Last night (June 5th) was our annual HS Commencement Ceremony. My Chorale students sang the National Anthem, and two selections: "Come Travel With Me" and "Letting Go" from Jeykl & Hyde
One of my lead altos was Valedictorian and spoke at the ceremony. What an honor to watch her grow and know that I've had a small part in shaping her future.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
A Foot In the Door
At our June staff meeting this week the discussion turned towards Professional Development (PD) ideas for next year. I mentioned the great lessons learned here during 23 Things, and that the staff and students could benefit from many of the websites and widgets explored here. I'll be working up some ideas for our administration in hopes that we can move ahead into the late 20th century. Wait...are we still there? No, the world has moved into the 21st century, our IT is still in Windows 2000.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Neat Stuff
This wanders away from the 23 Things that have been the focus of this blog so far.
Several years ago a student in my Chorale graduated as Valedictorian at our high school. Her speech spoke of the enjoyment and growth she found in this class/choir, and what an impact the events had had on her life.
This lovely young lady got married this past weekend, and I had the honor of being asked to supply some of the music for the ceremony.
I've always enjoyed watching my students move from middle school through high school, and eventually graduating. Every so often these wonderful men and women return so that our paths cross again. It always touches me to see how they continue to grow, and hopefully not sounding too full of myself, how I'm made some small impact on their lives.
I know it certainly makes the rough times seem miniscule in comparison. I will make it through tomorrow.
Several years ago a student in my Chorale graduated as Valedictorian at our high school. Her speech spoke of the enjoyment and growth she found in this class/choir, and what an impact the events had had on her life.
This lovely young lady got married this past weekend, and I had the honor of being asked to supply some of the music for the ceremony.
I've always enjoyed watching my students move from middle school through high school, and eventually graduating. Every so often these wonderful men and women return so that our paths cross again. It always touches me to see how they continue to grow, and hopefully not sounding too full of myself, how I'm made some small impact on their lives.
I know it certainly makes the rough times seem miniscule in comparison. I will make it through tomorrow.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
What's Next?
I've spoken to several people in the know in my district and am hopeful that I can convince them that our technology needs to be improved (that's the easy part). The question is how to improve our technology and not have it cost the district much money (that's the hard part).
I'm going to begin searching for grants to help pay for funding. I'm hoping that I can post my progress and thoughts here, just to help me keep my sanity.
Some changes could be made simply by loosening the restrictions to websites that are available to the staff. Assigning usernames and passwords to every student in the district could challenging since we have only two people who take care of everything that deals with technology. Our middle school has a tech person (who teaches computers in the classroom) but even she has limited capacities when it comes to making changes. She tells me that she has fought these battles before with some slight progress. I plan to utilize her expertise and previous experiences to help pick and choose the people and battles that lay ahead.
Wish me luck!
I'm going to begin searching for grants to help pay for funding. I'm hoping that I can post my progress and thoughts here, just to help me keep my sanity.
Some changes could be made simply by loosening the restrictions to websites that are available to the staff. Assigning usernames and passwords to every student in the district could challenging since we have only two people who take care of everything that deals with technology. Our middle school has a tech person (who teaches computers in the classroom) but even she has limited capacities when it comes to making changes. She tells me that she has fought these battles before with some slight progress. I plan to utilize her expertise and previous experiences to help pick and choose the people and battles that lay ahead.
Wish me luck!
Monday, May 19, 2008
Using THINGS in the classroom
After learning about Zamzar (video conversion system online) I took several videos from YouTube that I wanted to share with my high school choir students. My plan was to play the videos on our Windows 2000 Media Player and show it on the television monitor that is in the room. Our district has TViews connected to the system to show items from our classroom pcs to the TV in the room.
Apparently the SVideo isn't compatible showing "homemade" videos through our network to the TV...the picture was very distorted. So I did the best I could and showed the videos to my classes on the pc monitor...all 13 inches of it.
Our media carts do not currently have working pcs connected to them. Maybe I should sell 100 cases of M&Ms to purchase equipment for my classroom use. No, I'll start hunting for major grants to start purchasing this stuff.
Apparently the SVideo isn't compatible showing "homemade" videos through our network to the TV...the picture was very distorted. So I did the best I could and showed the videos to my classes on the pc monitor...all 13 inches of it.
Our media carts do not currently have working pcs connected to them. Maybe I should sell 100 cases of M&Ms to purchase equipment for my classroom use. No, I'll start hunting for major grants to start purchasing this stuff.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Things - Review
I've gone back and revisited some Things and explored what they have to offer. The first one was another image generator. I created a new logo for my blog. I'm not sure I like it enough to keep it, but it will do for awhile.
