The Haydn Hideaway

We just finished up our last class of Internet for Educators at Brandon University. I guess it's time to update the 'About' page. I figured, with the time I should be in #I4Ed, I'll write a blog post to discuss my reflective thoughts on not only this course, but also my time in the Faculty of Education. I'll save the School of Music for another day. Faculty of Education Being an integrated B.Mus/B.Ed student was an interesting experience. Because there are always constantly scheduling conflicts between the School of Music and the Faculty of Education, I take my required education courses whenever I can, in whatever stream I can - doesn't matter if the course is for early, middle, or senior years. Just fit it in there! Because of the mixture of courses, I don't really have a "cohort" in the Faculty of Education. There were some familiar faces in #I4Ed but many of them were new! And of course, no other music education students, so I stuck to m...

I'm so glad I took the time after class to really edit my Final Project the way I wanted it to be. I figured, I had a rough version available if needed to present to the class today (i.e. everyone else had gone already) so I could  present if need be, but I really didn't want to. I learned the video editing program I had didn't allow me to edit the video the way I wanted - adding extra audio over the video files. So, after downloading a few too many video editing apps, HERE WE ARE! So yes, while technically late, this is a version of my final project that I am really happy with. I never used TikTok before making this, but I admit I really liked using it. It was fun to be creative! Thanks for reading.....and watching!

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...

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...

For my second Tech Task of the term, we are discussing the digital world our students do, and will, live in. First, we examine diagrams provided of a "typical teacher" and compare it to a "networked" teacher. Then we are to think about what a typical student's diagram would look like, and what the digital world means for their learning, and for us as educators. Let's get started! Typical versus Networked According to diagrams by Alex Couros , the typical teacher has few relationships that influence them. Curriculum documents, popular media, and print/digital resources are influences that act as a one way street. They inform the teacher, provide information, but the teacher does not interact with them anymore than that. The teacher does not  influence the documents, media, and resources. They are also influenced by their colleagues, family, and local community, and the teacher has influence on them. The teacher is able to interact with these relationsh...

Hello everyone! As previously mentioned, my Internet for Educators course includes Tech Tasks, small assignments that we need to do in blog posts separate from our weekly blog. I'm going to start with Tech Task #1 today, all about our own digital footprints! Our task is to discuss what online services we use, and what appears when we Google ourselves. Then we are to discuss the importance (or lack thereof) of our digital footprint and if it is important to address in schools. Google Searching I am an avid social media user. My main apps/websites (as included in a "Social Media" folder on my phone) include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, Pinterest, Snapchat, Linkedin and YouTube. I think I also have accounts on websites such as Soundcloud, but I haven't logged in in ages. If you Google search my name, this is what pops up. None of these links are me! I may pop up if you click the Facebook or Linkedin links, but that is not my Twitter account, my we...