Why My Students Inspire Me

As I sit down to write this, I look at the calendar and notice that it is the middle of January. We have been in school for approximately 15 weeks. In this short period of time, I have witnessed several amazing changes in the lives of my students. They entered school in September with bright-eyed eagerness to see their friends and meet the challenges of a new school year. As they acclimate themselves to the daily grind of the first marking period, the students morph into various social groups to navigate through the ever popular hormonal season where boys meet girls, and plans are made for spring break, prom, and graduation.

I am very fortunate to have a wonderful bunch of students. They are truly the highlight of my day and I look forward to coming to school each day to challenge them. I am a high school music teacher in a music department where there is very little down time during the day. Although, we are only scheduled to teach 5 periods a day, our music students are required to come down and attend group lessons on their instrument. Due to the particular nature of my schedule, I make myself available for my students any period that I am not officially teaching in a classroom.

From 7:30 through 2:30 and beyond, students come down to the music wing to take instrumental lessons. The other day, I left my first period class feeling quite ill. I spent the next hour in the nurse’s office. For the remainder of the day, I was doing everything in my power to fight through a stomach bug. It was the reactions of my students that day that were truly inspiring.

Knowing that I was not in my study hall during third period, the news of my poor health quickly spread throughout the music students. By the time I was returning to my class, students were coming down the hallway to ask me how I was feeling. It was really amazing to have so many students inquire about me. It truly shows just how close-knit our music department family is when students not only look out for each other, but look out for the teachers as well.

The following day, I took time away from school for doctors appointments. Generally, when a substitute teacher covers for a music class, they receive worksheets to hand-out to the class leaving students with the feeling of having a “period off”. I am very fortunate to know that in our music department, this isn’t the case. We have the privilege of working with our musicians from 9-12th grade. By the time the students reach the upper grades, they are taught how to conduct and run the rehearsals. Knowing that I was going to be out of the building, I spoke with some of my older students who in my absence helped the substitute with the orchestra rehearsals.

What inspires me the most about situations such as these is the simple fact that we as teachers show up for class each day and pour our hearts out to our students. We come in early. We stay after school. I often wonder how much of the lesson the students actually take away with them when the bell rings. The simple fact that my students joined together while I was ill was a testament to the dedication they have to the music program, and to each other. Students demonstrate the collective feeling of leadership in taking charge of their education, not because a teacher told them to do it, but because they wanted each other to sound good in the group. I didn’t realize how much of a family our music department developed into until I heard of the care and concern that my students had for me and their desire to produce music in my absence. This mutual respect between teachers and students is truly inspiring.

The Flipped Classroom Experiment

Day 1: The Setup

Recently, I recorded a TeacherCast Podcast with Brett Clark on the concept of a Flipped Classroom. Brett is an E-Learning coach from the great state of Indiana and has been an invaluable resource to TeacherCast. The concept of a Flipped Classroom is a very basic, yet revolutionary concept. The learning of the subject, and the acquiring of knowledge is done by the student with the guidance of the instructor. The topic is a hot button on all of the social networks. Before recording the podcast, both Brett and I sent twitter messages asking our followers to suggest questions and topics to hit while we record the podcast. We each received an overwhelming response from our global network of educators. It was one of the most enjoyable podcasts I have done yet. Halfway during the recording of the podcast, I had the idea to ask teachers to contact us through Skype and ask Brett a question voice to voice. Within seconds, we had a response from an administrator from New York online chatting with us. I couldn’t believe that without much notice, the TeacherCast Podcast had turned into a fully functional “Radio Call-in Show”.

The concept of doing a flipped classroom was foreign to me, yet I was determined to put it into action in my school. I teach a Music Theory class made up of students who are both seasoned performers, and students who are new to note reading. I teach in a computer lab containing 30 iMacs, and a laptop cart with a projector. It is through these tools that I inspire my students to change the world. . . one quarter note at a time.

Currently, we are in the middle of our chapter where we learn about building major scales. The students have a workbook that we complete sections of each day and we also have an extensive website that I have put together to supplement the classroom activities. We have been working on this chapter for a few days now, in the typical classroom format I would lead the group discussion and the student would take notes. We also do activities that involve singing, rhythm dictation and I often ask students to come to the board and work out various examples.

