There's an App for Everything

https://www.flickr.com/photos/sunraven0/5451897212

In my classroom, I see every student in the school, regardless of any disabilities.  My classroom and my content needs to be accessible to them and I need to be able to engage and include them.  While I would normally take this time to discuss how I could differentiate my classroom, I instead choose to focus on making accommodations that will help them, but will also help every student that walks into my classroom.  Enter the topic of Universal Design for Learning (UDL).

There are three main principles to UDL:
1.  Presenting the information in multiple ways (the what)
2.  Allowing students to respond in multiple ways (the how)
3.  Providing multiple ways to engage students in the content (the why)
Check out this website for more great information on UDL!

Incorporating UDL into the classroom should be done in small steps.  The students have to be on board with the changes or they will fight against them rather than embrace and use them.  With this in mind, I decided to find apps that I could use on iPads in my classroom (whenever I can get my hands on them).  I've summarized some of the apps that I found and listed ways that they can address these three UDL principles in my classroom in this document.

Do you have other ideas for me?  What other apps should I play around with?  How could these apps help students in your classroom?

TPACK Lessons

Coming up with rationales for some of these TPACK sets was difficult as many do not relate in any way to the content that I teach. Some of the sets were a stretch anyway, but that's what makes the TPACK game interesting. It gets you to think outside the box just a little bit! How would you have connected the content, pedagogy, and technology for each set? What lessons would you have come up with?

Content: Shakespeare Play

Pedagogy: Compare and Contrast

Technology: Excel

With this set, I could assign different Shakespeare plays to small groups of students to read. They could discuss their play with a student group that read a different play and work as a larger group to compare and contrast the two plays. I would have them compile the information they generated from the discussion in an excel spreadsheet. I could also assign different plays to different classes and use GoogleSheets to accomplish a similar outcome without the face-to-face discussion. They could discuss using the chat feature in Sheets.

Content: Social Skills

Pedagogy: Discuss

Technology: Web-based Activity

Students could do a web-walkthrough of a social story individually. We would then discuss the experiences they had with the walkthrough and identify why they experienced certain outcomes and how they could have made different choices in the social story to achieve different (and possibly more-desired) outcomes.

Content: Argument Writing

Pedagogy: Engage in Data-based Inquiry

Technology: Office 365

I would assign a topic and have students randomly assigned to a side, similar to a blind debate. Students would use data-based inquiry to research their side of the argument and use Word from Office 365 to write their argument.

Content: Writing a Script

Pedagogy: Modeling

Technology: OneNote

This one would be fairly straightforward. I would model how to set up and write a script using OneNote. Students would then work on building their own script in the program. OneNote allows for flexibility of placement of text and images so students could adjust the layout to fit their writing style.

Now, for one that actually applies! I created an entire TPACK lesson for this set!!

Content: Note Reading Skills

Pedagogy: Modeling

Technology: Video Recorder

Title: Behind the Music: Recorder Style

Summary: Students will practice note reading skills on the recorder and use video recording to self-assess progress.

Primary Core Goals/Outcomes:

• MU:Pr4.2.5a Demonstrate understanding of the structure and the elements of music (such as rhythm, pitch, form, and harmony) in music selected for performance.
• MU:Pr4.2.5b When analyzing selected music, read and perform using standard notation.
• MU:Pr5.1.5a Apply teacher-provided and established criteria and feedback to evaluate the accuracy and expressiveness of ensemble and personal performances.
• MU:Pr5.1.5b Rehearse to refine technical accuracy and expressive qualities to address challenges, and show improvement over time.
• MU:Pr6.1.5a Perform music, alone or with others, with expression, technical accuracy, and appropriate interpretation.
• MU:Re9.1.5a Evaluate musical works and performances, applying established criteria, and explain appropriateness to the context, citing evidence from the elements of music.

Intended Learning Outcomes:

• Students will be able to perform a piece of music on recorder by reading from standard notation.
• Students will be able to self-assess their own performance from a video recording and use that assessment to make a practice plan for improvement.
• Students will be able to make a video recording presentation of their best performance attempt on the piece of music.

Pedagogical Decisions:

1. The interactions in the lesson will be mostly student-centered.  The initial introduction of the material will be modeled by the teacher, but the students will practice, video record, self-assess, and repeat the process with guidance from the teacher when necessary rather than direct instruction.
2. The learning will be hands-on because music is learned best in this manner.  Students will develop similar understandings as all will be working towards their best performance using guidelines we have established prior to determine what makes a good musical performance.
3. Students will be drawing on prior experiences and knowledge of what makes a good musical performance as well as prior experiences playing the recorder.
4. The surface knowledge of what makes a good performance was taught prior.  This series of lessons will focus on creating a deeper understanding of what makes a good musical performance as well as a deeper understanding of the mechanics of note reading and recorder playing.
5. This series of lessons will be completed in the classroom and will occur over a longer period of time to give students time to analyze and reflect on their performances as well as practice and improve based on the analysis and reflection.
6. The learning will be less structured as the students are all at different levels and have different needs in order to practice and improve their performance skills.
7. The activity will be primarily individual, but will allow for small group work if they choose to work together and analyse each other’s performances to help each other improve.
8. The school iPad cart will be required in order to create a video recording of the students’ performances.

