Music Note Identification Game 


After searching the internet, trying to research educational music games that would benefit my 4th and 5th grade students, I came across a great website that contained numerous activities for my classroom. The one game that I use the most is a simple activity that helps my students maintain their knowledge of the notes on the Treble and Bass clef. The students and I play this game roughly every other music class (I see them once a week). We play on the Smart Board and the students are split up into two teams. The object of the game is to get as many note names correct as you can before the 2 minutes are up. The game contains a large staff with either the Treble or Bass clef, and notes will pop up on the lines and spaces. The letter names of the notes are below in big circles. The students will each have a turn to correctly choose the letter name that correlates to the note on the staff. When they click the answer, they go to the end of the line. We see how many points they can receive after the two minutes are over.

I found this game to be not only extremely beneficial for their knowledge of the note names, but it also creates a fun environment that elementary students desire and need in their classroom. We usually play this game during the last 5 minutes of class. The students become very excited when they hear that we will be playing the game at the end of class, but only if they are respectful and they participate during the other classroom activities.

I found that this music note identification game also creates a bond between the students because they are working in teams. I allow them to help their teammates by not simply just giving them the answers, but by helping their peers figure the answer out on their own. Overall, this game is wonderful for the age group that I am teaching. I would encourage all music teachers to take the time to review this game to see if it can be beneficial in their classroom!

Here is the link: http://musicteachersgames.com/trebleClefOne

Adolescent Interview

Week 10 Journal
Adolescent Interview

For this interview, I spoke to a 16 year old girl, who I will call Mary. Mary was more than happy to assist me in this journal entry and was very excited to be interviewed. The purpose of the interview was for me to understand how new technology effects her day to day life as well as her surrounding peers. I wanted to get an adolescent perspective into how much of a role technology plays in school and at home.

The following is part of the interview:

Q: What do you do when you're online?

A: I use social media, I watch videos on YouTube, school work, Instagram, snap chat, twitter...

Q: Why do you enjoy using technology? What do you get out of it?

A: Well, I like to see what's going on in my friends lives. It's nice to be able to talk with people who aren't with you. I also like listening to music and it's easier to hand in homework.

Q: How many times a day do you think you see your classmates texting on their phone during classes?

A: A lot, even in my advanced classes. Lunch is definitely crazy when it comes to people texting on their phones.

Q: Do you think students are addicted to being online? Why?

A: YES! Very addicted. I'm not sure why though.

Q: How would you feel without your cell phone and online access for 1 month?

A: Well, I used up all my data this month so I am basically away from my phone right now. It's hard because I sometimes feel away from friends and I feel worried in some way. I don't know, it's hard.


While interviewing Mary, the one answer that surprised me the most was when I asked her if she thought that students are addicted to being online. She just about yelled the answer "yes!" I suppose I thought that because she was a young student herself, she wouldn't fully understand or agree with the notion that many young people are becoming more and more addicted to technology, their phones and being online.

I also found her answer to being without her cell phone and online access for 1 month to be very interesting. She stated that she felt away from her friends and worried in some way, even though she sees her friends everyday in school.

I believe that the internet and being online is where many students now come together to communicate socially. If you are not online and a part of that communication, it is easy to feel left out and vulnerable.

It was an overall good interview and conversation as I learned details into how adolescents view the internet and being online.

Week 8 Journal Post: Final Project Topic

While inquiring about what I wanted to research for my final project, I thought about what intrigued me the most while being enrolled in this course. The one topic that I enjoyed learning about was the idea of technology refusal. While reading my classmate’s journal posts about this topic, I learned that this was a controversial issue, with my fellow students having a variety of opinions about if technology was either being overused, or if educators didn’t have the qualifications to properly incorporate it into the classroom setting.

For my final project, I would like to research the effects of technology in our classrooms and the effect it has on our students learning as well as their daily lives. Does technology ever have a negative effect on our students? Does the abundance of technology in our schools effect how our students communicate or how they develop socially? Or, is technology always a benefit to our students and to our growing new age society if it is incorporated and used correctly? I am curious to research this topic and see statistics and evidence that will create a project that will formally analyze this issue.

As an educator, and by completing this project, I hope to develop in-depth knowledge of this topic as well as gather reliable information that can assist me in developing my classrooms in the future. By researching how technology effects our students, both mentally and socially, I will be able to be aware of future classroom settings and the incorporation of technology in order to benefit my students in a positive way.

** Please forgive some of the citations listed below. When I copy them over from Microsoft Word, the formatting will not stay the same. It creates spaces that should not be there. Thank you for understanding! **

Annotated Bibliography

Costley K. (2014). The Positive Effects of Technology on Teaching and Student Learning. Online

Submission [serial online]. Available from: ERIC, Ipswich, MA. Accessed November 3, 2015.

The author creates evidence of how technology benefits and has positive effects on our
students in the classroom. He presents different classroom situations in which technology contributes to the overall learning environment and how integrating technology creates positive results in our student’s behavior and in their willingness to learn. This is a helpful source in providing information on the positive effects of incorporating technology into classrooms.

Rabah, J. (2015). Benefits and Challenges of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Integration in Québec English Schools. Turkish Online Journal Of Educational Technology - TOJET,

14(2), 24-31.

The author presents not only the benefits of incorporating technology into schools, but also the challenges that have been found to occur that may hinder the student’s abilities to properly understand and use the technology to their advantages. The author’s research includes challenges found by teachers and their desire for more training and support for incorporating these technologies into their classrooms. This source is beneficial to the research of the negative effects of technology in our schools.

Turel, V. (2014). Teachers' Computer Self-Efficacy and Their Use of Educational Technology. Turkish Online Journal Of Distance Education, 15(4), 130-149.

