This week was incredibly busy for me. In addition to the work we had, I am also the festival manager for our solo & ensemble festival in Mukwonago. This year alone we have 24 schools, about 7 or 8 non-member participants and over 2,000 students performing at over 840 events. I am currently scheduling all of those events and it gets a little crazy.
Anyway, I had fun trying to find the information for the bibliography. I didn't realize how much information about music careers were out there and that there have actually been statistical data about them. I found interesting things about various music careers, all the way from music teachers to recording artist to film sound engineer. It was truly amazing and very neat to read about and learn. I really enjoyed this assignment and hope to use this in future concert programs and publications.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Survey's and Search
This week was a blast getting our survey results gathered. I have a lot of fun, I know it may be a little strange, gathering up that data and making various charts. The Google Doc options make creating these charts a snap and I always have a lot of fun manipulating data like this.
We also had to watch a video on Bill Tanzer that discussed how research is formed based on what is being searched on various search engines. It is amazing how much information can be gathered based on the simple search criteria. Amazing things these search engines are. :)
We also had to watch a video on Bill Tanzer that discussed how research is formed based on what is being searched on various search engines. It is amazing how much information can be gathered based on the simple search criteria. Amazing things these search engines are. :)
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Survey Bliss
I was really excited about the assignment this week. We had to create a survey. I love surveys, not sure why, but I really enjoy learning how to manipulate the data into graphs and charts. I'm not sure why I enjoy this, but for some reason I find the ability take information from surveys or questionnaires and such, and create an easy way to interpret the information.
Recently, I started tracking our music department enrollment numbers and have been able to enter this information into a short questionnaire for other teachers. I've now been able to take that information and using bar graphs, pie charts, trend line, etc., I can present this information to administration as a point of keeping music programs in our district. Given the current political climate, I thought it would be prudent to be able to show how much our numbers have grown.
Recently, I started tracking our music department enrollment numbers and have been able to enter this information into a short questionnaire for other teachers. I've now been able to take that information and using bar graphs, pie charts, trend line, etc., I can present this information to administration as a point of keeping music programs in our district. Given the current political climate, I thought it would be prudent to be able to show how much our numbers have grown.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Stats, week 2
Okay, so it hasn't been all that bad in class these past two weeks. I had been expecting a very challenging course involving everything from easy math problems to downright complicated statistical mathmatics. I am happy to say that I have been able to keep up with the assignments and learn some of the basics of statistical analysis.
Thankfully, I have a wonderful group that is supportive and helpful. Although we have faced many challenges in our profession recently, we have found that not only are the group meetings needed to complete our various assignments, but it has also been a place for us to chat (or vent I guess) about the political happenings around our state. I am blessed to be a teacher, I am proud that I have chosen to continue as a lifelong learner, and I glad to be with such a great group of professionals and friends.
Thankfully, I have a wonderful group that is supportive and helpful. Although we have faced many challenges in our profession recently, we have found that not only are the group meetings needed to complete our various assignments, but it has also been a place for us to chat (or vent I guess) about the political happenings around our state. I am blessed to be a teacher, I am proud that I have chosen to continue as a lifelong learner, and I glad to be with such a great group of professionals and friends.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Stats? Ah!
I have been wrapping my head around this for a few days now, but I am pretty worried about this course. You might think that hey, you're a musician, shouldn't you be pretty good at math?!? Well, I never have been and dealing with numbers worries me.
I am looking forward to learning about charts and how I can add this information into my conversations as factual data and I hope that we learn how to bring firm numbers to our administrators and technology personnel to help improve our technology in our schools.
I am looking forward to learning about charts and how I can add this information into my conversations as factual data and I hope that we learn how to bring firm numbers to our administrators and technology personnel to help improve our technology in our schools.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
SMART Goal
There is one goal that I want to do with my band students and that is blogging. I have said it before, I think it is a very useful tool and I believe the students at my school are not getting it at all, so why not in band.
I would like to see my students reflecting on several things throughout the year. It goes without saying that all performances would have a blog post attached to it. However, I would also show YouTube videos of performances and ask them to comment or respond in some way that relates to the performance. I want to begin by starting up a blog post for their solo & ensemble performances and then get a reaction to how they felt the preparation was compared to the performance. I am firm believer that the process is more important than the product and I want to help my students see how this can be fun and reflective and how it might impact their next performance.
Since I want to start one up for our solo & ensemble festival, that means my time line is here. I want to begin this immediately. However, in an effort to make it more realistic, I believe I will ask for volunteers on this trial basis and see how it goes.
I would like to see my students reflecting on several things throughout the year. It goes without saying that all performances would have a blog post attached to it. However, I would also show YouTube videos of performances and ask them to comment or respond in some way that relates to the performance. I want to begin by starting up a blog post for their solo & ensemble performances and then get a reaction to how they felt the preparation was compared to the performance. I am firm believer that the process is more important than the product and I want to help my students see how this can be fun and reflective and how it might impact their next performance.
Since I want to start one up for our solo & ensemble festival, that means my time line is here. I want to begin this immediately. However, in an effort to make it more realistic, I believe I will ask for volunteers on this trial basis and see how it goes.
Web 2.0 - last class
This was a great class. I really enjoyed learning about all of the possible web 2.0 tools that are available, and also where I can go to research new tools for the future. I plan on implementing a few of these tool very quickly.
The first tool I began using during this class is a Google Site. I started a few sites that will coincide with specific classes I teach but the one I will use immediately will be for the solo & ensemble festival that Mukwonago hosts every year. I am the festival manager for this festival which brings in over 1,000 students from SE Wisconsin to perform either solos or ensembles, or both, within a day and a half festival. This is a big undertaking and I created this web site to assist students, parents, teachers with common information regarding our festival. There are many pieces at work during this festival and it is vital to have the right information for a successful festival.
The second tool is blogging. I plan to begin using this tool in phases and slowly incorporate it into our curriculum. I believe it to be a vital and power reflection tool that can be used in my music classrooms. People may think, why in a music class, shouldn't you be performing? Well yes, but there is also a great deal of reflection that can occur to help the student improve on an instrument. I believe that without reflection and understanding of what I just did, or just practiced or performed, there is little ways in which we can develop a plan for improvement. As with all subjects, music and band are not different. With reflection, and in this case blogging, positive improvements can be implemented.
The first tool I began using during this class is a Google Site. I started a few sites that will coincide with specific classes I teach but the one I will use immediately will be for the solo & ensemble festival that Mukwonago hosts every year. I am the festival manager for this festival which brings in over 1,000 students from SE Wisconsin to perform either solos or ensembles, or both, within a day and a half festival. This is a big undertaking and I created this web site to assist students, parents, teachers with common information regarding our festival. There are many pieces at work during this festival and it is vital to have the right information for a successful festival.
The second tool is blogging. I plan to begin using this tool in phases and slowly incorporate it into our curriculum. I believe it to be a vital and power reflection tool that can be used in my music classrooms. People may think, why in a music class, shouldn't you be performing? Well yes, but there is also a great deal of reflection that can occur to help the student improve on an instrument. I believe that without reflection and understanding of what I just did, or just practiced or performed, there is little ways in which we can develop a plan for improvement. As with all subjects, music and band are not different. With reflection, and in this case blogging, positive improvements can be implemented.
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