Summary

This has been a lot of fun. I have learned so many new things and have gotten better at using some of the things that I was already familiar with. I would definitely take another class if it was offered. I just would not commit myself to so many other projects at the same time. The format for this class was perfect for me. I like being introduced to the topic, given a few examples, and then being able to explore, discover and learn things on my own using hands on activities. I have always learned much better and retained more by doing.

Learning about technology is a way of playing for me, so yes I have actually enjoyed this class. One of my favorite things was being creative with all of the fun generators. This is going to really be useful when I am making things for the choir. I am also excited about consolidated all of my different calendars into one online calendar and now that I have all of my bookmarks organized, I am so grateful to have Delicious in my life. I do however need to delete some of my RSS Readers, there is absolutely no way I can read everything that I have subscribed to. Once again I got a little carried away. I do plan on communicating with the parents of my choir students using some of the things we have been taught. I have just got to decide which way is the best way for dispersing information. Should I use a Blog, Wiki, or Google docs? Ohhh my, so much to decide!!

Thing #23

Beyond MySpace

I took a lot of time doing this last thing an honestly I think I am just tired and in information overload. I did see a few things on the Ning network that I feel will be beneficial to me in the future in the music classroom.There is a forum for music teachers called Music Techie Teachers. There was some discussion on using Audacity and Garage Band. These are both tools that I use in the classroom and for choir. I also look at the General Music Co-op I found a good board display on rhythm and some lessons that I would like to try. I decided not to join any forum right now. I will continue to monitor some of them and when I want to post something then I will join.

Thing #22

Exploring Social Networking

I have been a member on Facebook for about a year. It was a lot of fun first. I connected with friends that I went to high school and college with. However it didn't take long before it became more than I wanted to manage. I was getting messages from people requesting friends, I was receiving all of the little gadgets that Facebook offers for fun like flowers, drinks, and gifts and I was being poked by people that I have never heard of. I just have more important things to do in the real world with friends that I am seeing face to face.
It is my opinion that Facebook is not appropriate for school use at any age. You do not have enough control over who can access your page. I know teachers need to be aware of what is available to our students but we don't have to participate or promote those things. I recently addressed the subject of My Space with the heads of our Technology Department. They also felt that there were better ways to reach out to our students. We have used many tools during this class that I think would be much better to use.

Thing #7b

Google Reading

I recently read an article from the chicagotribune.com. The article wsa titled Oscar Mayer dies: What other products were named for real people? The legendary Oscar Mayer died on Monday, at the age of 95. At the time of his death, Mr. Myers was residing in a Wisconsin nursing home. The fact that Oscar Meyers was a real person, was the inspiration behind this article. What other famous food names are real people? Betty Crocker, Jennie-O, Orville Redenbacher, Ben & Jerry's, Mrs. Fields and many more. It is a very interesting and entertaining article to read.

I guess we always have our teacher thinking caps on, because even while reading this article I was thinking that this would be a fun research lesson for kids. There so many ways that this could be extended.

Thing #21

Google's not just for searching

I have been subscribing to Google for many years but I have never taken the time to learn about all of the different tools that it has to offer. This and others classes that I have taken, have made me take the time to familiarize myself more with the different things that you can do with Google. I recently took a Picasa class and I really like using it. However it is still fairly new to Mac and there are a few bugs that need to be addressed. But I have recommended it to a couple of my PC friends. As I stated in an earlier post, Google docs is a very good tool, I use YouTube and Google video to find clips for enrichment at work, Google maps directs me where I need to travel and being the shopper that I am I know every way possible to pay for goods on the internet and Google checkout is becoming as popular as PayPal. I played with the Google earth tool a little in the past. I don't know that I have any use for it personally but I can see how it could be used in the classroom.

During my exploring I played with the Google SketchUp. It was fun but it will take a little practice to learn how to manipulate the pencil. I also like the calendar. I am going to compare it to the 30 Boxes calendar to see which one will work the best for me. I did find a picture that I want to use on Google images, it said that it might be copyrighted but it did not give any other information.

