What Are You Most Excited to Teach Today?

“What are you most excited to teach today?” 

Has anyone ever asked you this question?

This week, I was in a meeting discussing the book The Connected Educator by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and Lani Ritter Hall.  The discussion revolved around leadership, collegiality, and risk-taking.  Much time was spent wondering what keeps us from being high-performing, collegial teams with a shared mission and vision.

I was thinking about this again and thinking back on all the new projects I have created in the last year.  And I was thinking about the people who supported me on the way with these projects.  And not just people who have been supportive, but people who have been genuinely excited.  

That’s when it hit me –

Who gets excited about what you are doing in the classroom?  I don’t mean your spouse, significant other, or the students in your classroom.  They “get it” already.  They know how exciting your classroom is.  But do we get genuinely excited – really get enthusiastic – about what our colleagues are doing on a day to day basis?

Little kids tell us things because they think everyone will be excited to hear it.  But when adults stop being excited by what children tell them, kids stop sharing so freely and so excitedly.  (Think about kids losing teeth)

The same can be said of educators:  If nobody’s going to be excited about what I’m doing in my classroom, I’m not going to stop doing it - I know it’s good!  Rather, I’m just not going to tell people about it so much.  It’s self-defense.  And what good does that do for anyone?  Shared mission requires a shared enthusiasm about why we exist.  Shared vision requires a shared excitement about the future.  And that starts with shared excitement that builds trust on a day-to-day basis.

So how do we overcome this?  Perhaps we should go around to other teachers and say, “What are you most excited to teach today?  Tell me about it!”  and then make the time to listen and share the excitement.  We ask students what the most exciting part of their day will be.  We ask students what they are most excited to learn.  We need to ask each other what we are most excited to teach.  

Letting the students Explain Everything

I have an app "crush" and its name is Explain Everything.  In a classroom, it can help you ... well ... Explain Everything.  In a world where students are obsessed with the visual, I have Explain Everything open almost all the time.  It is my ever-present virtual chalkboard.  You can save your work, record audio as you draw, and import/export in all sorts of ways.  Students can use it to perform a variety of tasks, and when combined with Apple TV, you can project that student work for everyone to see.

I use Explain Everything to project choral
warmups behind me in rehearsal.  

Lately, I have been using Explain Everything to assess if my 3rd grade students understand treble clef notation.  After a quick tutorial, I told students to record a presentation to demonstrate that they know how to read and write music.  Pick a word using the letters A-G of the musical alphabet and notate it while talking through your thought process using Explain Everything.  For the students, the strangest part seemed to be actually talking to the iPad so that it could record their voices.

And the results?  Amazing.  This year's 3rd grade students are completing notation worksheets (yes, there is a right time and place for worksheets) that have traditionally been difficult for my fourth grade students.  In the past, I'd never been able to assess every student's thought process, but now, with Explain Everything, I get a peak into their brains, not just their work.  And the GREATEST part?  It didn't take any extra class time to accomplish!  While students were working on another project, I could send them in groups of two per iPad to record their presentations.  Here are two of them, exported from Explain Everything directly to Youtube.

5K makes Rhythm using Explain Everything

My 5K students are also learning to read rhythm.  Instead of having one student at the Smartboard and making sure everyone gets a turn drawing rhythms for us to read, I can hand out three iPads and project work quickly.  Someday, I'll explain my simple rhythm reading system, but you might guess from the colors we use to write quarter notes and pairs of eighth notes.

I am looking forward to the upcoming version of Explain Everything.  And, just for the record, I did not receive anything from them for this blog post.  

Apple TV ... now in the Elementary Music Room

About one week ago, I was teaching a fourth grade class and this tremendous BANG came from my ceiling.  It was the bulb inside my (very) old projector, and the projector was beyond repair.  This projector was so old that even a Kanex ATV adapter would not work, meaning there was no hope of Apple TV in my elementary classroom, where I spend 80% of my time.

But not any more.
Having installed Apple TV in my middle school choir room last year, I knew exactly what equipment I needed.  After some quick budget wheeling-and-dealing, I had a new HDMI projector installed in two days.  I ordered the cables from monoprice, and within one week, everything was installed and running perfectly!  I now have the first elementary classroom in our district equipped with Apple TV.

Equipment list:
• Mitsubishi EX240U Projector - our librarian found this projector for the middle school choir room last year, and it works really well.  HDMI input, 2 VGA inputs, RCA video input.  Easy to switch inputs with remote control on the fly and a magnify button on the remote that you will need to enlarge the Apple TV image.  $450.  Not cheap, but I'm sure prices will be coming down for HDMI projectors.
• Apple TV - $99

Cables and optional equipment:
• Long HDMI cable.  Apple TV does not include an HDMI cable.  I purchased a 30' HDMI cable from monoprice for about $25.  You need to think about placement of Apple TV box.  You probably only have one or two outlets on your ceiling for the projector.  Your Apple TV box also needs to be line-of-sight with its remote control.

