Musiclady

More Fun with RPC

2008-05-07T11:50:00.000-07:00

The students who were absent yesterday started their research projects. It was so fun to say to them"you assignement for today is create a RPC for this project, print it and write down all the answers to Step 1." They all knew what they were doing and got busy. One student who was new this quarter needed help, but not with finding things on my website, other studnets showed her where to go and how to complete everything she just was asking for more information about the RPC!!! She's so excited to have this as a tool for next year at college.

Also today as the studnets went more in depth about their topics they were calling me over to ask my opinion about the reliability of different websites. Whoooda thunk it!!!

Tomorrow I have a challenge, due to IB testing several students will be absent I need to find the right place for a podcast of the lecture they will miss. I'm hoping the district can support it and I can keep it on my web page at school. I will check this afternoon.

Thanks for this opportunity. Over the summer I may even come back here to blog and share my experiences as I learn and do more with the tools I've learned about here.

Pleased and Impressed

2008-05-06T17:28:00.000-07:00

I haven't finished with all that I want to but I'm am so pleased and impressed with what I learned and accomplished and with what MILI has shared and taught me. I'm also very surprised to see how easy it was to accomplish the 23 plus 1. I need to spend more time going over everything I've learned and finding more ways to apply it to my classroom. This is the way to reach our students, but more importantly we as teachers need to know more and be better at what we want our students to accomplish using the internet. It's too easy to sit back and say, this is their way of learning. If we don't know what we're doing we'll have no way of helping our students. We still need to know, understand and lead. Thanks for the tools to do this!!

SlideShare

2008-05-05T19:31:00.000-07:00

Took a look through the list and Thing 19, Just for Fun. Who isn't looking for fun!! After googling Edutopia I looked through the list and found slideshare. As the article says, it's not your Father's slideshow. This tool supposedly beats "powerpoint." Here's the challenge: tomorrow, Tuesday May 6 I begin my last research project of the year with my classes. I will offer 50 extra credit points for students who use Slideshare instead of powerpoint. The I'll see. It's one thing for me to play with it but how productive and useful will it be for my students? Hmmmm, we will see. Too bad we don't have time. But never fear!! I will post on my blog the results, June 4th is presentation day. Stay tuned.

Podcast: The Beginning

2008-04-16T16:20:00.000-07:00

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Playing Catch Up

2008-04-15T16:36:00.001-07:00

Being out of the country really puts one behind. And going a tour with your a chamber ensemble also puts you behind!! But all of that is over and now I can catch up.

What fun the last session's homework was!!! My homepage now has many fun gadgets. My favorite 2 are the World Sunlight Map and the webcam. But I'm having trouble gettinga webcam to show up on the window. Having just visited the Seattle Space Needle I thought tjeir webcam would be fun but it won't show up. I need to consult. I also added the document to PDF converter. That should be useful some day.

This class has inspired me to look into technology and I've been looking at possible coursewrok for a master's in education and technology. One place I've looked into is a cohort group through Lesley University. I've also checked out UST and Mankato. We'll see.

MN Link etc

2008-02-08T15:24:00.000-08:00

I am now registered at more sites than I ever thought I would be!!! It's OK because I think I will use them with my students. One site, although not of such immediate good use was WorldCat. The big projects that my IB students work involve world music and this year some of them had a lot of trouble finding sources. Looking at WorldCat helped them find several more options and let them see how much information there is out there. It's too late to order the materials for this year but now I'm ready for next year.

Bibliographic Tools

2008-02-05T21:00:00.000-08:00

I really wasn't going to cheat and write 2 blogs in one night, especially since I did it last night, but I am preparing for this weeks class and I realized that there are several of these "things" that I have done while enrolled for this class that I haven't documented. As I refelcted on updating my homepage I realized that as this class has unfolded I have been able to add several bibliographic tools for my students to use. One of them is Citation generator, but the best one is the site that is devoted to citing music and all the variations associated with music, from compositions to live performances.

My students have always known that they need to reference their sources. It has always been so important to me that if their bibliography and citations aren't correct they can only earn 75% on their research paper. I don't know if that's a little or alot but their ears prick up when I tell them that the highest grade they can hope to earn is a C if there is something wrong with their bibliography. I just hope their learning and understanding. The best thing about this focus is that they understand that it's OK to write what other people say BUT!!! they must cite their sources. Their research paper is the way they combine their research, not the fact that they have become "experts" in their subjects. That comes later right????

Homepage

2008-02-05T20:44:00.000-08:00

I've kept my homepage updated and now that I spotted that as "one of my 6 things" I can blog and reflect. I've added the RPC, an excellent music citation reference, a dictionary of folk music, several other music sites. Pretty cool stuff. As I look through the internet I do add to it. I feel more comfortable with my school webpage and I consider it my homepage. I know my studnets have linked to it so when I add a resource they have instant access. It will be noice when they come up with a way to allow us to have the right passwords to allow our students access to United Streaming. I know they would love to see all the resources there. But then they have YouTube with lots of other great stuff. Hmmm. We need a little of both.

