Genius Hour Update #4

AHHHHHHHHHH! Oh my goodness everyone, we're coming to the end of our Genius Hour journey! With only one week left until my deadline I am interested to finally see my result. I think what I have learned most over the course of my project is that mastering a musical instrument is an ongoing process. I have played a bunch of different songs and continued moving through levels but there is no real end in sight. I can continue challenging myself to learn new songs for the rest of my life which I think is the most exciting realization of this experience. What I am also really enjoying now that I have improved quite a bit is going back and playing songs that I struggled with in earlier levels and finding them easy. I wish I had done a before and after video comparing my first week to my last. Maybe someday I'll attempt to even write my own song but no promises that it will ever surface. My biggest step now is just continuing to practice my chosen song and attempt to master it! Stay tuned for the final result. Keep rocking MLLs!! OH and Happy Halloween!!!

Genius Hour Evaluation

Genius Hour Update #3

Hello old friends,

I feel that it has been too long since we've caught up.  I have been very busy the last few weeks with various teaching conferences and activities.  Last week we had a wonderful Ontario Teachers' Federation information session.  It was the first time all the Brock concurrent and consecutive students have been together in one room together and it was PACKED to say the least.  But back to the topic at hand, my role in the music community.  Ukulele is going well I think.  I think that if I were to keep practicing the same song over and over I would memorize them pretty easily however, I have learned that is not as much fun as moving up through the levels.  For the sake of the project I think on top of leveling up I am going to select one song to also review each time and then use that as my memorized song.  That way I'm still improving at actually learning the broader skill of ukulele but still meeting the goal that I had initially set for myself.  I actually think that to use more than one of the resources I have found, I'm going to pick a Youtube tutorial for my selected song.  Any requests? I was thinking "La Vie En Rose" by Louis Armstrong for all you How I Met Your Mother Fans.  If you are curious about my other artistic adventures pop over the GH Movie Trailer Page and check out my first attempt at playing around with iMovie, naturally my inner drama came out.  Also, I don't think I have mentioned before but I have also created an education twitter account.  The handle is @laurenndann12 so head over and give me a follow for some funny (hopefully) blurbs about my educational journey.  Until next time MLLs.  Keep learning.

Audioboom!

Screenshot from Audioboom.com, October 17, 2016.

The educational resource that I explored was Audioboom, which is a site for podcasts.  I have mixed reactions about this platform.  I do believe that podcasts are a unique way of getting different perspectives into the classroom and allow for students to hear people speak besides their own teacher.  There are plenty of interesting podcasts that discuss and what I enjoy is how the categories are so fast.  You can basically search for any topic or genre and there will be hundreds of podcasts related.  The issue that I found though was being able to narrow the topic further to look for specific themes or idea that you may be discussing in the classroom.  I think that you would really need to do some digging in order to find podcasts that fit with what you would like to discuss in class.  Further, I am not sure that I would allow my students to use this platform by themselves because I cannot find any filter to make sure the content is appropriate for their age level.  If there was a way to create a teacher lock for content I think it could be interesting to set the students loose and see what they are able to find.  I tried a few different searches which all produced really broad results.  To be fair, you can see from the image, my first search was just "ukulele" so the response was vast but i found it difficult to find key words that would narrow the search but still produce results.  For example, I also searched "Canadian Teacher Podcasts" and only 6 posts were found.  I think it would take some time to learn how to navigate the site and learn to sort through what is relevant.  Additionally, I did not realize that you cannot just start creating your own podcast, you actually have to apply to receive one so if that is your intention you might have a bit of a process!

Gamification

Gamification was a really unique and interesting way of learning.  Personally, I am very competitive so I really responded to the idea of being awarded by completing the work and turning the process into a game.  This is definitely a tool that I would use in my classroom, or components of gamification such as reward systems.  I think having this in the classroom is an interesting way of getting students invested in their work because it feels like they are actually getting something out of it.