Google has definitely become more prominent over the last few years. As I stated earlier, I have been using Google for a while, but I realized how popular it has become when my mother, who never even turns on the computer , made the statement "Why don't you just google it." :-)

Thing #20

Google Docs

Google Docs is one of the best things that I have ever used. I use it all the time for work. I send home a lot of letters to parents and usually I create them at home. With Google Docs I can access them when I get to school and make any revisions that are necessary. I have also used Google Docs to gather information from teachers. Before I started using them I would ask the teachers to email me the information and then I would enter it into a spreadsheet. After I started using the form feature, they entered in their information and it went directly into the spreadsheet. Of course I did have problems getting a few teachers to enter information this way, but for most it was very easy.

Thing #19

Voicethread

I really like the idea of using voice threads although I have never used one myself. Whenever I hear a recording of myself talking I always sound like Southern Texas Hick. I can see how this would be very useful in the classroom. Children always want to share their opinion and there is never enough time. Using voice threads gives everyone an opportunity to share. I think that I would use it more for personal use. This is a great way to add narration to photos when sharing them with family and friends and to get their reactions.

Thing #18

You too can YouTube

I use You Tube a lot. Usually just for fun to help reinforce a lesson. May times when I teach a song from a musical or play, I try to find a clip of the original performance for the children to watch. Usually I teach the song and then let them see the clip. They always enjoy seeing and hearing how it was performed in the movie or on the Broadway stage and comparing it to the way we sang it. After all "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" is a fun song for children to learn, but look at how much more fun it is to sing along with Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke.


Posted by AlexValve

Just for fun I have include a link to a video that I posted on YouTube last month. It is a video of pictures that I took at the Disneyland Electric Parade. It was very easy and fun creating this video. This is a great way for teachers to show off their student's work.

Annotations

Thing #17

Podcast

I am not a big fan of Audio Podcast. I have a hard time just listening to someone speak on a recording. Video is much better for me. If I don't have a visual to look at then I would rather read a book.

I listened to a podcast of Aesop's Fables on the web site Learn Out Loud. They had a large quantity of fables, however I felt that the narrator was speaking so fast that a child listening to this would miss hearing them state the moral of the story. What I do like about this site is that you can download the podcast as a mp3 file to your computer and listen to it later.

I also watched a Sesame Street Video Podcast. This podcast expands upon the television show's literacy segment, "What's the Word on the Street?" in which celebrities and characters on the show explain the meaning of words like "pretend" and "tricycle." This would be a good podcast to use in the kindergarten classroom.

Just One More Book is another podcast site that I explored. This is a site that reviews books. I listened to the podcast Talent, Teamwork & Triumph: The Dunderheads. I guess this is good if you want to hear a review before you read the book, but I was bored listening to them talk about the book.

I tried to listen to a podcast entitled The Future of Music. "The Future of Music podcast will show you cool new ways to find music and connect with your favorite artists. Discover the top-10 truths about the music business of the future and how you can benefit from the explosion in digital music, today and tomorrow." This is a direct quote from the website. I tried to listen to it for two days and never could get it to work. Oh well, that's too bad. It sounds like it might be something I am interested in.

Since I already have an account with iTunes, I decided to look at the podcast. When I clicked on podcast I realized that I have already been using it. There are two music sites that I have been subscribing to for over a year. These are both sites that I use for listening to new choral music for my school choir.

I can see how Podcast would be a good way to help learners that might have difficulty reading because of limited language or physical handicaps. I also like eBooks that I can put on my ipod and listen to while I'm driving or exercising and can't hold a book . (exercising, yeah right, LOL) However, I am a visual learner, not an auditory learner and listening to Audio Podcast just doesn't hold my interest. While I am by no means saying that podcast are bad, because I realize that they are work very well for some people, what I am saying is that we as teachers must keep in mind the many different learning styles of students when we are planning lessons. Just because it's a great new way to use technology, doesn't mean that it's the best way. And this is coming from someone that loves using technology!

Thing #16

Library Thing: Where Books Meet Web 2.0

I don't have enough books in my classroom that this would be useful to me , but I can see how it would be beneficial in the regular classroom. Teachers could use this to catalog their classroom library. Students could then use LibraryThing to look for books in the classroom. I can however see myself using it in my personal life. It's great how books are categorized in different ways to help you locate them. I also like that you can get information about local libraries, bookstores, book signings, and other events in your area.

