Major Project: Final Review

So throughout this semester I have been learning how to play the guitar.  Overall, I have had my ups and downs but I can say that I am happy with the progress that I made.  One thing I can definitely say is learning the guitar is a lot harder than I thought it would be.  I think when I chose it for my learning project I originally thought I would pick it up quite easily but I found out pretty quickly that it is very challenging to learn and requires time and patience to master.  It is evident that I still have a ways to go as far as becoming a respectable guitar player but I think throughout the semester I have found enough resources to lead me into the right direction.

Just referring to the internet there are tons of resources out there on websites such as YouTube that can help you learn how to play the guitar.  Also, it was great to be able to collaborate with other classmates and combine our learning projects.  I did so with Kirk and Matt periodically as all three of us were learning how to play various instruments.  This made the process more enjoyable, and helped improved my guitar skills as well.  Matt has prior experience with the guitar so it was helpful to get some individual pointers which really allowed me to improve and become more confident with regards to playing the guitar.

I also found it great how we didn’t even need to meet in person to necessarily collaborate.  Matt created a vlog on how to play “Free Fallin” by Tom Petty and I basically just used his video to teach myself how to play it.  It also inspired me to begin making my own vlogs.  At first I honestly found making them a bit awkward and I didn’t really want to play the guitar by myself in front of my webcam.  Eventually, I became a lot more comfortable and I enjoyed sharing my progress with the world.  The feedback I got on it motivated me to keep working at it, and I hope to continue on creating these vlogs to show my progress even after this class is completed.

Even though learning the guitar was extremely challenging t I am still pleased that I ended up choosing it for my learning project.  Ultimately, my goal is to keep practicing the guitar over the summer so that I can incorporate it into my future teaching.  I always thought it was awesome when you had a teacher who could play an instrument and incorporate it into different lessons and hopefully with continued practice this is something I will be able to accomplish as well.

Lastly, I would just like to say thank you to my classmates and Alec as well through continuously giving me feedback on my blog, and communicating with me through twitter.

Below is a list of all the posts I have created towards my major project starting from earliest and ending with the most recent.

Included in all of these posts are numerous links to different resources that I used to help me learn how to play the guitar.

Also special thanks to Cynthia Schultz for the light painting picture shown up top.

Major Project

Guitar: Learning Project

Major project: 1.5

Major Project: Jam Sesh

Major Project: Let it Be

Let it Be: Vlog 1

Major Project: Sweeeet Home Alabama

Major Project: Brown Eyed Girl

Summary of Learning

Well, sadly the semester is coming to an end.  I would have to say that I really enjoyed taking ecmp355, and it has definitely taught me a ton about integrating technology into the classroom.

I found that all the weekly Tech Task’s were extremely interesting and allowed me to learn how to create spreadsheets, Podcasts, YouTube videos and much more!

Also with my major project I have been trying to learn the guitar.  Throughout this process I have learned that through YouTube, and Google, you can really teach yourself how to do anything using resources on the internet.

I have also been able to explore many new tools on the internet that can be used for educational purposes such as sliderocket, polleverywhere, Google docs, and many other social media tools that can be found here!

It was also really cool to be able to subscribe to everybody’s blogs in our class and I enjoyed reading all of them.  I appreciate all the feedback from my classmates on my own blog, and I also enjoyed contributing to other classmates blogs through response posts, and comments.  Also, with my major project I have been able to collaborate with my classmates Kirk and Matt who are both learning how to play instruments as well.  This has been helpful, as both have them have helped me along the way through comments and feedback, and I have also been able to do the same for them.  In addition, by completing two jam sessions where the three of us came together and performed a couple of songs, it definitely made the overall process more enjoyable! – Jam session#1 , Jam session#2

Lastly, I can’t wait to get out into the schools and try out some of the new tools that I have learned about in this class.  Overall, after taking this class I feel much more confident and comfortable with technology, and have discovered many useful educational tools and resources that I was unaware of up until this class!

Below is my video that I created for my summary of learning.  In my video, I get interviewed and asked a bunch of different questions about ecmp355 and what I learned through taking the class.  To create this video I used iMovie, and most of my editing was done through using different sound effects, and features already available in the program.  Also, special thanks to Matt Bresciani for lending me costumes, and props for my video.

Major Project: Brown Eyed Girl

So I was looking for more songs that I could try and learn on the guitar and I came across “Brown Eyed Girl” by Van Morrison.  I found a nice easy tutorial on YouTube as well as some guitar tabs here.  Anyways, check out my attempt at it below, and any feedback or comments is much appreciated!

Major Project: Sweeeet Home Alabama

So I’ve been trying to step up my guitar game lately and although I’m still not amazing, i think I am showing signs of progress and being overall more comfortable playing it.  I was looking for more songs to play and I came across a really good tutorial on “Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd.  Check out my vlog Below!

Tech Task #10 LMS evaluation

For this Tech Task we were asked to perform a comparison between two learning management systems.  For this Tech Task I worked with fellow classmates Matt Bresciani and Kirk Fiege.  We decided to explore and compare Edmodo and Schoology.  We also decided that we would make a podcast to express what we found about the two different management systems.

