Becky's Billowing Blogs

I Can't Believe It's Over!

2005-04-26T12:54:00.000-07:00

I can hardly believe we're heading into our last class with Tony! Of course, that goes along with the fact that I can't believe this school year is almost over! As we get older, life seems to go faster and faster.

This class has been such a great experience. One of the best things about it is that all of the things we've learned can continue to be enhanced as we discover more and more about the handhelds. It is obviously an area of technology that will continue to expand. I'm anxious to see what the next few years bring, especially in terms of music software.

It was so interesting to see everyone's projects. Imaginative, creative, fun - such innovative ways to capture the students' interests and to spark the desire to learn. It would be fun to be able to visit some of the classrooms next year and see some of the lessons that come out of the technology we've learned.

I look forward to being able to continue to know more about the handhelds and the continuously changing technology. My one fear is that we seem to have so little time to work on things. Tony has worked with us at Willowdale, helping us to develop class and curriculum web sites, but in between the time we spend with Tony, it's difficult to find a couple of free hours to continue. I hope that our district, and other districts, will devote time and staff development to technological advances so that we can continue to grow and improve!

Thanks, Tony, for your insight, your patience, your humor, and your leadership. It has been a great class!

The Pressure's On!

2005-04-18T06:08:00.000-07:00

Tony's class has been such a breath of fresh air! Hands-on activities, discovering software, discussing ideas to be used in class - it makes the time go so quickly! But, when the "roving reporter" assignment hits, it changes everything! What if I miss something important? So I brought my laptop to class so that I could write down everything we discussed. And after class I wondered why I didn't bring it EVERY week! What an easy way to keep track of everything. Those of you in class - I know this applies to Rick - that have a mini keyboard for your Palm must find it incredibly helpful when keeping track of class activities. I'm thinking it is a "must" buy this summer!

I wonder how everyone is feeling about our lesson plan assignment. Ideas seem to wander through my brain at the most inappropriate times - during church yesterday, at a rehearsal on Saturday, when I was trying to go to sleep last night! There don't seem to be a lot of readily accessible music programs for the Palm, so I am a bit daunted by this assignment. PLUS, different ideas keep wandering in, so I change my mind frequently on what I'd like to cover in the plan. Today is my personal deadline - I must make a decision and begin mapping out the particulars. On Wednesday, when I suddenly think of an idea that might be better, I'll just have to save it to try on next year's fourth graders!

I look forward to seeing everyone in class on Thursday!!

White Chili and Fried Brains

2005-04-06T14:54:00.000-07:00

I'll confess that my brain ceased functioning before class even started last week. Tony and I spent all afternoon in a meeting to discuss Willowdale's action plans, rewrite what was necessary, haggle over wording or concepts, and, ultimately, vote on acceptance. It was a long afternoon!

I loved the concept mapping, especially Inspiration. I've checked the blogs of several classmates and that one seems to be a favorite. Inspiration seems to offer the most flexibility and it's easy to use. Lynne had a good point in her mention that concept mapping on the handheld might be difficult for her kids because you can't always see the entire map. Inspiration scores the highest in that area as well.

By the time we got to ebooks, I flatlined. I honestly have no idea how to start. Midway through, I came to for a few minutes, so I think if I can figure out how to start it all, it might be okay. Ebooks look wonderful! And they offer so many solutions to curriculum - ways to enhance teaching, to emphasize those concepts that are difficult to grasp, better and more examples of concepts, the ease of having it all on the handheld - so many positives! Obviously, I'll be spending some time on this by myself to figure out what I missed during my momentary lapses!

Several people asked for the White Chili recipe, so here it is:

1 pound large white beans
6 C. chicken broth (I used beef because I like the flavor better)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium onions, chopped and divided
1 T. oil
2 4-oz. cans chopped green chilies
2 t. ground cumin
1 1/2 t. dried oregano
1/4 t. ground cloves
1/4 t. cayenne pepper
4 C. diced cooked chicken breasts
3 C. grated Monterey Jack cheese

Combine beans, chicken broth, garlic and half the onions in a large soup pot and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer until beans are very soft, 3 hours or more. Add more broth, if necessary. In a skillet, saute remaining onions in oil until tender. Add chilies and seasonings and mix thoroughly. Add to bean mixture. Add chicken and continue to simmer 1 hour. Serve topped with grated cheese.