To prepare for our Flipped Classroom experiment, I told the kids on Wednesday that they are going to be given an assignment where they were required to come up and teach the class a concept from our chapter. I told them that everyone’s homework was to learn about the remaining three sections of the chapter and that I would call on them randomly to come up and teach the class, then be able to field questions. They were all a little taken back by this sense of the unknown, but were eager to work on the assignment.

I asked them to name some sources of learning that they might tap into for help. One student said, “Wikipedia”. Another student said “I’ll go ask the band teacher”. After explaining to them that they already had the information sitting in front of them in the packet, I noticed they were sitting back in their seat and became less timid of the concept of the project. We discussed the fact that they, as students were going to be responsible for their learning and that their preparation would determine the success of their peers. We discussed various methods for them to learn the subject materials. Once the walls of the box were ripped away, students came up with several other solutions for research. One then said “Podcasts,” another said, “The Class Website”. Suddenly, the board was filled with resources for the students to look at for their information.

Before the bell sounded on the end of Day 1, I reminded them again that they were responsible for their peers and the education of their peers. I told them they could use any forms of technology or resources they wanted to. They were instructed to treat the assignment very professionally. The bell rung, I could tell the room and the students were thinking about what was ahead of them.

Day 2: Building a Global Lesson

Students arrived with a bit of timidness not knowing what was going to be happening in the class and fearing that they would be called on to get up and teach the class. What they found on their desks was a sheet of white paper. As the class started, I told them to draw a complete Circle of 5ths. As expected, most of them did a great job, however, several of them stopped halfway through and could not complete the quiz. I then told them to swap papers with a partner. I instructed the partners to complete the quiz for them and teach the other student what they did wrong and how they could correct their mistakes. We discussed how as a global community, it was our job to work together for our own common goals and that because of it, the class will succeed.

We talked about the project once again. Most of them were well prepared to get up and give their presentations. At that point in the lesson, it was brought to their attention that the project was going to be taking a left turn.

I introduced them to a website called: TodaysMeet.com. TodaysMeet is a personalized chatroom where teachers can create a private location for a controlled social environment to occur. I created a room under the name NBTHSMusic and I walked the students through the process of logging in. We talked about the rules for chat rooms. I told them that they needed to use a name that we could identify them by. Nobody was to use their full name, but nobody was to be posting as an anonymous screen name. We discussed how the chat room was going to be monitored and used as a supplement to the presentations. As the student teaching their concept, the rest of the class would be actively participating in a chat based on the students understanding of the topic. The presenter would be able to participate in that chat as well by sending links to the group for quick access of the materials being covered. I then gave them 20 minutes to continue their research.

What happened next was simply breath taking. Students, without me instructing them, began using the chat-box for the greater good of the community. With a little guidance from a few teacher text messages, the class started researching the topics as a group and shared links with each other through the chat-log. They understood that there was a social set of rules to this chat box and knew that anyone in the world was able to see this chat-box. I reminded them that by doing this project, they would not only be teaching their classmates, but by opening up the chat-box to the global community, they could in effect by teaching the world.

After a few minutes went by, the chat log was going crazy as links and project ideas were flying through cyber space. They were active, they were engaged, they were learning. It was very inspiring to me. By the time the bell sounded they were so engulfed in their research and content collecting they asked for passes to come back and continue working. I told them that the chat box was going to be live all day and they can take advantage of it knowing that the links and research they did during the period would be available to them later in the day.

Day Three: The Flipped Event

I arrived at school early to make sure that the room was set up for guests and that my global friends were available. What I found was simply amazing. I set up the chat box through the projector, onto the wall. I found that the chat log was busy during the night. Students had been collaborating through the night to prepare for their presentations. Several of them had created LiveBinders to assist them.

The bell rang and the students logged into the computers. Everything was working perfectly. When the students were settled on the computers, I introduced the class to Darrin Johnson, a 5th Grade teacher from Illinois, who was joining the class by Skype as well as by chatroom. They started to understand how Global an assignment this was going to be. We discussed the rules for the class period and I called our first student up to teach the class about Key Signatures.

