I am allergic to technology. It's like the cat I grew up with.
Angel was a stray white Persian who appeared out of nowhere at our house in the suburbs of Boston during the Blizzard of '78. He mysteriously showed up on our back porch, like a little piece of snowflake that drifted away to become animated in the form of a scrawny, frost-bitten kitten. Despite a neighborhood flier campaign, calls to Animal Control, and an ad in the town paper, no one ever claimed Angel as their own. So we kept him.
As a result of his frost-bitten adventures in the snowstorm, Angel emerged half-cat, half-robot. He did not meow like a cute little kitty; instead he hacked at us whenever he wanted our attention, like a 2-packs-a-day ex-marine. He was missing half an ear and blind in one eye. He hacked at us, with his head tilted to favor his one eye, whenever he was miserable, which was whenever he wasn't sleeping. HACK! Feed me! HACK! Let me out! HACK!! Pet me or else!!
When Angel waltzed into our lives, he took over the house like a self-centered queen. Fluffy white tufts of cat hair magically interwove themselves into the carpets and furniture, giving everything a ghostly sheen. Vacuuming was Sisyphusian--the moment you finished hoovering the carpet, you'd turn around and literally watch soft snow-like clumps of cat-fur come to life as they reinserted themselves into the fabric.
As a middle child in a gang of four, I was proud when Angel first claimed my bed, then my pillow, as his Royal throne. This pride lasted about 3 hours--until I tried to go to sleep. I was allergic to cats. Sleep was not going to happen with Angel on my bed, and therefore, a solid night's sleep was not accomplished until I left for college 8 years later.
My eyes would turn hellishly red and start to ooze like Mt. Vesuvius. My throat would get itchy and then close up in a wheezing attack. I'd break out in lumpy hives all over my neck, chest and stomach.
A mysterious, assertive animal morphed himself out of the precipitation, took over my house, and moved into my bed. And there he stayed. There was never any question about his permanent place in our home.
30-odd years later, I am still stuck with my Familiar, who has mysteriously morphed yet again, this time into the monster we call "Technology." Despite the weeping, wheezing and itching, I have been dragged into the 21st Century kicking and screaming. That cat is never far from my side.
HACK! Text me! HACK! Call me! HACK! HACK! E-mail me! HACK! Malware! HACK! Change Your Password Case Sensitive Minimum of 8 Characters! An Error Has Occurred and Windows Needs to Shut Down! HACK!!
Part of my latest allergy is due to the fact that I just don't think like a computer. It takes me months to get used to a new program (I'm still desperately seeking the "Undo" control on my Word program from last Christmas), but then the Program Gods suddenly decide it's time to hail fire and brimstone on my head by changing the program. I'm not sure why, but I am told it is to be more "user-friendly." This change happens somewhere in the ether, without my consent. That isn't friendly at all. It's like vacuuming Persian cat hairs. Back to square 1: how do I find "Enter" on a new screen screaming with information?
My brain is not a linear machine. When I am in a creative zone and working at my highest efficiency, I jump from A to Z rapidly. Computers don't have a creative zone. They want you to open up a series of windows. They force you to follow their predetermined paths. "Site Search" has become my best friend, because I just don't have the patience.
Unfortunately for me, technology is actually an extremely useful tool for a music educator. The Internet, for example, is a tool for researching facts, scores, lesson plans, recordings and performances. The Internet can also be used to preview and purchase almost any score or recording. As a tool to enhance practicing, students can listen to MP3s as they read musical scores. As a presentation tool, teachers and students alike can share music, images and documents. As a promotional tool, educational music concerts and curricula can be shared with the public. The Internet can also be a resource for teachers to connect to parents with information about homework, as well as recommendations for extracurricular music enrichment opportunities, or to enlist volunteers and donations.
As a composition tool, programs such as Sibelius, GarageBand, and Noteflight allow both students and teachers the opportunity to create and listen to their own music.
However, although it is a fine resource, technology cannot replace a human music teacher. In order to develop skills in creativity, critical thinking, and physical technique, children need human interaction.
The most important tool which I discovered this semester is the "cloud app." A cloud application is an online software application. I have been able to use free cloud apps to create a website which can link to other websites. I have created an online calendar for my students to refer to concerts and assignment due dates. Through Prezi, which is a graphic presentation tool based on the concept of a canvas instead of traditional slideshows, I have been able to create an interactive introduction to one of my 8th grade curriculum units, which I will show by linking my computer to SmartBoard. I have also been able to create a notated arrangement for my piano students to both read and listen to. Furthermore, I've learned how to post Youtube clips on my website, which I can present to my classes, also using SmartBaord.