Apple TV (left), Audio Converter box (center), and
Smart Audio system (right)

• Audio converter box - I have used this converter twice now and it works great for $20. Normally, the audio follows the HDMI cable to the speaker in the projector.  If you want decent quality audio, then you want something like this so you can send the audio to the sound system most music teachers already have in their room.  But you need a converter box because Apple chooses to use an "optical audio" (toslink) port on the Apple TV.  The converter changes that to dual-RCA.  Now I send the video to the projector and the audio to a sound system.  If decent-quality audio is not important to you, you would not need this.
• If you use a converter box, you will need a toslink cable to connect the Apple TV to the audio converter box and RCA cables to go from the converter box to your sound system.



Some notes:

2 student iPads

• I am a 3-iPad classroom (currently).  I have two student iPads plus my personal iPad.  I don't think there is a "critical mass" for iPads in the classroom.  A single iPad can make a difference if used effectively.  But having the two student iPads has really opened up a new world of possibilities for learning.  And now, adding the Apple TV to those three iPads makes the iPads "communal mobile devices" because the projected iPad is no longer just one person's learning.

Wireless microphones
for Smart Audio system

• I already had a Smart Audio system in my classroom.  The Smart Audio system combines many functions that a music room needs into one small package.  It has four nice, ceiling mounted speakers.  The box functions as both a mixer and a wireless receiver with four inputs - a handheld wireless, a lanyard-worn wireless, plus two more RCA inputs.  I put an RCA to 1/8" jack on one of those inputs so I can plug in my laptop.  Now, the fourth input receives the sound from the Apple TV.  (My Smart Audio system is an older version from Smarttech.  It appears the new version has the same features but with only one microphone and is designed to replace traditional PA systems in a building.)  It may not be a "glitzy" tech tool, but it does get the job done well.

Smart Audio system from Smarttech (old version) with the Apple TV on top

• The ooh's and aah's from the students when they realized you could write on my iPad and have it show up on the screen wirelessly were reminiscent of the first time we used a Smartboard.  Nice to have those magical moments once in awhile.

• Yes, I am projecting onto my Smartboard.  I have no reason to remove the Smartboard.  I created so many Smartboard lessons in the past few years that are really valuable.  I do wish I could have a larger projected image, but 30 students gathered around the Smartboard can see clearly enough.

The command center

Warmups on the iPad

This is a project I've been wanting to get done for the better part of a year, and this week I finally did it!    Ever since my choral career was rekindled (last year I taught 7th grade choir, this year I have 8th grade choir), I wanted to put our warmups on the iPad.  Once the choir room was outfitted with new projection equipment and Apple TV, I had even more reason to get this project moving.

I divided my warmups into three types for this project:
• Vocal Warmups
• Rhythm Reading (without pitch)
• Sightreading

And here's how I did it:
1.  I am a Sibelius user, so I created a new score for each warmup in Sibelius.  I named it according to the three types of warmups above.  In the "subtitle" of the warmup, I would often put the skill or sound I am expecting from the students as a visual reminder.  Sometimes, I would list alternative vowels or consonants for the warmup in the subtitle.
2.  Export the score into some form of graphics file that will work on your iPad.  PDF's and .png files were good choices for me.
3.  Place all of the warmup files in a folder in Dropbox.
4.  From Dropbox, I can open the score in a variety of iPad apps I use in class, such as ForScore or Explain Everything.

Some notes about the process:
• When creating single line warmups in Sibelius, I found the automatic spacing of staves to be a little too close together for my tastes.  Drag them apart slightly for visual separation.

• When creating rhythm reading warmups, I chose "No instrument (Hidden - Show barlines only)" from the "Other" instrument category in Sibelius.  But this instrument gives you very tiny barlines, so I would suggest extending those barlines so they are more obvious.  To extend the barlines, you need to go into House Styles>Edit Instruments.  Click on your instrument and it will bring up another dialog box which allows you to "Edit Staff".  At this point, you can choose how far the barlines should extend above and below the centerpoint (I chose 2.5 above and below).  Much more visually appealing.

• My whiteboard app of choice is Explain Everything.  If I need to communicate something to the students visually, I will draw it on the iPad and it shows up right behind me.  Explain Everything allows me to put together a "slide show" of warmups I will use on a given day.  Using Explain Everything, I can annotate on the warmup images.  I realize I could do this in ForScore, but in Explain Everything, I can get a blank whiteboard screen whenever I desire.

• In the past, when exporting a file as a graphic, I always used the Export option in Sibelius and saved the file as a TIFF image.  But TIFF images didn't work in Explain Everything for me.  In fact, when I tried to put my TIFF image into Explain Everything, the entire iPad crashed - twice!  I've never had anything crash an iPad until now.  The iPad had to be completely restarted.  No problems like this with PDF and .png files.