Add condiments as desired: chopped tomatoes, chopped parsley, chopped black olives, guacamole, chopped scallions, sour cream, crumbled tortilla chips, salsa.

See you all on Thursday!

Who Thinks Up This Stuff?

2005-03-30T14:42:00.000-08:00

After discovering Easter eggs (one of the coolest, and probably one of the most useless discoveries on the Palm!), learning Quizzler, and discussing ways to download materials, we were turned loose on the computers in the lab. Our job? To explore Palm freeware and shareware sites. It was amazing! I found information on wines and foods, applications that didn't work, a database to keep track of your lovers (which, I suppose, could come in rather handy if you dated a lot of people who looked alike), a database to keep track of your cats (which I completed right away - like our instructor, I do have a love of felines!), and a couple of music applications that I couldn't figure out at all!

Tony's idea of posting a Palm application wish list on his web site is a fabulous one. I think the possibilities are endless and if we could all come up with ideas specific to our field, and give those ideas to those who love to write programs, we could have a continuous supply of ways to integrate the Palms into our teaching.

I've been playing with HanDBase a bit and really like the setup. I'd love to use it with my 5th graders and help them develop a database to keep track of all of the musicians and composers we study during the year. The problem is that it's $30 - and that would be for every student - so the cost is prohibitive. Tony suggested using Address Book and just changing the fields. What I haven't quite figured out is - can you have more than one address book so that one could still be dedicated to actuall addresses and the other turned into a completely different type of database?

Dinner tomorrow night is White Chicken Chili, Mardi Gras Salad, and Kahlua Cake. They're 3 of my favorites, so I hope you like them, too!

A Blogging Explosion

2005-03-23T12:55:00.000-08:00

Blogs kind of remind me of reality tv shows. They both seem to represent a microcosm of life that is displayed for the world to see - some parts interesting and others hardly worth our time. There's a blog for every subject and for every opinion under the sun. A local news blog absolutely blasts a couple of morning anchors - in a rather mean-spirited and hurtful manner. So it made me wonder - how will the ability to praise or blast, help or harm, comment or rant, impact on the future of our society?

I think that, as a society, we have become less polite, kind, and tactful in the last 15 or so years. As the internet has grown and blogging has skyrocketed, we have an entire "cyber culture" that is guaranteed anonymity. Anything can be said, however damaging or enlightening. Is that positive?

Many of us grew up in homes that taught "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." That almost seems to be a thing of the past. Is honesty always the best policy if it is hurtful? And is it really honesty, or is it opinion. I worry about the future of our youth. Many at the elementary level don't seem to have a real understanding of accountability and responsibility. We teach the importance of our "Character Counts" system and then our kids log on to the internet and discover a very worldly and sometimes negative view of many things. There's an amazing wealth of technology that is so positive, but my concern is that blogging offers a forum to everyone - and while everyone may deserve the right to be heard, there's little that can be done to validate the positive and discount the negative. The most recent school shooting points to a young man who made comments on a number of Hitler youth sites. No one realized the importance of his musings. How do we help kids? How do we know who needs our help?

It is, at the very least, a conundrum. The world-wide dissemination of information and opinion is one of our greatest achievements and one of our most frightening challenges.

Overload!

2005-03-21T13:49:00.000-08:00

During break I thought a lot about the lesson plan I would like to write for this class. I have, to date, 14 post-it notes, 2 notebooks, and 3 pages of last week's newspapers, all with notes about things I could do for this assignment. The problem? I can't decide which one to do - or, more to the point, I can't decide which one is doable. I'm at that stage where "a little information is a dangerous thing." I get stuck on one idea; move to another; don't like that one; retrace my steps on the first one; and then think - perhaps taking a break and having a glass of wine will help. Five days and five glasses of wine later, I'm still no closer.