TPACK Activity Types:

• Play with a steady beat
• Play with appropriate posture and technical skills
• Play individually
• Play with technical accuracy
• Listen to/view instrumental models
• Read standard notation while singing/playing
• Listen and reflect
• Develop criteria for evaluating a musical performance, improvisation, composition, or arrangement
• Critique a musical performance, improvisation, composition, or arrangement
• Provide constructive suggestions for improvement of a musical performance, improvisation, composition, or arrangement

Assessment Plan:

• Students will self-assess their video recording of their performance using a rubric for good musical performance. (informal)
• Teacher will assess the best video recording the student submits for their final performance using the same rubric for good musical performance. (formal)
• Teacher will visually and aurally monitor progress as students practice and address any problems that arise. (informal)

Materials/Technologies:

Used by the Teacher:  

• iPad
• Recorder
• Copies of reocrder songs
• Projector/computer
• Rubric for assessment

Used by the Students:

• iPad
• Recorder
• Copies of recorder songs
• Rubric for self-assessment
• Headphones

Instructional Procedures:

Introductory Lesson

• Teacher will review good musical performance criteria
• Show video recordings of teacher playing recorder pieces and have students critique the performance using the rubric.
• Whole class walk-through of the song(s) to be rehearsed and evaluated by students.
• Teacher will display the songs on the screen using the computer/projector.
• Students work as a class to identify the notes and rhythms for each piece.
• Teacher models good performance of each piece.
• Students practice each piece as a whole class.

Next Step:

• Students select one of the pieces to practice and perform.
• Students spend the first half of the class time practicing the piece individually, asking for help (if needed) from peers or teacher.
• Teacher monitors practice by walking around the room.
• Students take turns going into the hall to record themselves performing the piece using the video recorder on the iPad.
• Students state their class and the name of the piece before starting to play.
• If there is time, students may use headphones to view their performance and complete a rubric for self-assessment.
• If there is no time remaining, this can be completed the next class period.
• After self-assessment, students talk with the teacher to create a practice plan for improving their performance.

Final Step:

• Students choose the video recording that they feel is their best performance based on the self-assessment rubric to submit.
• Class views video performances.
• Teacher points out the characteristics of good musical performances in each video. (No negatives during whole-class)

TIM

Active Adaptation

• Students are independently using the technology (iPad) in a conventional way but the tool (iPad video) was chosen by the teacher.

The TPACK Puzzle

So I know what content I’m going to teach.  And I have different ways to teach it so I can choose which way provides the best learning experience for the group of students I have.  But what do I do with all of this technology that’s flooding our schools?  This is where the framework TPACK helps.  Like the final piece to an ever-changing puzzle, TPACK completes the picture.

Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Tpack.jpg

All of the things that we already do in the classroom come together in different ways for different lessons.  TPACK helps them fit together better, with the “ideal” lesson including all of my pedagogical knowledge about how to teach the lesson, my content knowledge about the subject matter, and my technological knowledge about the tools and resources to take the lesson to the next level!

This framework is relatively new to me, so I wanted to find resources that would give me a better idea of how to best implement technology into lessons.  While not directly related to music, this matrix developed by the Florida Institute for Instructional Technology provides an excellent framework for figuring out where you are in your technology integration and provides suggestions or guides for how to take your teaching to the next level.  While that’s a wealth of information, I wanted to find something that directly related to my music classroom.  This youtube video provides examples of TPACK applied to different music contexts.

Armed with that information, I wanted to find some resources that I could use with my students.  I have a computer with projector, document camera, and a single iPad available in my music classroom.  Students have been working on rhythm reading skills so I wanted to find resources that would be best used in teaching that concept.

There is an app that was released last March (Chrome Music Lab).  This is a free lesson plan they created using the app and shared online.  I like that it uses a combination of paper/pencil work and iPad work so I could have students working on their own or in small groups and passing my iPad around.

Then I stumbled onto this gem.  RhythmBee is an idea that I could adjust and have my students use for recorder time.  It would be easy to have them record a short video on my iPad of their recorder playing and would provide a unique and quick way for me to individually assess student performance.

Armed with this information and resources, I’m ready to put my TPACK puzzle together.  How could you better use technology to enhance your teaching practices?

Picture This

New grad class.  New assignments.  Bring on the photography!!

What better excuse to break down and get a new camera than new babies and a class about photography?!  We settled on a nice DSLR, but a brand new camera with lots of functions is overwhelming!  One of the greatest challenges from this assignment was figuring out the camera.  Sure, I could simply point and shoot, but I didn’t want the same type of pictures I could capture on my iPhone!

