Websites

I have checked out many of my classmates websites! It is amazing how different they all are. Some people are really creative!! What especially stood out to me is that each blog really represents each persons personalities. Paul D's website, for instance, has dinosaurs on it. The picture, among other things, really expresses his sense of humor. Chia-Ti's website has pictures of her home town in Taiwan. I've been in class with her for a year and a half now, and have never been exposed to many things about her that her website helps reveal. Michele T's website reveals a lot about her career. I think Michele did a wonderful job incorporating class projects and making them her own. The websites are a wonderful way of getting to know a person's personality and gaining some insight.

Blackboard

As an educative tool, I really think blackboard is helpful! It is nice to have one place to upload all class documents (assignments, announcements, etc.) It is also a wonderful way for students to keep track of their grades (if the teacher so chooses to use this tool). I think it is much more effective than email in that there can be no complaints from teacher or students about an overwhelming number of emails being sent. People can check it at their leisure. Also, I love the discussion board postings. It's a wonderful way for students to interact with one another, ask questions, share ideas, etc. For instance, in many of my classes, we post lesson plans for everyone to use at the end of our semester. It is really helpful to have all the extra resources that fellow classmates can upload. As with anything, blackboard also has it's downfalls. The biggest problem with Blackboard is getting students to check it. Email is a bit more direct in that way, and blackboard requires students to be a bit more proactive about their learning. I can see that being a potential frustration for the teacher. Overall, I think it's a wonderful tool, and I may consider using it in my classroom one day!

Audacity

Learning the audacity program has been wonderfully helpful, and I think will prove a good resource for me as a future teacher. Being able to manipulate sounds is a wonderful tool for a teacher of a student. Editing music can be useful in many ways, include performance or classroom examples. Having students learn to use audacity could also be a great way to introduce the manipulation of sounds, rhythms, pitches, etc. The fact that it's free to download means it is accessible to all teacher, and accessible for students who have access to a computer lab in their schools.

Technical Resources

For my third post, I would like to report on how valuable I find this course to educators. Unfortunately, in my career as a student, like many other students, I have experienced some valuable courses and some terribly useless ones. However, I believe the skills we are learning in this class are of tremendous value. The things we have learned, such as HTML, audacity, and windows movie maker, can only help us create multi-modal presentation techniques to help us differentiate instruction. This is of wonderful use when catering to different learning styles (or multiple intelligences as introduced by Howard Gardner). As useful as it is, however, I do think that there is so much more to be learned! Ideally, there should be separate technical classes for each disciple (music/theatre/dance education). You could spend years just learning technical resources for music education alone. For example, Garage Band and finale are both wonderful tools for music educators, not only for us to use in teaching, but also to teach our students how to use. Garage Band for instance allows students to compose their own songs with the click of a button! If only we had time to learn such wonderful programs, I think it would be really beneficial!

Tech Resources Group Project

This was actually supposed to be last weeks post...sorry about that. I am really excited to be working in the purple group for our final project. I think we have some good ideas. We have titled our project "Sun and Moon: An adaptation of a Korean folk tale." We thought it would be a wonderful idea to incorporate all aspects of the performing arts in an educational presentation, and what better way to do that than in a Korean folk tale? We decided we could incorporate theatre ed. in a wonderful story telling movie. We hope to incorporate many different versions of the story to create a multi-cultural adaptation. This will include music from around the world, including a Korean piece, with similar (or close) messages. We also hope to incorporate movement into our presentation as well. We are clearly still in the beginning stages, but I look forward to the outcome of our creative ideas.

New York City

This is my first official blog entry!! My topic is New York City.
One of my favorite things about NYC (I'm originally from the Boston area) is the many amazing opportunities that are readily available. For instance, last year I attended the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular, and got to experience Radio City Music Hall for the first time. There is truly nothing like that space!! I also got to attend a basketball game at Madison Square Garden (I watched Lebron James play, and my brothers are SO JEALOUS!!). Additionally, I attended many Broadway musical theatre performances, an Opera at the New York City Opera, and symphonies at Carnegie Hall. I don't think we realize how lucky we are to have these opportunities so close to us. There is also the best food I have ever tasted right at our fingertips, available at all hours of the night. Just visit Grimaldi's pizza in Brooklyn, and wait in line for hours for the most mouth-watering pizza you've ever tasted (well worth the wait!)
Unfortunately, the novelty of New York has worn off now that I am in my second year of graduate school. I realize that I can't afford to go out as much as I'd like to and attend these special events. I can't afford to eat the way I used to, both financially and calorically. Every month when the rent check drains the bank account, I wonder why the hell anyone would stay here permanently. I'm not sure where I will end up after May when I graduate. My plan is to teach wherever an opportunity presents itself. If I do end up in New York, I can take advantage of these opportunities for my students. For instance, we are taking my high school students to see Hairspray in December as a field trip. Not only will they be able to see the show, but they also get to workshop with the cast members as part of a program called "Broadway in the Classroom." Opportunities like these are just not available outside of New York City. I need to be sure to appreciate what I have right now. I know that if I did end up anywhere besides the City, I would miss it terribly!!