The thirty years of composer project my students have been learning the history of a specific composer. Five years ago, instead of learning facts, I moved the students to CREATE. They created a thirty-second multi-media projects using the music of a specific composer. To my amazement, the students learned more about the composer than just learning facts. They learned about ALL the music EVERYONE else was using for their individual projects. Because the music was the focus of the project, they were driven to learn more about the composer.

Students create and compose more in music today because the technology has taken us there. Having Sibelius or Finale in the lab, or with looping software such as GarageBand, pushes the teacher to create instead of learning facts. The creative side takes over. Anyone can google the facts of the composer, not everyone can create a meaningful project using the composer’s music.

The fifth graders at Sunset Ridge have just finished the first part of their composer videos. Now comes the commenting and the validation of their projects they created. Some chose to learn facts, others saw it as an opportunity to create amazing projects with with music by using video, iStop Motion, Flash, and Keynote/Powerpoint. They chose the tools to create their project, they chose the thirty-seconds to create, and some even chose to learn the music of their composer. Because the music was the driving force, students were inspired to learn how to play the music of their composer, to learn more about other works the composer composed. The depth of knowledge amazed me as well as how much retention they will have over the years, by making the music central in the project.

So, to new music educators out there, or to those who have taught a long time, remember it is about the creative process, not the facts you know. For anyone can learn facts, not everyone can create and compose. If you put creativity and composition as a central part of your curriculum, the students will feel like many of my students feel “It’s the best place in the school, I can create and express myself.”

Click here for the Composer Project 2011 at Sunset Ridge School.

Leslie Fisher

• www.lesliefisher.com
• I had never seen her present in person, this was an experience. She is amazing. Of course her complete presentation is online. www.lesliefisher.com > handouts > (I agree) > iPhone / iPod Touch Application Support Group
• The coolest thing was the vast levels of techieness. She was able to keep me engaged and not overwhelm the newbies. Her web resources are incredible. I am going to spend MLK day just to go through all her stuff. It is great to see a female techie in action, yippee!
• Take-away evernote I have this installed on my laptop, but never really used it. Just reactivated my account and will download the app on my iPhone. I plan on putting all my presentations on there, along with other really important stuff.

Meg Ormiston

• http://megormi.wikispaces.com/google
• I adore Meg, her energy and passion to learn creates an environment of collaboration within her presentation. She gave her TOP 10 LIST. I really enjoyed how she made her audience part of the presentation.
• Take-away goog-411 I had completely forgotten about his cool google feature. Call 1-800-4664-411,  give them your location, and what you are looking for, they give you the information.

Rushton Hurley

• http://sites.google.com/site/freetoolsoutthewazoo/
• He gave an outstanding preso as well. Being a google-certified teacher, he had the audience of 300 engaged and wanting more.
• Take-away He runs a non-for-profit http://www.nextvista.org/ and I encourage all of you to sign up for his newsletter as well. http://www.nextvista.org/contact/

Time for the vendors and lunch with two newbies from my school and discussed the conference and their excitement to try new things. Yippeee! I then made a mad dash to the tweet-up at TGIFridays and met up with my PLN. Guess what – won a t-shirt! Caught a rickshaw back to my hotel to do some final tweaking of my presentation tomorrow.

Carol Broos

• http://musictechie.pbworks.com/Collaborative-Composer-Project
• I had a Skype call from Brenda Muench, who is part of this project. We talked about how we met at a conference where I was presenting on Podcasting. After the conference, she sent me some of her podcasting links from her students, since then we have become best friends. I emphasize that in order to have a successful collaboration, you have to get along with the people first, then work on the curriculum.
• Take-away “If you can google it, you don’t need to memorize it.” Have students make projects in music, not learning facts about music. I loved connecting with fellow music teachers, there aren’t many of us that are music innovators. I added a few more to my PLN.

Just Connecting…

• Another person I had never met in person was David Fisher, out of Palm Beach, Florida we had done a collaboration on the Lincoln Project last year with his fifth graders and my fifth graders. http://lincoln212.pbworks.com/ He was presenting at the same time with Lee Korbert on VoiceThread, but we manage to carve out time to talk about a new collaboration with his kindergartners and my fifth graders.