Since the camera didn’t arrive until the middle of the week, I spent the first part of the week choosing the words I thought described me and brainstorming ways to stage those words in a photograph.  Not an easy task!  I would come up with neat photo ideas for words that I thought described me well only to find out the word wasn’t on the list of options.  There were a lot of similar words, and I wish that some of those had been eliminated and a wider variety of choices included.

Once I had my pictures I hit the “now what” point.  I’d only edited pictures through basic apps on my phone that allow you to change the filter or add words.  My DSLR pictures deserved better!  I dived head first into playing with Adobe Photoshop.  My pictures will never be the same!  There are so many ways to edit and tweak pictures in those programs!  I really like the simplicity of the express version for the iPad because it makes the process a bit less overwhelming for a beginner than the full computer version.

I wish that the description for this course had conveyed the emphasis on photography so that I could have gotten the camera and Photoshop sooner.  With more time to play with both my pictures could have been even better!

ComposeIt

Technology allows teachers to take the learning beyond the walls of the classroom.  One of our final projects for this semester's graduate class was to learn about global collaboration and create a project of our own.

In researching global collaboration, I watched a recorded session from the Global Education Conference entitled "The Universal Language of Music: Composed, Shared, and Celebrated Between Classrooms Across the World."  You can access the recording here.

This presentation provided a thorough overview of the types of collaborative projects that have been done regarding music.  It also addressed how collaborative music projects in education can address a large number of standards in a variety of subject areas as well as different learning styles.  She addressed music collaboration that occurred in the recording industry as well as a number of projects in education.  This presentation helped me refine my idea for a collaborative composition project.  She presented a program called SoundTrap that I would like to incorporate into my project because of the collaboration options that allow students to edit a composition similar to the way in which students can work together to edit a Google doc.  In addition to examples of projects, she provided a number of questions to think about when creating a collaborative project.  She even pointed out that a collaboration can be as small as working with a teacher in your building and as large as working with famous composers from around the world.

The project in the presentation that used the program SoundTrap was through the Hatch Experience. I wanted to explore more of their projects, which led me to Compose Yourself. That project and Rock Our World gave me an idea for a collaborative composition project I could do with my own students.

I call my project ComposeIt. It's a six-week collaborative composition project for 5th grade students.  They will use the program SoundTrap to compose an original work with two other groups from other classrooms.  Each week, the groups will evaluate the other two groups' work and create a video to share their thoughts.  The groups will edit and add to the work based on the student reflections and evaluations.  At the end of the six-week project, the students will have a completed digital composition.

I plan to test the project out with my district colleagues first in the spring.  It'll be an awesome way for our students to work together and will give me a chance to work the bugs out of the project before branching out to schools around the world!

How would you expand your students' learning beyond the walls of your classroom?

Go with the flow!

That feeling you get when you are totally absorbed in whatever you are doing - reading a book, watching a tv series, playing a video game. That feeling is something called flow.

In my grad class, we were tasked with an interesting assignment: play a video game. But why? Why would a teacher assign a video game for homework? To try and tap into that idea of flow! That feeling that our students already enjoy in their free time! Why WOULDN'T we find a way to tap into that!

I already love playing games in my classroom! One of the favorites in my classroom is Staff Wars, but I'm always on the lookout for new games!

What games do you use with your students?

Smoosh It!!

The more I work with technology, the more possibilities I discover! I've had plenty of moments where I'm using an app to create something but find that it'll only do part of what I want. So I finish that part and then move it into another app to do more. Apparently, this has a name: App Smashing!

For one of my grad classes, we had to create a final product using app smashing. Jared decided that a final product of app smashing should be called a smoosh, so we created a smoosh!

Step one: figure out what our smoosh would be! I'm in the middle of program prep and he's working with little kiddos all day so we decided to find a smoosh that I could use to have my students self-assess their progress and used apps that he could have little kids play with!

The apps:

Voice Recorder - I used this app to record my students singing one of the songs they were working on.

Safari - I used this app next to find an image to animate. Safari allows you to search for open source images so we wouldn't have to worry about copyright issues.

Photos - I used this app to crop the image of extra "stuff."

Animate Me - We played with a few apps for animation and settled on this one. The free version us a number of limitations, including an audio time limit of ten seconds, so Jared upgraded to the full version for $0.99. This app was fun to play with! We could animate faces over our image, record audio, speed things up/slow things down, and more! We used both phones to record the audio from my phone to the app on his phone. Jared then added a face and animation to our image. Bam!! Smoosh created!

YouTube - Next, I uploaded the video from my phone files to my YouTube account.

Blogger - Final step is to make it public and share the fun!!

So now I get to share our awesome smoosh with all of you!!

https://youtu.be/ohY5Hm2xOrM

I used the normal version to have the students self-assess their progress and work on fixing some mistakes during rehearsal, but they enjoyed this chipmunk version as well!!

To my fellow educators, how would you use app smashing in your classroom?