OneNote, One Device

I was very excited to check out what OneNote had to offer after looking at Dr. Bazan's review of this program. His use of this software was great and certainly seems like an excellent way to connect with students, parents, teachers, and the community. Unfortunately, since this software is part of the Microsoft suite, it caters mainly to Microsoft devices and other PCs, not MAC. The school district I teach in gives every teacher a Macbook Pro when we begin teaching, and I also own and Iphone, so I mainly us Apple products. I was unable to download OneNote onto my computer because it stated that the version of ios I had was not up to date, even though there are no updates available from the App store. I noticed even in the video that most of the devices being used were Microsoft or Android devices, and I think I only saw one Apple product. The screenshot I took of the video below shows the tablet is a Windows tablet. Obviously a Microsoft product would wish to promote their own devices rather than those of competitors. 

After I tried several attempts to get this software to download on my Macbook Pro, I gave up and tried the Iphone App out instead. I was able to download the app, but there are barely any features available on this app. I can write a note, and I'm sure I could insert a web address for a clickable link, but these seem to be about the only features of the iphone app. The three images below show every feature the app has to offer 

   

I wrote a question about this in the general discussion board on Blackboard, and Kathy and Stephanie mentioned they were experiencing the same difficulties. Kathy suggested I try and use an ipad stating that the app worked much better on this device, but I unfortunately do not own an ipad. Stephanie suggested I download the Yosemite upgrade for Macs, but then stated she got a virus on her computer, so I decided to hold off on that upgrade. 

Aside from the frustrations I'm feeling with using this for Apple products, the features I learned about in the introduction video look very appealing. Having all my class materials in one place and the ability to share with all the families of the students I teach would be fantastic. Instead of constantly having to print out sheet after sheet of paper to give out to the students at each of my schools, I could put all the hand outs on this program and parents could view them on their own time. It would also be much easier to assign homework since the students could see it every day and remind themselves to complete it. When I only see the students 2 times a week, I understand how easy it is to forget the assignments, especially for elementary school students. I could also leave instructional videos for the students and parents to watch that will help parents help students with their home practice. 

All in all this seems like a phenomenal program for PC and Microsoft device users. I am traditionally a PC person, but since starting my current job have transitioned to Mac. It would be great if all programs worked on all types of devices, but for now I will have to wait for this program to be upgraded to be usable on ios. 

"Behind the Scenes" of Being a Music Teacher

Chapter 8 is about the administrative aspects of teaching music. This is an aspect of the teaching profession that is often over looked, especially by new teachers. Because so much emphasis is placed on delivering instruction, it is easy to forget about keeping records, calling parents, and continuing with professional growth and development. For me, keeping my records, lessons, and students organized is one of my greatest strengths. All of my grades and attendance records are put into an excel spread sheet, as well as entered daily into SchoolMax, which is the district wide grade book that all teachers are required to use.  I also keep folders on my laptop for each school I teach at that include parent information, phone numbers, email addresses, and copies of letters I sent home specific to each school. Since I am teaching and grading students at 4 different schools, it is essential that I keep all my records organized or it would be easy for things to get mixed up or lost. Aside from grades and contact information, keeping accurate records of any monetary transactions between students and teachers is critically important. Whenever a student brings money to school for a field trip, equipment, attire, or anything else it is crucial that this be documented incase of any discrepancies that may arise later. Keeping this information in a spreadsheet or a Google Doc will allow all dates, times, and amounts to be documented and visible to staff and parents. Also, personally, I keep all important dates such as concerts, field trips, etc.. on my Google calendar, which gets sent directly to my phone. This way I can get reminders on the computer as well as on my phone whenever there is an important event.

Communication and public relations/advocacy, in my opinion, go hand in hand. Whenever there is a concert or other musical event at school it is important to not only inform parents of the event, but also advertise the event throughout the school and if possible in the community as well. Just like it is important to know your student’s families, it is important to know about the community, and within the community I teach in, I know that spreading the word about upcoming school musical events is something members of the community will enjoy as much as the families of the students I teach. Not only will this increase the number of people who are present at the events, but also increases awareness of the music program at the school, thus promoting greater enrollment in music classes. 

