Most of my experience with wikis has to do with Wikipedia. I have used it extensively to research all different topics. In a music classroom, students could use a wiki to plan and organize a talent show. They could each submit songs or acts for approval by the teacher and check back to see if their ideas were approved. Then the teacher could put the acts in order and the students would have an order for the program. The students could then help to create a handout for the talent show on the wiki.
Between teachers a wiki would be a very useful tool for sharing ideas, posting links to helpful websites, organizing a choir festival, etc. I get e-mails from teachers all year long with links to helpful websites. Once the e-mail is buried under all my other e-mail, I can't find it any more. If teachers were sharing websites on a wiki or a site like delicious or diigo then they would be easy to find.
Music in Pictures
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Friday, July 16, 2010
#5 Social Bookmarking
The following are a few websites I found while browsing the social bookmarking sites Delicious and Diigo.
Creatingmusic.com
toytheater.com
wildmusic.org
The tags I used to find all three of these websites were "Elementary" and "Music". It seems to me that a tag is like a keyword you type in to a search engine.
I explored membership in both Diigo and Delicious and found that Delicious was more user friendly for me. I thought that Diigo was difficult to understand and required more time to understand how to use it than Delicious. So I joined Delicious and added the buttons to my browser.
I think that Delicious and Diigo would be most useful in the classroom as a research tool. Teachers can set up a class account and add tags for students to research different topics. For instance in the music classroom some tags might be: worldmusic, instruments, and composers.
In addition, a site like this will help with lesson planning. Suppose a teacher wants to show a website for a particular lesson. He/she could tag the website to a Delicious or Diigo site for quick access during the lesson to show on an activeboard or screen.
Creatingmusic.com
toytheater.com
wildmusic.org
The tags I used to find all three of these websites were "Elementary" and "Music". It seems to me that a tag is like a keyword you type in to a search engine.
I explored membership in both Diigo and Delicious and found that Delicious was more user friendly for me. I thought that Diigo was difficult to understand and required more time to understand how to use it than Delicious. So I joined Delicious and added the buttons to my browser.
I think that Delicious and Diigo would be most useful in the classroom as a research tool. Teachers can set up a class account and add tags for students to research different topics. For instance in the music classroom some tags might be: worldmusic, instruments, and composers.
In addition, a site like this will help with lesson planning. Suppose a teacher wants to show a website for a particular lesson. He/she could tag the website to a Delicious or Diigo site for quick access during the lesson to show on an activeboard or screen.
Tool #4 Google Reader and Google Docs
I set up my Google reader and I am following a few blogs:
Free Technology for Teachers
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day
http://fairyprincipal.blogspot.com
Mary's Art Spot
MWE Transition and Rebuilding
While I think this is a handy way to keep all of the blogs I want to read in the same place. I find it difficult to spend very much time reading blogs online. My eyes get tired and there is a constant flow of new materials coming in to read. It is a little overwhelming for me personally.
However, for the classroom, I could easily set up a Google reader for the students to follow that includes all of the blogs pertaining to our school or district music events. It might be possible for them to access a school Google Reader site from the Library. Then students could follow blogs like the music blog, construction for MWE blog, or the Purple Martins blog all in one place! There would have to be one adult in charge of the Reader so that there is accountability for blogs that students are exposed to.
Google docs is much more exciting to me. The possibilities are endless. I created a grocery list to share with my husband at work and he edited it and then I printed it out. For school purposes we could create shared calendars, a timeline for planning events, newsletters to be edited by each grade level team, letters home to parents, etc. This is very useful for documents that need to be translated into bilingual materials before they are sent home. It eliminates the need for 2 and 3 copies of everything.
In the music classroom, Google Docs could be used to help students create and notate new songs as a grade level. Each class could work on a song by writing words to a song in a Google Doc and sharing it with other classes. Also, students could create a power point for a song and share it with each class. They could create power points to go with their concerts as well.
Teachers can share lesson plans and assessment forms and get input from other teachers. I love it!
Free Technology for Teachers
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day
http://fairyprincipal.blogspot.com
Mary's Art Spot
MWE Transition and Rebuilding
While I think this is a handy way to keep all of the blogs I want to read in the same place. I find it difficult to spend very much time reading blogs online. My eyes get tired and there is a constant flow of new materials coming in to read. It is a little overwhelming for me personally.However, for the classroom, I could easily set up a Google reader for the students to follow that includes all of the blogs pertaining to our school or district music events. It might be possible for them to access a school Google Reader site from the Library. Then students could follow blogs like the music blog, construction for MWE blog, or the Purple Martins blog all in one place! There would have to be one adult in charge of the Reader so that there is accountability for blogs that students are exposed to.
