Spring has sprung! It is officially the busy season for so many students and parents. Spring showcases, state testing, final projects, and exams all crammed into the same time period that we had during some lazier chill weeks in January. So how do we get it all done? We plan, organize, and enjoy the ride.
Speaking of multi-tasking, after we took the quiz, we started on the first part of our big PBL choreography project that Ballet and Jazz classes will be a part of. Here is a sneak-peek: Music theory kids have created student-composed pieces of music as part of their curriculum. That music was then played in Art classes as the inspiration for the students to create their artwork. That artwork has now been passed to the English department who are currently creating student poetry. That poetry will come to the dancers to create their student choreography projects. Student art and collaboration at it's finest! So, while we had the yoga mats out, the students continued to rotate through different stretches while we did some role reversal to put ourselves into our fellow students shoes and think about their creation process. We downloaded 2 apps: Brushes Redux and Drawing Desk. I then played 1 of the student music pieces. Students then drew/sketched their own digital art. We repeated the process with a 2nd piece of music to show how we don't just draw the same thing, we can be inspired in different ways be different sources.
This 6 weeks, between my 6 (different) classes we will/have been studying anatomy of bones and muscles, injuries, injury prevention, and choreography. If you were to drop in to my classes at anytime in the last few weeks, you may have found students finishing a tap unit; watching an Anatomy presentation; completing choreography exercises; interacting with a Dance Specialist Physical Therapist guest speaker; preparing a Broadway Hairspray dance for the Council of the Arts that will be meeting at Cedar Ridge this coming week; doing a ballet lyrical unit; starting student choreography projects; preparing preschool dance lessons to teach at Gattis Elementary this coming week; preparing a transmedia dance project; creating a social issue inspired polka; preparing and presenting at the Outer Limit Exhibition for Round Rock ISD, an exhibition featuring ways to push the limits with technology; or beginning a huge PLB with Music, Art, English, and Dance...and I was asked to speak at the RRISD Partners in Education Board to share everything that has been happening with my grant this year. Although it is not finished, here is what we have done with the grant so far.
OK....I am tired just typing all of that so you can imagine what it feels like to plan and organize it all. So has technology been able to help me keep it all together?
Our journal questions have stayed consistent in Google Classroom all year. It has helped us keep a routine, and has worked so well, so why change it? For vocab however, I have tried multiple formats for different classes throughout the year. For Anatomy (muscles & bones) vocabulary I wanted to use an app called MindMash that I used for Dance & Media earlier this year. It is an app that looks and functions like the standard Note app, however has additional abilities to draw and add pictures. Students loaded a picture of a skeleton that I posted in Google Classroom and the instructions included adding the words we learned and dragging it to the correct location. It started out ok on day 1, but by the 2nd class we encountered some trouble. My students and I have had open communication regarding technology this year as we explore it together. And I am completely comfortable admitting defeat. I have no need to hold in to something and pretend I am right to struggle through something just to try to save face. MindMash, did not work for our purpose because we had trouble with resizing the picture and losing control of the layers of text. Text would go behind the picture and not move back to the top, and we had trouble selecting text to move without moving the picture as well. So on day 2 we stopped and moved on. Examples from day 1 below...
OK....I am tired just typing all of that so you can imagine what it feels like to plan and organize it all. So has technology been able to help me keep it all together?
Our journal questions have stayed consistent in Google Classroom all year. It has helped us keep a routine, and has worked so well, so why change it? For vocab however, I have tried multiple formats for different classes throughout the year. For Anatomy (muscles & bones) vocabulary I wanted to use an app called MindMash that I used for Dance & Media earlier this year. It is an app that looks and functions like the standard Note app, however has additional abilities to draw and add pictures. Students loaded a picture of a skeleton that I posted in Google Classroom and the instructions included adding the words we learned and dragging it to the correct location. It started out ok on day 1, but by the 2nd class we encountered some trouble. My students and I have had open communication regarding technology this year as we explore it together. And I am completely comfortable admitting defeat. I have no need to hold in to something and pretend I am right to struggle through something just to try to save face. MindMash, did not work for our purpose because we had trouble with resizing the picture and losing control of the layers of text. Text would go behind the picture and not move back to the top, and we had trouble selecting text to move without moving the picture as well. So on day 2 we stopped and moved on. Examples from day 1 below...
