Monday, May 6, 2013

Final Project

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AverQgXi7bnLdDBWWHNtLXg3THVzU1VtR3p2TkpmdEE&usp=sharing

I used a lesson plan that we worked on last semester in the English Language Learners class on teaching students how to read notes on the treble clef staff and associating them with the proper pitches. To start off this lesson, students need to be familiar with the pitches. They need to know what they sound like and how to reproduce these sounds. Since they are used in music we hear every day, this is actually easier than it seems. Once they are familiar with the pitches, the next step is to teach them what a staff and treble clef are. Then the notes are taught. I use the color method for younger students. The color method is when you give one color with each note. For example, A is Red for Apple, and G is Green for Grinch.

In the first row, the standard I used says that students will be able to identify sound sources, such as rhythmic patterns, and notes. Technology can be very helpful in achieving this standard. Students should be able to utilize the technology available to them, which would mainly be a keyboard with a MIDI adapter. After teaching them the notes, the students would work in groups at a keyboard, press a note, be able to hear the pitch, as well as see it on the staff because of Sibelius. Sibelius writes down whatever notes you play on a keyboard as long as it is hooked up through a MIDI cable.

The next row covers the standard in which students will demonstrate their understanding of these basic concepts of rhythm (which they already know), and pitch. In this lesson they will use technology to create their own short pieces. The teacher would first review using a smart board and having the students color in the proper notes. Then he would demonstrate what they are going to be doing. In groups the students will use the MIDI keyboard and Sibelius to record their short melody. By doing this, they will be able to get the idea they have in their head and write it down. This teaches them how to do that, eventually without the help of Sibelius.

The next 2 standards go hand in hand with each other. One says that students will be able to clap and sing what they read on a treble clef staff. The other standard says that they will be able to sing with proper vocal production for their age. This will be demonstrated when they sing the exercises. This lesson will start off by the students singing and clapping rhythms and melodies that the teacher plays for them. It is a call and response in which they copy the teacher. Then he would put up an excerpt on the projector and the students would perform it. Another activity that can be done is to work in groups and sing and clap excerpts into smart music which records what you sang and tells the student where the mistakes were.

There are many different ways interactive technologies can be used in this lesson. The most important one is the computer because everything is run through that. a MIDI microphone and keyboard are a really effective way of showing students how the sound they are producing translates onto paper. Smartboards allow the whole class to be able to see the correct answer written on the board instead of just hearing it because sometimes, a student may miss it, or you very well have many students who learn much better visually than aurally. These visual aids help them a lot. Smartmusic is an overall amazing tool for a music classroom because it does the job of the teacher for each individual student when the teacher cannot do that because of how many students in the class. It records, shows, and corrects everything you sing or play and tells you why it was wrong or right. 

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Interactiviy 5

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AverQgXi7bnLdFNGYkluWjA3QXVFN2lYZk5pMTgzTUE&usp=sharing


The teacher I interviewed teaches in a lower-middle class high school in northern New Jersey. She is the band director and teaches band as well as general music classes and other after school ensembles. When I first asked her if she knew what the NETS standards were, she looked puzzled. Then after I told her they were the technology standards, she knew what they were. However, she does not know about the specifics. She knows that they require the school to integrate more technologies into everyday lessons in conjunction with the NJ standards but did not know what they entailed. When I asked her if her school had begun to implement these new standards, she said yes, although very hesitantly. She said they are trying but running into many road blocks. She does not think the whole district has begun to implement them, however; only at the middle and high schools. When asked if our state has begun to implement the new standards, she said yes but also added that she did not know how effectively they were doing it.
In her school, the main way they are implementing these standards is by providing every student with an iPad to use in class and at home. The teachers now incorporate these iPads into their everyday lessons as much as they know how.  The challenges they are facing are that the teachers do not know all of the apps available to them and how to use them so they need to be taught this and become more comfortable with the technology. Also, funding is a very large problem. They had the money to buy the iPads and now do not have enough because of miscalculations and other unforeseen circumstances.
I was not at all surprised by the teacher’s answers. I actually did not expect her to know what they were completely. I did assume that she would at least know about them, which she did. As a future educator, I would speak to others mainly about how we can integrate this standards and technology smoothly instead of it feeling like an add on. Also, what other ways can we incorporate technology other than just piads, computers, or smart boards. Students use computers and tablets at home all the time anyway. We give them assignments that they use these things to complete. How are we truly integrating technology if we’re just having them use the iPads or computers to take note on or finish assignments? We need to dwell deeper than the obvious use of the technologies and then bring them into the classroom.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Music Apps