Professional development is an area that I wish my school district focused more on. We have several built in professional development days throughout the year, however, these are usually school based which means “specialists” (music, media, P.E. etc…) end up sitting in a meeting all day geared toward reading, math, and science. What usually happens at my school on PD days is the principal asks all specialists to just join another group of our choice to see where we could “assist” with this subject. It is very frustrating because I don’t find that this is a huge waste of my time and certainly does not help me to develop as a professional in my field. When I taught in Philadelphia for my first two years of teaching, the professional development days we had were outstanding! Not only did we get a chance to meet with the other music teachers, but we were given choices between 5 or 6 break out sessions that we could pick and choose from to attend. Many times I attended instrument repair workshops where I was able to fix broken instruments hands on, thus learning the essential skills to do this on my own. I also attended wind ensemble, jazz band, and beginning band workshops where we were actually allowed to play our instruments on music that could be used for our students. This not only helped us to grow in our profession, but also helped us to keep our personal instrumental skills up to speed. I really wish that they followed this model of professional development in my current school district. It is very frustrating not being able learn new skills about the subject I actually teach. I am glad for the opportunity to take this online master’s of music education program since it helps to supplement the lack of professional development I receive from work. Online learning is (relatively) new to the world, but I believe one of the greatest ways to receive an education. I am still able to work full time, teach private lessons, continue on with my personal life, and yet fulfill the requirements to receive my master’s degree at the same time. I know some people I have spoken with say they could not do an entirely online program because their learning style is more hands on with face-to-face interaction. For me, the online format works perfectly because I can complete assignments on my own schedule, as long as I make the final deadline. Now that I have taken this technology course, I realize by keeping up with my PLN and actively seeking out new information, I can continue my professional development on my own without having to rely on the school district to provide this for me.

Student's Respond to All Types of Music!

            As I began chapter five in Music Learning Today, I really enjoyed the opening story about Elizabeth and her difficulties inspiring the general music class to be interested in music. When I first started teaching I also felt lost about how to keep the students interested in playing their instruments. Much like Elizabeth in the text, I started off by force-feeding the students songs from the method book. Many of the students enjoyed the method book music, but several students did not enjoy playing, as they called it, “lame” or “corny” music. I was a new teacher and I was desperate not to lose numbers in the band program in my first year. I asked other teachers in the district what they tried to help with this problem and they suggested I ask the students what types of music they enjoy. Most of the students enjoyed pop or rap music. In 2011, one of the top pop songs was “Dynamite” by Tao Cruiz. It is a catchy song with simple notes and rhythms. I found an easy arrangement of this piece and the students went crazy over it! They absolutely loved this song and when we performed it at the concert, the entire audience was singing along and gave the band a cheering standing ovation. It was one of my most proud moments as a teacher and also something I don’t think those students or I will never forget.

            How students respond to music depends on many aspects such as family background, favorite type of music, exposure to different genres of music and so on. I know many of my students listen to music on a daily basis through their smart phones or ipods. Most of my students enjoy pop, rap, R&B, and gospel, however if I mention a famous composer such as Chopin, Haydn, or even Bach most students do not have any idea who I am talking about. YouTube has been a fantastic resource for me to be able to introduce students to famous composers. For example, one of the most popular songs among the students in the method book is an excerpt from Haydn’s Surprise Symphony. With YouTube I can just look this piece up and instantly play it for my students, and my students enjoy hearing the “real” version of a song they are learning.

Also with YouTube I have been able to look up videos about certain musical techniques that I want to demonstrate to the students. A student asked me about vibrato on a violin once, so I looked up a video on how to produce vibrato on a violin and showed it to the class. I really liked the assignment this week about making our own tutorials. I chose to demonstrate how to assemble a clarinet, which would be an early lesson in my beginning band class. After submitting my tutorial, I thought about how easy it would be to make these tutorials for every instrument, then instruct the students to watch them as part of their homework assignment. This would help students remember how to assemble instruments, or perform other tasks, while they were practicing at home and aren’t able to ask me questions.

Spotify is another resource to look up almost any piece or composer and create a play list to share with your students. Unfortunately for me, I found out this week while attempting to work on my Spotify project that Spotify is among the list of restricted websites on my school’s network. I cannot access certain websites at my schools due to restrictions for children, and Spotify is part of the restricted websites. I am assuming this is because music with explicit language is on this website and the schools do not want students accessing this during school hours.

I was happy to see the textbook discuss the importance of understanding music in order for it to be appreciated. I have always tried to make sure that all the students know how to read their music and learn the notes of the staff. So many students get away with not knowing how to read their music because their teacher just writes the letters above all the notes. This is a practice that I try to use as little as possible, and mainly with students with special needs that participate in band. Just this little amount of theory can increase a students understanding of even basic pieces of music. The text mentions games and apps that use music theory, and I would be very interested to explore some of these to see if there would be anything age appropriate for my beginning students. If there is a usable game available for elementary school children it would be great to use a projector and play the game as a whole class. I may possibly use this idea at the end of the school year after I collect the instruments, but still need material for lessons.