What's the problem? Are any of you experiencing this? I've finally decided that there are so many possibilities, some of which require more knowledge of handhelds than I've been able to stuff into my head - that I get stuck and get frustrated. So, my job for tonight is to choose one plan and go with it. Don't let those eyes wander to post-it note 12 or page 17A of last Thursday's Weird-Herald. Save it for summer which, amazingly enough, is only 10 weeks away and always offers time for reflection and renewed vigor. And whatever happens, don't cork a bottle of wine!

Skills with Sketchy

2005-03-09T11:19:00.000-08:00

I so hated missing class last week; even more so, because of attending the funeral of a good friend I had known since high school. I was glad that you didn't get to HanDBase. I'm excited to learn more about it and happy I didn't miss that class!

I've been spending lots of time with Sketchy, finding ways to incorporate it into music class. One of the things we spend lots of time with is rhythm patterns, time signatures, writing rhythms, clapping them correctly and so on. Kids easily get confused with quarter vs. half notes and so on - and it gets even more confusing once the corresponding rests are added to the equation. With Sketchy, I can give each note and/or rest its own color, and then I can manipulate the animation so that just the eighth note moves, or quarter note, and so on. Patterns can be beamed to students; they can identify the jumping note, or the yellow note, and so on. It creates a sort of working flash card program. The kids can create their own patterns in various time signatures and beam them to classmates and to me. I'm REALLY liking Sketchy!!!

I took my 5th graders to the computer lab this week so they could begin to design their own garage band project. They were SO quiet and attentive! I told Tony I want his job - the kids seem to be really in to anything connected with computers! They had a great time. Tony explained a few things about saving their compositions; I showed them a few different kinds of samples, and then we let them experiment with sounds, instruments, melodies, and patterns as they created their own compositions. We gave very few guidelines - I know that, for myself, I learn the most when I just go in and play around with an application. Their compositions, after only about 20 minutes, are amazing! Tony mentioned that we might come up with a CD of scary pieces, dramatic pieces, comedic pieces, and so on, that could be used to accompany WillowCam and our WebRadio program. The plus of that, aside from learning more about both technology and music, is that music becomes more important as it becomes more closely connected and integrated into other subjects and projects.

I become more amazed with each new application and am in awe of the technology that my students have absorbed. They truly are like sponges; I think, in part, because they don't question why - they just do it!

The Possibilities Are Endless

2005-02-24T08:52:00.000-08:00

Our assignment for this week is to tailor some uses for the built-in applications of the Palm. I think the biggest plus of the Palm is that you can keep almost everything you need in this little, handheld computer. You don't need a yearly calendar, an assignment notebook, a journal, or any of the other items that students often carry with them; it can all be tracked by the Palm. The other huge plus is the ability to beam. Teachers can beam assignments to students; students working on a group project can beam their section to the other members of the group. Here are a few ideas I think would work well in my classroom.

Address Book
Each month we study a different composer or musician of note. The one difficulty I have with this ongoing activity is that once I tell students, for example, that Stevie Wonder is blind, they begin to think it’s true of the next composer and the next...Beethoven was our composer in December 2003 and, after that, every time we discussed a composer, they asked if the composer was deaf!

Their address book could become kind of a database for our musicians. They could keep track of the musician’s home country, web sites about the musicians, and their birthday. The customizable sections could include facts about the musicians, or song titles. What would make this perfect would be linking sound to it, so they could also play a representative composition.

Date Book
The date book, of course, is perfect for keeping track of assignments and class projects. With the ability to color code events, students could delineate between classes. It could replace their assignment notebook. I think one of the most valuable aspects of the Palm is that it can handle so much! This is the first time in about 8 years that I have not carried a day planner everywhere I go. It is invaluable for students! The ability to add a note to any entry into your daily calendar gives the date book more flexibility for recording assignments, ongoing projects, events, and so on.

Memo Pad
I would like to retitle this the “Idea Pad.” I think kids (and adults) need a place where they can jot ideas, thoughts, wishes and hopes, frustrations and feelings. As we encourage students to improve their writing skills and explore their creativity, it would be wonderful to have one spot they go to for some journaling. Again, having all of their information in one place would make it so much easier than carrying a journal, calendar, assignment notebook, and so on.

