1.) It's lunchtime.
2.) Families don't have to follow the schedule of classes, they can follow any schedule they like.
3.) I have too much work to do for my other classes, I don't have time to come to your class.
4.) I thought you didn't have to go.
5.) Yeah, I thought it was optional.
6.) My computer was freezing, so I got off and couldn't get back into the meet.
7.) I thought it was just if you had questions about the work that you assigned.
8.) I have so much work to do for chorus, band and advanced art I can't come to your class.
9.) I was sleeping.
10.) I had to go on a bike ride with my family.
HOW CAN I ARGUE WITH ANY OF THESE REASONS.
Tuesday, May 26, 2020
Wednesday, May 20, 2020
Digital Portfolios- Chapter 6- Moving Beyond Portfolios
“Uncertainty is the foundation for inquiry and research”, Peter Johnston- This is the quotation that begins this chapter. We are living with great uncertainty right now, but it has also been a very creative time as well, and the future is now. This chapter makes us think about the future, the future of education, the future of how we think about technology and the uses of it for our students, and the future of grading and assessment. What happens to those portfolios when students leave the schools? This is the first big question that is asked. What happens when digital portfolios become the norm? What happens when students are given more choice and voice when it comes to their learning?
Our schools have already gone beyond traditional grading practices. We have been using standards based assessment practices for over five years now, and it has been an easy transition for visual and performing arts teachers and students. I and many of my colleagues have always had difficulty with traditional grading practices when it came to students in the performing arts. The type of feedback that the author talks about in this last chapter connects with the ways we have always worked with students in music classes. Summarize, Explain, Redirect and Resubmit are perfect words to describe how we work with students on artistic projects. If you take a choral group working on a piece of music, for example, you summarize what they did, you explain what they did well and what they could have done better, you help them with how to make it better, and then they try it again. Constant, positive, worthwhile and effective feedback is the way for students to learn and get better at any skill. If you have consistent, timely, specific and thoughtful feedback you do not need grades, students can simply move forward from one standard to the next, and it also gives them license to work at their own paces as well.
Our school has figured out how to showcase student learning and have students take ownership of their learning on a regular basis. We always have student led conferences, where students create a portfolio of work that shows progress, process and performance, depending on the subject and where they are in their accomplishments. It is not totally digital as of yet, but a lot of it is, and after the last twelve weeks of distance learning, all of our work will be available in a digital form for choosing and creating a portfolio for each student. We don’t know what will happen this fall, but we are prepared to teach all of our curriculum using google classroom, and we are prepared to have classes using videoconferencing to meet with students. Students have grown accustomed to working on projects asynchronously, and then asking questions via email, messaging or video conferencing. Students have found more choice and voice just in the ways that we have been forced to teach the groups the last several weeks. It has not been ideal, but I have seen certain gifted students soar, push themselves and find ways to learn without the distractions of others in a classroom.
This takes us to the idea of the Genius Hour that the author describes in this chapter. Our school has an area known as the “Maker Space” which includes several computers, lots of creative materials like recycled materials, beads, feathers, and also a big white board for collaboration with other students. It has become a safe and creative space for many students when they have targeted learning time and want to work on their own projects, or when a teacher has a project time and wants to use that space and materials for their work. I love the idea of Genius Hour because it really makes the creative process accessible for students inside the school day. We have many opportunities for students after school for creative problem solving and the arts, such as Odyssey of the Mind, or drama club, or jazz band or Interact Club, but this is a great place for students to have voice and choice in their learning within school time.
Distance learning keeps coming back to me as I read this book and learn about digital portfolios. We have taken learning to a different place because of the pandemic, and it has offered us many opportunities around independent learning, choice boards, and the idea of students being in charge of their own schedule. Assessment is the big question in our meetings for the end of this school year, as we are not accustomed to assessing students within this format. We have also lost many students for as many reasons as there may be: resources, time, taking care of siblings while parents have to work, just to name a few, so assessing them in a final comment bank and standards assessment seems unfair, unacceptable and inappropriate. We are assessing them until the point at which we were no longer at school, and those who have continued to complete standards earn feedback specific to their needs. We will have to deal with the consequences of all these decisions upon our return in the fall, and uncertainty is the final word, as we will not know if we are going to be in school or online or a combination of both until late in the summer. Do no harm, I will continue our mantra, and think about how to implement continuous digital portfolios in any platform, in school or online, into the future.