Check out our podcast below!

Jam Sesh #2

So as I mentioned in my previous post I have been practicing and trying to learn Let it be by the Beatles on guitar.  Like we did with free falling By Tom Petty I got together with my fellow pals and classmates Kirk Fiege and Matt Bresciani to try and play this song as a group.

We had a few struggles but I think we all had a great time and hopefully with more practice will continue to get better!

Internship

Last semester I completed my Internship at Henry Braun Elementary school.  I had an amazing internship and was blessed with having a supportive staff and an awesome class.  The only negative thing about all of that is that now being in my last semester before I graduate I have found it hard to stay motivated and on task with University life.  Anyways I can’t wait to get graduate and hopefully be out in the classroom again soon so I thought I would share a couple random pictures from my Internship in the meantime!

My co-op was unreal and her and the class set up a pretty sweet going away party for me on my last day

I also was lucky enough to intern in the same school as my good friends and fellow ecmp355 members Kirk Fiege and Colby Davidson. The three of us had a great time coaching volleyball and playing some occasional 4 player chess.

My class also made me a pretty amazing book based off of an insider we had going on where they’d joke about who’s Mr. Barnes

Overall I had a great time and I can’t wait to get back into teaching again, but I know one thing for sure my internship is something that I will remember for the rest of my life!

Let it Be: Vlog 1

So as I mentioned in my previous learning project post kirk, Matt and myself are going to try and learn Let it Be by the Beatles.  I also made a little vlog post where I’m just talking about and playing a few of the chords that are necessary to learn for the song.

Here’s the link to the music sheet I’ve been looking at as well.

Any Questions?

Have you ever been standing in front of your class and asked your student’s if they have any questions and you get that awkward silence… and nobody ends up asking a question.  I have experienced this before and it got me thinking about how we can spark student curiosity and the best way to get your students to participate and ask questions in the classroom.

I came across this blog post from by Kevin Washburn and he lists 4 strategies that he uses to spark student questioning.

The first point he made which I think is really important is have your student’s ever been taught how to ask questions.  I think we can sometimes assume that students know how to do this but especially at the Elementary level it’s important that we teach student’s how to ask proper questions.  Also having a safe classroom environment where students feel comfortable and confident to ask questions is really important as well.

He also talked about giving student’s guidelines and prompts to get them thinking about questions they may have.  To me this is important I don’t think were doing a good enough job as teachers if we simply ask our students if they have any questions.  Having prompts ready and also thinking about what kind of questions your students may ask when planning your lessons is only going to help spark interest and conversation within your classroom.

Another important thing is to make sure your not cutting conversations and question periods short.  If you have a good discussion going and your student’s are asking meaningful questions in my opinion stick with it.  Sometimes your lessons aren’t always going to be exactly the amount of time you had planned it for so if you have good questions that are being asked I think it is important to spend some extra time and finish answering these questions properly.

Lastly, this might seem pretty obvious but try to plan lessons will engage your students and also incorporate their interests and strengths.  I found that throughout my internship the lessons that went the best and had that sparked the most curiosity from my students were ones that they could relate what I was teaching to their own lives, and also was something where they could express their opinion without necessarily having a right or wrong answer to the question.  I think a subject like social studies is a good place to start with efforts to getting students to actively participate and be comfortable in sharing their opinions and asking questions that they may have.

Hit me up with some comments or feedback on strategies that you’ve used that have help sparked student interest and questioning in your classroom!

Tech Task: Asynchronous learning-Adora Svitak: What adults can learn from kids

For this Tech Task we were to take part in an asynchronous and synchronous learning experience.  For my Asynchrounous learning I chose to check out some different Ted Talks.

With this at hand, I Just Finished watching a Ted talk from Adora Svitak who is a 12 year old child prodigy from the United States.  Adora was a great speaker and she brought fourth lots of great ideas about what adults can learn from kids.

In her presentation she focuses on child discrimination and makes a pretty awesome point about how whenever you exhibit or display irrational behaviour your deemed childish, yet often these childish events such as world wars, and anything George Bush does are the responsibility of adults.

It’s really a great point and a lot of the other stuff she explored ties directly into teaching so I’m going to focus on those points specifically.

First off, she explores how often adults limit their dreams because it might be to expensive or it’s impossible.  The great thing with kids is they can be full of inspirations and dreams and not think about limitations that would be associated with them.  I think that’s important teachers to realize and encourage people to continue pursuing their dreams and never give up on them.

Another thing she talks about is that often in school’s children are taught to learn from adults, but there is really a lot that adults can learn from teachers.  I completely agree with this and I think we have to realize that are students have a lot to offer when it comes to learning.

Lastly, she explores how setting high expectations are important for kids which I also agree on.  Her Parents always pushed her and never told her that she wasn’t capable of doing anything.  This is vital as teachers that we push our students to strive for their best.  I think it shows that if you come into a situation or a classroom an have low expectations of your students then they’ll probably have low amounts of success, but if you push your students and have confidence as corny as it sounds the sky’s the limit.

Overall, I really enjoyed watching this TED talk and would recommend any educators who have some spare time to check it out as she raises a lot of great points that teachers should consider in the classroom.