Posts

Video Presentation with Google Slides

 Video has never been easier to make!  It's amazing how much can be done, and so simply. However I wasn't able to upload the background music of the lesson I narrated. Unfortunately the laptop I have doesn't have Audacity installed, and the audio of my narration wasn't nearly loud enough to compete with the music. Here's my first ever Google Slide Presentation!

Creating and Uploading my first Podcast

 Well,  Generating ideas and content has never been difficult for me. But implementation - to create and upload the ideas I had for a podcast on composition, in this case - proved more than difficult. Here I am, not one but  two weeks later, only just saying what I learned from the activity. I will conquer this, though. Here goes: 1. It takes time to find the appropriate supporting content you want.  2. It takes time to edit the appropriate supporting content you want.  3. It takes time to listen to the combined content and feel comfortable with it going out to the world under your name. 4. If you don't give yourself time for these three above, and also to script the content over a period of time for reflection, then you won't be able to summarise quite as well and that makes your podcast longer than it ideally should be. 5. If you have a busy life, it makes sense to hire someone to source creative commons music and edit your podcast for you. 

Podcast Preparation - Part 2

So here's the script! https://edtechsupport.hekokuu.org/script-writing-wizard/   - I put the transcript below in case the link doesn't work. This activity was blindingly fun! (I kind of went overboard on the welcome message). Love to express! Nzinga’s Podcast Script creation 1 Overview Music Additional information Composition methods and techniques   Lesson title Lesson Title   Cooking up a Concert: from Silence to Symphony Date of lesson  TBD Number of lesson   1   Objectives Overall Course Objectives   Students are enabled to describe composition techniques, identify composition devices used in musical works and evaluate works of music based on composition device use, richness and variety Specific Objectives   Describe composition techniques. Identify composition devices. Analyse and evaluate the use of composition devices in musical works.   Welcome message Greetings all sentient ones! I'm Mis...

Podcast Preparation - Part 1

 Wow,  I haven't listened to a single podcast since they came out; and now I'm making one.  I bet my dad would have thrived on podcasts had I done so earlier. He was a really popular radio talk show host for some time in his life.  Also, for some time, a frustrated one.  It's so interesting the wide variety of formats you can use to reach learners, and I guess, to minimise your chances of being frustrated with the level of reach and accessibility of your message.  Who knows? Perhaps if people had been able to download dad's stuff, he'd have been less misunderstood. Anyway, I'm happy to get the opportunity - and I'ma make sure I don't mess it up - to master the art of the podcast. Here's my podcast production plan based on the wizard. <<  Nzinga Job’s Podcast Documentation tool   Content Summary 1. List the main ideas, skills that will be covered in this lesson. Idea: Composition as a deliberate and tooled process accessible to all ...

Technology and Media Selection for Music Education

 What apps should I use for music education, and specifically, for my secondary school curriculum in music? Well, two apps came to mind first - ANKI , the recommended flashcard app, because my students seem completely out of touch with old-fashioned memory aids such as mnemonics and alliterative rhymes; and SWAY , a story-telling app which gives students the power to present stories to their teachers and peers. l The first I chose especially for the form 5 students because CSEC isn't interested in delaying their examination dates despite the COVID19 delays and they'll be needing help with memorizing little things that will matter (and add up, if they lose marks for forgetting them)in the written examinations. The second I chose for them also - as one of two apps recommended for students up to the American grade 12 - because as Albert Einstein is said to have stated: If you can't explain it simply you don't understand it well enough; and because stories are the oldest an...

Bloom's Digital Taxonomy - 21st Century Pedagogy/Learning

First, we must creep, then walk, then run, then fly. I liken Bloom's taxonomy to this adage.   As a new teacher without any pedagogical training, I always chafed against what seemed to me the focus my superiors possessed on lower-order skills in my test design. I've always known I wanted students to be creative, to make their own music and that teaching music wasn't worthwhile to me if I couldn't do that. I knew they couldn't just make it unless I equipped them, or facilitated them equipping themselves, via the internet, with some foundational knowledge.  So I was eager to teach music, and to make tests. I, a creative myself, loved the opportunities in my examination script mistakes, mostly omitted guidance words, thinking: Aha! There's an opportunity to show creative thinking, to think outside the box, to communicate with me the teacher and say, "Miss, I think instead...", to discover and use a learnable moment out of it. But I did begin to see how th...

A Love Letter to COVID19

  Thank You, COVID19! A Love Letter to the deadliest virus since the Spanish Flu October 31st, 2020 11.27 pm Dear COVID19, Thank you for showing us homo sapiens that we aren't invincible.  That we suck at work-life balance.  That we're toxic to nature - rivers, animals and birds thrive and come out to play without us. That we're toxic to ourselves - we lower our own immune systems by our lifestyle choices, leading to pre-existing conditions, and we actually live and spend money so our medication can help us get away with it. We shouldn't get away with it. Many of us haven't, because of you. We should live properly. Eat properly. Exercise properly. Rest properly. Commune with family properly. Wash our hands properly, and regularly. Be careful how we cough and sneeze, and if we can't, wear masks because others don't deserve to catch the germs WE harbour. You came and reminded us of that. You reminded us that too much of what we do for a living is actually quit...