YouTube

2008-02-03T16:07:00.000-08:00

Just re-read my blog and realized I hadn't reflected on my experience with YouTube. I was able to find two of the coolest videos. One is an interview with John Cage about his ideas on music and the use of sound and silence. One of his most controversial compositions is also performed on another YouTube clip. In that piece the performer sits at the piano and the piece begins when s/he closs the keyboard lid. The audience sounds and sound occurring in the hall are the "composition." There are three movements and each movement begins with the closing of the lid and ends with the opening. The piece ends after 4'33" when the performer opens the lid to the piano. Kind of strange watching a video of it but there it was!!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HypmW4Yd7SY Here's the link to watch for yourself. Now my problem is how can I use it when I can't access it at school? I've searched teachertube but it's not there. Where do I look and what should I do now?

Streaming Videos

2008-02-03T16:01:00.000-08:00

Had a chance to use a video from the Annenburg Media site. How great!!! It was so slick and easy to use the LCD projector and one click and the screen was filled. Also signed up for United Streaming. Wow what a great resource!!! Almost too much to look through. But the kids really seem to enjoy the change from standard videos and naturally from lectures. The best thing about this video was the opportunity for my students to view live performances of world music instruments and performances.

As you sow, so shall you reap

2008-01-15T19:25:00.000-08:00

Good seeds are the most important element!! After that is the soil, now one might imagine that it is necessary to have fertile soil but it's amazing when you use "plain ol' dirt." My classes using the RPC have now begun turning in their projects. Across the board I have NEVER had such good results. Of course I will not claim that they have understood everything I've tried to teach, but the improvement in the end result is so wonderful to see!!!

Now it's important to follow through and be sure that the rest of the lessons imbedded in the RPC can be adequately taught. In class we have started the fine tune search words and search engines. It's exciting but daunting to see all the information and all the possibilities and yet to know that there is still such a limited time we have with our students.

Research and the typical High School student

2007-12-20T10:39:00.001-08:00

We're headed full blast into Winter break but a few of my students have taken advantage of the dribbling lessons that we worked on and have really started to understand the value and pitfalls of internet research. Especially useful were the Primary Source bookmark, the Online Search Techniques lesson and the evaluating sources and sites lessons. I hope they remember and apply what we worked on. Guess I'll check in with them in January and see what has "stood the test of time!!!"

Databases

2007-11-07T16:11:00.000-08:00

Tonight's class was fun. We learned about online research tools available through the district website. There were many different levels of databases available. Even the most rudimentary was fun to look at and useful even for high school students. I will link the district list to my list so my students can use the databases more easily.

FUN!!!

2007-11-06T19:26:00.000-08:00

Kathy and I taught the RPC and other things to the IB class that is the focus of most of the activities for this class. Wow!! What fun. There were OOOOOs and Ahhhhs, yes most of them saw the relevance and the usefulness of this tool. FUN!!! Here's some pics:

Amazing the value of extra credit. One more day in the lab and they've already done everything that I asked and are looking for more.

Teaching RPC

2007-10-25T14:13:00.000-07:00

Monday and Tuesday of this week was spent teaching the research process calculator and with the leftover time I also went into proper format for creating a bibliography for interested students. Both were very rewarding lessons. Students really appreciated the calculator and appreciated it's value for other classes. Most of them either book marked my page or Elm for future reference. COOL!!!

IB Music

2007-10-19T10:20:00.000-07:00

Hey, just realized that no one knows to look at my IB Music page. That is the focus class for this research and information literacy work. Check out the rest but click on IB Music to see the latest improvements. Duh, just realized I can link that page, here it is. http://henry.mpls.k12.mn.us/IB_Music2.html

Updated Web Page

2007-10-19T09:59:00.000-07:00

After viewing the Research Process Calculator I got so excited I updated my web page with a link to the calculator and will show my students Monday where to find it and how to use it. I am also linking my web page here and hopefully my peers will view it and give me feedback and suggestions for improving it.

http://henry.mpls.k12.mn.us/Ms_Roth.html

The frustrating part about our web pages is that no one ever looks at them. Last year I had a survey asking viewers to let me know each time they visited and I got 5 responses, all first time users and they never came back.

Question: How do you get your students to use your web site? Why spend so much time on something that no one looks at?

Reading through Thing 5 has given me some ideas for promoting my web page, possibilities include putting assignments on the page rather than printing them and handing them out in class, including more resources and references materials guaged to excite and stimulate thinking, give extra credit points if they locate certain items and report a "key phrase" or something like that. Amazing the power of extra credit points!

Research Process Calculator

2007-10-17T17:04:00.000-07:00

Tonight we set up our RSS and learned about the Research Calculator. It was very interesting and I can hardly wait to try it out with my students. They always seem to be a day late and a dollar short. Now with another "entity" imposing objective deadlines for them (rather than my seemingly subjective ones designed to ruin their social life) maybe I'll see more work from them and maybe they'll be able to visualize and continue along a sensible timeline rather than a last minute scramble to do the work. We can always hope can't we?

Mpls Library Card

2007-10-16T13:38:00.000-07:00

I went online to see if my card still worked. It had expired, so I called the help desk and they reactivated my card. I have now have access from any computer. I also have now done the other assignment for class and I am ready for Wednesday. Hope the food is as good as Monday.

Training Day One

2007-10-15T17:15:00.001-07:00

Day one training and we all survived. Learned many new things about things I never heard about on the internet and about information literacy. It's all exciting and interesting but it's getting to be a long day.