September 21st Class Update

Today I continued to work on, and add, videos to my 5th, 6th, and 7th grade general music pinterest pages.  I have done the same with my 5/6th and 7/8th chorus pinterest pages. The pinterest pages have been very useful for me in class.  Pinterest has served as a great and "easy to access" bookmarking site for me as well as my choir students.  In a matter of seconds I can show students a choir performing one of our songs, giving them the opportunity to critically analyze and evaluate the other choirs' performance, looking and listening for proper choral techniques.  These pages also give students the opportunity to practice their music at home, something they have not had before.

Today I also created a youtube channel for HMS students, where students can post individual and small group musical performances.  This will give students the ability to be creative and share their work with others, something they are not able to presently accomplish in our large choral setting.  I have titled the youtube channel "HMSYGT," and have learned how to teach students to download their personal videos to "Google Drive," and then "share" their video with me.  I can then download the video from my "Google Drive" and upload it to "HMSYGT."  Students can then view and even subscribe to the youtube channel.  This process will require teacher time and work, but will also give me control of the videos and comments posted to ensure appropriateness.

Skype in the Classroom

I've spent the last hour researching, and registering for my own "Skype in the Classroom" account.  It seems this is a site where I can potentially give and receive a variety of music lessons.  At this point I am much more comfortable "receiving" lessons, so I have spent considerable time looking at the teachers and lessons available via Skype.  There are supposedly 1562 lessons that pertain to "music," however on closer inspection it appears there are less than 100 that "really" have to do with music education.  Violin, guitar, voice lessons...opportunties to collaboratively sing with other choirs around the world....many different possible lessons available.  Now that I have registered, it will be interesting to see if I am able to make any of these lessons available to my students.

This will take some time and experimentation to figure out the quality of the teachers and lessons available.

I question if music lessons available on youtube won't be easier to preview/evaluate and be more accessible.