Prezi- Intro to Jazz

Emerging Technology 4: Wordle

Recently I have begun using the SMART board almost daily in my classroom lessons by creating lessons through SMART boards notebook software.  Just about to embark on a new unit, I wanted my student’s to begin thinking about the new music unit by showing them several words to  figure out the correlation. Typically, I would just type the words individually into PowerPoint and adjust and rotate the text myself, however this time I attempted to use the online website Wordle to create a collage of correlating words.

Wordle has several benefits. Anyone can easily access the site without a username, type in a set of words, and instantly have a printable or embeddable link for a blog site. I liked how easily and quickly it was to create a visual of the words I wanted to show my student’s.  However, there were some downsides.

I teach K-5 music and I felt the graphic presentations they created at times were hard to read as the text was not at an angle that was easy to read.  Because of this, I think using the program might actually create more harm than good in my lesson as it could cause confusion or frustration at not being able to read the words easily. Also, at times there are words I would like to stay connected or near each other and there is not an option to move or rotate one word. I think Wordle would work better in my classroom if this feature was available. Wordle does allow the user to modify the text color scheme, general alignment, and font which is a benefit. I did notice some font names that would cause a disturbance amongst my student’s and time off task.

However, I do believe Wordle has a place in my classroom. Because there is no need to create a username and password it would be easy for my student’s to create a Wordle.  This would be an easy way to incorporate technology at the end of a unit. Student’s could go to the lab and type in the words they thought were key to the unit. Student’s could then either print their presentation or be paired with a partner-visiting the other student’s computer to view their graphic. Student’s then would be challenged to interpret what their partner found important in the lesson and the partner would have to explain why they chose what the words they did to their partner. This would hopefully promote higher level thinking skills.  I think the small group time would not be as confusing for the student’s when looking at the graphic because they would have more time to explain the presentation.

So, to Wordle or not to Wordle? I think when student’s are able to be closer to the graphic, in a small group it could be an excellent resource. When incorporating into my daily lesson presentations; I must admit… I ended up not using the Wordle I created and used my own creation on notepad where I could adjust and modify the text as I desired.   

Here is a link to a Wordle I made over music rhythm review.

Module 4-2 Digital Literacy

Recently I heard of a case of cyberbullying in my school. I was confronted about a situation that had happened on the computer by one of my student’sand the problem was being brought into the classroom. I was aware of the dangers of the Internet but yet was naive to think that my elementary student’s were too young to deal with the cyberbullies. However, I was wrong.

Because of the recent situation I chose to read the article Cinema vs Cyberbullies: Using Filmmaking to Fight Online Harassment.  Debbie Heimowitz, creator of  the 30 minute film, Adina’s Deck,  has researched cyberbullying and is aware of the dangers of technology amongst kids.  While she ” understands the potential for real harm if bullies use the anonymity of technology to gang up on their victims, she doesn’t just emphasize scary stories. ”

Heimowitz created the video Adina’s Deck,with the help of middle school aged girls who provided feedback that gave the film more accuracy as to the issues with cyberbullies. The movie stars “four middle school girls who become cybersleuths to solve an online bullying mystery. They combine the bravado of Nancy Drew with the tech savvy of Silicon Valley veterans as they figure out who is behind a string of anonymous text messages, phone calls, and Web posts that take an increasingly threatening tone.”   While most teens and schools are not as tech savvy as in the movie, Heimowitz wanted the audience of the film to know cyberbullies can be caught and cyberbullying is not really as anonymous as some student’s think.

It is important as educators to be aware of potential cyberbullying by listening and looking for signs.  58 percent of students that have been bullied online have not told another adult.  Cyberbullying can affect both boys and girls and all age groups and is a growing problem. Heimowitz’s film is intended to inform student’s that online bullies can be caught.  With the success of Adina’s Deck, two more films are in the process. One will focus on online relationships and predators and the other plagiarism and cheating. Like the first, both fims have a detective story line and include the original girls plus one new boy character.

With this generations love of visual multimedia these videos would make an excellent resource to educate student’s about Cyberbullies.