To Do List
I’m not having much luck thinking of how to use this in music, other than the obvious way of keeping track of things that need to be done for class. I think there is an obvious advantage to the palm because the kids could always have them with them. There are always kids who forget to wear their chorus t-shirts on a singing day; if the information was in their palm, they’d have a better chance of remembering. The same holds true when they need to remember to bring something to class, or a costume for the musical, or any of those sorts of things. I’m afraid I’m not very imaginative in this area!

Note Pad
Is there a way to install additional fonts into the Palm? I’m sure there must be. My thought for the note pad is to make it literal for music - it could become their “note” pad. There are a couple of fonts that print in notes and musical symbols. If those fonts could be imported into the palm, the students could have their very own composition book. They could store rhythm patterns, song ideas, even lyrics, and could beam their information to classmates when we work in groups to write music.

To take things a step further, if there was a way to import any music notation program, they could then add staves and write melodies. And - those melodies could then be used when the kids work with Garage Band.

The Palm could help students to develop their organizational skills, learn to categorize, improve writing skills, and channel their creativity. There's something about "ownership" as well; putting your thoughts and feelings on your own handheld and always having it with you. Kids want to use it - they want to record things on it - and it provokes an enthusiasm for exploring, creating, and learning.

HanDBase Looks Cool!

2005-02-15T17:00:00.000-08:00

It feels very odd to be taking a class and yet, to not have class for 3 weeks! It's easy to feel sort of "out of the loop," so I decided that I'd check out some class blogs and comments so that I would get back into a class mindset! It is conference night, but being the music teacher means not many parents come to see you - it can make for a long evening!

Tony mentioned to me a database program called HanDBase and thought it night provide some great uses in music. I took a look at it this evening and it looks fabulous! I am looking for a way for students to write short compositions, share them with their team members, add rhythmic accompaniment, and create a musical score that could then be beamed to everyone in the class. Classmates could then watch the performance of another team and follow the score on their handhelds.

My limited research of HanDBase indicates that you can create custom reports, choosing from a variety of options including drill and practice, word processing, spreadsheet, graphing, presentations, and so on. You can merge data from multiple users into a single database. I read a number of customer comments and they are very complimentary of this program. So - if you're looking for something to do in the next few days before we again have class, check out this website: www.ddhsoftware.com/handbase.html. Ponder the possibilities!

Handhelds in Education

2005-01-27T14:23:00.000-08:00

Judith Rajala, President and Founder of EduHound.com, published an article entitled "Handhelds in Education." She begins by quoting the Center for Highly Interactive Computing in Education at the University of Michigan. The Center promotes the use of computers in education, but cites high costs as a hindrance to any extensive use. Palms have changed that; where else could one purchase a computer for less than $200?

Ms. Rajala draws from a Glencoe/McGraw-Hill article, "Handheld Devices Make Inroads in the Classroom." A strong connection is shown between PDAs and student achievement. Handhelds can be used to take class notes, keep homework assignments, write reports, share information and keep track of grades. I had not realized the depth of uses for the handheld. If a student is absent, missed class notes can be beamed to his or her PDA. If they're working on a group project, they can easily pass information back and forth. This is a great example for a way I might use the Palms in music class. During the past week, we have been writing "ragas," a form of popular Indian music. Students have to write a melody for their raga and then create rhythmic accompaniments to the melody. With palms, they could share their rhythmic and melodic compositions with other group members, and also have an easy way to develop an entire score of the music, which they could turn in to me after their performance. They could also beam their complete composition to other class members so that we could all follow along as they perform. Wow! Now I just need to find some fitting software!

The Glencoe/McGraw article also points out advantages for teachers. Assignments can be beamed from teacher to student; assessments and grades can be recorded and easily accessed. The article stresses the importance of both professional development and administrative support. I feel that, currently, I have assessment materials and evaluations in about a dozen different places. One day we do a rhythmic assessment; another time, it might be a recorder evaluation. I keep a notebook with class lists, but then make notes in other places. We are also sent, from time to time, information on individual students. If all of that could be in the PDA, with links to connect all of it, evaluation would be much easier. I also think that, in my case, I would be more consistent in assessing students; knowing it was all organized in one place would take the frustration out of the process, or at least some of it!