Due to time constraints, there are additional cloud apps that I have learned about but will not be able to use until my Herculean summer at TBC ends. These include adding PDFs and MP3s to my website. This will be very valuable to my choral students next year, who will be able to practice and read their parts online.
I also hope to someday learn how to use SmartBoard applications in the music classroom. Currently, I only use this technology as a projection device.
I plan to use technology in my K-8 classes next year in the following ways:
(Note: I couldn't figure out how to make bullets on this program without losing my text, so I creatively used the asterisk button instead!)
* I will use audio media in my lower elementary general music classes, by linking my daughter's (antiquated and therefore discarded) iPod to the classroom stereo. I will need to purchase music online through iTunes. I will also use a separate listening-station attached to headphones. Listening--with a purpose--is a very important musical skill. Most of my lessons include a listening component. For example,
**1st graders listen for form in music as they create their own finger-plays set to Tchaikovsky.
**2nd graders experience beat and tempo changes as they play a beanbag game while listening to Grieg.
**3rd graders learn about theme and variations as they dance to Copland.
**4th graders participate in sonata form as they play their recorders during a Beethoven or Haydn sonata.
**5th graders draw their own manga stories as they listen for motifs in Holst.
* I will use online audio technology to link my middle school choral students to MP3 practice files via my website.
* I will use my digital recorder to record my student performances. Then I can play the recordings for my students to hear.
* I will connect SmartBoard to the computer in the middle school in order to display Youtube clips of live world, jazz, blues and classical performances.
* I will also use SmartBoard as a middle school lecture aid by using Prezi presentations, in lieu of PowerPoint. The Prezis will then be made available on my website so that my students might access them during homework time. Since my school has a writing requirement across the curricula, my presentations will include questions, graphics, and audio/visual media in order to scaffold my students in their essay-writing.
* I will create a calendar on my website for reference to both school concerts as well as public concerts appropriate for children.
* I will post 5-finger piano arrangements of public domain music for my piano students to enjoy.
* In keeping with the curricular emphasis on social justice at the school where I teach, I will post my discoveries of social justice-related resources for like-minded teachers.
* For my students' parents, I will create a website page which explains each grade's music curriculum. I will also add links to resources for further exploration.
Like a stray cat in a freak blizzard, Technology has crept into my home and will always stay. I will deal with it the way I did as a child: I'll just sleep on the floor.
P.S. I finally outgrew my allergy to cats. I'm not quite sure when this happened, but I like to imagine it was the same year I got my first computer.
Angel was a stray white Persian who appeared out of nowhere at our house in the suburbs of Boston during the Blizzard of '78. He mysteriously showed up on our back porch, like a little piece of snowflake that drifted away to become animated in the form of a scrawny, frost-bitten kitten. Despite a neighborhood flier campaign, calls to Animal Control, and an ad in the town paper, no one ever claimed Angel as their own. So we kept him.
As a result of his frost-bitten adventures in the snowstorm, Angel emerged half-cat, half-robot. He did not meow like a cute little kitty; instead he hacked at us whenever he wanted our attention, like a 2-packs-a-day ex-marine. He was missing half an ear and blind in one eye. He hacked at us, with his head tilted to favor his one eye, whenever he was miserable, which was whenever he wasn't sleeping. HACK! Feed me! HACK! Let me out! HACK!! Pet me or else!!
When Angel waltzed into our lives, he took over the house like a self-centered queen. Fluffy white tufts of cat hair magically interwove themselves into the carpets and furniture, giving everything a ghostly sheen. Vacuuming was Sisyphusian--the moment you finished hoovering the carpet, you'd turn around and literally watch soft snow-like clumps of cat-fur come to life as they reinserted themselves into the fabric.
As a middle child in a gang of four, I was proud when Angel first claimed my bed, then my pillow, as his Royal throne. This pride lasted about 3 hours--until I tried to go to sleep. I was allergic to cats. Sleep was not going to happen with Angel on my bed, and therefore, a solid night's sleep was not accomplished until I left for college 8 years later.
My eyes would turn hellishly red and start to ooze like Mt. Vesuvius. My throat would get itchy and then close up in a wheezing attack. I'd break out in lumpy hives all over my neck, chest and stomach.
A mysterious, assertive animal morphed himself out of the precipitation, took over my house, and moved into my bed. And there he stayed. There was never any question about his permanent place in our home.
30-odd years later, I am still stuck with my Familiar, who has mysteriously morphed yet again, this time into the monster we call "Technology." Despite the weeping, wheezing and itching, I have been dragged into the 21st Century kicking and screaming. That cat is never far from my side.
HACK! Text me! HACK! Call me! HACK! HACK! E-mail me! HACK! Malware! HACK! Change Your Password Case Sensitive Minimum of 8 Characters! An Error Has Occurred and Windows Needs to Shut Down! HACK!!
