Blogging Through Classroom Technology

I guess I would define myself as a digital native. I grew up throughout a time where technology was advancing quickly and I believe I was one of the first classrooms that had new technology. As a teacher, I think I am more advanced with technology than others but I do still struggle with some new classroom technologies. This can be frustrating for me since I have not had proper training on most of the technologies in my classroom. Being younger and used to technology, I can struggle through learning it on my own, but it tends to be a tedious task. I also tend to be frustrated with the limitations that schools put on the technology we use. We are spending money to update our classrooms but with the limitations we tend to still be behind the times. " I believe, in fact, that what teachers need to do is best described not as "changing," but rather as "adapting" to the new context and environment we all find ourselves in... Yet even as teachers become motivated t...

This podcast is about achieving digital wisdom and how Khan Academy is a great example of it.  Khan Academy Ted Talk  and Marc Prensky: Learning 2.0

So many times we hear a song and say " that sounds just like" fill in the blank. My students have also picked up on this, especially when we go listen to music throughout the decades. Once we learn music throughout the 1990s, we explore how sampling works, including copyright and what's considered stealing. Samples, Loops and Thieves from Turned Up This podcast would be great to introduce sampling to the students. Most do not know the term "sampling" before learning it class. This podcast discusses how easy it is to sample songs and how that has evolved over time. I think this podcast would interest students because it pulls in music that the students listen to now, and connects it to music of the decades. We only discuss sampling for a day towards the end of a unit so I would use this as a homework assignment before we learn sampling in class. It gives a great idea of what sampling is, so we could focus more on different examples we have foun d in cla...

Flipping the classroom benefits many types of students, including ESL students. I created a TED-Ed Lesson on Louis Armstrong to be used in a flipped classroom. The lesson meets learning standards for English As A Second Language. Below are the learning standards for this lesson. Standard - ESL.I.5-8.1:  Students will listen, speak, read, and write in English for information and understanding.       Performance Indicator - ESL.I.5-8.1.1.1:        Students identify and use reading and listening strategies to make text comprehensible and       meaningful. This learning standard matches directly with the multiple choice questions on the TED-Ed lesson. The questions make the student listen for a specific answer. This is tested through the question itself. Standard - ESL.I.5-8.2:  Students will listen, speak, read, and write in English for literary response, enjoyment, and expression.      Performanc...

I just went to a presentation on the flipped classroom at a Professional Development and it changed my view on the traditional classroom. I saw a video on flipping a Physics classroom and the presentation was on flipping a Spanish classroom. I think flipping the classroom can work in most classrooms, including music. The flipped classroom makes so much sense and there is so much to gain from this classroom model. Giving the students the information at home allows them to pause, rewind, and take the time they need to get all of the notes. Much of my in class time is wasted waiting for students to take notes because they write very slowly. Flipping the classroom would allow more in class time for clarification and understanding of the material, which my students could use. My students have trouble connecting material from one lesson to another so having the time to reinforce and apply the information would hopefully change my classroom for the better! Flipping Your EL Classroom:...

Twitter chats are a great way to get teachers talking. It’s almost like sitting in a meeting with other professionals but gives you the option to look things up at your own pace and even sit in your sweatpants! I think this could be greatly used for Professional Development because it’s a collaboration of ideas, just like other formats, just online. As the NEA article discusses, some younger teachers need guidance and are more comfortable asking questions online. It gives teachers a way to get information with a quick tweet! It also keeps documentation of the information being passed around, making it easier to re-find information later on down the road. I think having students sign up for an educational Twitter could be a cool way to have discussions because it’s so similar to what they do outside of class but they are able to have a real discussion. They could use hashtags to sort their ideas and follow a string of tweets with the same interests. As mentioned in the Teachhub ...

ePals seems like a very cool idea for learners to connect with other learners all over the world! Users sign in and create a profile that describes the students they are teaching and the subjects the teacher would like to learn with another class. Teachers connect with other teachers anywhere in the world to collaborate and co-teach a subject. The students can video chat with other students and learn through collaborative projects. Projects are uploaded so other teachers can use the ideas for their own classrooms. I am really interested in the student connection part of ePals. As a music teacher I would love to try a collaborative song. Similar to Eric Whitacre's virtual choir  or Luke Byan and Jason Derulo duet on Sing!, I would love to get students connecting through song. The teachers could teach different parts to the whole group and work on finessing the song with their individual choir. Then we could record the students singing together.

A learner is like a tree. Have you ever seen a tree growing at a 90 degree angle and wonder just why and how it did that? A tree follows what it needs - water. A learner does the same thing - they follow what they need. They look up information when it is relevant, they learn as they come across a problem. The Connectivism article says that " Learning is about behaviour change" which relates very closely to a tree changing its direction of growth to take in the water it needs to sustain itself. Learners adapt their way of learning with each new piece of technology coming out. Before this advance technology if people wanted to know something they either had to look it up in a book or ask people until they got their answer. Nowadays, information is at the learners fingertips through technology; they just need to know how to find it. Learners have adapted to their environment. "Knowledge flow can be likened to a river that meanders through the ecology of an organi...

"I looked at the current education system, I said 'Whats wrong with it?' And the biggest problem I found is it didn't know how to motivate kids." "...It's in our DNA to be motivated, I think the current model... is just really good at squashing that motivation." "In education the Use it or lose it rule may mean If you don't use tech for learning , you may lose relevance. An educator must be relevant." "Teachers need to exist in the spaces the students exist, understand their culture. You have no credibility if you are not where they are." Motivation : Children love technology; they just don't seem to have trouble starting a video game like they do homework. Students have to be in classes for seven hours a day so as educators we should be making it as exciting and appealing as possible. I have seen many classrooms with students sitting in rows of desks, reading out of a textbook, while the teacher babbles to the one...