This study examines teacher’s computer self-efficacy perceptions, their technology preferences in their classrooms as well as their frequency of computer use. It lists different studies on how proficient teachers feel about using a variety of technologies, such as Word Processor, the internet and their proficiency in using technology to create classroom lesson plans. This is a good source for finding statistics on how confident teachers feel in their technology use.

Kuyatt, A., Holland, G., & Jones, D. (2015). An Analysis of Teacher Effectiveness Related to Technology Implementation in Texas Secondary Schools. Contemporary Issues In Education Research, 8(1), 63-70.

The authors present an investigation of how teachers use technology that is given to them and how these technologies determine the effectiveness of the lessons. This source shows statistics of test scores when teachers implement technologies as well as when they do not. It also shows how the implementation of technology in the classroom may change student involvement and engagement. This source will give insight to different classroom scenarios in terms of the use of technology and how it effects students test scores as well as their engagement in the classroom.

DeWeese, K. L. (2014, May 1). Screen Time, How Much Is Too Much? The Social and Emotional Costs of Technology on the Adolescent Brain. Online Submission

               
The author researches how technology effects students, not only in the classroom, but in their day to day lives. It discusses how different types of media has effects on students, emotionally and socially.  This source is beneficial because it discusses in depth if technology is becoming too much in our society and in our young student’s lives.

Technology Refusal 

In today’s digital world, technology refusal are two words that don’t seem feasible. In many education systems, the teaching and the use of technology are mandated. Many teachers are pushed to incorporate technology into their lesson plans and their classrooms, regardless of their background and knowledge of these new tools. Technology has pushed its way into our daily lives and has created many opportunities for our students and for ourselves. However, instead of trying to keep up with these new changes by simply adding technology into our schools for the sake of having them, we need to explore these new options and create beneficial outcomes for our students.

“The teachers often described nostalgia for the pre-laptop days, which interaction was more focused, common conversations richer, and teacher roles within these common conversations were clear” (p. 67). I agree that technology can be beneficial to our students when used correctly. It engages them by being actively involved in something that they can relate too, that they enjoy using and that can prepare them for their future. However, I also understand the argument and the idea of technology refusal when it is used just too simply say that is was.

As an educator that uses technology in the classroom, I also enjoy limiting the use and focusing more on interactive discussions and collaboration between the students. In my experience, the I-pads that my younger students have in school are great tools that assist them in learning material and are beneficial to helping them stay organized by having notes and teacher discussions through online profiles and posts. On the other hand, I have noticed a decrease in student conversation and group discussions. There are many times that I have to remind my students to put their I-pads down and simply listen. I remind them to talk with each other and learn from each other. “[…] the laptops were seen as damaging to classroom interaction in that they distracted girls into forms of communication and activity other than the core communicative activity at hand” (p.65). My 6^th grade music students, who I see once a day for 10 weeks, continue to struggle when the use of technology is not incorporated in that days lesson. They seem to feel lost and their attention spans diminish when they are involved in activities that do not incorporate some sort of technology.

This is not to say that I agree to completely shut out technology all together. There needs to be a balance. I believe that we need to adapt to these new technologies and learn to use them to our students’ advantages. Educators also need to be well prepared to teach their students to properly use new technologies and how to effectively benefit by using them. We are very fortunate that we live in a world where we have these opportunities to enhance our ability to learn and grow through these new changes. I understand that we need to prepare our students for the digital world, and by incorporating these technologies into our lessons when it’s appropriate and beneficial is key to developing strong and independent citizens who are ready to conquer anything that they set their mind too.

Lankshear, Colin and Michele Knobel. A New Literacies Reader: Educational Perspectives (pp. 23-56). Peter Lang, 2013. Print

 

Chapter 1 & 2: Reflective Response

Journal #3: Multimodal Pedagogies and Trajectories of Remixing

While reading Chapters 1 and 2, I found myself intrigued by the use of some technology in the classroom. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the students and how they reacted to these different forms of literacy and text. A’idah, a student in an English class who regularly writes blogs stated, “I hate writing stuff on paper because I feel like my hands can’t keep up with my thoughts when I write on paper” (p. 30). I’m sure many of us can relate to this student! What a wonderful and insightful teacher to take her students’ struggles and turn them into a desire to learn.

I feel that teachers need to not rush to teach material, but to dig deeper into the underlying issues. As an educator, I understand the struggle and the rush to collect grades and to keep a deadline based around your lesson plans and observations. However, I feel that if we truly take into consideration the new digital age that our students are living in and what they are comfortable in participating in, learning the material will come at a quicker pace than originally planned. “When educators are more aware of adolescents’ digital literacies and composing repertoires, they can more effectively marry instructional goals that children and youth need to meet in order to successfully navigate formalized education […]” (p. 35).

In relation to Green’s approach to literacy, the operational literacy practices lies in the ability to understand the constant change in technology and being able to adapt to these new opportunities. The cultural literacy practices relates to the technology that we have available in our classrooms. This creates opportunities for our students to practice these new literacies and use them in their day to day life. Critical literacy practices relates to students having the ability to use these new technologies to their benefit and be proficient in creating and developing their own ideas.

I strive to be an educator who practices new ideas in order to benefit my students. I understand that our society is changing into a digital age and I believe that we need to embrace it. My school district has given each 4-6^th grade student an I-pad, and I enjoyed learning some new ideas to keep my students involved. “As youth are engaged in the processes and practices of exploring, making, and remaking their identities […] the role of the educator becomes more complicated and, we would argue, ripe with possibilities” (p. 35).

Lankshear, Colin and Michele Knobel. A New Literacies Reader: Educational Perspectives (pp. 23-56). Peter Lang, 2013. Print