Music Apps for your phone and tablet are very useful and advancing every day. We no longer need to carry around a tuner or a metronome because there are apps on our phones for that and they work really well. Anytime I'm practicing or rehearsing and need a pitch or a tempo, I just pull out my phone and have it right there. There are also apps that teach you how to play piano and guitar. These can be very helpful to learn the basics on the go. It is more efficient than taking the time to use a book or get lessons. It is a good starting tool. Also, there are apps like shazam which tell you what song you are listening you, who it is by, and who is performing it just by putting your phone near the speaker. This is very helpful when you don't know what you are listening to but like it and would like to get it later. Additionally, there are other apps that are very helpful for teaching. They make apps that have fingering charts for all the instruments, apps for music theory practice, and apps that emulate the sound of certain instruments. These can all be good homework ideas or just practice tools. Additionally, there are apps that to record yourself speaking or performing, and they might not be the best quality, but they will be a good reference to hear yourself playing. Lastly, there are apps that allow you to splice and alter tracks right on your phone and save it as an excerpt or share it. 

Interactivity 4

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AverQgXi7bnLdFNGYkluWjA3QXVFN2lYZk5pMTgzTUE&usp=sharing

I chose this lesson because it integrated technology more than any of the other lessons I found. Usually music lessons just use a projector or a smart board for visual aids; They don't actually integrate technology. This lesson had students use the technology themselves. By using a projector, the visual aid was there but they also used a computer and Sibelius, which is a music notation program. This lesson plan met part of the standard. The standard incorporated many different parts of music like harmonic structure and meter, but this only covered rhythm. This isn't a problem, however because all of these concepts cannot be taught in one lesson. Rhythm would be the first of these that you would teach. I do think the lesson could have gone farther to cover meter in this lesson as well and just added an extra day to it. I don't believe these technologies are essential to this standard but they are incredibly helpful. Students could receive handouts and they could hand write their compositions out on manuscript paper but the technology make it a lot more efficient. Also, by using Sibelius, they get to hear their composition before the whole class plays it. They are also learning how to use a computer while doing this, so they are learning more than one thing in one lesson.

Monday, March 25, 2013

Interactivity #3

For this interactivity, all of the music students in the class got together and created a spreadsheet with as many music related technologies that we could find. Through this we really learned how to use Google spreadsheet and how everyone could contribute without actually being in the same room.Additionally, one person did not have to put the whole thing together. After we created the categories that we found to be the most important, I found it difficult to put some of the technologies I found into just one category. Some of them fit into more than one category so I picked the one it could be most useful in. This activity gave me many more options of technologies I didn't know about and didn't realize could be used in a music classroom, especially because I was only thinking of electronics at first. As a percussionist, I should know different Rhythm technologies but I did not and this introduce me to many other options out there. Also, I learned about useful technologies for other instruments that I am not as familiar with yet, like strings. Often when you think of technologies for a music classroom, the only ones that come to mind are a smartboard and computer programs, but there really are so many more that we overlook. This is a great list for us all to have when we are out teaching.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Interactivity 2

"Smart music" is a software that allows students to practice efficiently on their own by playing into a microphone and getting feedback and errors from the computer.

Friday, February 22, 2013

About me


     My name is Ayden Michael Khan and I am a junior at Montclair State University.
I am a music education major with a concentration in percussion. I’m a percussionist by
trade but also double on low brass instruments. If I hadn’t discovered my love for music
and teaching in high school, I am not sure what I would be doing right now. That passion
has only grown since through college. I work with a high school marching band, teaching
and coaching their drum line over the summer and in the fall and teach their percussion
ensemble in the winters and springs. Additionally, I teach private percussion lessons and
work with an ensemble made up of students aged eight to fifteen. After I graduate,
ideally, I see myself teaching high school or middle school instrumental music.
     In general, I am quite comfortable with technology. I have no problem utilizing it
for whatever task I am given. I am generally someone people ask to show them how to
use programs on their computer or to fix their computer or help with projector issues in
class. I’d like to be able to learn more interactive ways to use a smart board in class,
especially with music. In high school only one of my classes used a smart board but it
was only utilized as a chalk board. I know that there are more, creative, ways to utilize
one and would like to learn about them.