Teaching Music With Technology

Music is a fascinating subject when it comes into alignment with Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological model.  Music is a subject that has roots that have a deeper connection to the community than most other subjects experience.  For example, the Western tradition of music has a deep history with Christianity that is difficult to ignore.  But, programming choices need to take into account many "circles" of a student's bioecological situation.  When programming (read "choosing curriculum") for the year several questions should be asked: How will this piece help my student as an individual? How will parents feel if the student reports at home about this piece? (microsystem thinking) Does the piece align with the school's guidelines? Does the piece serve the community well and align with their values and traditions?  (macrosystem thinking) Is there anyone in the middle that might take issue?  (mesosystem thinking) I saw Mr. Choir go through the process ...

James Marcia, in furthering Erik Erikson’s work, theorized that there are four stages of psychosocial development.  Many of these stages are faced in adolescence.  In fact, I would argue that a secondary educator will, more than likely, have to contend with all four stages in a classroom.  It would be interesting to delve into the four development stages and see what correlation they have to different parenting styles and/or marital success and modeling in the home.  But, I digress... The four stages of development are: Identity Diffusion - where an adolescent feels that they have to make little to no choices but they have little to no commitment. Identity Foreclosure - where and adolescent seems willing to make some longer range plans, takes on significant roles, or begin to form values but still rely on those around them.  They have not explored a lot of options in terms of career and future but mostly trust parents or their sensei (MKO) in their suggestio...

I'm going to include a video... mostly because the video refers to Vygotsky as "the Mozart of Psychology" and we all know how I feel about Mozart! Okay... now that you've brushed up on your Vygotsky (or if you're ADD like me, you ended up listening to Mozart for a half an hour before you ended up back here.) I'd like to tell you how I've seen this in the classroom.  In a rehearsal environment, it is easy to identify the teacher as the More Knowledgeable Other (MKO).  The teacher knows more about music than the students do in terms of phrasing, dynamics, performance standards, etc.  Vygotsky theorized that learning came through social interactions.  And, other than a team sport, I'm not sure of any other classroom that is more social than a choral classroom.  I think that group work can be highly effective in a choral setting if used for the right reasons.  I have watched this with Mr. Choir many times.  He will model a sound or an articulation...

If you think you are beaten, you are; If you think you dare not, you don't. If you'd like to win, but you think you can't, It is almost a cinch- you won't. If you think you'll lose, you've lost; For out in this world we find Success begins with a fellow's will It's all in the state of mind. If you think you're outclassed, you are; You've got to think high to rise. You've got to be sure of yourself before You can ever win the prize. Life's battles don't always go To the stronger or faster man; But sooner or later the man who wins Is the one who thinks he can! - Walter D. Wintle It is SO fascinating how much mindset and thinking play a role in our success!  As I have been observing high school choir classes, I have seen how having a growth mindset is crucial to success and learning.  If a student has the common mantra of "I can't sing" then they are right.  This is an example of a fixed mindset - the mindset w...

I have landed a great observation gig at a high school in Utah County.  The cooperating teacher is plain awesome and I am learning a lot by watching him at work.  So that I might remain objective on this blog, I'll not mention where I am just in case something negative comes along.  I don't anticipate that happening because this guy is right on the ball and I'm completely in love with his program and his execution of it.  The focus of our Educational Psychology class lately has been metacognition.  Metacognition is a fancy term for thinking about... wait for it... thinking.  Yep, thinking about thinking and being aware of where your thinking is taking you.  This is a fun process to watch in these choral classes.  Mr. Choir (That's what I'll call my mystery co-op teacher.) often starts his classes with a "braindance." The kids pat their opposite limbs with their hands from finger to shoulder.  Then they try some physical brain teasers. ...

I am a big fan of online learning.  When I started college, I struggled... really struggled.  For example?  I ended up taking Psychology 101 three times.  After the second fail, my wife implemented a new family rule for my college career. And that was fair.  With our first baby, a new mortgage, a car payment, and paying tuition, it certainly made good financial sense to not repeat classes.  So why the Psych class fails and the struggle through my associate's degree?  At the time, I was an undiagnosed ADD adult that wanted to study music.  I didn't see how psychology (or those dumb math classes) was (were) going to get me into a position of being a world-class musician.  The content felt irrelevant to me and my first two psych professors didn't seem to have any interest in changing that.  Read, lecture, notes, test; read, lecture, notes, test; ad nauseam.  Testing was about 70% of the grade so when I didn't test well, I flu...