A third benefit is that parents can be well-informed. In some schools, teachers beam grades, behavior notes, and assignments onto the students' PDA. Parents can then access the information at night. Again, what a big help to teachers! I know a number of teachers who are forever calling anxious parents after school, to keep them informed of their children's progress. The PDAs would send the information home on the day it is recorded, so that teachers and parents could stay in touch. It would give parents time to think about the teacher's comments and might provide clearer and more concise information.

Ms. Rajala provides a number of valuable links to handheld resources. For more information, please access: http://www.thejournal.com/magazine/vault/A4469A.cfm.

Beams, Giraffes, and Too Much Fun!

2005-01-21T13:27:00.000-08:00

I was reminded once last night during class of the frustration we all feel from time to time. Tony was up in front, explaining beaming and we're sitting at our tables, already putting the concept into play. He still has a few things to tell us, but we've gone on, beaming away, excited and overwhelmed by the ability to send something to another handheld across the table! It is wonderful to see such enthusiasm and to know that we all take that back to our schools and our classrooms. We at Willowdale are really fortunate to have a principal who fully supports technology advancement. One of our classmates, Lynn, is frustrated because her staff and/or principal doesn't understand the value of handhelds in education. If any of the rest of you face a similar roadblock, invite them to call our principal here. She is an incredible advocate!

The giraffe game was driving me crazy - I would get to about 1200 points and then not be able to make it the rest of the way because of periods, colons, and other punctuation. I worried that my first class would come in before I finished the current game. What would I do with them? Could I, quick, put on some music and tell them to relax and listen to the sounds of this month's composer? Something told me this would not work for the first grade class. With 4 minutes to spare, I reached a score of 1481. I still missed a couple of brackets, but at least I will now be able to teach my morning classes without having those lines of descending letters dance before my eyes.

One of my friends, who works at a private school, but in the development office rather than the classroom, told me it must be nice to get graduate credit for playing on a handheld computer. I pulled out my handheld to show him all that it could do - to him, it still looked like a lot of games and perhaps too much fun to be learning. But that's the point, isn't it? That's what kept me trying giraffe, over and over again, determined to reach the appointed score. It IS fun - and it encourages unknowledgable learning - learning without even realizing you're learning something.

So, I continue to be amazed at the capabilities and have many questions as I continue to work with it. I want to hook up to the internet, dock it to my laptop, use it in my music classes - all things that will come with time and patience. I am frequently asking my students to be patient when we're working on a project - I guess that's something I should practice as well!

Blogging Becomes A Part Of Life

2005-01-13T23:40:00.000-08:00

Who would ever have thought that becoming a "blogger" would be a term connected with internet use, global communication, and earning your master's degree. When I mentioned to my 77-year old mother that we discussed blogging in my graduate class, the look on her face was priceless! She had hoped that, once I truly reached adulthood (which she thought would happen abotu 20 years ago), I would get serious about life and a career. Blogging? There's not even anything that sounds like it! Well, there are a few words: I once did a production of "Godspell" and had to learn clogging for a number; now and then we all do a little dogging; shopping for clothes could be called togging; and at Christmas I enjoy a bit of cranberry glogging. None of those have any remote connection at all to blogging.

So, what's next? The pace of technology is sometimes frightening, always exciting, and occasionally overwhelming. Just as I began to get comfortable with designing a web page for my music program, Tony suggested that blogging could be used in place of it. The seemingly boundless opportunities and challenges will, no doubt, continue to enthrall and/or scare all of us and, at times, make us all feel quite inadequate!

So, here we go. Cyberspace has birthed the blogosphere and it will be exciting to explore its many opportunities! I am very excited about this class. I look forward to discovering ways to use handhelds with my music classes and think they can offer even more interdisciplinary opportunities.