The Haydn Hideaway

Well, we made it! The final blog post for #I4Ed, Internet for Educators. What a ride it's been! There's been a lot to learn and experience in this course, which will be discussed later as part of my final project (to be shared on this blog as well). In our most recent class, we discussed what some of the biggest and most important changes that digital technology added to education. We got into small groups to discuss before joining back as a whole class. The first idea someone mentioned (which was the exact scenario I thought of also!) was that technology has allowed us to connect with people that we couldn't have before. It is much more accessible with the help of social media to contact authors, scientists, public figures, amongst others to ask them questions or even have them video conference with your class. This is much more engaging for students and these people become more than just faces or names. We also talked about internet courses opening more doors f...

For our final tech task, we are to create an Alternative CV. I decided to use Venngage to create an infographic. After using Venngage, I wish I used it to create my infographic about music careers  (click the link for my blog post). This infographic is actually legible, for free! Bonus. I wasn't too sure what to add to my CV. Since this CV is digital, I figured it was a prime time to add an embedded video of myself playing. Unfortunately, at this time I don't have any recent recordings (however, this is subject to change after my recital in March! Stay tuned...) and I feel like the recordings I do have are not representative of my playing today. This is something I plan on adding to my digital CV later on. I liked the creative aspect of the alternative CV. Building a resume is rather boring and done strategically - I didn't feel the same about preparing this infographic version. Thanks for reading!

This weeks Tech Task is to discuss infographics - what they are, why they could be useful in a classroom, and also to make our own! This will be an interesting task. I'm daunted by having to make my own, but I'll give it a go! An infographic is pretty straight-forward - it is a graphic, with information. The Wikipedia article for 'infographic' states that infographics are "graphic visual representations of information, data, or knowledge intended to present information quickly and clearly". Using images along with the information makes it more memorable and visually appealing, rather than just a long stretch of text. Infographics in the Classroom Very simplistic infographic for younger students I think infographics could be very useful in the classroom. I see simple ones as posters on the wall, like a rule reminder with a simple image. I could also see ones used to remind students of the goals of the class (ex. "I can feel the beat in my ...

In this weeks blog post for my Internet for Educators course, I will be focusing on the presentation given to us by Matteo DiMuro , a high school math and computer science teacher from Brandon. His presentation focused on coding, but also had touched on flipped classroom at the beginning of his presentation. Flipped Classroom Before Matteo really got into his presentation, he asked how many of us were familiar with flipped classroom. I felt like I had a pretty good idea, but I didn't want to put my hand up in case I was confusing it with something else. Turns out I wasn't the only one, since very few people had their hands up. I knew it was student-led, but I couldn't quite remember the process of flipping a classroom.  Flipped classroom is when students consume and practice material outside of class time, so when students come to class they can be getting individual help from the teacher or working on a lab. By freeing up instruction time from lectures, more time ...

Yes, this blog title is definitely a play on Jerry Seinfeld's show "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee". This week is the Brandon University Indigenous New Music Festival. The festival brings in Indigenous composers from across the country to perform and work with the New Music Ensemble (BUNME). Because of my weekly travels to Winnipeg, I was asked to pick up one of our guests from the airport, Cris Derksen . Cris Derksen is Juno-nominated cellist and composer from NorthTall Cree Reserve in northern Alberta. She is of Cree and Mennonite heritage. She combines her classical training, Indigenous background, and electronic effects to create new sounds and share new perspectives. She has performed and collaborated with other notable artists including Tanya Tagaq, Buffy St. Marie, Kanye West, and A Tribe Called Red. Derksen completed her Bachelor of Music degree at the University of British Columbia where she played principal cello in the UBC Symphony Orchestra. The ...

For this Tech Task, we are asked to discuss our Twitter experience! (Click here for my educator account, in case you are not following me already...!) Personal Use I've had my personal twitter account since 2009 and now have a collection of 16,000 tweets from over the years. I couldn't tell you how I managed to tweet that much, other than the character count used to be much shorter than it is now. I liked Twitter for the simplicity - the short little thoughts that someone may be having. For example, here is a screenshot of the first tweet in my feed at the moment: This is the quality material I enjoy from Twitter I use Twitter as a platform to share the small thoughts I have that I don't think are "important" enough to constitute as a Facebook status (read more about that here  under the "My Digital Identity" heading). Facebook is for things I want to share with a wider circle of family and friends, and Twitter is for things I may want to j...