Google docs is much more exciting to me. The possibilities are endless. I created a grocery list to share with my husband at work and he edited it and then I printed it out. For school purposes we could create shared calendars, a timeline for planning events, newsletters to be edited by each grade level team, letters home to parents, etc. This is very useful for documents that need to be translated into bilingual materials before they are sent home. It eliminates the need for 2 and 3 copies of everything.
In the music classroom, Google Docs could be used to help students create and notate new songs as a grade level. Each class could work on a song by writing words to a song in a Google Doc and sharing it with other classes. Also, students could create a power point for a song and share it with each class. They could create power points to go with their concerts as well.
Teachers can share lesson plans and assessment forms and get input from other teachers. I love it!
Friday, June 25, 2010
I-pod Touch Training
I attended the district staff development for the I-pod touch on Tuesday, June 22nd. I had no idea there were so many apps out there. There is an app for just about anything you would ever need or want to do. Creating apps must be a very lucrative business. Now I want an I-phone or an I-pod touch of my own! I could see myself using it every day and spending a lot of money on apps too. ;-P
I was also one of the lucky winners of the raffle for the class. I won 4 sets of earbuds that will be delivered to my classroom in August.
I was also one of the lucky winners of the raffle for the class. I won 4 sets of earbuds that will be delivered to my classroom in August.
Tool #3 Image Chef
I used Word Mosaic on the imagechef.com website to create this word image. I like it better than wordle because it makes a shape with the words. However, it is difficult to read some of the words because they run into other words. This image generator and Wordle could be used in the classroom to post words that are grouped together under a category. Such as Parts of a Note: note head, stem, flag, beam, etc. Perhaps it could be used as an assignment in which the students could color certain words in particular colors, depending on their meaning or how they relate to each other. For instance, tempo (fast or slow) words could be placed into Word Mosaic and students would color all the words meaning fast in red, all the words meaning medium speed in green, and all the words meaning slow in blue. All in all it is a very useful tool. I also explored flickr.com a bit and I realized that while it is a powerful tool, it will definitely take some time to learn how to use it.
Tool #3
I created this image using Comic Strip Generator. It was fun to use and would be a great tool to help kids to get excited about writing. However, as I was browsing through the options of pictures to edit, I saw a few inappropriate pictures of women. Also, I had some difficulty figuring out how to download the image without having to pay for it. In addition, there were many different links floating around the page that one could click on. There is always a possibility of downloading a virus from clicking on links. I did this exercise at home so I wonder if the Spring Branch system would block some of the inappropriate images and links????
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Tool #2
I think that collaboration among educators is wonderful! I really value different viewpoints and the advice of my colleagues. I see two ways that online communities can be helpful.
1. Online communities allow people to share without having to schedule meetings.
2. Readers can take or leave the ideas that are presented in the blog they are reading.
Music teachers in our district already have a folder on the district server in which we share power points, mp3s, listening maps, and ideas for teaching the curriculum. I have enjoyed the ease with which we can share.
When reading the commenting advice I was most affected by the idea that you should add something meaningful with a comment. Leaving a one word comment like, "Great!" might be nice and good etiquette, but it doesn't make the blog better.
I found commenting on blogs took up A LOT of time. I had a difficult time finding blogs to comment on because I had to read quite a few to find blogs that I could identify with or had an opinion about. I commented on the following blogs:
1. 2 Cents Worth
2. Websites of the Day for ELL, ESL, and EFL
3. Southbound 45
4. Mary's Art Spot
5. Mrs. Dixon's Blog
These were all good blogs. In the future I will be on the lookout for websites, apps, and blogs having to do with teaching music. Suggestions are welcome!
1. Online communities allow people to share without having to schedule meetings.
2. Readers can take or leave the ideas that are presented in the blog they are reading.
Music teachers in our district already have a folder on the district server in which we share power points, mp3s, listening maps, and ideas for teaching the curriculum. I have enjoyed the ease with which we can share.
When reading the commenting advice I was most affected by the idea that you should add something meaningful with a comment. Leaving a one word comment like, "Great!" might be nice and good etiquette, but it doesn't make the blog better.
I found commenting on blogs took up A LOT of time. I had a difficult time finding blogs to comment on because I had to read quite a few to find blogs that I could identify with or had an opinion about. I commented on the following blogs:
1. 2 Cents Worth
2. Websites of the Day for ELL, ESL, and EFL
3. Southbound 45
4. Mary's Art Spot
5. Mrs. Dixon's Blog
These were all good blogs. In the future I will be on the lookout for websites, apps, and blogs having to do with teaching music. Suggestions are welcome!
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