Tuesday, May 12, 2020
Chapters 4 and 5 - Reflection on Digital Portfolios by Matt Remick
Digital Portfolios In the Classroom
Chapters 4 and 5
For the last nine weeks, our district has been figuring out how to deliver “emergency” distance learning. We were not prepared for this pandemic in any way, and we were thrown into this experience at the last minute. We learned how to fly the plane while we were building it, and in doing so, we had to just do the best we could with what we had. Our district was in much better shape than some others, I believe, because we had been using google classroom all the way along, for when we needed to have a substitute, or for when students were gone for periods of illness or vacation. We were beginning to talk about blizzard bags, so we would never miss school during a snowstorm, but we never expected the world to change like this.
Digital portfolios seem almost simple compared to what we have been trying to accomplish in the last nine weeks. These two chapters dig deeper into digital portfolios but the author wants to guarantee that the technology won’t take over the portfolio or its usefulness. It is essential to remember all of our best practices in education, such as backwards design of curriculum, authentic assessment, using formative assessments that support further learning, and finally choosing the correct tools for the portfolios that will best demonstrate progress, process and performance. Chapter 5 delves even deeper into the importance of leadership and shared leadership when creating digital portfolios. Money, time and energy focus are essential in this process, and it cannot be only a top down process nor can it remain a grass roots process. All of our best practices for educational leadership need to be involved to make it a successful endeavor.
Reading this book at this particular time has taught me how far I have come in my own digital learning as a teacher in the last few months. If you had told me a few months ago that I would have a flipped classroom, if you told me “you will be practicing notation on google hangouts each day” if you told me, “Google Classroom will now become the spine of your curriculum”, I never would have believed you. Every day I learn something new that can make me a better teacher online. I am studying ways to make my online and google classroom presence more stimulating and also organized for students who come to it every day. We don’t know what the future will look like, and my goal is to continue to keep google classroom as the spine of my curriculum, to create more curriculum that translates best in an online platform, and to practice daily how to teach my classes better and better through my google hangouts.
“People live through stories. They are their own protagonists in their personal endeavors. Using digital portfolios to capture student growth gives context to their best work. They attend to the processes they used to achieve success. This builds lifelong learners because students learn how to learn. The veil is lifted for everyone involved on how students arrived at essential learning outcomes.” I have chosen this quotation by Matt Remick from page 95 because it demonstrates both the positive outcomes from this experience of distance learning, and also the issues that arise because of it. Anything the students create right now can be saved, shared, archived, and improved, because every experience is an online experience. Students are sharing their “stories” with me musically, related to this unprecedented time. If students are mature enough, distance learning can work. If students have been prepared with protocols, with organizing tools, with discussions on how to be an online participant and how to act in online class, then distance learning can work. If students take ownership of their learning, total ownership, distance learning is amazing. The veil, as Remick said, has been lifted, as I see some students perform beautifully, stay ahead of the work, hand in their best work every time, and “attend” to their processes when they continue to refine their ideas. These students are focused and know how to act in an online class, and sit at a desk and wear clothes when they show up, ready to share or work or discuss the music that I assigned them to listen to on google classroom.
These students are not the majority, however. Fifth graders, as a group, are just too young to take complete ownership of an online experience. Half of the students don’t show up for my class. Some of the students who do show up, play with their animals while they are in my class. They are in their pajamas, and playing with their stuffed animals, jumping on their beds, these students are not aware of what a positive online learning environment really is.
If this continues into next year, our district and those like it, must transition from “emergency” distance learning to “quality” distance learning. We need to develop protocols for how students act in our classes on a google hangout. We need to continue to refine our ability to control a classroom in a google hangout. We need to learn how to teach younger students to attend to their processes of learning online. We need to bridge the gap between students who are prepared to take ownership daily of their learning at home, and those who just aren’t able to or don’t know how or even why it would be essential in their lives. One of the big questions addressed in chapter four is “what did you learn in school that matters in life today?” (page 99). I believe over the last few months the answers to that question have morphed into things that didn’t matter to any generation before this one. What will matter will be how you have learned to organize your time, what you decide to take seriously and how that might affect your world and your life, and what your online presence will look like now and for the rest of your life.
Chapters 4 and 5
For the last nine weeks, our district has been figuring out how to deliver “emergency” distance learning. We were not prepared for this pandemic in any way, and we were thrown into this experience at the last minute. We learned how to fly the plane while we were building it, and in doing so, we had to just do the best we could with what we had. Our district was in much better shape than some others, I believe, because we had been using google classroom all the way along, for when we needed to have a substitute, or for when students were gone for periods of illness or vacation. We were beginning to talk about blizzard bags, so we would never miss school during a snowstorm, but we never expected the world to change like this.