It’s important to listen to your students to learn what learning styles they have and what would work best for the class. Every student responds to music, no matter what genre, in a different way. Finding a healthy balance between “fun” and learning is the best way to connect with students in general, instrumental, or vocal music. This is my way of thinking every year so that I can keep the students in band and continue to improve the instrumental program.

Instruction and Assessment

This week the two chapters we read were about assessment and instructional design. I’m fairly confident with the designs of my lessons and instruction, however I am always looking for new ways to assess the students. When teaching music or any other subject, it is important to be able to appropriately assess the students’ progress. Many times it seems that teachers (including myself!) feel that the only way to assess the students is to give them a test on the subject. While some tests can be important, there are many other forms of assessment that can be very useful, especially to music teachers who do not always deal with written material.

One of the assessments that I use, which is also described in Music Learning Today is a checklist. When the students arrive to their lessons they are supposed to have with them: a pencil, their method book, their instrument, and their practice log. I award points for each item that they bring with them, totaling 20 points per lesson. If the students do not have each item on the list, I deduct points from their grade. Rubrics were also described as being the “…most sophisticated of the three authentic assessment tools” (Bauer 2014). Bauer uses an example of a world music presentation to demonstrate how a rubric could be useful for assessment, but I have also used rubrics for playing tests. Although admittedly I don’t have too many playing tests during the year, when I do, I use a 1-5 rating scale for different components of the students’ performance. The categories are usually tone, tempo, dynamics, notes, and rhythms, and the students will receive a 1-5 rating for each category. Just like the example rubric in Figure 6.3 on page 139, I include a brief description of each rating so the students will know why they received the score that they got. I like this idea a lot because it eliminates the need to ask “how did I get this grade?”. When there is evidence to back up the grade the students’ received, it creates less issues from parents or students in the future.  

Chapter seven discussed instructional design. In Prince George’s County MD where I teach, we follow Danielson’s Framework for Teaching, which includes under domain 1 an element all about designing coherent instruction. When administrators observe teachers, this is one of the main aspects they look for in the teacher’s lesson plans. It was interesting to read about all the different ways to begin designing and implementing lessons. The “backwards” design was especially interesting because it creates a desired outcome before creating activities and assessments to achieve that outcome. As an instrumental teacher, I believe this is something I do regularly for my lessons; I just didn’t realize I was doing it! The outcome for my classes is the winter concert before winter break and the spring concert before summer break. I already know I need to prepare the students for these two programs, so after I determine the dates for these events, I begin to determine which pieces to perform. After this is decided, I begin to plan lessons geared toward performing the pieces I selected. This way, I have a goal to work for and my lessons aren’t just random learning until a goal is decided later.

I also like the idea of project based learning, or PBL that is discussed on page 150. People do not always learn in the same way. Some people may thrive with quiet studying and memorization, while others require much more hands on activities for information to “stick”. Projects are ways that students of any age will be able to remember what they have learned and apply it in a way that is more creative than reciting facts. This is the way we have been learning about technology in this graduate course, and it has really helped me understand how to use and implement these new programs into my teaching. I try to include projects in my classes, but do not use them as much as I would like. In the future, I hope to add more projects about instruments, notes, rhythms, and musical terminology into my lessons to help the students remember these things when the move to middle and high school.

Chormatik and SmartMusic

This week we learned about two performance based software programs, Chormatik and SmartMusic, available on the Internet for free or a low yearly fee. I have been using SmartMusic for many years now, first as a student, then again as a teacher, but had never heard of the free program Chormatik. This program offers free sheet music that can be played on your computer or as an App on your smart phone or tablet. There are several features that I really like about Chormatik, but the main reason I am interested in this program is because it offers popular music that students and adults would want to learn. While I was looking through the music, I saw everything including pop tunes, country, famous Disney songs, jazz, alternative, rock, etc… I could definitely see myself, as an adult, finding songs that I was interested in and learning to play those pieces. I love the annotation feature where students can make notes on the music on their tablets. I also love that the music will turn pages for you and there is a small video at the bottom of the screen so that students (or adults) can play along with the actual recording of the song.  The practice log is also something that immediately caught my attention. I assign a weekly practice log to my students, and about 2% actually complete and turn in this assignment. I have tried several different ways of assigning this, but it seems only the most dedicated of students will actually take the time to write their practice habits down. If there was a platform where the students could record their practice on an App and share it with me immediately, the success of this assignment may be greater than if the students write with pencil and paper.