So, on Day 3, we completed learning the bone vocabulary through our daily Google Slide. Then we opened an app called...ready for it...Enjoy Learning Anatomy Model Puzzle, that's a mouthful. But they have fun puzzle quizzes that time your ability to place the bones in their correct location. The students had fun seeing who could complete it first. The plan is to use that app as a daily practice to keep everything fresh before exams. That is something that did not happen before I used technology. I know the students will get more competitive with their times :) I am still on the search for the appropriate Muscle app for us. With 650-some muscles in the body, and we only have the students learn about 15 muscles, most of the apps are to involved for us to use. I will keep you updated.
My Ballet 1-3 class used their PIE Grant yoga mats to sit in stretch positions WHILE completing the quiz a few times, trying to better their first time. Why not multi-task?!
Speaking of multi-tasking, after we took the quiz, we started on the first part of our big PBL choreography project that Ballet and Jazz classes will be a part of. Here is a sneak-peek: Music theory kids have created student-composed pieces of music as part of their curriculum. That music was then played in Art classes as the inspiration for the students to create their artwork. That artwork has now been passed to the English department who are currently creating student poetry. That poetry will come to the dancers to create their student choreography projects. Student art and collaboration at it's finest! So, while we had the yoga mats out, the students continued to rotate through different stretches while we did some role reversal to put ourselves into our fellow students shoes and think about their creation process. We downloaded 2 apps: Brushes Redux and Drawing Desk. I then played 1 of the student music pieces. Students then drew/sketched their own digital art. We repeated the process with a 2nd piece of music to show how we don't just draw the same thing, we can be inspired in different ways be different sources.
Here are some of the results. Jazz and Ballet 4 will be completing the same exercise this week. We are NOT trained in art but I was so excited at how they came out and the students really enjoyed the activity!
And on a short easy note, my Ballet 4 class and Dance & Media classes used Google Docs to plan their upcoming projects (Elementary Creative Dance and Transmedia, respectively). It is such a great way to all be able to view and add to the brainstorming process.
I just returned from a trip, and Dance & Media has always been the hardest course to write sub notes for as their curriculum is not common to neither dance or regular subs and the material is so complex. I run every class with a Google Slide that students can access on our collaborative class Google Folder. My co-workers were able to allow the students to still have access to their iPads and these amazing students used my Slides to lead themselves through the daily lesson and share on our Google+ community. What was even better than their student initiative? I was 2 time zones away enjoying my breakfast and was able to see what they were posting, comment back to them and "wave" at one another through technology. It was amazing being a virtual teacher!
And as if they didn't impress me enough with that, while I was gone the Outer Limits Exhibition was taking place at Cedar Ridge and we had been asked to be a part of it. Never backing away from a chance to show off my amazing students, some amazing student leaders from both Dance & Media, Ballet, and Jazz and I all planned and created a mock set-up for the event. I had no doubts in my mind that it would be amazing! The pictures are just a small amount of the evidence of how truly great they were! Check back this week and I can add some more results from the event.
Our set up included 2 laptops playing YouTube playlists of student work; a green screen to take pictures to edit in Photo Knockout while projected on a screen; photography backdrop and photo lights to make instant dance videos in Replay, Animoto, and InstaVid. Visitors with a iPhone could have the results Airdropped back to them. Words cannot express how cool these cats are to me!
On a final note, I had a wonderful gift waiting in my mailbox today of the upcoming May/June issue of Dance Studio Life magazine. Inside is the article that I was interviewed for regarding technology and dance. Although it was a small mention in the article, she was able to make a more interactive web version that adds an additional statement and a link to this blog.
After this interview I was asked to write my own article (on another topic) and it is in the editing stage for the July issue and have an interview set up for a 3rd article piece.
Thank you for everyone who has supported what I do, making all of this possible!
And hopefully the articles come out clear with how easy it would be to have a mind full of mush after how busy life has been!
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