• I am shedding a tear for Sibelius.  As I said, I've been using Sibelius for a dozen years, and it sounds like it might be coming to an end.  Our entire district's music staff has been using Sibelius for the last 10 years.  But with the transition to Smart Music and the possible sunset of Sibelius, I see Finale in our future.  Sibelius and I have spent so much time together that it's kind of like losing a friend.

• After a few hours of work, I have a large set of warmups ready to go, and now can easily add more to the toolbox in just minutes!

Getting Classroom Audio Online ... FAST!!!

When our district became a Google Apps district, I made the switch from Wikispaces to Google Sites for my classroom webpage.  Google makes inserting media into a Site easy in almost every way except one - inserting audio.  It is a serious omission, especially for a music teacher who uses a website to connect what we do inside the classroom to the world beyond.  So I went on a mission to find a faster method than the standard embedded Google audio player.

Here's how I am posting classroom audio online this year, and it couldn't get simpler than this!  This video shows how I record on my iPad in Garageband, share directly to a Soundcloud account, add it to a pre-created set on Soundcloud, which is already embedded on my Google Site.  Total time (not including the recording itself) is less than 30 seconds!

Why this drive for simplicity and efficiency?  For two reasons:

• Every minute is valuable in a teacher's day.  If I can't get content onto my Site quickly, I'm probably not going to do it at all.  Wikispaces made it easy to get audio online, but Google does not (yet).  

• I want the recording on my Site before the students leave my room.  I don't want to promise them that it will be there and then disappoint.  Plus, they want to hear themselves online (great for them to evaluate their own performance).

For those who prefer to read and see screenshots, here's how I do it:

1.  Create a Soundcloud account.  I confess, I have paid 29 Euros (less than $40 as of today) for the lowest level premium account.  The free version does give you 120 minutes of time, but you can only create 3 sets (set=album).  If you only don't need many sets, you may be fine with the free version.  I tested all of this using the free version and upgraded after I knew it worked.  I need at least 7 sets, one per grade level that I teach.  Create the sets you plan to use.  (One note of caution - charging the 29 Euros on my credit card did trigger a fraud alert on the card, which my wife found out when trying to pay at the grocery store.)  Embed each set on your Google Site (use HTML code button).  

2.  Record classroom audio using the Garageband app on your iPad.  Save it with the name as it will appear online.  In Garageband, push and hold the song until it jiggles and the sharing options appear in the top left corner.  The first time you try to share to Soundcloud from Garageband, you will need to sign into your Soundcloud account.  Share the song to your newly connected Soundcloud account.  

Sharing options in Garageband app

3.  Garageband will ask if you want to visit your newly shared song.  Click "Visit", and your iPad will automatically switch apps to Safari and your Soundcloud page.  Then click "Add to Set" and choose the set you wish the track to go into.  

Your track once it is shared to Soundcloud

4.  Go to your website where you have already embedded the set.  Your track should show up and be ready to play.  I like that all the tracks this year will be bundled together like in one playlist, rather than spread throughout the page, as they were in the past.  By the end of the year, we will have created quite a lengthy set for each grade level!

The set list and player is embedded on your own Site

Note that with the paid version of Soundcloud, you have a few different choices of players to embed on your Site.  I chose the HTML5 player without artwork.  You embed the set on your Site by choosing the Share button above the set on your Soundcloud page.  Then insert the code on your Google Site by using the HTML button.  Since I put the player at the top of the webpage, there is no need to search through the code to find the right spot to paste!

One more note - sometimes removing a track takes awhile before the embedded player catches up with your Soundcloud account.  Adding tracks happens instantly, while removing tracks from an embedded set seems to take time.  

I hope this helps you - I am a little geeked out every time I do this now, because I can't believe how incredibly easy it is.

  

To Seat, or Not to Seat … That is the Question

My two elementary colleagues gave up chairs a long time ago, and they have urged me to do the same for many years.  One of them has a room that is smaller, and the other just prefers not to use chairs.  But I held out.  Maybe it was the high school teacher in me.  Perhaps it’s that I just crave order.  Seating charts make life easy.  For whatever reason, I needed my elementary students to sit in chairs.

Last year, I found myself moving around the classroom more than ever.  And I had the students moving more than ever.  We were singing around the piano, gathering by the Smartboard, working at xylophone centers around the perimeter, bringing instruments to the middle, working at centers in groups, dancing in the middle, setting up risers for concerts, etc.  Often we moved chairs (always a struggle when you are 5 years old and the chair is as big as you).  The only thing we seemed to be in chairs for was attendance at the beginning and dismissal at the end.