Getting Others Involved…

• I had the other teachers from my group go to the VoiceThread presentation with David and Lee (The school already has purchased the VoiceThread accounts and I have set-up all 200 accounts, with avatars) The fourth grade teachers finally saw how cool it was. Even though I have been pushing VoiceThread for over a year, when someone OUTSIDE the school talks or presents, they think it is cool.
• I also set them to see Steve Dembo, he was doing a “Newbie” session. One teacher was texting me through the presentation how cool this was and FINALLY she understood what web 2.0 is and wants to move ahead in technology! Thanks Steve!!!
• It was a wonderful conference, now the work begins with the new apps, programs, and material that gleamed from FETC.

There are always three parts to a presentation I give:

• Keynote (PowerPoint, with movies and introductions) Posted on slideshare as well.
• Google Doc Presentation of web 2.0 examples
• Internet surfing of technologies such as plurk, twitter, and possible skype calls

I always try to leave at least ten minutes for questions. I am also experimenting with polleverywhere.com so they can use their cell phones for polling. I have never had the opportunity to use this since my students are in middle school and cell connection is extremely poor, so testing this out with my group.

Hopefully, I will motivate you to create and share with your PLN (Personal Learning Network) technologies you find interesting to use. Walk to the talk and share!

Lazertron.net

I took thirteen students grades fourth through seventh grade to present and “wow” the audience. They were amazing and they loved being with “their” people. I told them to bring their favorite “tech toys” such as iPod, iTouch, and Phone, so in-between sessions they could “tech” away the time. These students are the brightness and the innovative students at Sunset Ridge School in Northfield. The stretch each other to discuss and discover new technologies and new programs.

The Car Ride

We arrived at school at 7:45 and realized that the bus we ordered did not arrive. We got into three cars and using our Garmin set off for St. Charles. Arriving thirty minutes before our session, we were in full stress mode. The first session was “iPods and iTouches” in the classroom. The room was overflowing. The students seamlessly talked about how we use iPods (bought by a Best Buy award) for each student to use at school personally buy classroom use and the use of iTouches. Using our new Elmo, they demonstrated how they personally use the iTouch. The final presentation was flying Jets in Google Earth. The two fourth graders landed safely using the flight simulator in Frankfurt, Germany.

Vendors….Way Cool!

Boys at a vendor booth, testing equipment

We immediately went to the vendors. FREE STUFF. They all got bags and went looking for those wonderful GDW mouses. The students got to “play” with the new technologies and see what future classrooms will have in terms of technology. They all got bags to carry their “stuff.” I loved how the group of 12 boys and a girl took to the adult-centered techology conference and asked interesting questions. That is exactly what I am currently working on with my students, they should be ssking in-depth questions that offer more questions! I am currently reading the “The Global Achievement Gap” by Tony Wagner. It offers an interesting problem in todays world employers want people who “ask” the right questions.

Lunch, On!

We ate lunch in the PLN area. The Personal Learning Network, which is a community of “techies’ that learn virtually online. I know many of these ppl f2f. But, come like Lee Korbert, (teachakidd) in Palm Beach, Florida, I only know online or skyping. Currently the fifth grade students are completing a Lincoln Project with David Fisher’s fifth grade class in Palm Beach and she is the person who helps set this up.

Henry “played” with my computer using quartz composer and the Promethean Board. It is like watching Picasso play with crayons. He amazes me every time he plays and creates. I even set up a separate account on my personal computer in order to download and get programs for him to use at school.

Sitting and Teching Before Our Session

The boys playing before their presentation

Before our Lazertron session, we had fifteen minutes to “kill,” so we went to the presenters’ room to relax and tech away. Many of the pictures are from that experience. They all love sharing and asking questions. The parents were impressed on how well the group all got along. These are students that normally do not see each other all day, since they are across four grade levels.

Lazertron.net

We used the school computer as well as my personal computer to present. We needed “boot” camp on the school computer to show the windows games that frostsabergames was presenting. A bit of stress what that the windows side was not reading the projector. We got it to work, but one could not see the screen on the computer and the powerpoint would not run. No fear. We presented each slide separately and looked at the screen to point the mouse. The lazertron students used my laptop and all was well.

