Pinterest In The Classroom

Pinterest is a great tool for everyday life. It connects people across the world through images and connects people’s interests. The website allows you to bookmark websites and gain further information if want to further explore. This website can be used in many settings it can be used in. A setting to strongly consider is the classroom. Students are able to see material teachers have interests in when creating material for the classroom. This gives the student a chance to prepare themselves for the upcoming lesson. Pinterest can be used in many other ways for the classroom. It can be used to keep all your favorite websites in one place.     

I made a lesson plan from lesson plans that I found on Pinterest and that I pinned onto Pinterest from websites that I found.
Click to see my lesson.

In my lesson, I explain to my students the basic concept behind dynamics and note value. They then use collaboration while making hacky sacks.

 

They write on one of the hack sacks the note value. While on the other sack they write a dynamic value.

 



 

Students then sit in a circle and toss a pair at a time around the circle. When all the students receive the combination they will then sing the rhythm at the dynamic level that is on the sacks and pass them to the next person. Once all of the sacks have been circulated, the game is over. For a exit pass, each student will be required to demonstrate their understanding of the content using a random combination of sacks individually as they leave. This is fun and exciting way to learn through doing. Students will gain an understanding of dynamic contrast and rhythmic value and have fun too. 

 

 

 

 



Tools for 2.0

Jeremiah Watson

EDU 2043

31 Oct 13

 

Recently, I was sitting in class wondering how teachers find such unique tools for their classroom. I was given my answer by a website called cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com. This site is a very useful site to have in mind if becoming a teacher. This site is a hub that links to other websites and tools on the internet. I browsed the website for tools I would use for my future music classroom. To my surprise, I found a website that had tools used not only for students but to help teachers as well. So I have decided to make a list of 10 websites I think are good for the music classroom. Please note that this is my own opinion on what works best for me the individual.

                The first one to watch will be Noteflight. Noteflight is a website that allows its users to compose whatever they want on staff paper. Some of the features on the website include the control of tempo, voicing, instrumentation, and key. When completing a composition, the user can freely share their works with others privately or to the open public. This is a great feature to use in the classroom for theory class.  It allows students to collaborate with one another and discover new techniques to use in future compositions.

                Next on the list of ten is Soundcloud. Soundcloud is a social website that brings musicians across the world together. People who make posts on the website leave their music for the public to openly see and comment on specifically what part of the composition they like most. This is a great program to use in the classroom. Students that want to learn what to improve with their music can leave their composition to the open public to listen to, download, and share with others, bringing more reviews and ideas to the student on what to do for the next time.

                Third on this list is Haikulearning. Haikulearning is a website that is aimed for teachers wanting to take their class online. Haikulearning is a website allows the individual teacher, to create 5 classes and store up to two gigabits of data on their cloud based storage. Assignments for students and other activities can be stored to the cloud storage for use. This is an amazing tool to use because it does not charge money to an individual teacher if they are the only ones in their school district using it.

                Fourth on the list is easyTestmaker. This website is does exactly as the title says. It gives the user an easier method for creating tests. Easy test maker allows the user to create up to five tests at a time for their classroom. Features included are multiple choice questions, true or false, matching, fill in the blank and open response. Creating tests for music theory class becomes easy. It allows the teacher to include a music vocabulary test, music history fill in the blanks or any other combination the teacher feels best tests the students.

                Fifth item to have for the classroom is Jeopardylabs. Jeopardylabs is a website that gives its users the ability to create or use a preexisting template to play jeopardy with. Preexisting templates can be found through its search engine. Users just need to type whatever subject they want for a jeopardy game.  It’s a great tool use for review sessions before a music theory or history test. It gives the students a fun way to learn material in the classroom.

                Next is Holt. Holt is a site that gives the user the ability to make charts or diagrams for whatever they want. Web diagrams, cluster diagrams, sensory details charts, and many others are included as some of the features of the site. Another very useful feature of the site is that each organizer has notes on how to use them in the classroom. Music Theory and Music History would benefit from this a lot. The charts could be used for helping students brainstorm what to write for their reports or list certain events in a chronological order. This is also nice for the teacher because it helps the teacher remember the ideas they have for teaching an upcoming class.

                The seventh item on the roster is Prezentit. Prezentit is a site that gives the user the ability to create PowerPoints to be viewed online.  Images, text and transitions are able to be placed on the slides. It is a good tool for people who do not have Microsoft PowerPoint. This would be used for presentations to parents and students open house to inform them on what the classroom will be like and who you are. It is able to also be easily located by parents who did not attend open house or for students who were not in class for the day.

                In the eighth spot on this list is Bookr. Bookr is a website that gives teachers a fun way to create present new concepts to students in their classroom. The website gives the user the ability to create a digital book and include whatever they want inside the book. The book looks like a children’s book so it works great for teaching little kids new concepts. For a music class, the book can be used for teaching children the basics of reading music and singing. Features I would include in the book would be basic solfeggio, notes, rhythm, treble clef, and bass clef.

                Ninth on the list is Simple VLE. This site is similar to the website Haikulearning. Teachers are able to go online and create classes and place activities in each one. Not only activities able to be included in the site, but also grades for the student to view and see how they are progressing. Students are able to be kept up to date on what their grades are in the classroom and also individually talk to the teacher about subjects relating to the class. All of the music classes would benefit from this website because it is completely free and you are not restricted to a limited number of classes or data. Students and parents are able to be kept up to date about future events or the progress of the student in the class.

