Blogging Through Classroom Technology

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:...