Saturday, January 21, 2012

A Packed Room

In the evening before our presentation of the Google project to OMEA educators at the OMEA conference, Doug Bundy, Bob Ponto, and I sat at dinner and wondered if we would get people to come to our session. We concluded that if our sponses and moms came, we would have at least one row of people to see our session! Well, the room was packed (standing room only IF you could even get through the door) and we had a great time sharing our information to many music teachers from the state of Oregon! We will continue to do the Google project next year (1st semester at LOHS) and I am excited about the new and awesome projects my students will come up with. To see my powerpoint presentation, go to http://goo.gl/f3aUa

This will be my last blog for this project until next year!

Go Lakers!

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Google 20% Project A Success

I would have to rate our first Google 20% a huge success. Students came up with great ideas and have opened the door to the wide range of possibilities that students have with music. I highly encourage students that did their presentation by video to post it on their blog page. If you did an audio presentation, you can also put that on youtube and put it on your blog.

Some students have not yet posted thier final blog. Until you do that, you will not recieve full credit for  your grade. (I have posted all grades on edline this morning.) There are still several students that have not done their presentations; we will finish those presentations when we get back from winter break.

One of my favorite quotes from the student blogs is "These projects allowed us to optimize our creativity and demonstrate what we can do if left without instruction. (A skill that is quite useful in the real world.)" This is so true! Learning how to come up with new ideas/methods is a key to being successful. One of my favorite quotes is from Mark Twain: "Don't let schooling interfere with your education."
My students are capable of so much! Hopefully this project has opened up more doors for them both in music and in their general education.
 


Now on to getting my presentation ready for the Oregon Music Educators Conference in January with G. Douglas Bundy and Bob Ponto. I think this session will be amazing!

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Google Presentations

We have had Google presentations the last two days of class and I have been ecstatic about the results of all the work done by the students! Some of the projects/presentations were truly amazing. Students: please write in your blogs your feelings about your project and what you have learned these past few months. For those of you that presented on youtube, please post your youtube link on your blog. Also, for those of you that have your recording as an mp3, you can also post that on youtube.

Over vacation I will be picking some of your projects to present at the Music Conference in January.

Also, check out the students' blogs on the links to the right.

Great Job LO!

Friday, November 25, 2011

Post Turkey Day

Now that Thanksgiving is over, everyone can not start thinking about their projects and how they will present them to the class. Our next Google day will be on Dec. 7th with presentations beginning on Dec. 9th. I will record these projects and then pick some that I will present to the Oregon Music Educators Conference in December. This is a busy month with concerts as well as football games. (We play in the quarterfinals tonight against Roseburg.) Go Lakers!

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Video of October 19

The students continue to be truly amazing with the projects they are working on. Composing, arranging, programing, writing, learning new instruments, teaching, and so much more! I know that the students are learning so much more then they expected.

I walked around the band room (and practice rooms, office, computer lab, dressing rooms, auditorium) where students were working on their projects and captured some of their work on video. I couldn't get everyone on the recording as there was so much to choose from and I had to keep it under 10 minutes for youtube.

Students are reminded to update their blogs!

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Video Coming

Next week (after our google day) I will post a video of my students working on their projects in class!

October 12

Some very cool recent postings by my students. A reminder to my students: change the title of your blog to include your name(s) and a short descriptor of your project. The next Google 20% day is next week. Go Lakers!