Hello all!
So, as I said at the end of last week, this past week was very busy for me. Monday through Friday I was at Florida High from 8am-8pm running band camp by myself. That left little time to get things accomplished for this class and my change management class. Although stressful, I got it all done. This upcoming week is going to be even worse because in addition to week 2 of band camp, pre planning for the high school I teach at that is 45 minutes away begins. So I will be running back and forth.
This week I really enjoyed the produsage project. I was not able to officially finish it until today, but I enjoyed the experience overall. It forced me to think outside of my math lesson plan box. I chose a topic in sociology and it can be seen here. I thought it would be easy to find applications for the Web 2.0 tools I have been playing with throughout the semester, but it was more difficult than I initially thought. I completely forgot that we posted out knowledge sharing and tracking projects for the entire class to see, so when I posted my produsage one for the class, I checked out comments on that one. While I have very much enjoyed the content of this class, I am very excited for this upcoming week to be the last. Just one semester left until graduation!
Sunday, July 30, 2017
Google Slides Q&A Feature
Hello all!
As I was working on my produsage project, I came across a feature that I never knew existed: Q&A during the presentation. You can check out my project here which has screenshots of this feature in Appendix C. Basically, the presenter turns on the Q&A mode during the presentation and shares a link to the Q&A forum with the audience. The audience then types the link into their phone or computer and is in the forum. At any point during the presentation, the audience can type questions in that will appear to the presenter. The presenter sees the question and can choose to answer it then, project it for the entire room to see, or save it for later.
Another cool feature of this is that other audience members can up/down vote questions which helps the presenter pick the ones that are most desired. For example, if they are presenting to a huge lecture hall, it is hard to sift through all of the questions. But, if people are liking the questions they have, it is easier for the presenter to see what is most important. I wish I had known about this feature when I had given presentations in the past. It would have helped a lot with interacting with the audience and getting past the boring "Questions?" slide just slapped onto to the end. For anyone giving a presentation or assigning a presentation assignment to a group of students, I definitely suggest using this feature.
As I was working on my produsage project, I came across a feature that I never knew existed: Q&A during the presentation. You can check out my project here which has screenshots of this feature in Appendix C. Basically, the presenter turns on the Q&A mode during the presentation and shares a link to the Q&A forum with the audience. The audience then types the link into their phone or computer and is in the forum. At any point during the presentation, the audience can type questions in that will appear to the presenter. The presenter sees the question and can choose to answer it then, project it for the entire room to see, or save it for later.
Another cool feature of this is that other audience members can up/down vote questions which helps the presenter pick the ones that are most desired. For example, if they are presenting to a huge lecture hall, it is hard to sift through all of the questions. But, if people are liking the questions they have, it is easier for the presenter to see what is most important. I wish I had known about this feature when I had given presentations in the past. It would have helped a lot with interacting with the audience and getting past the boring "Questions?" slide just slapped onto to the end. For anyone giving a presentation or assigning a presentation assignment to a group of students, I definitely suggest using this feature.
Friday, July 28, 2017
Using Groupme to Plan for Band Camp
Hello all!
So this past week was the first of two weeks of band camp. This is the week where I ran things myself while the band director was in London, so there was a lot of things that needed to be done. Earlier in the week I talked about the system I made for teaching. It went really well and by the last day, the kids had a great fundamental understanding of how to march.
In the evenings, I wouldn't communicate with leadership on the Groupme app which I spoke about in a previous post. It was amazing because I was able to talk with different groups about how things went and their thoughts on what could be done differently to make things better, all from laying in bed. I already had a new appreciation for this app, but this past week has made me gain a larger one.
So this past week was the first of two weeks of band camp. This is the week where I ran things myself while the band director was in London, so there was a lot of things that needed to be done. Earlier in the week I talked about the system I made for teaching. It went really well and by the last day, the kids had a great fundamental understanding of how to march.
In the evenings, I wouldn't communicate with leadership on the Groupme app which I spoke about in a previous post. It was amazing because I was able to talk with different groups about how things went and their thoughts on what could be done differently to make things better, all from laying in bed. I already had a new appreciation for this app, but this past week has made me gain a larger one.
