Another way to Use MySpace educationally

As a music Major that can procrastinate with the best of them, I found that MySpace can be a great way to discover new composers and listen to pieces that were just recently written. An easy way to incorporate this into a classroom is to do a web search using MySpace (though this activity will have to be monitored more or an alternative found for students that do not have a MySpace account). I just recently visited Eric Whitacre's MySpace and looked at his "top friends" to find other composers of today. Some deceased composers have also had pages dedicated to their music, and being able to search MySpace for these composers can be a more entertaining way to learn about a bunch of dead composers than researching in a library. Almost always music clips are put up as well, so being able to listen to free recordings of their music can help students get exposure to all sorts of classical and contemporary music without breaking the bank.

Using MySpace educationally

The whole idea of using technology to help students in the classroom is the main focus in my technology class. So, I thought I would add a little story about how I helped some of my students in the Denver City-Wide Marching Band last year. I had four students in the pit, none of which could read music very well. Every rehearsal we had was spent with me playing their parts with them and basically teaching them by rote. They had all become my friends on my music MySpace page, so I took the music I had written in Finale, took each part out, turned it into an mp3 file, and added it to the page along with a file/song of the entire percussion section's parts. Yes, I could have burned them CD's and given them to them a week later at the next rehearsal I would be at, but letting them have access to them that night after I added it, made it so much easier for them to work on their parts during the week. They definitely showed improvement, and I did that with the rest of the pieces in their marching band show.

People who overcame

Mental_Floss always has tons of tidbits of information, but one of the latest blogs featured people who overcame disabilities. We just talked about disabilities in one of my education classes, so I thought this would be appropriate to add. There are several stories of people overcoming physical disabilities and Beethoven with his deafness is included. I also just learned about how this affected Beethoven in my Music History class. Turns out he wrote a letter to a friend talking about contemplating suicide. It eventually comes around to saying that while he feels like killing himself, he decides to stay alive for his art (music). As teachers we all need to make sure that any disabled student in a classroom is encouraged and feels like they can achieve anything anyone else is doing because most of the time they can. They can do great things with hard work, just like the anyone else.

A State fighting for a return to the Curriculum

I was again surfing the Internet and found an article about lawmakers in Kentucky trying to find a better way to test their students. They, like many states, have developed a testing system to go along with the requirements for the No Child Left Behind Act. What they are trying to do is find a way to still test students but allow for more of the curriculum to be taught instead of teaching to the test. "Members of the Republican-controlled state Senate, led by Majority Leader Dan Kelly, say eliminating most of the testing program, which is tied to a high-stakes accountability system, could save the state as much as $10 million a year and give teachers far more time to focus on the curriculum instead of preparing for and administering the CATS." I am not a huge fan of tests, though I realize that we do need to keep teachers accountable for what they are teaching their students. I am glad to see that lawmakers are realizing the impact of these high-stakes tests on the curriculum previously set-up. There has been a switch from curriculum-based teaching to test-based teaching. Hopefully many states will follow Kentucky's lead and look into new ways of keeping teachers accountable and students learning.

An extreme case of Middle School Rage

I was surfing the net, and I found this disturbing article about the killing of a gay student in a middle school in California. After reading just the first section, there is one huge thing wrong with the picture; the student was killed in the back of a computer lab at school. How does this happen? How do teachers or other students not notice something like a gun on a student? I'm sure it's possible to not see it, as it can be hidden, but the idea that no one even reported of hearing that the killer was planning it. The whole thing is just very crazy to me. But the real reason I wrote this blog was to discuss when classes on tolerating differences should be implemented in school. In elementary schools students are told to "play nice with others", but in middle school, that doesn't really even carry through. Students, especially in middle school, are going through so many hormonal changes and finding who they are, so one would think that helping kids understand differences should be part of any middle school cuuriculum. It's not, though. There are several cases of bullying all over in schools, but a case as severe as the one above causes a huge concern as to what we, as teachers, unknowingly allow to happen. The bullying the student above received seemed to have been dealt with by the student well as he responded by flirting with the boys to diffuse the situation. That is apparently what set the other student off. I don't know what to even think about the whole thing, but I do know that when I become a teacher, I hope I can help students in my classes understand that we are all different, and that's okay. I just hope that everyone (teachers, students, administration, parents, and community members) can help our younger students understand that differences are okay, and we need to all tolerate everyone. Tolerating doesn't mean that you have to be a best friend with someone, it just means you have to let them live their life and not do anything to inflict pain.

Teaching by rote

I found this video of Tommy Emmanuel teaching Classical Gas by rote. It's fairly funny, and there are a few great jokes in there, but the main idea I was thinking about was the idea of teaching by rote (aka playing something and having the student play it back by ear, without music). This is commonly used in the Susuki method, and it can be fairly controversial at times. As you watch the video, Tommy is giving instructions with chords, so that helps as he plays, but in general the guys is having to listen. He does a fairly decent job, too.
Now, how does this apply to teaching? Well, like I mentioned earlier the Susuki method of teaching (especially violin and piano) relies on folk songs that kids know, and having them play by ear. While this has its ups and downs, I think any musician should have to train their ear. I am not saying every student should be started that way (as visual learners would probably not do as well), but to train a musical ear, practice in listening to pitches and matching them on an instrument is a great thing. Brass players need to be able to hear pitches in their head first to make sure they hit the right partial, and woodwind and string players need to make sure they are playing in tune. Having students play by rote every once in a while can help break up a class period with something a little more fun and different, while still helping them musically.

Single-Sex Classrooms

I was meandering through the New York Times website and found an article on single-sex classrooms in an intermediate school. It goes on for quite a while about the research supporting single-sex classes, and while I understand it, I also wonder if they have looked at the social issues that occur when males and females finally do get to mix. Do girls feel more confident speaking out in class now that they have gained confidence in their all-female class, or do they still get intimidated by boys? I do understand that the male and female brains do work in very different ways (just read the first section about how the rooms are kept for each sex and the coloring ideas), but each person's brain also works very differently. We have yet to see a separation of classes into kinesthetic, visual, and aural learners. We still keep all of them together, so why not keep males and females together. Yes, they are both awkward during puberty; that will happen no matter what, but part of that is what makes middle school/junior high memorable.