Thing #15

Play in the wiki sandbox

This was one of my favorite activities. I always enjoy getting to play on the computer. It did tack a little time but that is probably my own fault. I keep following links that I saw on other blogs and experimenting with different generators. I know that we were just asked to post some of the things that we had already created, which I did, but I also included some of the new things that I made on my wiki page Songster Sister Sings Out. I added a link to the sandbox page but I will probably change a few things when I have more time. This is the type of thing that I can play with all day.

Thing #14

What in the world is a wiki?

Mrs. Cassidy's Class - Schools In the Past
This is a wiki where students interviewed their parents and grandparents on the comparison and the contrast of schools in the past and schools now. I really enjoyed reading this wiki. There were so many interesting comments. I could think of so many ways to extend this idea. For example were things different depending on where you lived, your faith, your culture, or your ethnic background. This gave me the idea of using the same concept of bringing our elderly and our youth together to discuss music of the past and present.

Kindergarten Counting Book
Kindergarten students use pictures to shoe the numbers 1-1oo. This is a perfect example to show that you are never to yong to start learning how to use technology. However, I do have a few questions about this wiki. Did the children take the pictures themselves? I notice that there was a name posted beside some of the photos, but more information was needed to clarify exactly what that child's contribution was.

Salute to Seuss
On this wiki PreK to Sixth Grade classrooms picked one or more books by Dr. Seuss and made an online presentation of the book. The classes used many different resources to create a blog, wiki, or web page to share their book. This is a very good wiki. It gives a lot of resources to use, including teaching materials.

Thing #13

Social bookmarking and tagging with Delicious

I can tell that I am going to really enjoy using Delicious. I had fun searching for different websites that I could use in music and technology. All through the year the music teachers are constantly sending each other emails of different websites that we found and wanted to share with the other teachers. I also like that I can choose which sites to share and which sites to keep private.I especially like the fact that this is accessible from any computer. In the past if I found a web site while working at home, I would email the link to myself at work. Now that won't be necessary. I am not very good at tagging sites. Usually whenever I worked on something that gave me that option, I would always just skip that part. I see now how this is really very beneficial. Hopefully I will get better with practice.

Attempted stretch activity

Well, as usual I got a little over zealous. When I did a search for sites in music education, I came across some of the sites that I had previously bookmarked in Safari. So I thought I would just go ahead and import them into my Delicious account. OMG, was that an enormous mistake. I have the biggest mess to clean up. I had no idea that I had bookmarked so many sites. The good part of this is that whenever a site is imported it is automatically locked so no one else will see this mess until I straighten it all out and decide to share it. If anyone is interested here is my delicious link it is http://delicious.com/songstersister
Well I guess I had better get started straightening out my mess.

Thing #7a

Google Reading Revisited

Checking my google reader has become something that I try to do everyday. I don't know if I will be able to keep it up when school starts and I have even less time. The last few days I have been reading a lot of articles about the life and death of Michael Jackson. Today I read an article by Newsweek, 5 Questions About Michael Jackson's Funeral. This article answers the questions:

1. Will there be a public viewing?
2.Who will deliver the eulogy?
3. What about the private service?
4. Where will he be buried?
5 How are the kids coping?

I like to read articles by Newsweek because I feel that they are more reliable than some of the entertainment magazines. Whatever your opinion of Michael Jackson is, the fact remains that the world has lost a truly gifted musician. I feel so much sympathy for his mother because no matter how old Michael was or what problems he might have had, to her he was still one of her baby boys.

Thing #12

Discovering web 2.0 tools

30 Boxes is something that I have needed for a long time. It is so hard keeping my work calendar and my home calendar organized. I have tried to find ways to synchronize my calendars but to no avail. Now that will not be necessary. I can use my calendar on 30 Boxes for personal and professional reasons. I am still experimenting with using the calendar. Normally I send home a schedule of practice and performance dates for my choir. I will still continue to send home a hard copy , however now I can put that information on the calendar and the parents can access the information whenever necessary. This calendar allows you to share different parts of the calendar with different people by using tags . So I can use the tag choir and only that part of the calendar will be visible to choir members.

