Grants

Money, money, money (think Abba)! There never seems to be enough money and with budget cuts, even less. Grants are a great way to help fund various needs and wants for classrooms and schools. 

        Olathe School District has several grants that teachers and schools can apply for. The Olathe Public Schools Foundation is just one grant program. This foundation awards grants up to $1000 for innovative classroom projects and up to $5000 for bigger projects used by multiple classrooms, grades, or schools. I have been lucky enough to receive a Foundation grant for a project titled "Opera, You say?" I know when applying for grants the committees are looking for new and innovative projects. The project I did had not been done before and I collaborated with classroom teachers, which they like as well. It took quite a while to write the grant but it was well worth it. 

        Soundtree is a website that provides lots of information and ideas in regards to music education. They provide monthly updates on available and appropriate grants for funding music technology purchases. Fundsnet Services.com has a large fundraising and grants directory. This website can be quite overwhelming because of the number of sites that are listed. it is first broken down into categories and then a large list of websites are listed in alphabetical order. I find many grants are considered by invitation only. Some groups have you submit your grant idea first and then if you are accepted a full application is filled out. Edutopia website also has a great number of grant resources. SchoolGrants is a site that you can get to from Edutopia. Not only are their many more sites with grant information but also has sample proposals that received grants.

      We could spend hours upon hours seeking grants. I think this is why many teachers do not pursue grant information, it is overwhelming. However, I think if someone has an innovative idea that would be beneficial to many students, writing a grant is worth the time and effort.  

Collaborative Technology

Collaboration is an important part in teaching and a must in order for teachers to learn and grow. Being the only choir teacher in my school I take every opportunity I can to collaborate with other choir teachers in other schools. With the business of everyone’s schedule, it is hard to find a time for teachers to meet. Having the ability to collaborate with other teacher through collaborative technology is a dream come true.

As I was reading through the many technology resources available, I found a couple that I think could work for me. One of them is Promethean Planet. On this site I found lessons on basic music skills, to music quizzes and lessons using interactive whiteboards. This site also had lessons created by Publishers that can be purchased for $7.99. Otherwise all the other lessons are free. It would be a great place for me to share my lessons as well.

SmartExchange is another collaborative site I would find useful. This site has over a thousand activities that can be downloaded for free. I know they will not all pertain to the grade levels I teach but it is nice to see such a large number of lessons for music class. And the lessons on this site are also free.

For students I am very interested in having them Skype with other choir classes in other schools and other countries. Skype in the Classroom is a great resource to use when learning how to use Skype. Wiki in the Classroom is another site that I think would be fun to use with my students. It is a great tool to have for students to use while they are at home.

There are so many possibilities for collaboration both for teachers and for students. With all of the choices it is easy to get caught up in looking at all of them and not settling on one. My goal is to find one or two I think would be beneficial to me and my students and focus on those. Eventually I can continue to add other sites. And the best part of all of this is that it is free!

Serious Gaming

When I did my student teaching in elementary school, my cooperating teacher told me how important games are when teaching students. She always said it was a way to “trick” students into learning. While classroom games were something I did often with my students, Serious Gaming is something I have done as well and am excited to learn more ways to incorporate it into my lessons.

 In the past all the games I have used online have been free. These music games have come from sites such as DSO for kids (Dallas Symphony Orchestra), SKSKids (San Francisco Symphony), BSO Kids (Boston Symphony Orchestra), and PBS Jazz Kids. I make these sites and may others available through a link on my school web page (Mission Trail Choirs). I encourage my students to use these sites at home as well.

One thing Futrelab has found when researching serious gaming is “Games provide a platform for active learning, that is, they are learning by doing rather than listening or reading, they can be customized to the learner, they provide immediate feedback, allow active discovery and develop new kinds of comprehension. there is also evidence of a higher level of retention of material.” I think this statement says a lot about the benefits if serious gaming. I also like how gaming can be customized to the learner since not all kids learn at the same rate.

It isn't always feasible for me to have my students using gaming because of the nature of my class but it is something I try to use when possible. Some of the ways I have incorporated gaming is right after concerts are over or at the beginning of new lessons. I have used them for students who need extra practice on a concept they do not understand or did not learn due to an absence. It is much easier to give these games as assignments because they are engaging to the students.

Ulicsak, M. & wright, M. (2010). Games in education: Serious Games. Bristol, Futurelab.

