Teaching Music With Technology

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...