For the next 45 minutes, every single student in the class was engaged in learning. Because they had prior knowledge about the subject matter, they were able to fully participate in the learning experience. As one of our students was up teaching from the board, the class played the roll of a “class reporter”. They shared links, photos, and YouTube clips based on their research of the subject. We were able to ask Darrin questions to help him (a non music teacher) learn the subject. He was also able to voice and type in questions to ask the kids.

By the time the period had ended, we had 3 great student presenters give speeches, 20 students fully engaged in the learning process. Darrin was also able to say good bye to the class after learning about with some great new tools and techniques he could use in his classroom.

We asked the students what they thought of the day and they were all super charged about the possibilities. It was truly an awesome day.

Great Educators with a Common Goal:

I wish to thank the following people for inspiring this event:

Brett Clark (@Mr_Brett_Clark): Thank you for coming on to the TeacherCast Podcast and teaching us about the Flipped Classroom

John Hamilton/Martin Schneider/Steve George: Our great and AMAZING tech team at North Brunswick Twp. High School. We couldn’t have this lesson without your love and support for our students. Thank you for dealing with a crazy teacher who wants to use advanced classroom technologies beyond our current boundaries.

Chad Marcus: Thank you for supporting my digital creativity.

Darrin Johnson (@AnIowaTeacher): Thank you for coming on the TeacherCast Podcast a few weeks back and dealing with a Zombie of a guest. (@GrogtheZombie)

My iClassroom

I am very fortunate to be working in a New Jersey high school where technology is accepted. I have a great tech department crew to back up my ever growing desire to use new gadgets, and our facilities improve with each passing year. When I began teaching in my current school district, I was a PC teacher. At the end of my first year, our district allowed the music department to create a Mac lab for our music theory program. This began my path to becoming an iTeacher.

We designed a lab of 30 iMacs and loaded them up with the latest music software and each was given a midi keyboard for the students to compose with. It was my first real experience with the Mac environment, and I soon began to see the possibilities and advantages it had over my PC word.

That summer, I bought my first iPhone. I understood that it was a great tool to use in the classroom, and it soon became my most trusted resource for classroom information. This past year, I purchased an iPad and have found that it has tremendously helped me keep my classes organized.

Each day, my students enter my iClassroom. They are greeted by iMusic playing from my iPod, they enjoy the keynote presentations and music theory games that are presented on the iPad, and they watch their teacher take attendance and tune their instruments on an iPhone. When our iLecture is finished for the day, they collect themselves on their iMacs and do their iHomework together.

As professional development credit, our school institutes whey they refer to as “flex classes.” These are sessions designed to help us improve our teaching methods and have an opportunity to collaborate with each other after school to better improve our skills. One of the courses I will be teaching this year is on iClassrooms. Since adopting the Mac platform, I have seen tremendous growth in my students. I have seen their grades rise each year and they are now enjoying themselves tremendously. I hardly have to discipline any students in class because we area constantly moving around the room actively learning.

I am not writing this article saying that by owning a Mac, your child will get smarter. My students are achieving at high levels and staying on task because their teacher is organized. Because I have adopted an iEnvironment to my classroom, I now have more time to teach my students. I am no longer coming into the class unorganized. My student no longer are watching a teacher fumble with technology each day. They see a teacher come in well prepared and ready to go with dynamic lessons and a passion for teaching.

I am writing this blog post to share how I have set up my iClassroom. The one phrase that gets passed around the iCommunity so much is "It Just Works...." I hope that by sharing some of these resources, other teachers will learn how to incorporate some of these great iGadgets into their classrooms the way I have.

Webpage

In each of my classes, I have a website set up. This website includes downloadable links to all of my handouts such as the syllabus and chapter handouts. When I took over these classes 5 years ago, I was not given many materials, and the book was so out dated, it came with a series of cassette tapes. I very quickly came to the realization that I needed to create the curriculums from scratch and that is where the website came in to play.

My websites for these classes have been created on several programs over the years. When I first created these sites, I used a Windows program called Expression Web. It is one that I would highly recommend, and still use. However, this is a program that I would recommend only if one has some keen design skills and can look at a blank page and know what to do with it. I then went onto DreamWeaver on the recommendation that it can do anything I wanted to. I must admit, DreamWeaver is a great program and it can do anything I want it to do, however, I am not equipped with the skills to know how to make it do what I want it to do. I am not one for writing in code, nor will ever be and it was just too much for me.