Digital portfolios seem almost simple compared to what we have been trying to accomplish in the last nine weeks. These two chapters dig deeper into digital portfolios but the author wants to guarantee that the technology won’t take over the portfolio or its usefulness. It is essential to remember all of our best practices in education, such as backwards design of curriculum, authentic assessment, using formative assessments that support further learning, and finally choosing the correct tools for the portfolios that will best demonstrate progress, process and performance. Chapter 5 delves even deeper into the importance of leadership and shared leadership when creating digital portfolios. Money, time and energy focus are essential in this process, and it cannot be only a top down process nor can it remain a grass roots process. All of our best practices for educational leadership need to be involved to make it a successful endeavor.
Reading this book at this particular time has taught me how far I have come in my own digital learning as a teacher in the last few months. If you had told me a few months ago that I would have a flipped classroom, if you told me “you will be practicing notation on google hangouts each day” if you told me, “Google Classroom will now become the spine of your curriculum”, I never would have believed you. Every day I learn something new that can make me a better teacher online. I am studying ways to make my online and google classroom presence more stimulating and also organized for students who come to it every day. We don’t know what the future will look like, and my goal is to continue to keep google classroom as the spine of my curriculum, to create more curriculum that translates best in an online platform, and to practice daily how to teach my classes better and better through my google hangouts.
“People live through stories. They are their own protagonists in their personal endeavors. Using digital portfolios to capture student growth gives context to their best work. They attend to the processes they used to achieve success. This builds lifelong learners because students learn how to learn. The veil is lifted for everyone involved on how students arrived at essential learning outcomes.” I have chosen this quotation by Matt Remick from page 95 because it demonstrates both the positive outcomes from this experience of distance learning, and also the issues that arise because of it. Anything the students create right now can be saved, shared, archived, and improved, because every experience is an online experience. Students are sharing their “stories” with me musically, related to this unprecedented time. If students are mature enough, distance learning can work. If students have been prepared with protocols, with organizing tools, with discussions on how to be an online participant and how to act in online class, then distance learning can work. If students take ownership of their learning, total ownership, distance learning is amazing. The veil, as Remick said, has been lifted, as I see some students perform beautifully, stay ahead of the work, hand in their best work every time, and “attend” to their processes when they continue to refine their ideas. These students are focused and know how to act in an online class, and sit at a desk and wear clothes when they show up, ready to share or work or discuss the music that I assigned them to listen to on google classroom.
These students are not the majority, however. Fifth graders, as a group, are just too young to take complete ownership of an online experience. Half of the students don’t show up for my class. Some of the students who do show up, play with their animals while they are in my class. They are in their pajamas, and playing with their stuffed animals, jumping on their beds, these students are not aware of what a positive online learning environment really is.
If this continues into next year, our district and those like it, must transition from “emergency” distance learning to “quality” distance learning. We need to develop protocols for how students act in our classes on a google hangout. We need to continue to refine our ability to control a classroom in a google hangout. We need to learn how to teach younger students to attend to their processes of learning online. We need to bridge the gap between students who are prepared to take ownership daily of their learning at home, and those who just aren’t able to or don’t know how or even why it would be essential in their lives. One of the big questions addressed in chapter four is “what did you learn in school that matters in life today?” (page 99). I believe over the last few months the answers to that question have morphed into things that didn’t matter to any generation before this one. What will matter will be how you have learned to organize your time, what you decide to take seriously and how that might affect your world and your life, and what your online presence will look like now and for the rest of your life.
Wednesday, May 6, 2020
Another Rondo!
Rondo
The coronavirus is keeping us all at home
And not allowing us to roam
We’re not allowed to see our friends
And everyone can’t wait until it ends
The whole town is on lockdown
And we have to wear masks on our faces
To go to any places
The coronavirus is keeping us all home
And not allowing us to roam
We’re not allowed to see our friends
And everyone can’t wait until it ends
We are trying to keep clean
By washing our hands and houses
Until everything shines like an aquamarine
The coronavirus is keeping us all at home
And not allowing us to roam
We’re not allowed to see our friends
And everyone can’t wait until this ends
We are bored many times
And sour as limes
We just want to see our friends
And have this end
The coronavirus is keeping us home
And not allowing us to roam
We’re not allowed to see our friends
And everyone can’t wait for this to end
The coronavirus is keeping us all at home
And not allowing us to roam
We’re not allowed to see our friends
And everyone can’t wait until it ends
The whole town is on lockdown
And we have to wear masks on our faces
To go to any places
The coronavirus is keeping us all home
And not allowing us to roam
We’re not allowed to see our friends
And everyone can’t wait until it ends
We are trying to keep clean
By washing our hands and houses
Until everything shines like an aquamarine
The coronavirus is keeping us all at home
And not allowing us to roam
We’re not allowed to see our friends
And everyone can’t wait until this ends
We are bored many times
And sour as limes
We just want to see our friends
And have this end
The coronavirus is keeping us home
And not allowing us to roam
We’re not allowed to see our friends
And everyone can’t wait for this to end
a couple of Rondos for your pleasure
Form: A B A C A D A
(A) Oh summer is here its warm outside im writin a rondo while im inside. There´s social distancing im kinda bored while I write, but its ok because im doing pretty fine.Today is may 6th and this is my music assignment, but its ok because I got my toys and entertainment.