Part of my latest allergy is due to the fact that I just don't think like a computer. It takes me months to get used to a new program (I'm still desperately seeking the "Undo" control on my Word program from last Christmas), but then the Program Gods suddenly decide it's time to hail fire and brimstone on my head by changing the program. I'm not sure why, but I am told it is to be more "user-friendly." This change happens somewhere in the ether, without my consent. That isn't friendly at all. It's like vacuuming Persian cat hairs. Back to square 1: how do I find "Enter" on a new screen screaming with information?
My brain is not a linear machine. When I am in a creative zone and working at my highest efficiency, I jump from A to Z rapidly. Computers don't have a creative zone. They want you to open up a series of windows. They force you to follow their predetermined paths. "Site Search" has become my best friend, because I just don't have the patience.
Unfortunately for me, technology is actually an extremely useful tool for a music educator. The Internet, for example, is a tool for researching facts, scores, lesson plans, recordings and performances. The Internet can also be used to preview and purchase almost any score or recording. As a tool to enhance practicing, students can listen to MP3s as they read musical scores. As a presentation tool, teachers and students alike can share music, images and documents. As a promotional tool, educational music concerts and curricula can be shared with the public. The Internet can also be a resource for teachers to connect to parents with information about homework, as well as recommendations for extracurricular music enrichment opportunities, or to enlist volunteers and donations.
As a composition tool, programs such as Sibelius, GarageBand, and Noteflight allow both students and teachers the opportunity to create and listen to their own music.
However, although it is a fine resource, technology cannot replace a human music teacher. In order to develop skills in creativity, critical thinking, and physical technique, children need human interaction.
The most important tool which I discovered this semester is the "cloud app." A cloud application is an online software application. I have been able to use free cloud apps to create a website which can link to other websites. I have created an online calendar for my students to refer to concerts and assignment due dates. Through Prezi, which is a graphic presentation tool based on the concept of a canvas instead of traditional slideshows, I have been able to create an interactive introduction to one of my 8th grade curriculum units, which I will show by linking my computer to SmartBoard. I have also been able to create a notated arrangement for my piano students to both read and listen to. Furthermore, I've learned how to post Youtube clips on my website, which I can present to my classes, also using SmartBaord.
Due to time constraints, there are additional cloud apps that I have learned about but will not be able to use until my Herculean summer at TBC ends. These include adding PDFs and MP3s to my website. This will be very valuable to my choral students next year, who will be able to practice and read their parts online.
I also hope to someday learn how to use SmartBoard applications in the music classroom. Currently, I only use this technology as a projection device.
I plan to use technology in my K-8 classes next year in the following ways:
(Note: I couldn't figure out how to make bullets on this program without losing my text, so I creatively used the asterisk button instead!)
* I will use audio media in my lower elementary general music classes, by linking my daughter's (antiquated and therefore discarded) iPod to the classroom stereo. I will need to purchase music online through iTunes. I will also use a separate listening-station attached to headphones. Listening--with a purpose--is a very important musical skill. Most of my lessons include a listening component. For example,
**1st graders listen for form in music as they create their own finger-plays set to Tchaikovsky.
**2nd graders experience beat and tempo changes as they play a beanbag game while listening to Grieg.
**3rd graders learn about theme and variations as they dance to Copland.
**4th graders participate in sonata form as they play their recorders during a Beethoven or Haydn sonata.
**5th graders draw their own manga stories as they listen for motifs in Holst.
* I will use online audio technology to link my middle school choral students to MP3 practice files via my website.
* I will use my digital recorder to record my student performances. Then I can play the recordings for my students to hear.
* I will connect SmartBoard to the computer in the middle school in order to display Youtube clips of live world, jazz, blues and classical performances.
* I will also use SmartBoard as a middle school lecture aid by using Prezi presentations, in lieu of PowerPoint. The Prezis will then be made available on my website so that my students might access them during homework time. Since my school has a writing requirement across the curricula, my presentations will include questions, graphics, and audio/visual media in order to scaffold my students in their essay-writing.
* I will create a calendar on my website for reference to both school concerts as well as public concerts appropriate for children.
* I will post 5-finger piano arrangements of public domain music for my piano students to enjoy.
* In keeping with the curricular emphasis on social justice at the school where I teach, I will post my discoveries of social justice-related resources for like-minded teachers.
* For my students' parents, I will create a website page which explains each grade's music curriculum. I will also add links to resources for further exploration.
Like a stray cat in a freak blizzard, Technology has crept into my home and will always stay. I will deal with it the way I did as a child: I'll just sleep on the floor.
P.S. I finally outgrew my allergy to cats. I'm not quite sure when this happened, but I like to imagine it was the same year I got my first computer.
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