At that point, I switched to the Mac Platform and found a program called Sandvox. This is the program that I will probably use for the next few years. Sandvox is a simple WYSIWYG web designing tool. It comes packaged with a few dozen outstanding templates and plugins and extra templates are easily available. With Sandvox, I can easily create and maintain my class websites and upload them to my hosting provider without worrying about code or knowing anything about CSS. It is also easy to set up and maintain an RSS feed to host a blog or podcast for my students to subscribe to.

Twitter

I have a twitter account setup that is posted on the front page of each classes page. At the beginning of each school year, I talk to my kids about how I will be using twitter. Many of them have their own twitter accounts. I also talk through Twitter at back to school night and during conferences.

At the end of each class, I either use my iPhone, iPad, or laptop to record the nights homework on Twitter. This information will then show up on my website and will be distributed to the students and parents following me. I use the hashtag #NBTHSMusic at the end of each tweet to help make my feed more searchable.

I am hoping that Twitter becomes a bigger part of my classes this year. In the past, I had quite a few students using Twitter on a regular basis, but many of them did not know or understand about the many opportunities that Twitter offers education and it felt like it was an uphill climb with both students and more so, parents.

Tests and Quizzes

The majority of my tests and quizzes are done using Pages for the Mac. Pages gives me the flexibility to not only create great looking documents, but it also provides me many useful formats to export my documents to.

In addition to the test and quizzes that I create on Pages, I also use an account EasyTestMaker.com. This website allows its users to create a free account where we can create assessment material that is dynamic and engaging for the student. EasyTestMaker supplies its users with several question formats such as short answer, multiple choice, true/false and essay. It also creates an answer key for printing as well.

iPhone

For the last few years, my iPhone was my lifeline to the outside world during long school days. I use my iPhone to take attendance, keep my class records, check websites, play music, track student behavior and so much more.

In addition to being a tremendous multifunction device, it also serves as my presentation remote. I use an app called Keynote Remote in class when giving classroom lectures.

The best use of my phone is for communication. I keep my students contact information in an app and it is very easy for me to communicate with parents and keep them updated on classroom events and assignments.

iPad

I have only been using an iPad for a very short time. Simply put, the iPad is an amazing teaching device and I don't know what I would do without it. I have more than 700 apps on my iPad. It is a tool that I use for keeping attendance, inputting students grades, presentations, audio recordings and even video editing. Due to the abundance of apps available on the app store, the iPad can morph into just about any device I wish it to be.

In the past, when I went from class to class, I would have to pick up my laptop and all of it's cords and take it with me. It was useful, but very bulky and I found that I wasn't getting much work done because I was always waiting for programs to load. The iPad has made my commute quick and painless. I currently teach a study hall on the other side of my building. It is very simple to bring the iPad with me and navigate through the halls.

I use my iPad as an audio recording studio for my music lessons on a daily basis. Through programs such as Audio Recorder and Garageband, I plug my USB microphone into the iPad using the USB Camera Kit attachment. The iPad will record hours of content without me having to worry about too much set up.

I also use my iPad as a presentation tool. I have loaded all of my Keynote presentations onto the iPad and by paring the iPad with my projector, I can give my students a dynamic presentation with little to no setup. This not only saves me time each morning, but allows me to move quickly out of the classroom when the next teacher is trying to set up.

Cloud Computing

One of the best applications available to both students and teachers is Dropbox. Dropbox is a free file storage cloud based account that can be accessed from any device with an internet connection. Dropbox has become my lifeline between my home computer and my school machines. In the past, I have cursed every type of physical media from disks, to CD's to flash drives. I either would forget my files at home, or the media would not perform when called upon. I have never had a problem using Dropbox. I find that my students also enjoy the ease of use in the service as well. They are able to save their files at home to their Dropbox account and then access them during class.

Another online storage system that I use daily in my classes is Google Docs. Google Docs is an online "office" package where you can, for free, create documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and online forms. By creating online forms, I have eliminated several hundred sheets of paper from being printed and copied. All of the Google Doc applications can then be linked to your website or embedded inside of a web page for quick access. If you have existing presentations, spreadsheets, or documents, Google Docs will upload your Microsoft Office Documents. I have converted several of my class assignments and even quizzes to Google Docs and my students love the various theme templates that are available.

