I. Need..A...Skittle.....

Speaking Volumes

I am going to reveal a story about my childhood.  
This story will speak volumes as to my character of today.  
Most likely, you will not be surprised.

When my siblings and cousins got together at my Grandma's house, we would turn every square inch of her basement into a fort. We would use blankets and every piece of furniture to form rooms and doors and secret hiding places.  Of course we always had a mission to accomplish.  

On one memorable occasion, something happened to my brother.  OH NO!! He was losing his power!!!!   He needed to power up- but how??  That is when he reached down to his spy watch that had a secret compartment.  (This was back in the 80's, so his secret-compartment spy watch was the size of a house camper.) He opened it up  and pulled out a Skittle- popped it in his mouth and said, 

 "I. Have. POWER!" 

And off he flew.  

I, of course, was losing my power every 2 minutes after that, and required an entire bag of Skittles to reboot my power over the afternoon play session.  I am sure you can image all the "power" I had after all of that sugar as a small child.  

 

'Pop A Skittle' Every Now And Then To Power Up Your Internet Searches.

Google is a powerful tool.  With great power, comes great responsibility...I believe a famous superhero's uncle said this.  

Eh, why not? We were on the topic of superheros.

Google produces an obscene amount of results when searching.  Nobody has time to get to the 317th page to see if it has the answer you are looking for.  Check out these videos to narrow down your searches.

Pretty cool, huh?  

Is Google Getting A Run For Its Money?

I see some competition for Google.  Have you heard of Wolfram Alpha?  This seems to be an amazing tool.  It gathers results of your search and places them all on your search page, rather than having to sort through a list of sites like Google makes you do.  It is second nature as to how quickly we can sift through all of the information that Google provides us to find the best-fit site.  However, this seems to do that for you!  Check this out!

How can we use this in the music room?  So glad you asked!

• Study sound waves
• Comparisons of so many things!
• composers
• instruments
• genres
• artists
• musicians
• music eras
• visual arts and music
• Study frequencies
• Scales
• And so much more!

Copyright?  Yes, Copyright.

I am a visual learner and love using them whenever I can.  However, artists need cred for their work, people!  Respect the time and effort they put into this.  Take a look at this last video to see how your students can find images and use them properly with Creative Commons.

Pretty "super" how some people are so giving of their intellectual property.  As a visual person, they are my "hero."

...And I Will Leave You With This.

#socialmediaineducation

Am I the only person who has to type a hashtag several times, because I habitually place spaces between my words?!?!

Ok handsome fellow, I will try better.  But it will take me a while to obliterate years of typing experience in order to appease the occasional hashtag.

Nevertheless, hashtags and social media are the way of life; and it is not going away any time soon.  Our students don't know life without social media.  #I'monly33butstillknowwhatitwaslikeprehashtag  #canyouputanapostropheinahashtag #i'mstillworkingonthespaces #oy #icoulddothisallday

So where is the boundary between social media and your teacher role?  There is no way around it, the area is gray.  Do I friend my students?  Do I friend parents of students?  Do I friend coworkers? Do I friend past students?  The problem is that students don't know life without social media, and they most likely don't see how it can be a negative thing to connect with their teachers online.  There are benefits to social media and there are obviously safety concerns-for you and the students.  Watch this video I created using Adobe Spark on the benefits and safety concerns of social media.





In my personal social media accounts, I keep everything private and fairly unsearchable.  My friends are people that I know, and I do connect people that I work with.  I do not have anything to hide on my personal account.  I mainly post about my family and fun things that happen at work.  However, if I wanted to use it as a rant place, I would choose more carefully who I friend.  I choose to keep everything PG, so I have nothing to hide.  

Let's talk about things to hide.  There are times when everyone needs privacy, or a place to vent.  Sometimes, in fact most of the time, that should be kept with the people closest to you; maybe a friend, a significant other, or a close coworker that understands what you are going through.  Perhaps it is not the best idea to post it for the whole world to see.  