There are three things that I love in this world just slightly less than my wife and kiddos. Music - which I have chosen as my career. Fly-fishing - which may have been an easier choice as a career but harder to make money... plus, I'm not a huge fan of boats or swimming. Classic cars.  This doesn't make money, it eats money.  But man, they are sure fun. A 1963 Chevrolet Bel Air and a 1953 Chevrolet 210. Evidence of a very patient wife. The phrase "they don't make them like they used to" is most definitely applicable to cars.  There is just something about all that steel, chrome and - I swear to you - a smell to them that just can't be replicated.  There's only one problem with classic cars...  in original condition, many are not safe to drive on today's roads.  They have suspension parts that are outdated or unsafe, brakes that are insufficient and unsafe for modern freeway speeds, and outdated electrical systems.  Howe...

In the last post I talked a bit about UDL (Universal Design for Learning) and how, as an educator, I can make sure that I am reaching out to my students with different types of content (expression).  This way I can make sure that all of my learners - kinesthetic, visual, auditory, and/or reading/writing - can have a meaningful experience in my classroom.  (More info on learning types  HERE. ) Just as important as presenting content in different media types is assessing in different ways.  If I call for written essays for all of my assessments, I will, no doubt, have kids that will struggle.  A lot.  I remember hating classes that were the same delivery, same assessment.  I felt trapped.  Or maybe I felt something akin to survival mode in those classes.  One of my favorite teachers was my high school German teacher.  In addition to the standard type tests, he would make vocabulary words into game shows, teach us Beatle songs in Ger...

Imagine a day at school not many decades ago.  Every class except for gym class is a lecture and notes with an occasional video splashed in.  If you're a kinesthetic learner, these are going to be frustrating days. Universal Design Learning (UDL) is an effective way to reach students who digest content in different ways.  Representation is the process of providing content in several different ways. As a music teacher trying to implement UDL through representation, an effective way to present a lesson may still consist of lecturing in class but with added components being made available.  For example, if I were teaching a general music class and we were learning about Beethoven I could lecture in class and then make available or present other media in class.  We could watch a documentary called Beethoven's Hair.  (It's a real thing.  Preview found  HERE .)  I could find a podcast that talks about Beethoven.  I could present numerou...

It seems like you can’t go a day without hearing about someone who has misrepresented themselves in some way in their online presence.  A dating profile, email scams claiming prizes or cash, or extra payment if you’ll put your item for sale on a truck after you’ve shipped the time and cashed some crazy check from some other country.  Another digital hot topic is online interactions.  A misrepresentation on a dating profile, cyber-bullying, phishing - the list goes on and on! Digital citizenship, at it’s most basic level, is how an individual presents themselves online.  It can include anything from a social media profile to commenting on an anonymous comment board.  It can encompass honesty, integrity, or whether the lack of those traits can land you in prison for a very long time. As an educator, every opportunity to teach and emulate a positive and honest digital citizenship is a pretty big deal.  I think it is important for kids to understand how impo...

As teachers, it is important to know what the professional expectations and outcomes should be - both as an educator and what our students are expected to gain or become from their time in our classroom. One of the most valuable resources for this is the Inernational Society for Technology in Education (ISTE).  ISTE lists standards for educators such as “seeking opportunities for leadership to support student empowerment and success” and “inspire students to positively contribute to and responsibily participate in the digital world.”  For students standards include “students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes” and “students critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts, and make meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others.” (ISTE.org) Sometimes it can be challenging to come up with fresh ways to implement standards every day, every semester, every year...

Music is often considered a language that is universal.  When a composition is well crafted the composer can portray events, emotions, and feelings that can be understood by everyone who hears it.  In a classroom, the teacher is much like the composer in this analogy.  They need to design a curriculum that can be understood by all who are in their classroom.  Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is how to “compose” a curriculum that incorporates different learning styles, different ability levels, race, or any other differential that may cause difficulty in a single-stream type of curriculum.  Research has shown that there is “unmistakable diversity in our nervous systems; that is, the nervous system ‘wires up’ differently for each person.”  (Harvard) This means that everyone learns and absorbs information differently - as diverse and unique as a fingerprint. Research also shows that there is a correlation between emotion and learning.  (Harvard) W...

Welcome!  As part of my Instructional Media class, we have been assigned to create a blog to keep throughout the semester.  It will be interesting to see where this takes us.  To begin, we were asked specific questions to answer. 1. What is digital literacy and why is it important?  Digital literacy is the skill set you possess to work with (or around) technology.  For some, this may begin with something as simple as "how do I turn this thing on?" and continue to something as complex as creating programming code for a state-of-the-art surgical robot.  As complex machines and computing systems continue to develop, it will become increasingly important to know how to navigate these systems as they are implemented in various areas of everyday life.  Handwritten letters delivered by a mailman are rare anymore.  The bulk of communication in the US happens by text, email, or social media outlets.  Staying connected has never been easier, ...