Apps:

Over the years, my choice of apps has changed quite a bit. I originally searched out apps that had many features and could do many operations. I have since moved to focusing on only using a few apps that have one or two functions to them. These are just a few of the apps that I have been using every day and I would recommend them to any teacher looking to start using iPhones/iPads in their classroom.

1. Attendance: This is a great app for taking daily classroom attendance. It will import your contacts from your address book including photos and it prints out some very nice reports of your students data.
2. Teachers Assistant Pro: Every teacher needs an app to keep track of those little moments when student behavior calls their attention. Teachers Assistant Pro allows teachers to record student interactions and document behavior issues. With a few clicks, the app allows you to create a detailed record of student behavior, and if needed email the information to an administrator, or parent. This is an amazing app for both the iPhone and iPad.
3. Things: I began using ToDo applications last year to keep track of each of my classes. Originally I used one app for my entire schedule, but couldn't find an app that could help me organize all that I do in the course of a week. I then moved on to using a different app for each of my classes and extra activities. I have enjoyed using Do It Tomorrow, iProcrastinate, Simplenote and Notsey. These are all fine apps and I would fully recommend anyone try these out and take full advantage of their features. This year, I am trying Things. Things is an application that has apps for the iPhone, iPad, and iMac. The ability to sync all of your data is why I have chosen Things as my ToDo app for the year. You can leave notes for yourself, organize projects involving multiple steps, and then sync this information with iCal for an even quicker way of managing your daily tasks.

LiveBinders:

LiveBinders is my digital 3-ring notebook. It is a tool that I found over the summer and this year, I will be introducing it in my classes as a way to teach them the value of having organized research information. During the school year, my students do a lesson on Beethoven. In September, we research the history of the composer. Students, in past years, were told to search the internet for various sites on Beethoven, print them out and bring in their work for our discussions. Students would come in with several dozen sheets of paper. This research would get lost as we went through the year and by the time we reached June and were discussing the 9th Symphony, student's wouldn't have any of their research from September. This year, we are going to be creating LiveBinders of Beethoven. LiveBinders can save websites, videos, photos, and pdf files. I am certain that my students will find LiveBinders to be an easy and fun way to collect their research. These binders can then be emailed to others, embedded on a website, or easily presented on a projector. This is a great tool for teachers looking to help their students learn good researching techniques.

It is with the help of these iDevices that I deliver my lessons each day to my students. My iDevices allow my students to have an engaging, interactive, and dynamically creative teacher at their disposal. In turn, by adopting an iClassroom, I have been able to push my iTeaching to the i21st Century.

The Value of a Great Teacher

What is a teacher?

A Teacher is generally defined as one who teaches.  But, I believe it is so much more than just a quick phrase.  I have had many students ask me over the years one simple question; “What is the job of a teacher?” 

I once had a mentor of mine tell me that a teacher had one job and one job only.  He would say; “A Teachers only job is to inspire.”

Recently, I had a great teacher inspire me.  I am writing this blog to publicly thank this great teacher for inspiring me to help inspire others.

Must-Have Apps for the Classroom

As I start to prepare for the beginning of another great school year, I find myself reviewing the contents of my iTunes library with the purpose of evaluating what my app needs will be in the upcoming school year. Which apps I should keep on my iPhone? Which apps should be relieved of duty?  I have downloaded several hundred apps to date for my iPhone, but I find that I keep relying on only a small handful of trusted applications to get me through my daily schedule.

For an app to catch my interest,it must be one that does it's job.  Not just the first time, but every time.  I have no need for an app that is great the first time you use it, then malfunctions right after you invest the time into creating a full student database. My next necessity is that the app must be up to date.  Sure, an app might have come out a few years ago, but has the developer kept up with current technologies?  Does it sync or have a backup feature? Does it work well with the current Apple operating system? Does it have multi-functions built into it, or will it shut down when I switch out of the app?  My final requirement of an app that I'm considering to use is will it fill a need?  I am not asking "does it fill a want," but a NEED.  Is it an app that my daily schedule just can not live without?