Flipped Classroom

Throughout this last week I have been doing a lot of research on flipped classrooms. I am very interested in this concept and have been trying to decide if this is a concept that can work in my choral classroom. In a modified way it is essentially how performance classes work. Music students do the rudimentary musical learning at home and then work together towards the final production. It may have never been done through the guidance of a video from the teacher but the concept is still the same. They should come to class prepared by knowing the notes of the song or the fingerings on a musical instrument. What will be beneficial is the video guiding students to learn the notes of a piece of music. I can teach students different aspects about singing through video they watch at home and then put it to practice at school. Also, I do not find a lot of time to teach music history and such because we are focused on learning our songs and all that entails. So, I could have students watch information about these topics at home and be ready for discussion or short projects to complete in class. I did not find a lot of flipped lesson ideas for the music class, much less the choir class. The ones I did find were for the instrumental classes. I think since it is such a new concept many music teachers have not gone down this road yet. Maybe I can lead the way, but I have to figure it out first myself. While searching I did spend some time on Ted-Ed in hopes of getting ideas. It is a great sight with lots of lessons for high school and college students. I think it has great potential for all grade levels. I spent a lot of time on Google looking for Flipped lessons is music and ran across some sights that mainly talked about the concept of flipped lessons in music but not really any lessons or much information to take away from them. One such sight is called Music Education 2.0 http://www.musiced20.com/flipped-music-classroom-smart-music/. I found this as a great resource for technology and music and I will probably use it as a resource in the future. I spent some time on ArtsEdge which is an online program through The Kennedy Center. This sight has lots of lesson plans over a variety of fine arts. It did not contain flipped lessons but would be a good resource towards a flipped lesson. As with all technology, it costs money. I think flipping a class could cost a minimum amount of money unless we want all students equipped with iPads. If we can provide students with computer access at school, we can keep the cost down. So what do I feel about the concept of a flipped classroom? I think it is a great concept for certain lessons and certain situations. It is something I will continue to explore when it comes to certain lessons I am teaching to my choir students.

Podcast

As I was searching for podcasts and music education, I was happily surprised to find quite a few. I am very interested in using podcasts with my students because of how my class is constructed. Since my students are learning about music, especially singing, it is not always feasible to have them work on their own or in small groups without my help. When I am lucky, I have students who can play piano and read music which helps in group work or sectionals as we call them in music classes. It is also hard, if not impossible for students to practice their music at home for the same reasons they can’t do sectionals without me. Podcasts would be helpful and more time efficient. The way my students currently work on their own is through CD’s that I burn for each student. These have the accompaniment music on it and my voice singing as well. This is very time consuming when I have over 100 to make multiple times a year. With a podcast I can record all of the songs and put them on a podcast that my students can go to during practice time in class and practice time at home. They can listen to it on their iPod, iPhone, iPad or computer. For those students who do not have this advantage, I can still make CD copies. If my students use this technology it will not only enhance their music ability but also that of the choir. I came across several podcasts that were very interesting and gave me more ideas than the one I already mentioned. Music Teacher 911, http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/musicteachers911-music-teacher/id283152175 is a podcast on iTunes made by a former music teacher. He has many topics that all have to do with music and has guest speakers on as well. I have not listened to all of them but I am impressed with what I have heard. Another podcast that I came across is Dr. Frankel’s Podcast Page. .http://fams.podomatic.com/ Most of these podcasts are from presentations he makes on podcasting and technology in the music classroom. One other cool website I came across is called Rock Our World. This takes podcasting to a whole new level. In this podcast a song is composed by students from all over the world. It starts in one country with one track, like the drums and then it continues to the next group who might add vocals. I think I need to get my choir involved in this project. http://www.rockourworld.org/ I do not believe it would be very costly to make podcasts. There are a variety of software programs available including Audacity, Garageband, and Podguide Generator. Though we have lots of microphones available at my school we may need to purchase one or two specifically for podcast use. These could run anywhere from $10.00 and up. Creating podcasts from myself and my students is something I am very excited about.

