Blog Post #6

This week I learned different ways technology can help teachers design instruction to best meet the needs of students.  I also created a WebQuest plan and learned about Google Sites.

In this week’s chapter, Bauer describes different ways technology can be used to help students respond to music.  Backward Design, Project Based Learning, Differentiated Instruction, Copyright considerations and Social Learning were all topics I found interesting.

Backward Design

Reading a score and attempting to understand the composer’s intent helps me to being my teaching with the end result in mind. Most performance music teachers begin by introducing a piece of music to their ensemble with the hope for a polished performance as one result of their teaching.  I first dissect the piece looking for important features. Second, I create assessment criteria both formative and summative to judge whether the students are learning the material.  Finally, I create lessons to help students meet the formative and summative assessment criteria.  In my curriculum writing, I have always enjoyed the backward design process and was happy to read about it in the music setting.

Project Based Learning

I designed a project based learning exercise for my students this year and just finished assessing the projects yesterday evening.  I was happy with the results, but am looking forward to revising the project to better meet the curricular standards I was attempting to meet.  It was interesting to read that a teacher could start with one project per year and move forward from there.

Differentiated Instruction

My students, like most,  are all at different ability levels.  I have been looking for ways to meet the needs of each students while still delivering the same material.  Differentiated instruction through technology is one way I can help make this happen.  Though I have been trained in differentiation, I hadn’t thought of using technology to make this easier.

Copyright

I hesitate to write about it, but I have been very interested in how music teachers are impacted by copyright laws.  With my district’s move to an all iPad campus, there is a push to have music displayed on the iPad as .pdf files.  I am interested in exploring how this can be done legally.

Social Learning

Students learn by watching, observing and emulating teachers and each other.  I would like to figure out more ways to help students learn from each other.

WebQuest

This week I read articles and explored different WebQuest projects.  I created a preliminary draft of a WebQuest designed for 8th and 9th grade band students.  In this WebQuest, the students will create their own 5 minute warm-up routine by researching different teacher’s and musician’s warm-ups and selected from these to create a personal warm-up routine.

Google Sites

Google Sites is a WYSIWYG website design application which is part of the Google family of applications.  Using this application, I will be able to create my WebQuest project in a web based format.  In addition, the tutorial videos taught me how to create a site, add pages, manage content, set up navigation controls and manage users.