2. JigZone.com is the web site that I used to create this puzzle. I found this picture in the Flickr Creative Commons . The name of this photo is Hawaiian Flowers - The Plumeria Strawberry Loops by mad plumerian. I chose this picture because I am going to Hawaii this summer and I can't wait to see beautiful flowers like this. If you click on the photo it will take you to the web site to solve the puzzle. When I made the puzzle I chose 20 pieces for the level of difficulty and the puzzle generator created it. I have already started creating a puzzle to use on a Promethean flipchart in the classroom. Hopefully the students will have so much fun that they will never realize that they are actually learning.

Thing #11

Online image generators

These are the kind of things that I really enjoy doing. I get so carried away creating things that I don't realize how much time has passed. I made so many things that I had a hard time deciding what to use on my blog.

1. The first thing I added was text at the bottom of my page I made this with a glitter graphics generator created online. To make the graphic, you type in your text, choose your font and your glitter pattern. The HTML code is generated for you to copy and paste in your blog.

2. The second thing I made was a animated sign. I created this using an online image generator at Image Chef web site. I later plan to make a slideshow and use this image for the title slide.

3. I also added a thank you note to the sidebar using the note generator at Satisfaction.com. You just type in your text and the note is generated for you.

These are all fun tools to use.They can definitely help to make a lesson more visually appealing.

Thing #10

Creating A Slideshow

Now we are doing things that I enjoy. Reading blogs and responding to blogs are fine, but I am one those people that need hands on activities. these are the kind of things that I think are fun.
For my slide show I used photos that I found while searching the Flickr Creative Commons section. I wanted to show how a song could be illustrated using photos instead of words.
The song that I chose to use is "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." I originally added a midi audio version of the song to my slideshow, but since I already have a song playing on my blog, I embedded a video without sound. If you would like to view the same video with sound just click on the following link. Twinkle, Twinkle - with midi sound



Photo credits:
Twinkle in the Trees -M.V. Jantzen
I Wonder - Maryl
Twinkle Twinkle little star - acerview54
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star - Picto Brand / Shaun
Twinkle, twinkle, little star(s) - a.drian
Diamond in the Sky - WTL

Thing #9

Photosharing with Flickr

I really like Flickr. I already had an account but I had only used it for viewing photos that my friends had posted and sent me an email to view their pictures. I took time to really explore the site and found numerous things that I could use. I did a search in the Flickr Creative Commons and found pictures to save for my next thing. I also thought of a music appreciation class that I teach where this site would really be useful. As an example I found a picture that was perfect to use with my favorite song of all times "Over The Rainbow." The photo is titled "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" by Ilse The audio clip that I am using is from the album: Kenny G: Classics in the Key of G

Thing #8

Creative Commons

Being involved in music, copyright is a large concern. Most of the time, the number of copies of a musical piece that must be purchased is stipulated and the printed music is never to be copied unless permission is given. There have been a few times that due to extenuating circumstances I have found it necessary to contacted a publishing company to ask for rights to perform a musical piece. Permission has always granted because it was for an educational establishment and a fee to attend the performance was not going to be charged.
Creative Commons makes sharing materials a much simplier process. We can share our ideas using Creative Commons and still have a license for how other people that use our work can edit or modify it for their use.
No matter what type of copyright, the most important thing to remember when using material created by others is to give credit to the person that created it.

Thing #7

Creating community through commenting

I know that commenting is a important part of blogging, and as much as I like to talk and give my opinion you would think that I would really enjoy commenting. However I sometimes find it very hard to do. When I talk to someone I normally read a lot into a persons facial expressions, body movements and vocal fluctuations. But when something is put in writing it can sometimes be interpreted differently from the way the writer intended, due to the lack of these physical attributes being there to help us understand their thoughts. That is why I am very careful in what I put in writing. It's easy for me to blog when I agree with the person, but when I disagree it's hard to make a comment because I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings or be perceived as being harsh. Because of this I tried very hard to adopt blogs that I was in agreement with so that I could leave positive comments.
Yessss I know that 's being a chicken!
On the other hand, when it comes to the feeds that I subscribed to, I chose one that has some very controversial blogs, and I won't have any problem blogging my disagreeable comments. After all, I don't feel like I know those people.