You are so wise at such a young age young lady.  Some adults don't even have this figured out. Ku-dos! (separated for syllabic emphasis)

Some think it is their duty to connect with students on social media, because they feel more comfortable confiding in an adult this way.  To this, I say (if you insist on connecting with students online): make everything you do as a teacher known to administration.  Why not start a School facebook page where teachers and students can join?  This way, administration can see what is going on and you are covering your hide as well.

Now, enough of the warning signs.  Let us talk about the productive side of social media.  As I said earlier, students are fluent in all social media languages.  Let's use it to our advantage in the teaching world!  I like using Twitter in my classroom.  I follow my district guidelines for posting, but I love that it gets parents into the music room.  What do kids usually say when you ask them what they did at school?

Well, they can't say that anymore!  Teachers can be so much more transparent with parents. Parents can use it as a way to open conversations with their child, tween, or teen.  See how I use my twitter page by following me @CHEMusicRoom.

You can also use social media with your students in  a purely educational narrative. 

Symbaloo can be used in so many ways.  You can use it to organize your own bookmarks, as they use visual tiles to help you navigate through the plethera of amazing sites that you use. Or you can use it like I do, and share vetted links with your students.  Here is the link that I share with my 5th graders when they research their music genres.  When students research on Rock and Roll, Rap, or pop genres, it makes me one nervous teacher.  However, if I send them to my Symbaloo page, I know what they are seeing, because I placed the links there myself.  You can place your own icons on the tiles and even color code them for better organization like I did.  Then, you can share the link with students- like I am here.  However, if you take a look below, this is what I use with my 5th graders.

 Padlet is a great way to have discussions and post knowledge at just about any grade level.  Think of it as an interactive refrigerator.  You are always placing proud piece of work or reminders here.  Padlet works the same way.  We always talk about steady beat vs rhythm as music teachers, right?  Take a look at this Padlet that I created with my 2nd graders.  They were to find of anything that is non-musical that occurs in every day life and say weather it has a natural rhythm or steady beat, such as a jump rope, rain falling, lightning, or a cheerleader leading a cheer.

Long story, short: 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1: Social Media is Never Going Away

Chapter 2: There are Many Benefits of Social Media

Chapter 3: Be Professional With Social Media

THE END

Don't be flippant about Flippity, because it's flipping amazing.

Sooooo...how was your test DRIVE last week? I hope you like Google Drive as much as I do, and that you navigated through just fine...unlike my friend Sammy from one of my favorite movies of all time!  

Let's talk about another tool that will make you "flip."  You'll see what I did there in just a moment.  This site uses Google Spreadsheet to make your life easier.  Now maybe I'm over excited about this because I live and breath in Microsoft Excel, which is a spreadsheet.  I love codes and numbers- who doesn't?!  Honestly, I haven't done much in Google Spreadsheet, because I didn't know how much it was like Excel.  I feel like I am betraying a life-long friend.  However,  I have sat down with Excel and we have had a talk about how I can be friends with more than one spreadsheet software.  Excel took it kind of hard, but we are all going out to dinner next week to break the ice...

Anyhow...enough of my personal drama!  On to...(drum roll please)...

                         ****FLIPPITY****

This tool can do all kinds of time-saving, organizational things to make your teacher life easier.  If you're not a formula kind of gal, like me, then this is the site for you! 

How was that for a sales pitch?

The whacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man wasn't enough?  Hmmm...shall I substantiate with some real-life scenarios to get your blood flowing?  If so, read on!  If this guy is doing it for you, click here!

Flippity is a site that can create games, flashcards, seating charts, randomize groups of all sizes, and random name picker to name a few.  It can create games like a quiz show, crossword puzzles, hang man, or bingo.  All you need to do is enter information into a template that is already made for you, click your mouse a few times, and voila!  Your students think you're a genius-again!  Take a look at this quick video to see what I am talking about:

I created some treble clef flashcards using this.  Take a look here  to access them-and feel free to use!  I did get a little frustrated on how to add images and did some searching.  So, I'll save you some time and just tell you here:  search for the image, right click on the image, copy image address, paste the address into your template.  This is how I did it, and I hope it works for you.  I'm a visuals type of gal, and I needed some flashcards that I could use yesterday in my classroom.  This worked like a charm.