Emerging Technology 3: Thinkfinity

Tonight I had two goals, to finish researching one more emerging technology and develop my next unit of instruction for my 3rd grade music class. Little did I know when researching a new emerging technology I would stumble across an excellent unit for my 3rd grade student’s on Thinkfinity.com.  I was excited to find such a great lesson that will engage my student’s through the use of technology, include important reading, writing, and history state standards prepare student’s for ISTEP, as well as include music standards, and be able to incorporate the use of the SMART board; a current goal I have within my classroom.

Thinkfinity is a terrific website for educators, students, parents, and even after care centers. The website claims; “Thinkfinity.org makes it easy for educators to enhance their classroom instruction with lesson plans, interactive activities and other online resources. Thinkfinity.org also provides a wealth of educational and literacy resources for students, parents and after-school programs” (Thinkfinity.org).  I agree fully with their statement and highly recommend exploring the site.

I plan to use the site to find more engaging lessons for my music classroom as well as use the site to locate interactive 5th grade math lessons. Although I teach music, I am also required to tie in classroom standards to relate with the music curriculum. This site is an excellent resource for finding lesson plans that go beyond the basics of music and make it simple to find a lesson that incorporates other academic areas. While browsing the site I noticed some of the links were broken and unloadable. This presents a problem when some of the sites seemed beneficial to the lesson, however a quick Google search lead me to other helpful sites to counteract the problem. Some of the lessons required the use of incorporating Utube videos. Currently my school blocks all utube videos. Instead of using the utube videos I was able to locate some Google videos instead. If unable to find an online video there is always the local library which I tend to forget about these days! Yikes! Thinkfinity has a vast amount of lessons I plan to browse  out when creating upcoming lessons for the music classroom. The site also has several interactive games for kids which would be great to use as an ending or introduction to a unit. Unfortunately my school only has access to one computer lab for 500 students, therefore time is limited in the lab. However, if I knew in advance I would be able to sign up for the lab so the student’s were able to use the websites.

Check out Thinkfinity for yourself here.

To see the 3rd grade music lesson I plan to use next week click here.

Emerging Technology 2: Make Belief Comix

Use comics in the music classroom? Educational Comics? I was a little skeptical of how I could include Comic’s in the music classroom, however after researching and creating my own comic I fell in love with the program and am excited to use the program at the start of next school year! Potentially I will be able to use this before next August, but I definitely plan to use the program at the start of next school year.

                With anything there are pros and cons of the online comic creating program Make Belief Comix. The program is free to anyone and does not require an e-mail address or an account which is an added benefit when using in the educational setting. Student’s are challenged to think of a creative story and incorporate only the vital details in their at most four framed comic.  The program allows for comics to be created in several languages which would be great for teachers who teach more than one language to students.  Make Belief Comix is set up so one can easily add graphics, type text, change background color, and maneuver objects around the frames.  The downside; graphic choices and background color choice are limited, spell check is not an option, and the longest comic is four frames. While most comics are short, it would be helpful for students and teachers to be able to create longer stories so they are not forced to shorten their stories because of space. On the other hand, the frame limit forces students and comic creators to choose only important aspects of the story and what they want the reader to know and proofread themselves for spelling errors. This is helpful when helping student’s learn to choose the main ideas of a story and practice revising and editing versus relying on the computer to point out grammar problems.

                At the beginning of each school year I try to incorporate a lesson that allows me to learn more about my student’s while preparing them for upcoming musical lessons.  This past school year we began the year by student’s writing about their families and compared how our families are similar to instrument families.  In August, I plan to do the same thing but have my student’s create a comic about their families versus using traditional paper and pencil. I will introduce myself by reading to them my comic versus just verbally. I think this will be an excellent and exciting way for student’s to learn about their classmates and me. I plan to post the printable comics next to our instrument family wall.  Later in the year students could create comics about composers they are learning about, instrument families, and other topics; again the frame limit would require them to write only the important aspects of the lessons.  I’m excited to see the things my student’s create. Want to create your own comic? Click here to begin. :) Below you will find the link to the comic I created.

See the comic I created here.