And We’re Off…Well, Almost

The bus did come and get us at 1:30. Three parents were picking up students; three students were staying with me, and five on the bus. We rode the bus over to my car in another parking lot. But the problem was the pickup. You see the bus had enough room to get to the entrance, but not enough to get out of the parking lot. There were so many cars parked around this way and that, it took us thirty minutes to drive around and back up, drive and backup. It was a group effort with the students and parents just to get out of the main parking lot.

Gaming, Awards, and Rain

Carol Broos and Brenda Muench, Larry Stiglebauer Technology Award

I had three students that were staying through to help with the awards ceremony, plus I wanted them to see one presentation about gaming in the classroom. These students are quite tech savvy. The enjoyed the presentation and later they even downloaded the game that was presented. We set off for the Larry Stiglebauer awards, where Sunset Ridge fifth graders won for the Composer Collaborative with Gilman Elementary School. Mrs. Muench is their music teacher and a wonderful music techie, so I got to spend some time with her and her other teachers from Gilman. We quickly ate dinner and set off for home. The rain was so bad on the way home that we delighted in seeing all the “rivers” and “ponds.” In true junior high boys, we had to make a McDonald’s stop for just a “snack.” I finally dropped the boys off around 8:45 and headed home, arriving around 9:30.

In Conclusion

I had left for work at 6:15 in the morning and finally got home at 9:30,  it was worth it. The students had an incredible time and so did it. We are discussing what we should present next year, some of the topics include: building your own website and Google Earth. But, in the world of technology there might be something out there that isn’t invented yet and we would present that. Off to bed – pod29 is at 7:00am and I have to leave home at 6:15am…techie kids never sleep, that includes me!

Brenda Muench, John Heath, and Carol Broos

It started out like a bang; Brenda Muench was presented the “Mary Hoffman” award for excellence, basically IMEA – “Music Teacher of the Year.” Brenda and I are collaborating together with the Composer Collaborative, she has taught me so much. Last year I met John Heath, IMEA-President-Elect, he is amazing and his jest for life is so engaging.

On Friday, I presented “Be A Techie is an Hour.” It was extremely fast-paced and I know that people came away with their heads spinning. I had a least four people that are now following me on twitter/plurk or Facebook. So, some shift is happening.

We had a small roundtable concerning the state of music and it’s future at IMEA. There is a school district those blocks ANYTHING with the word “music.” Imagine the outrage if schools blocked “science” or “reading.” It would be the top of the news. Even in the more restrictive societies, music is not blocked. Being blocked at schools is the one of the major problems facing education today. That was one of the saddest moments at the convention.

Carol after eating the chocolate cake

Brenda and Carol ready to dig into chocolate cake

We always go to a wonderful fish restaurant.Brenda and I shared a delicious piece of chocolate cake, by seeing these pictures you can see I really enjoyed the moment. My favorite concert is the Friday night Jazz concert, which this year had special meaning. Two of my old advisees were performing; one made the All-State Honors Vocal Jazz Ensemble, the other the All-State Honors Jazz Ensemble, first chair trumpet. They both had solos and performed beautifully. I loved talking to them after the concert. They are both highly talented students in junior high, and surprise, took piano lessons at a young age.

Saturday, my presentation was at 8:00, “Music 2.0: Create. Share, Post, and Comment.” This is my favorite presentation because I show student files that have been posted, along with comments. The teachers wanted to know about “Hooked on Classics.” So, I posted the names of the songs on my musictechie.pbwiki.com site.

I always come away from IMEA happy I went and I am charged for the rest of the year. It was a magnificent conference.

She had all her students listen to podcasts concerning classical composers on Classics for Kids. They then created a classroom voicethread, having one of the facts incorrect. My students have to find the incorrect facts and with using voicethread, comment as to what the answer is.

Additionally, my students selected a composition from “Hooked on Classics.” They then edited the music down to thirty seconds, since that is the only legal way you can use copyrighted music. They created any type of multi-media project using those thirty seconds. The varies mediums were: claymation, legos, pictures around the school, movies, etc. It is highly impressive as to what the final project the fifth graders created within class. Plus, they LOVE this project. Here are the finished movies.

I can’t wait to see how much the students will collaborate with the new site. So many of my students are digital students so, understanding the basic features of a wiki and formatting will be easy to teach. Of course, the more I personalize it the better. Sunset Ridge has gone WIKI!