One more piece of Flippity that I don't know how I've lived without is the Random Name Picker.  It has a fun spin wheel to choose individual students, but the part I like the most is that it will randomly choose groups for you as well-of any size!  

Yes, for realsies!

I love drawing sticks to randomly choose students, but when I need some quick, small groups, this has me covered!  There is one draw back though.  If you have a large amount of classes, like me, you will have to make several lists.  BUT how easy is it to copy and paste a list that has already been typed for you-most likely by your amazing secretaries?  

CTRL+C, CTRL+V, CTRL+C, CTRL+V, CTRL+C, CTRL+V, CTRL+C, CTRL+V, CTRL+C, CTRL+V!

Want some other organizational tools?  

A couple that I love are Screencast-O-Matic and SignUp Genius.  

I LOVE screencast-o-matic!  I never know if the sub I get is going to be musical.  9 times out of 10, they are not.  Therefore, when I write lesson plans, I dictate everything the sub needs to say.  I explain every music detail as if this person has no knowledge of music whatsoever.  As you can imagine, this takes a long time.  Since I discovered screencast-o-matic, I have used it several times.  I will record myself explaining concepts, playing instruments, etc.  This saves hours of writing plans.  Here is an example of something I did for a sub.

How many of you elementary music teachers do choir?  Almost all of you!  How many of your students absolutely love choir?  Hopefully, all of yours!  How many of your need to communicate to your choir parents on an on-going basis?  All of you!  SignUp Genius has been really helpful to me.  In my school, my principal does not allow the specialists to send bulk communication home.  Everything that is sent home needs to be through the classroom teachers.  His reasoning is that he does not want to overwhelm the parents-I get it. My oldest daughter isn't even finished with her first year of preschool and I'm overwhelmed at the monthly newsletter/calendar that she gets folks.  In order for students to sign up for choir, I post a link in their newsletter communications.  Then, when I need to send communication home to my choir students only, parents know that it is specific to them and don't overlook it.  It's pretty user friendly, but it does have ads.  I've never seen anything inappropriate, but it is something to be aware of when using with the community.   

If you'd like to see other time saving tools, visit my Adobe Spark page here:

Remember when I talked to you about Adobe Spark?  I thought you did.  Look how amazing this non-professional made this look professional!  Do you have other time-saving tools that you can't live without?  Comment below and give us music teachers some more ideas!

It doesn't hurt to go for a test DRIVE, end up liking all the bells and whistles, and coming home with a luxury sedan.

If you are tech savvy, this post may be beneath you.  No need to snub.  

Perhaps you could grace us with your insights and how you use features of Google Drive in your classroom. Even better- if you use it in your elementary music classroom, share away!

Back in the day, (in the times of technology advancement, this was about a year ago) I explored Google Drive on my own.  Once I did more looking into Google Drive the clouds opened to more possibilities this can provide.  If you have never used Google Drive, I strongly encourage you to watch this video for a non-quick, but very descriptive and helpful video on the main features of Google Drive.

Sharing and Comments Feature.

Of course the most useful aspect of using Google Drive is that you can work collaboratively.  We all know how important collaboration is in today's society.  Let's play out a scenario.  

You are preparing a slideshow presentation for your staff with a colleague.  It is very difficult for you to find a time that you can both meet to prepare the slides together. So, you create a Google Slides presentation, share it with each other, and begin to work on the slides at your convenience.  You leave comments and questions for each other using the comments feature, and ta-da!  You saved an immense amount of time out of your personal and professional schedules and the presentation looks great! 

Let me share a real-life scenario with you that happened in my very own classroom.  

True Story.

I had my 5th graders begin a guided inquiry project on a music genre of their choice.  This was the 2nd year doing this project.  The first year, I had students do a powerpoint presentation to present all of their information.  One person saved the document under their name, and the group sat together giving input on the powerpoint.  I'm sure you can imagine that some groups had members that dozed off during this time or started making spitballs with this "free time."  So this year, my LMS suggested that I use Google Slides to avoid this issue.  They could also share their presentation with me so that I could pull it up easier on my computer when presenting to the classroom.  The students and I began to use the comment feature present in Google Drive.  This made life so much easier as there was no way for me to help each group every class session.  I could go over their slides at any time, provide feedback and they could follow up in their time as well.  The comment option is in the top right corner of this real life conversation.

