Creating an Online Course
Wow! What a week! I was privileged to attend the annual summer music convention in San Antonio, TX. It was great to see all of the new products available in the world of music education and hear presentations from the best of the best. It has really gotten me focused on getting ready to begin the new year.
I spent most of the day Saturday working on finding adding my recorder resources to Schoology while sitting at a table in a very loud and busy exhibit hall. Talk about cognitive overload! It took me so much longer to get small projects done. Every time somebody walked by or some high school kid would play the drum that was right across the aisle from me and I'd stop working to take a look. This week I watched a fabulous video about overloading our brains to the point that they cannot properly learn. Darren McNelis shares his story about his struggles in school and how eventually figured out his main problem with learning was that his mind was that he had "working memory overload." I highly recommend this video to everyone. It describes me in more ways that I'd like to admit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0ztO86ImQg
This week for grad school, I was asked to upload the resources that I would need for the online portion of my recorder course. This is not an easy task. Before adding resources to Schoology, I needed to decide exactly what was going into the online portion of my music class and figure out how to use Schoology itself. Thankfully before school let out in the spring, I had registered for an online course through my district that was being taught with Schoology all about Schoology. 🤪 I call that awesome timing!!
I am still working out the design aspects of my course, but I think I am off to a solid start. I have organized my sessions into folders and added the needed videos and information to their respective folders. It doesn't look nice and it is definitely not bright and colorful, but that will come. I discovered that there are more than one way to display resources in Schoology and I did not add my resources in a way that will be user friendly in the end. I am definitely going to have to change moving forward.
This week, I also looked into the desired results that I'd like to see from my course. On the surface, I want to see my learners make progress in reading music from the staff and learn to play the recorder. But, what are the deeper, and more meaningful outcomes that I hope my learners leave my class with? For the answer, I turned to our district curriculum documents.
Coppell ISD Desired Results: 4th Grade Music
Overarching Transfer Goals:
Students will independently use their learning to…
OATG1: appreciate and evaluate the arts
OATG2: create or perform creative works of art
OATG3: recognize historical and cultural influence and impact of the arts on the global community and apply their understanding of these relationships
OATG4: recognize and demonstrate the importance of collaboration in the arts
Meaning:
Overarching Enduring Understanding(s) Students will understand that . . .
OAEU1: arts literacy is essential to perspective and the evaluation of the arts
OAEU2: arts literacy is essential to creation of an impactful artistic expression
OAEU3: the arts have a reciprocal relationship with a community and culture
OAEU4: empathy and collaboration add value to the arts and life
Overarching Essential Question(s)
OAEQ1: Why and how do people create art?
How are the arts analyzed and understood?
OAEQ2: How can I produce innovative art independently or in a group?
OAEQ3: How does the arts reflect as well as shape history and culture?
OAEQ4: What is the value of collaboration in the arts?
Acquisition of Knowledge and Skills:
Students will know
Students will know the duration of dotted half notes, eighth/sixteenths note combinations and separated eighth notes.
Students will know that music comes from various periods or times in history and diverse cultures.
Students will exhibit proper audience ettiquite, during live and recorded performances.
Students will know and recognize the difference between staccato and legato.
Students will know good vocal health practices.
Students will know the difference between gross motor, fine motor, locomotor, and non-locomotor skills.
Students will be skilled at
Student can read 8-beat rhythm patterns that include dotted half notes, eighth/sixteenths note combinations, including separated eighth notes.
Students can sing melodic patterns with accurate intonation and rhythm.
Students perform various types of part-work.
Students can perform a various folk dance and play parties.
Students can perform a varied repertoire of American and Texas folk songs, and folk songs representative of local cultures.
Students can justify musical preferences using musical vocabulary.
Students can recognize known rhythmic and melodic elements in musical examples using appropriate vocabulary.
You will notice that the overarching goals and essential questions are focused on the arts in general and are not very specific in nature. Our desire as arts educators was for our children to love the arts and connect with the arts in ways that will keep them involved (as a participant or audience member) for the rest of their lives. Yes, we do have TEKS that must get taught, but in our very limited time with the kids, we also determined what high priority learning standards must be taught in order to be successful musicians if they choose to continue their studies beyond their time with us. We call it this our 40 year plan. We understand that most of our learners are not going to continue studying music past middle school or high school, but we want them to appreciate music and have the education to discuss music if the occasion arises. I often tell my learners that I want them to be able to sing or play a lullaby to their babies someday.
I am very excited to see where adding an online portion of my music class could take my learners. If I design the sessions properly, I can see if being extremely beneficial to my students. But if it is confusing or not designed well, I can see it being ignored completely and progress coming to complete hault. I have made mistakes in design in the past, and am really trying to work through this course using all the techniques we have read, watched, and discussed over the last two weeks.