                The final item on the list of ten is Primaryschoolict. Primaryschoolict is a website that gives the school a filter aid for students when they are on the internet conducting research. Teachers when instructing students to specifically use this site can relax and know that their students will not come across inappropriate material. Research papers and other assignments needing the internet can be done without worry. Music classes can use this site for researching composers and learning about theory concepts or historic events that influenced music. The filter can also block out inappropriate music that should not be searched on school computers.  



Just a little bit

Hi welcome to my blog. For people visiting for the first time, my name is Jeremiah Lynn Watson. I’m a 21 year old college junior at Henderson State University as music major. I had a wild ride getting here to this point. It started on July 2 1992. Who knew I was going on such a large adventure. I lived in three countries during my lifetime. One of them I unfortunately cannot remember because I was only a baby. But, as for the other two, one of them is a country call Kuwait. My family moved there about one year after operation desert storm. My time and memories there are moments I will always treasure forever. The other country is the country I currently live in right now. America has brought me some shocks and thrills during my childhood. From being attacked on the streets of Chicago, to joining the U.S. Army. My entire life has had some challenges I never thought I would be able to pass. I have come to learn in my lifetime that I cannot be the lone wolf that does everything on his own. Sometimes you need support. I honestly don’t think I would be in college if I never learned this lesson. I don’t think I would have made it into the army and hold a successful career right now. Accepting the fact that you can’t shoulder the burden of life alone makes me feel rejuvenated.  

Network thoughts

This past week I purchased a game to enjoy with my friends. It has features that include game chat, battling and trading. I will admit, I’m slowly becoming addicted to this game. The social features included on it have me returning to it. I recently read a few articles that discussed the effects of social networking on society. What they had said on these networks were very accurate and should be taken note of. In the game I’m playing, I’m within a very controlled social environment. Offensive language and inappropriate content is not allowed on its networks. But, networks like Facebook and Twitter are unrestricted and give the user freedom to say and post whatever they want. The article’s I had read talked about how employers use open networks like Facebook, to screen candidates applying for a job. The article “Effects Of Social Media On Job Prospects,” revealed that any information found on the users page that is seen as inappropriate and can possibly bring down the reputation of their organization, is used as part of the elimination process. After reading this article, I saw this information as learning tools on how to better represent myself physically and digitally. The second article I had read was “3Qs: The social impact of social networks.” This article left me with mixed feelings. I was in full agreement on what the article was saying during the beginning. They introduced the statement saying that people are becoming more dependent on social networking. I was in full agreement of this statement. They then incorporated the next statement of are people becoming more social due to social networks. This part of the article left me feeling uneasy at some points. They answered the question with yes, but I stand in the position of maybe. The reason why is because it depends on the individual. The article stated that intrapersonal skills of unsocial people were being improved because of social networking. I believe that it depends on the individual. People that are not great with intrapersonal skills can improve themselves with the use of social networks, but it is not because of social networks that this happens. Social networks are a tool that can be used properly or improperly. An easy example of improper use of social networks can be found anywhere. Whenever a person is on Facebook, the one notification everyone avoids is the invitation by someone to play a game. Situations like this show the inviting user only knows how to socialize digitally and not physically. There is a limit to how much digital socializing can do. The user must learn how to use social networks as a tool for enriching your “real networking.” Both of the articles were great to read. If anyone would like to read the articles, there is a link to them below. If you read the articles, please leave comments down below showing what you thought of them. But for now, I need to practice some music.

 http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/01/25/social-media-job-prospects-impact-should-we-be-scared_n_2550921.html

http://www.northeastern.edu/news/2012/10/3qs-the-social-impact-of-social-networks/

A musical day has passed by and I feel sick. The cold weather puts a damper on my mood and makes the day feel slow. I followed my normal routine of waking up at 6:00AM and preparing for another day of school. My room was nice and toasty. It reminded me of how much I missed summer. The sun shining down and the breeze blowing by. I came to school today hoping that the weather would get a bit better. I think today was just a day of betrayal. Not only was it cold outside, it was cold in the buildings as well. Sitting in class and practicing was torture. My mind was more focused on going back to my bedroom than working on my music. Lunch today saved me in my time of need. Drinking hot coffee did wonders and warmed me up. This luckily happened right before my piano class. I felt invincible walking into that class. I had played a beautiful piece called “A Song For You” by Catherin Rollin. The music had given the player a choice to choose how fast or slow they wanted to play it. It felt great to have control of the tempo. I was able to fully immerse myself within the music and show-off the gems hidden underneath. At the end of the solo, Dr. Lim had noted that I was playing my left had slightly hammered but was great overall. After my solo, Dr. Lim had a surprise for us. For the first and last time, we were finally allowed to play a piece outside of our instructional piano book. This may sound minuscule to some people but for me this is a huge deal. It finally means we are at the breaking point of being actually good at piano. I never truly thought of myself as a pianist until I was given some kind of rite of passage. This was it. The one and only shot I have at truly being a pianist. Dr. Lim told us to wait for two days to find out what the selections are.  I don’t know what she has for us to choose from but I can’t wait. Until then I need to go practice.