mobile technologies

Student Response Systems or clickers as we call them can be useful in the choir classes I teach. I like them for several reasons that include effectiveness, availability, cost, and interesting. First, I like how students can answer question anonymously. On occasion I have my students give feedback on performances from others in the class and I know some students have a hard time taking criticism and some have a hard time giving it. I think using the clickers is a good way to get a conversation going about the performances. When using yes and no questions I could ask “Did all members of the ensemble breathe where it is indicated in the music? From there we could open up a discussion on why it is important to follow the markings in the music. Multiple choice questions can be used for ear-training when I want students to tell me what pattern I am singing. I would sing a solfege pattern and the students would choose whether I sang pattern A, B, C, or D. Since this is a hard concept for many, it would alleviate the fear of being wrong and everyone knowing it. But for me it would be a quick way for me to see who is getting it and who needs additional help. In an article I read, “Rules of Engagement” http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=86d5bbb0-c764-43ab-91b9-644dab4088db%40sessionmgr110&vid=8&hid=106 the author says it is important that the SRS be used appropriately based on the topic and should not be a distraction to learning. The teacher needs to keep the learner in mind when deciding to use clickers. Some questions are suggested to ask as a teacher. “How is the question related to my objective? What do I want to achieve by asking this question?” Keeping in mind what type of answer a teacher wants, he/she needs to write the question or statement accordingly. Another idea to keep in mind is the validity of the question, especially when assessing. Depending on the type and brand of clicker you buy, it will cost $1,000.00 - $2,000.00 for a classroom set of 24. As interesting as clickers are, I am not sure they are worth the money for my classroom.

Student Response Systems or clickers as we call them can be useful in the choir classes I teach. I like them for several reasons that include effectiveness, availability, cost, and interesting. First, I like how students can answer question anonymously. On occasion I have my students give feedback on performances from others in the class and I know some students have a hard time taking criticism and some have a hard time giving it. I think using the clickers is a good way to get a conversation going about the performances. When using yes and no questions I could ask “Did all members of the ensemble breathe where it is indicated in the music? From there we could open up a discussion on why it is important to follow the markings in the music. Multiple choice questions can be used for ear-training when I want students to tell me what pattern I am singing. I would sing a solfege pattern and the students would choose whether I sang pattern A, B, C, or D. Since this is a hard concept for many, it would alleviate the fear of being wrong and everyone knowing it. But for me it would be a quick way for me to see who is getting it and who needs additional help. In an article I read, “Rules of Engagement” http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=86d5bbb0-c764-43ab-91b9-644dab4088db%40sessionmgr110&vid=8&hid=106the author says it is important that the SRS be used appropriately based on the topic and should not be a distraction to learning. The teacher needs to keep the learner in mind when deciding to use clickers. Some questions are suggested to ask as a teacher. “How is the question related to my objective? What do I want to achieve by asking this question?” Keeping in mind what type of answer a teacher wants, he/she needs to write the question or statement accordingly. Another idea to keep in mind is the validity of the question, especially when assessing. Depending on the type and brand of clicker you buy, it will cost $1,000.00 - $2,000.00 for a classroom set of 24. As interesting as clickers are, I am not sure they are worth the money for my classroom. Ipads are another mobile technology I could use in my class in a variety of ways. When learning a new song my students sometimes practice in sectionals. I am constantly burning CD tracks of song accompaniments so my students can use them when they practice. By sending each section with an iPad they can go to a central location like Edmodo and the acoompaniments will be ready to go. I would only have to download the tracks once and would not have to worry about whether the CD's would get back to me. The ipad in comparison to the ipod would have greater output in volume and I could also have my students easily videotape their sectionals. This would elliviate those students who use that time as social hour instead of practice time. On a website called Soundtree http://www.soundtree.com/blog/2011/01/31/a-possible-future-for-ipads-tablet-pcs-in-the-music-classroom/ a scenario is given of a potential music classroom with ipads, one for each student (wouldn't that be awesome). In the scenario a teacher is giving a presentation on Scott Joplin which is imported to her iPad. Using her own iPad she is able to hold it up and send it to all of her students iPads so they can follow along. Within the presentaion is an mp3 that they listn to and then write about it on their blog right from their iPads. At different oints in the presentation they are taken to a Jazz website where they can explore, watch various videos that are in the presentation and finally to notation software where they begin to compose their own ragtime song. What a pie in the sky dream but oh wonderful it would be. Since iPads cost at least $500.00 each I know this is not realistic. However, having 4 or 5 in my class would provide my class resources to be more creative than they could without it.