Finished one more class!

Today I am very excited because I just finished all my work for Learning Strategies! Our Global project is complete! A very funny thing happened. Carolyn kept confusing Sweden with Switzerland. She put some strange fish food into the food area of our infographic and linked it with Swedish food.  I was thoroughly confused when I saw this fish dish as I have been to Switzerland about 20 times and never saw it and then I realized, she was thinking Sweden! Very funny actually.
So in summary, I learned a lot in this class. Not only did I learn about the different learning styles but also figured out some new technology programs in the process.
Weebly was a success and I'm happy that it worked for others in the class. I just stumbled upon it and decided I was going to take on the challenge of learning the program. I had looked at the google examples that other classes had done and wasn't thrilled. I tried on Google for a short time but didn't find it user friendly. So I began hunting for another program where I could display my portfolio.
One thing I would prefered is to have had Web design first and also to have been instructed on how to start a portfolio so that everything was going onto it from the first class. I have scrounged up much of the information from two of the classes but still need to work on finding some projects from others buried in my computer, on websites and on YouTube.
I also decided to tackle Piktochart.com. I thought this program was difficult at first but after about twenty hours of playing around on it, I started to figure it out. I did end up paying $30 to be able to do what I wanted to do for the project but considering that I am only paying about $200 out of my pocket for these classes, I don't think that's asking too much! I hope you like our infographics! I think I easily spent 30-40 hours just playing around on it! I don't know for sure if you wanted us to do a personal infographic but I did just to be safe. It was fun making it, even if it wasn't something we had to do.
Thanks for all your guidance and teaching on yet another successful class!

http://jenniferhodgson.weebly.com/

Piktochart/Global communications

Today I'm tackling piktochart for our info graphic! It's SOMEWHAT user friendly but seemingly the easiest one I could find. In searching, I looked at about 10-15 different infographic websites and signed up for each one of them. I ended up going back to the one I started with and that is Piktochart. It seems to have the most options. I opted for the blank slate but it is very time consuming. All and all though, this global project has been interesting. Here are some of the comments from our global partner on our topics…..

From Johanna - (Swiss contact)

"The school I teach at has about 250 kids, aged 12 - 16. At the moment we do not have any drama classes (we might do it as a project once for a week or so with individual classes), no additional music classes (there have been bands as far as I know), we don't have a choir or orchestra. Marching bands are not really known in Switzerland. The only extra activities we offer are some sports classes, and one in art, crafts and cooking classes. There's also a class where they can make their own jewelery. I think the fact, that students live very close to school (usually 5 - 10 minutes walk) makes it less necessary for school to offer all of it. A lot of students take music classes, do sports etc after school arranged by out of school organisations and in different locations. So generally they go home after school in the afternoons and then continue their activities from there. I don't really understand what is meant by community?

If you go to the gymnasium (the school that will take you to university) it is a bit different. Usually there is one gymnasium for a bigger region, so kids come from further away. The gymnasium I went to had a wide offer of after school activities. I played piano in the orchestra we had, my class was part of a choire, there were several arts clubs and a fantastic offer in sports. Very often we had concerts or performances (like with all the dance classes that were offered). "

I find it interesting that they have so little exposure to the arts yet are so much more appreciative than your average American of music and concerts. It seems when we set up for concerts in these small villages/towns, most of the town comes out to see us…a group of American teenagers. I guess we are also inundated with sports and other activities that take away from the arts these days. We have several movie theaters, pools, activities offered on a constant basis where I believe in a smaller town, there is less offered. I suppose this is why they still seem so appreciative of our concerts. 