            My concerns as an educator with using this product are that these songs may be above the performance level of the students I teach.

“Do You Want to Build a Snowman” as well as other Frozen songs, are extremely popular among my students, but looking at the sheet music, there is no way even my beginning students would be able to perform this piece. Several of my advanced students may be able to work through it, but the majority of my students are at a very basic level of performance. However, if I were to assign homework to my middle school orchestra students, than Chormatik may be a useful and effective tool.  

My other concern is that all the special features like the annotation tool, practice logs, and recordings aren’t available on the computer. I do not own a tablet, and I’m sure many of my students do not own a tablet either. I know most have smart phones, however the screen may be a bit small to read the music or to write on. Having tablets seems almost necessary for this software program, which may be a concern for many of my students, and myself. I was also sad to see that the School and Group feature had been removed from the website. Previously there was a portion of the website and App dedicated to schools and groups, but it became to expensive for the company to continue to run. https://chromatik.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/204735875-What-happened-to-Chromatik-for-Schools-Groups- Hopefully this website will be able to bring back the features that they had for teachers and group classes in the future.

            SmartMusic is a program I am much more familiar with. When I was in high school, my teacher would allow us to use SmartMusic in the practice rooms during the school day, and I used it when I went to my teacher’s home for private lessons. In college I used smart music to help with my jazz improvisation and also as accompaniment for the numerous solos I had to perform throughout the years. I even used the accompaniment tool for my jury test one semester when my pianist became unavailable at the last minute. The great thing about that was that SmartMusic was able to follow along with me so if I made a mistake or changed tempo, the program was able to stay with my speed the entire time. Now, as an educator, I wish I could have SmartMusic at all of my schools for my students to use. Not only is it a great way for students to visually see their mistakes, but it makes learning music more fun and interactive, which always keeps young students interested and engaged.

            Since this year I have started teaching middle school orchestra, I am able to use SmartMusic as a practice and assessment tool with this group. Earlier in the year, we held a SmartMusic night where the students and their parents came to the school to watch professional musicians use the program to show all that it had to offer. Parents were then able to sign up for a SmartMusic subscription that evening or take information home that discussed the benefits of subscribing to the program.

I use SmartMusic for our “pass-off” exams that each student must take during each quarter of the school year. I assign 8-10 short songs out of the method book that each represent some musical technique that the group is attempting to improve upon. Throughout the quarter, the students must play these short songs perfectly in order to “pass-of” that exercise. Since SmartMusic has the method book we use already on it, the students can do the pass off assessments at home, and have as many tries as they want to get a perfect score. This allows the students more chances to get a perfect score than if they do the assessment during class time where they only get one chance per class.

            The other features I love about smart music are the ability to change tempos, the endless supply of music to practice sight-reading, and that there are songs in the system for any age group. A beginner from my elementary school could use smart music to practice groups of four quarter notes, half notes or whole notes, while an advanced student at a high school could use it to perfect a passage in a Holst Suite. This software is so versatile, while remaining incredibly user-friendly. In fact, there are many outlets for students and educators to seek out additional support if they are confused or need help with anything. http://www.smartmusic.com/training/ This page shows all the places to get additional training on the software with links to customer service reps, videos, and training guides. If you can’t find what you need on this link, there are also many YouTube videos that can guide a user to the answers to their questions.

            My concerns with SmartMusic are similar to my concerns with Chormatik with regards to the tablet issue. However, SmartMusic is just as interactive on a computer as it is on a tablet or smart phone. As long as the computer is equipped with a microphone, the program can be used just the same as on the App. The other concern I have is the cost of the program. Several of my students have signed up to use this, but many have not and it is because of the cost. For my school, the cost is $40 for a year subscription. This may not seem like a lot for all that is offered, but in the district I teach in this could be way over budget for many parents, especially when they are already paying for other expenses with the instrumental program. Because of this, we cannot require that all students purchase and use SmartMusic. We highly encourage parents to purchase the program, which is the reason for our SmartMusic night, but since it is an extra cost, we cannot officially require all students to obtain the program at home.

            In my opinion, Chormatik seems like an excellent tool for educators, but has a few bugs to work out. There needs to be simpler music for the students to play as well as a more user-friendly version for a computer instead of just for the App. SmartMusic is still my number one choice of educational music software and I would recommend this program to any educator at any level.