The second revisit was to Knowtes.com This is a shared network for flashcards. You can view study cards created by others or simply make your own. You can set it up like Jeopardy; giving the answers and then asking for the questions, or simply giving the answer and looking for the keyword to phrase. The student clicks on the right corner if they got the answer write, or the left corner if they got it wrong. I believe the site will keep score for the person, to give them an idea of how they're doing. I'm going to explore this site some more and create some music terminology cards for my middle and high school students.
More to come, I hope!
The second revisit was to Knowtes.com This is a shared network for flashcards. You can view study cards created by others or simply make your own. You can set it up like Jeopardy; giving the answers and then asking for the questions, or simply giving the answer and looking for the keyword to phrase. The student clicks on the right corner if they got the answer write, or the left corner if they got it wrong. I believe the site will keep score for the person, to give them an idea of how they're doing. I'm going to explore this site some more and create some music terminology cards for my middle and high school students.
More to come, I hope!
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Thing 23 Reflection
Whoa...I just started....I can't be finished!!
I was worried because I didn't get the first email as scheduled, and so I started a week late, and in less than a month I've covered all of the "THINGS".
So what have a I learned? Other than the obvious sites, widgets, feeds, and terminology I've learned that Web 2.0 is where we're at, right now. The challenge will be that we won't be here long; technology is evolving faster than many of us in the classroom can even hope to keep up. Many good teachers want to keep up and move along with the students (will we, or can we, ever hope to get ahead of them in this?). Our biggest challenge will be to convince our administrators and boards of education that it is imperative that "they" work harder to keep the technology as up to date as possible in their schools and district.
I remember coming to school this past September and being thrilled that our operating system had been updated to Windows 2000! Can I shout that? WINDOWS FREAKIN' 2000!!!
With many districts (including ours) in the financial troubles they're in I'm afraid that technology will be one of the areas that will be put on the back burner, if not taken off the stove altogether.
Hopefully one solution will be to locate, apply and receive grants to help update our ancient operating systems (and perhaps our thinking) and help our schools and teachers attempt to keep up with technology and the rate in which our students are moving forward.
Where do I go from here? Well, there are several "Things" that I'll revisit and explore some of the widgets that I may have missed. I'll probably add posts on the new things I've learned.
I HAVE set up a wikispace and have had students and families use it to sign up for banquet reservations, and picnic planning for the end of the school year. Next year (more likely over the summer) I'll set up the wiki and this blog to be used by the students and their families for information and idea sharing.
This has been a truly outstanding opportunity! It has been fun and eye-opening; one that I would like to share with everyone in my school buildings. I'm hoping that someday I'll become an administrator, and I would certainly do my best to see that the staff have all of these tools and widgets available for them to use to help educate the students, families and community.
I thank you!
I was worried because I didn't get the first email as scheduled, and so I started a week late, and in less than a month I've covered all of the "THINGS".
So what have a I learned? Other than the obvious sites, widgets, feeds, and terminology I've learned that Web 2.0 is where we're at, right now. The challenge will be that we won't be here long; technology is evolving faster than many of us in the classroom can even hope to keep up. Many good teachers want to keep up and move along with the students (will we, or can we, ever hope to get ahead of them in this?). Our biggest challenge will be to convince our administrators and boards of education that it is imperative that "they" work harder to keep the technology as up to date as possible in their schools and district.
I remember coming to school this past September and being thrilled that our operating system had been updated to Windows 2000! Can I shout that? WINDOWS FREAKIN' 2000!!!
With many districts (including ours) in the financial troubles they're in I'm afraid that technology will be one of the areas that will be put on the back burner, if not taken off the stove altogether.
Hopefully one solution will be to locate, apply and receive grants to help update our ancient operating systems (and perhaps our thinking) and help our schools and teachers attempt to keep up with technology and the rate in which our students are moving forward.
Where do I go from here? Well, there are several "Things" that I'll revisit and explore some of the widgets that I may have missed. I'll probably add posts on the new things I've learned.
I HAVE set up a wikispace and have had students and families use it to sign up for banquet reservations, and picnic planning for the end of the school year. Next year (more likely over the summer) I'll set up the wiki and this blog to be used by the students and their families for information and idea sharing.
This has been a truly outstanding opportunity! It has been fun and eye-opening; one that I would like to share with everyone in my school buildings. I'm hoping that someday I'll become an administrator, and I would certainly do my best to see that the staff have all of these tools and widgets available for them to use to help educate the students, families and community.
I thank you!
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