Jen’s Blog

It has been a while since I last posted on here, but semester has been so busy I haven’t had a chance to breathe!

I thought I would update on some ways I’ve been using technology over the past few weeks in teaching and university work!

Firstly, I was just on prac with a year one class. My classroom had a smart-board called “Ibo”. I had only used these minimally in the past so I was quite excited at the chance to be able to use one in my teaching and to explore its use in the classroom. I discovered that this is an excellent tool! I was able to teach the kids in a new and exciting way with them thoroughly engaged!

Each day I used Ibo to teach spelling. We were able to write words, manipulate them, highlight their structure and features and the kids loved it! Each child was eager to spell because they could write on Ibo.

I also used it to teach capacity. I wanted to introduce the kids to the topic in an interactive and fun way – I had previously had a disaster of a lesson with practical capacity and the children got a little over-excited. This worked really well, I used Jenny Eather’s site Rainforest Maths. The kids loved this! Later when I attempted the same practical lesson again the kids understood much more and were more settled.

I also used Ibo for brainstorming, watching storybooks, watching clips to show the children practical examples of storms and was able to use some of the fantastic software available!

In terms of uni work, since learning how to use Garageband I have been using it non-stop! I just finished a children’s theatre assignment where I had to do the director’s notes for a play and create a prompt book. I wanted to insert some music for the play. I used the loops on Garageband to create some music which was appropriate for the scenes!

I also put up the LAMS sequence Laura and I made on the lams community. It is called ‘Healthy Eating’ and is under my name. Check it out if you like – although, you will need to register for the lams community. It is free!

Other than that, I have been using normal software like Microsoft office, photoshop, indesign etc for assignments!

Must go – so much to do in this last week! Thanks for checking out my blog!

Jen

Ok, so the last post wasn’t my last post! But I was just doing a final explore before tomorrow of my peer’s blogs.

It is amazing the research we have covered by sharing with one another! I noticed on Krizzia’s blog a link to a music teacher’s blog. I wish I had seen this before tonight! It could have provided many resources. I had a quick look over and it seems to have a lot of information I could spend hours looking over.

I thought I would post the link here too and will have a look through later to see what more it contains!

Image source: http://randymccluskey.com/

What is podcasting, why is it called podcasting, what was around before?

podcasting.mp3

I have just read Laura’s post on Generation Z. She remarks that children today are so tech-savvy. Probably more tech savvy that we are! This is so true! I was watching the kids I trialled my LAMS task on and they were so easily understanding how to use the technology and seemed to really enjoy using it as a learning tool.

With children being so open to using technology teachers have so many opportunities. It makes me sad to view that most teachers only use technology for games and free time and don’t recognise the great value in using it for learning. Hopefully this new generation of teachers will make use of this wonderful technology!

I was just posting and noticed a tip come up on my page saying “want to use blogs with your students? Here are some tips!”. I thought I’d take a look and see what they suggest! There are soooo many useful ideas here! I recommend you really check it out!
•    Start with a class blog before progressing to individual blogs.
•    Use blogs to engage with ideas, extend learning, create learning conversations and to promote reflection.
•    Must have a real purpose!! Not using technology for technology’s sake!

(I suggest to further reflections on this point look at Susan’s blog particularly her post “The world according to Matt”. She really outlines the importance of using technology meaningfully!).

I just watched and read Matthew commentary on his post entitled “Risk-taking“. It’s true – I think we all face anxiety when we tread areas where we aren’t as comfortable. I wrote about that in my podcasting post. But, as Matthew says, it’s so important in our profession that we try these things even if it means making a mistake as it may benefit our students.

I think that is what I have enjoyed about this subject, we were given a chance to experience these technologies in a safe environment where we could make mistakes in order to become familiar with them.

Finally I can get on here and post! I feel slack, but it seems when I’ve gone to get onto edublogs this week it’s had an issue! I kept getting syntax errors today :S

But anyway! I’ve been reading an article from a magazine called “Music in Action“. This article is called “Using New Resources” and is by Len Clark.

Clark talks about how he uses Audacity in his music lessons to record kids playing. He uses it as a marker of progress, a tool to share with parents what he has been doing and give kids an opportunity to critique themselves.

I think this is a great idea!  I teach flute and know that kids often have trouble hearing what they are playing. Particularly as beginners when they are concentrating on so many things at once often kids forget to listen! I think this is something I’ll try in my own music teaching.

Clark states, “You should have seen his face light up when he heard is own playing for the first time… Until I started recording, it was me providing examples by playing patterns on the drums, or him watching then playing the text on a page. The recording confimed to him what I Had been telling him all along… They were my words, but the recording was his work.”

What great advice – kids have that sense of ownership!

I think that image explains it well!

Reference: Clark, L. (2006). Using New Resources. Music in Action 4, 2, p.26-27. Australian Music Association: Victoria.

Image: http://www.ejel.org/volume-2/vol2-issue1/issue1-art17_files/image002.jpg

Chefy

After a long week of classes I thought tonight as a treat I would reward myself and have a play around with GarageBand again. This time I thought I’d make a music track. I used the loops etc that they have available and put them together to make this. It’s a bit repetitive towards the end but hey, not bad for a first attempt!

I have a real interest in ICT in music – I think there are many possibilities. This could be one of them! I think I might do this as my topic for next week!

Frenzy

^ My Song

Krizzia and Shirley make some really interesting points about learning. I like that they see learning as a wholistsic journey, something you begin and carry on through life. They acknowledge that many people contribute to the journey and also acknowledge that prior experience (baggage) is a vital component to the outcome of various tasks.

I totally agree with this. It reminds me of some of my own experiences of learning where the things that have challenged me have been completely different to those that others have learned in the same lesson – I think this is due to the prior experience that we carry.

Their video podcast has very effective use of images and video footage to describe their views on learning using metaphors. I also like that their video podcast seems to have a realistic picture of learning (not necessarily idealized). They remind viewers that learning may not always be easy, something I think that all educators must realise!

image from : http://www.cs.brown.edu/courses/cs004/07website/images/suitcase.jpg