Week 3 begins and I was certainly glad that I listened to the lecture first before I read the textbook. I struggled a little understanding the new jargon of bit depth and sample rate. The redeeming information for me this week was the video of the John Lennon Education Bus. I am so envious of those students and the teachers of those students who have had the opportunity to work on that bus. It is really hard not to get excited about the idea of an entire tour bus dedicated to digital audio workstations as well as video production. Last week, when improvisation was discussed, I felt daunted by a subject area that I do not feel proficient in. I still feel that way this week, but the opportunity to work with professionals on this tour bus who are versed in this kind of technology and being at your side to create your own music video based on your own composition excited me!
So many students that I have had and have yet to have could really relate to these "real life" projects. So often in teaching students don't see the connection between what they are asked to do and how this will benefit them in the future. As this video showed, many of these students will never go on to be high paid music recording artists, but this gives them the opportunity to work with their musical group, organize themselves, and produce a product enhanced with technology. I can also see this project appealing to students because there is a career path in music and video production! Students that are interested in media, music, computers or cameras could really appreciate and thrive in this setting.
Another point that really struck me this week was the recurring theme of audiation versus notation. This argument was really first brought to my attention during my instrumental techniques class earlier in this Masters of Music Education program. As a student, I was taught that music literacy was the most important aspect of being a good musician and my teaching techniques reflected this. However, during the instrumental class a comparison was made that we don't expect children to read a book before they understand how the words sound (speech); so why do we expect young musicians to read music notation before they understand how it "should" sound? This really revolutionized the way I wanted to approach music literacy. Due to this argument, the idea of compositional software that assist students in creating music based on what they hear in their heads as opposed to producing sheet music that others can recreate the sound really interests me. I am looking forward to playing around with DAWs and learning how to compose music based on what I want to hear. I am nervous about our music creation project since I am still grounded in notation, but I am looking forward to learning a new way to teach and compose myself.
Thursday, March 26, 2015
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Week 2 Reflection - Improvisation
Out of all the music curriculum the two most daunting subjects for me have always been composition and improvisation. Neither was really incorporated into music classes in my school unless you happened to be a part of the jazz band. Since I was a French Horn player and didn't have the confidence in myself to learn a second instrument at the time, I was never really given the opportunity to learn to improvise or compose. Last week, many of my classmates, including myself, talked about being daunted by incorporating technology into the classroom because they feel they are not as knowledgeable about, or as comfortable with, technology as they would like to be. I find myself in a similar situation this week. I feel less than confident in my ability to teach composition and improvisation when I don't feel I excel at these subjects myself. My education was performance based, and as a result, my teaching has been mostly performance based.
Bauer's text this week really helped me put some of these insecurities to rest. I feel like the reason I have always been so uncomfortable with improvisation was because I was afraid to make mistakes (I am, unfortunately, a bit of a perfectionist sometimes). More to the root of the problem, I didn't understand the basic rules of building up to improvisation, and set myself up for failure. I particularly appreciated Bauer's point that parameters need to be set in order to begin such a complex process as improvisation. Starting with just a few notes, or rearranging written music is still improvisation, but it doesn't mean that I have to begin improvising with perfect melodic and harmonic devices. I also really liked Bauer's levels of improvisation and how it laid out what the goals are for the performer and how the teacher can facilitate each student in achieving these goals. I think the best quote in this entire book so far was quoted from the creator of the Dilbert comic, Scott Adams; " Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep." This really helps me throw my fear of making mistakes out the window when it comes to music. It puts this into a new perspective for me.
Although I found these general tips in teaching improvisation helpful, I relate to the idea expressed last week about teaching a lesson well, but being able to teach it better with technology. I have used Smart Music before in my student teaching, but had never really thought of the accompaniment feature as a way to teach improvisation. I was always focused on using that feature to rehearse contest music when an accompanist was not available. Even technologies I have access to can be used in new ways to accomplish new techniques and lessons for my students. I am also very intrigued to learn more about Band-in-a-box and iRealb since these are programs I have not used before, but am excited to see what they offer in terms of teaching and learning improvisation. I have to say that Bauer's textbook is one of the first that I am actually excited to read more from to get new ideas and directions to take my teaching!
Bauer's text this week really helped me put some of these insecurities to rest. I feel like the reason I have always been so uncomfortable with improvisation was because I was afraid to make mistakes (I am, unfortunately, a bit of a perfectionist sometimes). More to the root of the problem, I didn't understand the basic rules of building up to improvisation, and set myself up for failure. I particularly appreciated Bauer's point that parameters need to be set in order to begin such a complex process as improvisation. Starting with just a few notes, or rearranging written music is still improvisation, but it doesn't mean that I have to begin improvising with perfect melodic and harmonic devices. I also really liked Bauer's levels of improvisation and how it laid out what the goals are for the performer and how the teacher can facilitate each student in achieving these goals. I think the best quote in this entire book so far was quoted from the creator of the Dilbert comic, Scott Adams; " Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep." This really helps me throw my fear of making mistakes out the window when it comes to music. It puts this into a new perspective for me.
Although I found these general tips in teaching improvisation helpful, I relate to the idea expressed last week about teaching a lesson well, but being able to teach it better with technology. I have used Smart Music before in my student teaching, but had never really thought of the accompaniment feature as a way to teach improvisation. I was always focused on using that feature to rehearse contest music when an accompanist was not available. Even technologies I have access to can be used in new ways to accomplish new techniques and lessons for my students. I am also very intrigued to learn more about Band-in-a-box and iRealb since these are programs I have not used before, but am excited to see what they offer in terms of teaching and learning improvisation. I have to say that Bauer's textbook is one of the first that I am actually excited to read more from to get new ideas and directions to take my teaching!