(B) While I making this im having my lunch want to know what it is? Then keep listening. School lunch yesterday was pretty good because, it was my favorite food, pizza and im having some more right now.
(A) Oh summer is here its warm outside im writin a rondo while im inside. There´s social distancing im kinda bored while I write, but its ok because im doing pretty fine.Today is may 6th and this is my music assignment, but its ok because I got my toys and entertainment.
(C) Im running out of lyrics, but I still got section D to go but its ok because I think i can stall until then. So if your still listening just listen for a little and while im typing this up, im cringing like alot.
(A) Oh summer is here its warm outside im writin a rondo while im inside. There´s social distancing im kinda bored while I write, but its ok because im doing pretty fine.Today is may 6th and this is my music assignment, but its ok because I got my toys and entertainment.
(D) This is my last segment im almost done, but im not bored because this was kinda fun. I have my cat on my lap his name is Azreil, and hes pretty confused on what im doing but I will probably play with him after im done with this.
(A) Oh summer is here its warm outside im writin a rondo while im inside. There´s social distancing im kinda bored while I write, but its ok because im doing pretty fine.Today is may 6th and this is my music assignment, but its ok because I got my toys and entertainment.
(A) Oh summer is here its warm outside im writin a rondo while im inside. There´s social distancing im kinda bored while I write, but its ok because im doing pretty fine.Today is may 6th and this is my music assignment, but its ok because I got my toys and entertainment.
(B) While I making this im having my lunch want to know what it is? Then keep listening. School lunch yesterday was pretty good because, it was my favorite food, pizza and im having some more right now.
(A) Oh summer is here its warm outside im writin a rondo while im inside. There´s social distancing im kinda bored while I write, but its ok because im doing pretty fine.Today is may 6th and this is my music assignment, but its ok because I got my toys and entertainment.
(C) Im running out of lyrics, but I still got section D to go but its ok because I think i can stall until then. So if your still listening just listen for a little and while im typing this up, im cringing like alot.
(A) Oh summer is here its warm outside im writin a rondo while im inside. There´s social distancing im kinda bored while I write, but its ok because im doing pretty fine.Today is may 6th and this is my music assignment, but its ok because I got my toys and entertainment.
(D) This is my last segment im almost done, but im not bored because this was kinda fun. I have my cat on my lap his name is Azreil, and hes pretty confused on what im doing but I will probably play with him after im done with this.
(A) Oh summer is here its warm outside im writin a rondo while im inside. There´s social distancing im kinda bored while I write, but its ok because im doing pretty fine.Today is may 6th and this is my music assignment, but its ok because I got my toys and entertainment.
Tuesday, May 5, 2020
DIGITAL PORTFOLIO PIECE FROM CHAPTERS 2 AND 3
Digital Portfolios In the Classroom
Reflection on Chapters 2 and 3
Distance Learning has pushed me to re-evaluate all of my curriculum for fifth and sixth grade. This is a big statement to be making, considering I am not seeing some of my students at all, and the rest only virtually, but it comes from an organic place. Much of my curriculum was based on hands-on assessments and projects that featured the twenty two keyboards I have in my classroom. I also made sure my students sang songs from our Music Making books on a regular basis and also taught them movement that went with their singing of the songs from all over the world. Since I cannot teach the pianos virtually because I don’t know if students have them at home, I have gone back to more music appreciation, analysis and history projects that students can accomplish in less than a half hour, as has been delegated during this time. I have gone deep into my old lessons from the last twenty-five years, and have studied many websites and read several books to build a new structure that will work for the next year, if it should continue through next fall and winter.
