Well, I have taken about a two month hiatus, but I'm back and hoping to be a little more diligent on the posts. I will try to post a website, tool or tip each day. The first is one of my favorite sites: How Stuff Works.
I'm sure many of you are already aware of this site, but it has great resources for teachers. There are articles that may used in classrooms from how a acoustical guitar works, to banking, or how to make a pinata (one of my faves). Think outside the box when thinking about how stuff works. There is a great article on the fast food industry that would be super for wellness classes. A lot of the pages feature videos. There are many ads on these pages, which is unfortunate, but great content does not come free.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Carlos Vamos
Wow! Can't believe it has been this long since my last post. Things are crazy. But nothing calms you down quite like this Carlos Vamos clip.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Disposable Income Calculator
Seems like this disposable income calculator could be used in personal finance or home economics classes. Students would need some help filling in their costs (rent, groceries, etc), but it might give them a picture of how much that latte at Starbucks costs.
An Oldie But Goodie
Ricci Adams' musictheory.net is an amazing site. I have been using it with music students for many year. Think of this as a bit of nostalgia.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Persistence and Video Games
An interesting piece on The Genius in All of Us about persistence. It conjured up memories of the book by Steven Johnson, Everything Bad is Good For You. From TGIAOU:
Robert Cloninger, at Washington University in St. Louis, who not only zeroed in on the persistence circuitry in the brain (Gusnard, Cloninger et al, 1993), but also trained mice and rats to develop persistence. “The key is intermittent reinforcement,” explains Cloninger. “A person who grows up getting too frequent rewards will not have persistence, because they’ll quit when the rewards disappear.” In other words, yes, according to Cloninger, the animal mind can actually be trained to reward itself for slow and steady progress rather than the more thrilling instant gratification.
Boy, that sounds a lot like Steven Johnson's findings in Everything. In the book Johnson says video games, if designed well, teach us persistence by giving us well timed rewards. We have got to find a way to bring this kind of reward system to students.
Robert Cloninger, at Washington University in St. Louis, who not only zeroed in on the persistence circuitry in the brain (Gusnard, Cloninger et al, 1993), but also trained mice and rats to develop persistence. “The key is intermittent reinforcement,” explains Cloninger. “A person who grows up getting too frequent rewards will not have persistence, because they’ll quit when the rewards disappear.” In other words, yes, according to Cloninger, the animal mind can actually be trained to reward itself for slow and steady progress rather than the more thrilling instant gratification.
Boy, that sounds a lot like Steven Johnson's findings in Everything. In the book Johnson says video games, if designed well, teach us persistence by giving us well timed rewards. We have got to find a way to bring this kind of reward system to students.
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Ear Training
I am not a big fan of freeware, much more of a 2.0 guy, but this is a great tool for music educators. The basic version is a note recognition program. The advanced includes intervals. Amazing stuff.
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Monday, April 2, 2007
Drum Head Tuning
The accent makes this a little tough, but this video on tuning drum heads is nice. 5min.com is a pretty neat site.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Where is the Creativity in Music Education?
In working with teachers on curriculum and assessment there are two areas that we struggle with the most. I also stuggled to incorporate these skills when I was a band director. Why is it that teaching composition and improvistation is so difficult? I think it is because we have become a yes and no culture. When student compose or improvise, they want to know if it was correct. Teachers want to know the right way to assess and teach these creative skills. But honestly, when we create or think creatively a quick assessment can stifle that process. If I am facilitating a group in brainstorming one of the ground rules is no evaluation. We want ideas to flow. We want everyone to feel comfortable to throw out a few stinkers, because without them we will never find the "outside the box" idea. The same is true of compostion and improvisation. Let them try and get saturated in the experimentation arena. I believe we are moving to quickly to assess. Our fast-food culture wants everything right away. We type a term into wikipedia and get the answer right away. We want the same in the classroom. However, that culture is stifiling our creativity, especially the older we get.
I think art, of all the fine arts, is the highest on the creativity ladder. Music, and especially band, has become so entrenched in scores and festivals that we have forgotten that it was the creatity that we enjoyed in music to begin with. Art gives you the tools and the medium and where you go from their is up to you. In drama we want to make sure they read the lines correctly, excute the blocking and pickup cues. I think drama is in the middle of the pack. At least students are asked to creatively create a character. But how many of them do? How much drama education is merely parading on stage with no particular creativity.
In music it has become about right notes and did you play that dynamic. It is a game of gotcha at contest. What happened to the creativity?
I think art, of all the fine arts, is the highest on the creativity ladder. Music, and especially band, has become so entrenched in scores and festivals that we have forgotten that it was the creatity that we enjoyed in music to begin with. Art gives you the tools and the medium and where you go from their is up to you. In drama we want to make sure they read the lines correctly, excute the blocking and pickup cues. I think drama is in the middle of the pack. At least students are asked to creatively create a character. But how many of them do? How much drama education is merely parading on stage with no particular creativity.
In music it has become about right notes and did you play that dynamic. It is a game of gotcha at contest. What happened to the creativity?
Monday, March 26, 2007
Video Photoshop Tutorials
Luv2help.com features free video tutorials for a number of basic and more advanced features in Photoshop. Could be some nice lessons for digital imaging and graphic design classes.
Tutorial for Finale Notepad
A nice tutorial for using Finale Notepad. Finale Notepad is a basic music notation program and a free download and we make it available to all the teachers in our district.
Top Speed: 253 mph
The auto guys in my district would love this video of the Bugatti Veyron whose top speed is 253 mph. Cool.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Required Reading
Sir Ken Robinson believes creativity is being systematically eliminated by our education system. Further, he believes that this very creativity is what will make economies successful in the future. Here is a transcript from his speech to the National Forum on Educational Policy and a very similar speech at TED.
NPPA: Best of Photojournalism 2006
Beautiful photography. This site includes winners selected by photojournalists in many categories, including websites and photo illustration. Some great examples for teachers to use and some beautiful photographs for us all to enjoy. I especially like the amateur photo blogs.
Friday, March 23, 2007
Van Go Gallery
The Vincent van Gogh Gallery brags to have 100% of van Gogh's works. Great for teacher examples.
Old Time Jazz Recordings
Lots of historic jazz recordings in Real Audio format. Nice when kids want to know what Bix Beiderbechke sounded like.
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