Thing #6

Feed your reader: find & subscribe to feeds

Well I finally finished each part of thing #6. This should be called 75 things not 23 things since each thing has about four parts. :-) I wanted to add feeds that I would really use so I searched for feeds in the music education field. One of the feeds that I have subscribed to is MENC-TheNational Association for Music Education I am already a member of MENC but by subscribing to their feed, I can have information sent directly to me. For example yesterday I read a blog about how young film stars from the soon to be released movie BandSlam worked with middle school students at The Grammy Museum in Los Angeles. They explored the music business through an interactive educational experience. They also had a question and answer sessions about music arrangement, composition, musicianship, and the importance of music in everyday life.
Another feed that I subscribed to was A Music Education Blog Collective. This is a project of the Music Educators Network, a group of music educators that discuss current topics and events in music education.
Of course me being the wanderer that I am, I could only stick to the topic for so long before I started subscribing to my second most favorite thing FOOD! So if you're interested you might want check out Betty Crocker Recipes, but be careful, I know I'm gaining weight just from looking at the pictures. :-)

Thing #5

Getting started with RSS

I have been subscribing to a few feeds for a while now so this is something that I am familiar with. I like getting information this way. It's like pulling out only the section of a newspaper that interest you and not having bother with the rest of it. While looking at some of the required feeds, I read a very comical article on Techlearning entitled What if the government mandated that all kids learned how to ride a bike in school? This blog is about how we have a tendency to over think things in educations. Learning doesn't always have to be difficult. It can sometimes be a very simple process. It's doesn't always take a act of congress to teach a child a simple lesson. I think the author of the blog said it best when he said "Shouldn't we all just give our students a push in the right direction to get them started down the road of learning, run along side of them to give them guidance, help them stay on the right path and pick them up when they fall off." So simple, yet so true.

Thing #4

Blogging Begins With Reading

I Love, Love, Love, Duck Diaries! If anyone can read those blogs and not get a smile on your face then you are really having a bad day. The second graders response to what could have happened to the missing duck is priceless. This is a great example of how technology can be used in the classroom. It also shows how you can start at a very young age. I would venture to say that the students learned more and will retain more from this lesson, because of this activity. I also like how this was extended cross curriculum and kindergartners drew duck pictures and the music teacher wrote a duck song to include in the music lesson, my favorite of course. What does it say about me, that I enjoyed this so much?

Another really good blog post was Learning Now: An Open Letter About Cyberbullying What a powerful well written letter in response to a short thought provoking article published by Wired Magazine. I totally agreed with the letter, as did all of the responses that I read. But whether you agree with the letter or not, a lesson can still be taught about the effect of the written word. The magazine article Beware These Six Lamest Social Networks was originally suppose to to be funny. But after reading it and the responses, Many people failed to see the humor in it.
I enjoyed reading many bogs, but as you see I have a tendency to wander off into other parts. This will also be a problem for some students. Therefore it is important that the teacher closely monitors the student activity on the computer during instruction.

Thing #2

Thoughts about Web 2.0

Technology is constantly changing. Web 2.0 is a way for teachers to keep up with the changes, to communicate with their students and to help their students take an active part in their own learning. It is also a way to get the parents actively involved in their child's learning. Of course that is assuming that the students will have the technical resources that they will need. Unfortunately all of the students I teach don't have a computer. Web 2.0 also doesn't take into account those students that need more guidance in their instruction or those parents that never check their child's backpack to look at the work they have done or sign the papers that are due the next day. I love to use different forms of technology and it can definitely be used to enhance instruction. However, right now I think most of that technical instruction has to take place during the school day, where all of the students have the same advantages.

Thing #1

Reflections on Lifelong Learning

I truly believe that you are never to old to learn. The way to keep the mind sharp is to constantly challenge yourself. There is no limit on learning. Growing up in a home with parents that were educators, learning was always stress in our family. As an adult, the biggest obstacle I face when it comes to continuing to seek knowledge is TIME. There are so many other obligations that I feel need to be taken care of before I can concentrate on myself.

Technology is something that I really enjoy and I like to learn new things on the computer. I am normally good at pacing myself, however when it comes to the computer I have to make myself stay focused and not venture off into other challenging activities.