The curriculum is now all in specific daily lessons on google classroom, and all of those lessons have very specific tasks attached to them, so students who don’t attend my google hangouts will have ways of demonstrating their learning for me for each day that they have music. My classes happen every other week, each day from January until the end of the school year, so I have figured out lessons for all of those classes and recorded them, typed them up, shared them, scheduled straight through the end of 2020. New projects include, composition of a Rondo “Rap” or song, composed using traditional parts of songs, or using speech-like rhythms. Another new project is studying and learning the instruments of the orchestra. Finally, I will be showing them in a video how to conduct in ¾, 4/4 and 5/4 time after listening to “Take Five” by Dave Brubeck’s quartet. A final project is using chrome music lab to create a piece of music and think about musical form.
In the second and third chapters of Digital Portfolios, the author tasks the teacher with creating a yearlong plan for instruction. I have done this, for a different reason than to create digital portfolios, but it is now ready for this as well. The author also wishes for students to have an understanding of how to use technology to keep their best work and showcase it. Because everything that they do is on google classroom, and because they have to use all kinds of different ways to share their learning with me,(screencastify, flipgrid, wevideo, flat.io, smart music, just to name a few) it is all naturally kept and organized in google classroom. They can decide at the end of the year what specific projects and artifacts they might want to showcase in their digital portfolios.
I wouldn’t want to have these conversations with the students digitally, and I have another year with them next year to work on different projects. I am hoping in the fall we will be back together, and we can begin these conversations. First, we can talk about the work they did in fifth grade with me, all saved in their google drive, and then we can be even more purposeful about creating ways to choose and document their work in sixth grade with me. There are several culminating projects in both fifth and sixth grade, but these might not be what they believe are what shows the most growth for them, or shows how they have matured in their understanding of music.
In the fall, we will have these important conversations that have to do with their decisions about their work, their decisions about their growth, their decisions about the skills they have learned in general music class. I am just hoping we will be back to the classroom where I can incorporate the piano keyboard work, the compositions that go along with that, and the movement segments of the curriculum.
Reflection on Chapters 2 and 3
Distance Learning has pushed me to re-evaluate all of my curriculum for fifth and sixth grade. This is a big statement to be making, considering I am not seeing some of my students at all, and the rest only virtually, but it comes from an organic place. Much of my curriculum was based on hands-on assessments and projects that featured the twenty two keyboards I have in my classroom. I also made sure my students sang songs from our Music Making books on a regular basis and also taught them movement that went with their singing of the songs from all over the world. Since I cannot teach the pianos virtually because I don’t know if students have them at home, I have gone back to more music appreciation, analysis and history projects that students can accomplish in less than a half hour, as has been delegated during this time. I have gone deep into my old lessons from the last twenty-five years, and have studied many websites and read several books to build a new structure that will work for the next year, if it should continue through next fall and winter.
The curriculum is now all in specific daily lessons on google classroom, and all of those lessons have very specific tasks attached to them, so students who don’t attend my google hangouts will have ways of demonstrating their learning for me for each day that they have music. My classes happen every other week, each day from January until the end of the school year, so I have figured out lessons for all of those classes and recorded them, typed them up, shared them, scheduled straight through the end of 2020. New projects include, composition of a Rondo “Rap” or song, composed using traditional parts of songs, or using speech-like rhythms. Another new project is studying and learning the instruments of the orchestra. Finally, I will be showing them in a video how to conduct in ¾, 4/4 and 5/4 time after listening to “Take Five” by Dave Brubeck’s quartet. A final project is using chrome music lab to create a piece of music and think about musical form.
In the second and third chapters of Digital Portfolios, the author tasks the teacher with creating a yearlong plan for instruction. I have done this, for a different reason than to create digital portfolios, but it is now ready for this as well. The author also wishes for students to have an understanding of how to use technology to keep their best work and showcase it. Because everything that they do is on google classroom, and because they have to use all kinds of different ways to share their learning with me,(screencastify, flipgrid, wevideo, flat.io, smart music, just to name a few) it is all naturally kept and organized in google classroom. They can decide at the end of the year what specific projects and artifacts they might want to showcase in their digital portfolios.
I wouldn’t want to have these conversations with the students digitally, and I have another year with them next year to work on different projects. I am hoping in the fall we will be back together, and we can begin these conversations. First, we can talk about the work they did in fifth grade with me, all saved in their google drive, and then we can be even more purposeful about creating ways to choose and document their work in sixth grade with me. There are several culminating projects in both fifth and sixth grade, but these might not be what they believe are what shows the most growth for them, or shows how they have matured in their understanding of music.
In the fall, we will have these important conversations that have to do with their decisions about their work, their decisions about their growth, their decisions about the skills they have learned in general music class. I am just hoping we will be back to the classroom where I can incorporate the piano keyboard work, the compositions that go along with that, and the movement segments of the curriculum.
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