But over the Summer I realized the chairs were also hindering one more crucial element in a music classroom – the community that comes from seeing one another’s faces while making music.  That sealed the deal – no more chairs.  If I want my students to be collaborative creators, then I needed to arrange them in a way that allowed for better collaboration.

My classroom (before I finished the bulletin board, I guess!)

A retired choral director friend of mine always used to rehearse in the round until concert time.  I am a big advocate of big, flexible space in a music room because you never know how it might be used in the future.  Wenger or Stageright seated risers are much more flexible than cast-in-place concrete steps in a music room. 

Frankly, I have a large elementary music classroom and one of my fears is that without chairs, people will think I have more space than I need.  People like that don’t understand that flexible space is creative space.  A big, blank palette in the middle of a room that is used 50 different ways every day.  But to the untrained eye, it looks like my class could fit just fine in a room half the size. 

I do have one problem without the chairs now.  The seats of the chairs also served as our desks.  So it might be time to invest in some clipboards. 

I Just Got Hit By an #Edcamp Bus

So, I was at my first Edcamp this weekend.  Edcamp Milwaukee (#edcampMKE) was held at South Milwaukee High School (my home district), put together by two incredible edtech leaders - Tammy Lind and Chad Kafka.  Edcamp Milwaukee was the 100th edcamp in the world and the first in Wisconsin.

I just don't think there is anything you can compare an Edcamp experience to in education today.  Seriously ... it's like getting hit by a bus of positive ideas and people.  Why else would people drive four hours or cross state lines to come to a conference with no set agenda?

The most amazing thing to me was how much learning a person could do at a time:
• You might be physically sitting in one session, listening and contributing.
• You find a few moments to tweet out the best ideas from the session you are in and jot a few notes into Evernote to remember later.
• At the same time, you might be watching a Google Doc of notes from another session take shape.
• Sending out message to teachers in other sessions
• And then, all of a sudden, someone who is not even at edcamp sends you a tweet because they are following and are interested in your session.

And that sums up a session at edcamp - a place where teachers are concerned about what is happening not only in their own room, but making an impact around the world.  This is what most surprised me about my edcamp experience - how fast learning can happen when you collaborate.


A few notes from my sessions:
Evernote - there is a real excitement with teachers to create digital portfolios with Evernote.  I would love to do this.  One of the great things about being a music teacher is having students for many years.  I have had some students for 8 years - wouldn't it be great to document that progress in an authentic way?  But I have one HUGE issue with this as a music teacher - I have about 350 students this year (and I think that's my smallest number in the last decade due to schedule changes).  With only one hour/week with each elementary student, is this possible to do?  Love the idea of emailing recordings to parents.
Here is a link to a site about creating e-portfolios in Evernote.

Giving the Classroom Back to the Students - This was my "deep thoughts" session of the day.  My brain was in overdrive trying to listen to others, participate, take notes, and send out an occasional tweet of the incredible thinking going on in the room.  My favorite notes from this session:

• The students know the technology.  Teachers know the content.  Make the connection.
• Technology can build face to face relationships.  When a teacher uses technology to open a student's mind, the student realizes how much that teacher cares about his/her individual learning.  That is a relationship.
• How many people in education have sat down and written what they really believe about education and learning - before writing any lesson plans or choosing any technology.
• Turn "just in case" learning into "just in time" learning.  Technology makes it possible to differentiate for students, making learning personalized.
• The thing that holds up most teachers is exactly the same thing that holds up most students - the fear of change.  Learning is supposed to be uncomfortable.

Google Certified Process - I hope Google opens up a bunch more Google Academies in the future, because I think there will be so many teachers interested in the GCT process.  I was interested in starting this journey prior to attending edcampmke, and now I am really interested.

Students as Content Creators - We must teach students the difference between cheating and collaboration. How many times do you see teachers sitting at lunch with teaching manuals, asking each other how they teach a particular lesson effectively?  That's collaboration - not cheating.  Students need to know the difference and how to collaborate effectively.

EdcampMKE schedule

Apple TV - My love of Apple TV is no surprise to readers of this blog (here and here).  The problem with Apple TV (and Apple even admits it) is that Apple TV is still a niche or hobby interest.  People don't "get" it because it is not as pervasive as other Apple products.  Those of us that "get" Apple TV and use it have to keep talking it up, because it truly is a game changer in education.

App Share - I was not in this session, but I was watching the Google Doc from another session.  Here is the link to it.

Going Google - Our district is about 6 months into Going Google.  It was good to hear the ups and downs from other districts as they make the same transition.  One note I took from this session was about the digital divide that going Google may exacerbate - the students with technology at home will do better with Google Apps, but those without technology at home may become frustrated with themselves and others.

Another note - Edcamps are free for participants and depend on the generosity of volunteers and sponsors.  Many thanks to the volunteers and sponsors of EdcampMke, especially Evernote (I won an Evernote premium gift card!)