Monday, July 24, 2017
Applying Instructional Design to Band Camp
Hello all!
Today was the first day of a two week band camp, where I am the color guard instructor. The band director is studying abroad in London this week, so running things is left to me. This week is solely based on marching fundamentals. There is no music or drill yet. Normally, the leaders are just told to break up with their sections and teach. This led to leaders fighting over the "better" way to teach, and other leaders just standing in the background.
To help address these issues, I broke things up a little differently. I assigned each leader 2-3 band members to teach. They will work with those specific people all week, and only come together as a big band at the end. This helped with really getting down into the details because the leaders no only have to look at 2-3 people.
Another thing I did, was break all of the fundamentals up into modules. The leader much get their group passed off with one module before moving on to the next. I like the way that I broke up the modules, but as the leaders pointed out, more direction and detail is needed. Next year, I will print each module on it's own piece of paper with every little thing that they need to look out for. I might do it for tomorrow, but camp runs 8 am to 8 pm so time is limited. I will update later in the week with how this teaching method and break down is going.
Today was the first day of a two week band camp, where I am the color guard instructor. The band director is studying abroad in London this week, so running things is left to me. This week is solely based on marching fundamentals. There is no music or drill yet. Normally, the leaders are just told to break up with their sections and teach. This led to leaders fighting over the "better" way to teach, and other leaders just standing in the background.
To help address these issues, I broke things up a little differently. I assigned each leader 2-3 band members to teach. They will work with those specific people all week, and only come together as a big band at the end. This helped with really getting down into the details because the leaders no only have to look at 2-3 people.
Another thing I did, was break all of the fundamentals up into modules. The leader much get their group passed off with one module before moving on to the next. I like the way that I broke up the modules, but as the leaders pointed out, more direction and detail is needed. Next year, I will print each module on it's own piece of paper with every little thing that they need to look out for. I might do it for tomorrow, but camp runs 8 am to 8 pm so time is limited. I will update later in the week with how this teaching method and break down is going.
Sunday, July 23, 2017
Reflection on Week 4
Hello all!
This week was not too bad workload wise, but the knowledge tracking and sharing project was intimidating. Even though I am a teacher, I struggle with recording my voice and videos of myself. I can talk in persona all day long but when it comes to recording myself, I clam up. One of the most annoying things was I would talk for a minute and in the last sentence majority stumble and have to start over.I did enjoy the discussion and Twitter feed this week.
Tomorrow I start band camp from 8am-8pm, all the way through Friday. I am worried about how much time I will be able to find to get things done throughout the week. The following week is the same thing, and the start of pre-planning for school, so i am even more nervous for that week. This is the part of the summer I have been dreading, simply for being able to find time. I love band camp, and I enjoy this class, I am just not sure how both at the same time will work out. I am taking another class on change management right now too so needless to say, this is gonna be a crazy last two weeks of the semester.
This week was not too bad workload wise, but the knowledge tracking and sharing project was intimidating. Even though I am a teacher, I struggle with recording my voice and videos of myself. I can talk in persona all day long but when it comes to recording myself, I clam up. One of the most annoying things was I would talk for a minute and in the last sentence majority stumble and have to start over.I did enjoy the discussion and Twitter feed this week.
Tomorrow I start band camp from 8am-8pm, all the way through Friday. I am worried about how much time I will be able to find to get things done throughout the week. The following week is the same thing, and the start of pre-planning for school, so i am even more nervous for that week. This is the part of the summer I have been dreading, simply for being able to find time. I love band camp, and I enjoy this class, I am just not sure how both at the same time will work out. I am taking another class on change management right now too so needless to say, this is gonna be a crazy last two weeks of the semester.
Groupme, an app for communication
Hello all!
I just wanted to tell you all about an app I use to talk with my marching band students at Florida High. It is much like other communication apps. The nice part about it is, you do not need someone's phone number to connect, and it doesn't show your phone number when you connect. This makes it perfect for teacher student interactions.