This week, we had our guest speaker Dr. Rennie Redekopp zoomed into our classroom. This was the week I had been waiting for! Redekopp taught my high school business class when I was in Grade 10... almost 10 years ago! It was neat to have to opportunity to work with him again. Presentation Dr. Redekopp began his presentation with a quote: "You can't have the benefits of globalization without some of the responsibilities" by Bono. He began talking about how our smartphones and devices affect others in the world by their design, materials, manufacturing and shipping, and energy use.  By their design, cellphone companies almost ensure that we need to replace our phones every few years. Many designs do not allow the user to remove the battery of their phone, which is typically the first thing to go in a cellphone. Though the phone is in otherwise perfect condition, consumers will be likely to throw their phone away because the battery life doesn't last as long as...

In this Tech Task, I am to share one of my favourite online resources, explain why it's great, how it can be used in the classroom, and some great (or not so great) features about it. The Tech Task also says this can be for classroom use, or professional use. Does that mean I can talk about both? Classroom Use For my favourite classroom use online resource, I must talk about Musication  and their series of boomwhacker videos, as I previously mentioned in this blog post. Musication has a collection of boomwhacker play-along videos - think karaoke, but for boomwhackers! First, I really like these videos because I feel they give boomwhackers a purpose in the classroom. Boomwhackers are one of those instruments that are typically left behind in the music class. Their pitch isn't super clear if they're not played properly, and when you have an instrument that is played  by 'whacking' it, you better have some good classroom management skills and practices alre...

Last Thursday, January 30th, the Brandon University New Music Ensemble had the opportunity to travel to Winnipeg and perform in the Millennium Library Skywalk Concert series as part of the Winnipeg New Music Festival. It was a great day filled with learning and experiences that I wanted to share. We first set up our stage in the Carol Shield auditorium in the Millennium Library. Thankfully, this library has a large underground parkade, because we all know how terrible it is to find street parking in downtown spaces! It made it much easier for us to unload all of our gear. BUNME, after (finally) finishing set up Immediately after finishing set up at the Millennium Library, we had to quickly get to the Centennial Concert Hall, a few blocks away, to watch the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra rehearse for their concert the following evening. They were preparing for their show called "Metropolis Symphony" which featured Michael Daugherty's work based on the world of Superh...

In my third Tech Task, I am to find an edublogger I like, describe their background, why I follow them, and what I have learned from them. Thankfully, the task mentions that if there are other bloggers I follow and like, I can link them also. Wonderful, because there are so many great music education blogs out there! I will only describe one in depth, or else this task will take too long. Mrs. Miracle's Music Room by Aileen Miracle Aileen Miracle has taught for over 20 years in both Ohio and Michigan, anything music including general music, band, choir and strings. She currently teaches K-5 general music, but has taught K-7 general music as well. She is a past president of the Midwest Kodály Music Educators of America, and has taught Kodály levels at different universities. She also has her own Teachers Pay Teachers store with lesson plans, unit plans, sub plans, holiday activities and visuals, among other things.  I first followed Miracle when I decided to swit...

This week in our Internet for Educators class ( #I4Ed ) we talked about ways to use social media in the classroom. In Monday's class, we had  Tyler Letkeman  who is an English teacher from Vincent Massey Collegiate in Brandon present to us about how he uses technology in his classroom in a meaningful way. On Wednesday, we had  Kirsten Thompson  (familiar face!) and  Andrew Mead  call into our class using Zoom and discuss using social media in the classroom. Tyler Letkeman He described how he does writers workshop in his classes and makes the work authentic and gives it purpose. Letkeman uses writers workshop to introduce students to the craft of being an author - the goal is publication and writing for an audience, not for grades. He uses  BLURB  to publish the works into a book that is added to the school library for other students to read. Knowing their stories will have an audience after its written, students are wanting to do their be...