Using Technology in Education- ED632
A portfolio of incorporating technology into my teaching
A Culture of Technology in School
Every school has a culture around the use of technology in their teaching. At Glacier Valley Elementary, I interviewed the technology committee about the technology education plan, access to technology, and professional development opportunities. Observing various teachers and their incorporation of technology in the classroom confirmed positive attitudes in Glacier Valley's tech culture. The results from my interviews and observations can be found here.
Digital Story
MAT student and Cellist Ruth demonstrates the process of creating the paper violins. Paper violins mark the beginning of the transformation that happens to students and communities participating in JAMM.
This Digital Story traces the development of the first group to experience JAMM.
Step one of the digital story process: Create a map that shows the rising and falling action of the story.
MAT student and Cellist Ruth demonstrates the process of creating the paper violins. Paper violins mark the beginning of the transformation that happens to students and communities participating in JAMM.
The process of creating a digital story is creative, personal, reflective, and exceedingly rewarding. While it has many applications in the classroom, my digital story highlights the transformation our students in J.A.M.M. undergo from Kindergarten to 5th grade. The story map shows the beginning of JAMM in 2010 as the perfect match between students who were underachieving academically and the underfunding of music education. As JAMM students learn the violin, they overcome many obstacles (during the tension at the top of the map) as social and musical beings. By the end of the map, they are prepared for the next challenges in middle school. I am excited to have these 5th graders be a part of this transformative digital story. Click here to see the rest of my digital story production process.
Resource Library
Online Resources for my Students and my Classroom
Click the title for a link to the resource.
The American String Teacher's Association is a professional community that publishes research and curriculum, hosts conferences and competitions, and serves as a resource for private and public string teachers alike. I read their publication frequently, use their standards for string players, and use their resources/research to advocate for my own program.
The Boston Symphony Orchestra has digitally archived all their programs since their founding. Not only do I use this archive as a resource for my own program notes writing, but also to look for repertoire ideas, and check information about composers to give historical context to my students. The archive is fascinating to search through just for looking at program advertisements of different time periods as well.
Juneau Alaska Music Matters is a nucleo of a greater organization called El Sistema, a nonprofit music organization founded in Venezuela in 1998. The organization is founded on the principle that music is an agent for social transformation in individuals and communities. The El Sistema USA website serves as a resource to connect Sistema nuclei in America, provide professional development, publish research materials, and provide guiding principles to teachers at programs such as J.A.M.M.
The non-profit music education program I currently work for has a great website, which includes online lessons for current JAMM students. In order to encourage practice time at home, parents and students can go to this website to watch instructional videos and play along with our teachers through the online lessons. Learn more about Juneau Alaska Music Matters and how to get involved by looking through this website.
JW pepper has a comprehensive library of music for choir, band, orchestra, solo/ensemble, and much more. There is a description of each piece with the difficulty rating, number of parts, and a sample MIDI file so I can determine which pieces will be most appropriate for my students. Even if I am not purchasing music for students, JW Pepper is a great reference library for music teachers to check their repertoire.
Mimi Zweig is a renowned string pedagogue from Indianapolis and has created a website of teaching resources for string teachers. Resources include videos demonstrating instruction, a sequence of skills, repertoire lists, and hundreds of instruction ideas. I use many of her teaching methods in my classroom and my private studio, and often reference her website when I need new ideas for instruction or repertoire.
The brand new national standards are organized into an accessible website. They focus on music literacy with 4 main pillars- creating, performing, responding, and connecting. The website allows you to search based on art medium, grade level, and which of the pillars you want to focus on. They also give links to cornerstone assessments and to their partner organization, The National Association for Music Educators, another excellent resource.
This is an online resource every music teacher and student should be familiar with. Practicing with a metronome is crucial to learning rhythmic accuracy and fast passages. While there are many online metronomes available, this one gives a visual of the beat, to aid visual learners. Simply slide the central knob up or down to change the tempo. I use this in my classroom a lot when practicing rhythm, especially when an ensemble is having a hard time staying together. It is very easy to attach my computer to the sound system or a projector for students to see/hear this important online tool.