Google Forms.

Need pick peoples' brains about your music program?  Are you so sweet that they think they will hurt your feelings if they tell you to your face?  Need a quick exit ticket to check for understanding? Fear no more.  Google Forms is here to save the day!

I have provided a link to a google form that could be used for feedback on a musical.  I usually do the same format for performances every time.  Sample Form Here.  I know there are changes that I can make to better accommodate the students and audience.  I just don't know what I don't know.  It is always nice to get someone else's perspective.

Google Drawing.

Have you tried the drawing feature yet?  It is similar to the old school "Paint" feature that we are all used to.  

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Back to the topic at hand...

Obviously, it is more sophisticated than the advanced scribble feature of MS Paint.  You can create documents, share with your students, and have them fill in answers right within the shared document, or you can print the document and have students write in by pencil.  Of course there are so many more options you can use with Google Drawing.  Here is an example of something that I created for my 4th grade students.  Sampe Drawing Here.  I would print this for my students in this particular case.  Need other ideas or more information on how Google Drawings works?  Watch this tutorial here:  You all know how I love my disclaimers.  The disclaimer I have here is: the mouse movement will make you nauseous.  Sometimes you may need to close your eyes and place your head between your knees.  Hopefully, you make it out on the other side.

I hope you try out these features.  Sometimes you just need to explore the unknown and the ideas will come to you for use in your own classroom.  If you have some amazing ideas, fill us in!  Don't keep them to yourself.  See you next time!

Are Yooouuu Ready to Rrruuuuummmmble?!?!

Edmodo VS. Schoology

**Disclaimer:  I had previously used Edmodo before investigating the two websites for this blog post.  So, if you are wanting true first impressions, my view is skewed.**

What are these two sites exactly?  Edmodo and Schoology are examples of learning management systems.  Learning Management Systems are software applications that administration, teachers, students, and parents use in the electronic learning process.  This is a very broad definition.  I purposely made it a broad definition, because they really can do almost anything.  Here are some specific examples:

• provide documents to students, parents, or coworkers
• automatic grading and analysis of assignments
• administer assignments (quizes, tests, etc.)
• create polls and surveys 
• discussion posts
• create courses and/or groups for members to join
• dropbox for assignments
• share resources/ideas among students or between professionals

Watch this video for an explanation of Schoology.  This is from their support page on the website.  Yes, it is lengthy, but there are so many facets to this program that it is beneficial to watch it in its entirety if you are wanting to make a decision that is best for you.

Here is an overview of Edodo in the like.  This is a teacher explaining how she uses it in her own classroom.





As you can surmise from watching these videos, they both filled a tall order from teaching professionals.  Now it is up to you to decide which one fits your needs the most.  I am going to talk now from my own point of view and explain which one works best for my world.

for the win!

I'm sure you recall the disclaimer from the beginning of my post. I had a limited amount of use of Edmodo before digging into these sites on a deeper level.  However, I truly think that I would like Edmodo more than Schoology and here is why: it seems more user friendly.  I am a teacher in the elementary world.  Even though I have the smartest students on the planet, I think Schoology would be challenging to teach them how to use.  At the elementary level, I am not just teaching the students how to use it, but parents as well.  Can you picture a Kindergartner using Schoology?  It is hard enough picturing them using Edmodo.  However, between the two, Edmodo seems to be more user friendly for the primary purpose of what I would be using it for-student use and student interaction.

I see myself using it mainly to create folders for students to access their music.  I would create audio files and sheet music files.  It is also a place for me to communicate any information about performances to students and parents alike.  I can also foresee using it as a discussion venue after performances.  We discuss as a class, but having a discussion as an entire grade level would be valuable for them.  They can see viewpoints from others that they are not used to hearing from.

Ultimately, decide what you like best out of these to fine athletes, and choose what works best for you.