Noteflight Score
Ok! After several hours of frustration and confusion, I think I finally got this thing embedded correctly! Thank goodness for a student who figured out that the embed code on the noteflight screen was actually missing some pieces of code that made this actually work!!!!
Anyway....
Besides my frustration with sharing my score, I thought this program was very easy to use and I could see students having a lot of fun using this site. The fact that this is cross-platform and available for free to anyone makes this an incredibly valuable tool for students. In the school I currently work in, there are large computer labs where an entire band or choir class could work on composing their own music. I also really like how this site allows for collaboration, which could be a great tool to help students gain confidence in their ability to compose and allow for an authentic audience of not only their classmates, but other students around the state, country or the world!
The only thing that was frustrating to me as far as note entry goes was how you had to re-click on the beat if you were adding chords. This took a lot of extra time and if I forgot to click on it, it would add the notes to the next beat which could really mess up my score. I also had a few difficulties with the triplets because I started with quarter notes which really screwed up when I tried to change it to eighth note triplets...Overall, however, the pros of this program far outweighed the cons!
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Week 1 Reflection - The beginning
I feel slightly overwhelmed by the amount of information we received and implemented this week and yet it sparks something in me as a student and as a teacher. I think about how every time I go to a professional development event, such as a conference or even an honor band event and I come home rejuvenated and excited to share my new knowledge with my students, my co-workers and even my friends and family. I really enjoyed the first video we watched in our lecture because I can completely relate to the idea that involving students with integrated technology and face-to-face facilitation creates a similar excitement and motivation in students as I feel coming home from those conferences. What if every day could be like that in my classroom? What if kids could learn and have fun, every day? By integrating technology into the classroom, we provide our students with a worldwide authentic audience which provides immediate feedback and collaboration across social, economical and cultural divides. Although I am truly excited about this prospect, I still feel that I am more of a technology immigrant than a native.
Today's students are bombarded with information constantly from different sources of technology and I feel daunted by the task of facilitating the science learning method in which students are in charge of their own learning. I feel that much of my pedagogical knowledge is too teacher-centered and worse, I don't feel I have enough technological knowledge to efficiently use technology to enhance my classroom in this way. Our reading described some issues that other teachers have reported as obstacles to integrating technology. These absolutely apply to me! Most schools I have worked in have little or no budget to spend on technology, and the technology we have is incredibly outdated. When new technology does become available, I find my workload to be so demanding that I don't spend the amount of time I need to gain the technological knowledge to feel comfortable in front of my classroom teaching students a technology I barely understand myself. On the other hand, I personally have not been teaching for the past 2 school years, and have had the opportunity to work as a paraprofessional in a computer lab of 100 mac desktops. This has been an incredible experience for me to experiment with technology and find out that I do in fact have the skills to figure out computer issues that arise if I am patient with myself, and use Internet and book resources (google is my friend when I don't know how to use a program or fix an issue). The final video in our lecture this week reiterated this point for me. Many of the coders said that coding starts out as intimidating, but by breaking down the problems into small steps and involving yourself directly in the issue, you not only memorize the steps to fix the issue, but you learn and retain that information.
Perhaps the most important piece of information I am walking away with this week is about the TPACK. In order for me to reach my goal of creating the classroom environment I want which integrates technology and a face-to-face facilitation approach, while breaking down my own insecurities about technology, I need to focus on developing my TPACK. Our reading broke down a method of developing curriculum, by making columns "curricular outcomes," "pedagogical approaches," and "potential technologies,"in order to determine what tools could enhance a lesson. This is a process that I fully intend to focus on in order to improve my TPACK.
Today's students are bombarded with information constantly from different sources of technology and I feel daunted by the task of facilitating the science learning method in which students are in charge of their own learning. I feel that much of my pedagogical knowledge is too teacher-centered and worse, I don't feel I have enough technological knowledge to efficiently use technology to enhance my classroom in this way. Our reading described some issues that other teachers have reported as obstacles to integrating technology. These absolutely apply to me! Most schools I have worked in have little or no budget to spend on technology, and the technology we have is incredibly outdated. When new technology does become available, I find my workload to be so demanding that I don't spend the amount of time I need to gain the technological knowledge to feel comfortable in front of my classroom teaching students a technology I barely understand myself. On the other hand, I personally have not been teaching for the past 2 school years, and have had the opportunity to work as a paraprofessional in a computer lab of 100 mac desktops. This has been an incredible experience for me to experiment with technology and find out that I do in fact have the skills to figure out computer issues that arise if I am patient with myself, and use Internet and book resources (google is my friend when I don't know how to use a program or fix an issue). The final video in our lecture this week reiterated this point for me. Many of the coders said that coding starts out as intimidating, but by breaking down the problems into small steps and involving yourself directly in the issue, you not only memorize the steps to fix the issue, but you learn and retain that information.
Perhaps the most important piece of information I am walking away with this week is about the TPACK. In order for me to reach my goal of creating the classroom environment I want which integrates technology and a face-to-face facilitation approach, while breaking down my own insecurities about technology, I need to focus on developing my TPACK. Our reading broke down a method of developing curriculum, by making columns "curricular outcomes," "pedagogical approaches," and "potential technologies,"in order to determine what tools could enhance a lesson. This is a process that I fully intend to focus on in order to improve my TPACK.
Monday, March 9, 2015
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