IMSLP is a database with any sheet music that is public domain. Any music written over 100 years ago that doesn't have a copyrighted edition can be found by searching through IMSLP. I use IMSLP in my private studio, my own chamber ensemble, as well as for my more advanced orchestra players. The best part about it- it's free! Printing etudes, orchestral excerpts, or chamber music is really easy and accessible from this website.
SmartMusic is an online application that students can download at home to help their practice time. With a parent email address, we can also create an account for students to use SmartMusic at school. At Juneau Alaska Music Matters, we are able to create assignments and classes through SmartMusic that our students can then work on individually at home or with friends at after school club. I've found this tool very successful with motivating students to practice, helping students with note reading, and engaging students through technology in and out of the classroom.
Independent Learning Project
Using Finale and SmartMusic to Differentiate my Classroom
Finale and SmartMusic are tools music teachers use to make music learning more accessible to their students. For our chamber group at Juneau Alaska Music Matters, I have arranged a piece of music originally for choir and piano so that it is developmentally appropriate and serves the need for accompaniment. I then learned how to upload the music into SmartMusic so that students can practice at home and get immediate feedback on their note and rhythm accuracy. To hear my arrangements, see lesson plans and full PDF versions of the arrangments, and a reflection of this process, click here.
Online Professional Community
The American String Teachers Association is a non-profit professional community that operates on a national and state chapter level. Founded over 60 years ago, ASTA has built resources to offer professional development, an award-winning string journal, and discounts to a large string teacher membership base. I chose to join this community as a student teacher, because I valued the resources they offered to their members: access to all their published journals and archived conferences, ability to search through a teacher database, and lots of advocacy tools. As a public and private teacher, ASTA seemed to be a great fit for me.
After reading several articles and watching conference videos, I gained a lot of insight into different tools to use when I’m teaching orchestra and private lessons. For example, an article on how to engage beginning bass players in rehearsal really helped notice and include them more during class. The bass section is easily forgotten amongst all the orchestral violin flourishes, so reading this was a nice reminder of the technique involved in playing bass and how I should address that in my classroom.
As I was thinking about my contribution to this community, I thought about my experience working with an El Sistema program in Juneau and how it would be really meaningful to many music teachers to read about the impact of our program. The problem, I discovered, was that most entries in the American String Teacher’s Journal are written by college professors are string teaching researchers. My role in that professional community, as a student teacher, was to read and watch and learn from other master teachers. Someday, I will write that article about the power of Sistema and the importance of music education for publication!
So, I turned to a social media site where many string teacher’s reside. The public group “Suzuki Teaching Ideas-Exchange” has almost 5000 members, worldwide. While they teach with the Suzuki method, this group serves as a support for teachers who need advice about instruments, working with parents, new pedagogical or content ideas, or strategies for behavior management and motivating students. After following the group for a few days, I read a post asking about how to run a group class of violins more effectively. I felt I could speak to this with all my experience this year working with many different violin group classes. For the whole post, click here. It was very validating to hear from an experienced teacher somewhere else in the world struggling with things I struggle with and to be able to use my training in that area to suggest an idea for her.
Another connection I made through that contribution was with other El Sistema teachers. Because the Suzuki method is so common, other Sistema nuclei use the methods in their programs. However, Sistema teachers also bring a music-for-social-transformation lens to their teaching, and it was helpful to see that lens fused with the Suzuki method teaching ideas.
A week later, I saw a post regarding motivational systems for practice time in which the writer used the same system that I use, called the Karate Belt system. Seeing the same idea applied in a slightly different way but used with the same success deepened my perspective for how I could run the Karate Belt system.
Finally, as I have prepared for my viola class lately, I have noticed their discouragement around learning to read notes. I needed some new ideas for helping them feel successful, so I decided to ask for help from 5000 wonderful string teachers. Within 24 hours I had several different ideas to work with, many of which, I have now incorporated into my future lesson plans. To see all the comments from my initial post, click here.
Between my membership with the American String Teacher’s Association and with the Suzuki Teaching group, I have acquired many new teaching ideas and a lot of empathy and perspective from music teachers who struggle with the same challenges that I have. I know where to go when I need help with my teaching strategies and I feel that my teaching experience is valid for contributing to the current discussions. I am very grateful to have these professional communities as part of my weekly researching and writing routine.