                                          Outdoor concert

Global project

Been trying to facetime with my global project partner in Switzerland and it's not that easy! With the 6 hour time change, trying to line up our schedules has been challenging so we are going to try again tomorrow. We already have once but have been trying to again. Most of our communication has been through e-mail but I must say it is eye-opening learning about their lifestyle verses ours. Although I am well traveled and fairly knowledgeable about the differences in cultures, it is very fascinating to hear it in her terms. Johnanna is an english teacher in a very small school near Zurich, Switzerland. Her mother is my husbands fathers cousin. We have met on several Hodgson family reunions and became quite close on one of them when we went on a cruise to the Bahamas. Neither of us have children and most of the rest of the family had small kids so it was nice to having someone to hang out with when we did girl things like go to the spa or get our nails done. So, it has been really nice having this oppurtunity to connect with her again and find out more about her way of life. Her school has only 250 students from ages 12-16! Our high school is closer to 2,400 and another 1,200 in the middle school! I can't imagine such a small community. OH- and I asked her if they had sports and music in school or if it was done in the community. She didn't understand what I meant by community, which I think was really cute. Turns out they do have some offerings but not nearly on the level that we have in a large public Amercian school. I'm not sure I would have a job in Switzerland, which is sad because I wouldn't mind living there one day!

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND

Cognitive load

So tonight in class we talked about cognitive load and I realized that this is so very important for teachers to understand! This is 100% why I wasn't good at math in high school. My teachers would throw so much information at me at one time and I wasn't successful but then when I had one on one help that went at my pace, I did fine.

I was always given too much information to process at one time. I try to make sure I teach in chunks, especially when teaching kids how to read and count music. I try to think very carefully about how much information to teach in one lesson, especially when teaching a younger student. Too much information at one time can overload a student. I also liked the ideas of the color coding of information and having some ideas to remember like, "supplementary" starts with an "S" and means "straight." I use things like that all the time when teaching music as well as mnemonic devices such as "every good boy does fine" for the lines of the treble clef and sayings like, "I don't particular like modes after lunch" for the order of the modes, or "funny clowns give diseases after eating bugs" for the order of the sharps.

WHAT A WEEK!

WHEW! What a week! Jazz band rehearsals, musical rehearsals, four outstanding performances of,  "The Boy Friend," where I got to play clarinet and alto sax, a South Jersey Band concert in Middle Twp.,  a touch of the flu for two days, and Carolyn and I did our presentation for class.  Busy week! I enjoyed it thoroughly but am ready for spring break where I will head off to Arizona for five days. I was very happy to get today off to try to get caught up on life! Things like wash, food shopping, cleaning, washing the dogs, lesson plans and homework. All in all though, life is good and I have no complaints. Off to the next venture - Jazz band festival where we will be hosting nine bands on Friday. Off to work on the program for that now.

     

New skills

Week three and Carolyn and I have been working hard to get our presentation done early and done well! We really make a good pair because we each have different skills yet think along the same lines when it comes to planning and implementing them. I'm glad we've decided to go early and get the most stressful assignement of the semester done. In doing this project I have learned how to use weebly, have gotten better at making a prezi, and am learning how to use iMovie. These are are skills that I think will be useful to me in the future and not just for this class and that is really what is most important to me right now. Looking forward to teaching our lesson on Tuesday and hopefully Amy won't be the class clown with the recorder like she was with the drawings! : )

Face to face classes vrs. taking class from home

Face to face classes vrs. taking class from home

I have been thinking a lot about the Bb collaborate learning verses face to face learning in class tonight and although I really enjoy the classes in my pajamas and in my bed, I think that I feel more focused and believe that I learn more when I am in a face to face learning environment. I also believe I am more likely to ask questions when we are all together in the classroom. Living 45 minutes south of here, I always think that I would prefer to go home and get comfy so that when class is over I am home and do not still have my long drive. However, in our last class with Jung Lee, she had us attend all classes and I really enjoyed learning in that style. Today I was going to go home but luckily I checked in to see if we should come to class and boy was I lucky I did! I think I would be totally lost if I tried to attend this first class on Bb Collaborate. I also enjoy the learning the personalities of the different instructors and you don't really get that when you take class at home. With that being said, I'm sure I will still take some classes from home, especially when we are watching presentations, but I have come to the conclusion that I like the face to face classes over the at home learning.
The only down side is that Amy is seemingly getting sick and hopefully now that we all just spent four hours in a room with her, we won't get sick too!!! : )

Class from home!