators will be able to use things that I have already created for there classes.