One of the things I really like about it, is that it is that it has a lot of other useful functionalities. You can set up calendar events to remind people of things. Once you set up a calendar event, there is a place where you click yes or no. So for volunteer activities it's great. You can also start a poll. So, when deciding where to eat, instead of hand raising, you can just start a poll in group me that everyone can quickly answer.
The app also stores a gallery, so when kids share photos from football games they are all there and easy to access, you did not have to scroll through the entire chat. This is the same with large documents too. Instead of sending an image of a permission form, you can send the actual word document or pdf that can be printed. Overall, it is a great app and I suggest that you use it if you have a team that you need to communicate with.
I just wanted to tell you all about an app I use to talk with my marching band students at Florida High. It is much like other communication apps. The nice part about it is, you do not need someone's phone number to connect, and it doesn't show your phone number when you connect. This makes it perfect for teacher student interactions.
One of the things I really like about it, is that it is that it has a lot of other useful functionalities. You can set up calendar events to remind people of things. Once you set up a calendar event, there is a place where you click yes or no. So for volunteer activities it's great. You can also start a poll. So, when deciding where to eat, instead of hand raising, you can just start a poll in group me that everyone can quickly answer.
The app also stores a gallery, so when kids share photos from football games they are all there and easy to access, you did not have to scroll through the entire chat. This is the same with large documents too. Instead of sending an image of a permission form, you can send the actual word document or pdf that can be printed. Overall, it is a great app and I suggest that you use it if you have a team that you need to communicate with.
Friday, July 21, 2017
Designing a Marching Band Show over the Web
Hello all!
For those of you that do not know, I am the color guard instructor at Florida High. Band camp starts next week and there is a lot to coordinate. One of the biggest things that is a summer long project is designing the halftime show performed during football games. Designing a show involves a few people. The band director sets the course for the show, the type of show that she wants, the story she wants to tell, the message she wants to send. All show designers coordinate on this part, but she starts it. Then there is the composer who writes out music. He currently lives in Ohio so all communication is done over the web. The next piece is the drill writer. He lives in South Carolina, so once again, lots of online communication. Finally there is me, the choreographer.
All four of us must work together throughout the summer to perfect the show. Another obstacle we ran into this summer, the band director is in London. So we are all four in very different places. Sometimes we use Google Chat to communicate, and sometimes skype. We use Google Docs when developing the story so we can all edit it together. We use dropbox to share the music. We use YouTube to share the choreography. Texting is usually a big component, but with the director in London, these tools and email have been essential. It is crazy to me to think how smoothly this all operates almost effortlessly. This is something that 10 years ago never could have happened in this way. Until taking this course, I did not even realize how powerful these tools really are. They have brought us together to create this story for the kids. Excited to see what other tools I stumble upon without even realizing it.
For those of you that do not know, I am the color guard instructor at Florida High. Band camp starts next week and there is a lot to coordinate. One of the biggest things that is a summer long project is designing the halftime show performed during football games. Designing a show involves a few people. The band director sets the course for the show, the type of show that she wants, the story she wants to tell, the message she wants to send. All show designers coordinate on this part, but she starts it. Then there is the composer who writes out music. He currently lives in Ohio so all communication is done over the web. The next piece is the drill writer. He lives in South Carolina, so once again, lots of online communication. Finally there is me, the choreographer.
All four of us must work together throughout the summer to perfect the show. Another obstacle we ran into this summer, the band director is in London. So we are all four in very different places. Sometimes we use Google Chat to communicate, and sometimes skype. We use Google Docs when developing the story so we can all edit it together. We use dropbox to share the music. We use YouTube to share the choreography. Texting is usually a big component, but with the director in London, these tools and email have been essential. It is crazy to me to think how smoothly this all operates almost effortlessly. This is something that 10 years ago never could have happened in this way. Until taking this course, I did not even realize how powerful these tools really are. They have brought us together to create this story for the kids. Excited to see what other tools I stumble upon without even realizing it.
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