Category: Weekly Reflections

Photo by Joyston Judah: https://www.pexels.com/photo/white-and-black-mountain-wallpaper-933054/ 

I will admit: I am one of those people who are afraid of using AI. To be honest, I have so far refused to use it, even at the expense of some of my school work that has required me to do so. 

Through this discussion, I understand that there are some benefits to using it in our school system. It might even serve me as an educator: I know some of my peers use it to write lesson plans, or to write feedback to students on report cards. I know that it is important for me to educate myself on these benefits, as it will probably be inevitable in my future practice. In addition, I know that this is something that I will need to teach my future students, so I would like to educate myself to benefit them. 

However, I still feel discomfort in exploring AI in my future profession. I am a little bit stubborn, and I don’t want to admit that I am unable to complete work on my own; therefore, I will continue to try and do my work without the assistance of AI for as long as possible. (Don’t worry, I’ll succumb to my inevitable future eventually)

Photo by Pavel Danilyuk: https://www.pexels.com/photo/music-teacher-and-student-looking-at-notes-drawn-on-a-blackboard-7521299/ 

Today’s lecture provided us with an opportunity to reflect on the traditional practices we use in education, and how these often exclude many groups of students. The idea of sitting for hours on end, presenting information via lecturing and textbooks, standardized testing, and being in a fast paced environment is not inclusive for all learners. Our students deserve to receive education in a way that is inclusive of their ways of learning, and there are lots of emerging technologies that we can employ in the classroom that can help make our education more inclusive. 

Some examples of technology that we can use in the classroom are speech to text, AI notetaker, using a microphone, and having auto captions during lectures. In music class specifically, I think that there are varying ways that we can use technology to help students. The overall traditional music class has the ability to be exclusive for learners, as it prioritizes performing and learning written music. However, in making it more inclusive, we can provide education that teaches students about composition (which can use writing technology), improvisation (which focuses less on written notation), and playing music from other genres. 

In my future as a music educator, I think it is unfair to determine students’ success by their ability to perform on an instrument in a way that is expected of them in that grade. The reality is that not everyone learns that way, or is able to demonstrate their learning in that way. Therefore, we should learn how to start presenting information in a more diverse way that is more accessible to learners, which can lead to more diverse ways of assessing and engaging students. I think that by reflecting on these ways of presenting, engaging, and assessing, we can make music classes be more inclusive for all learners. 

Photo by Fox: https://www.pexels.com/photo/group-of-people-watching-on-laptop-1595385/ 

During this class, we had the opportunity to discuss topics of interest with our peers. We generated questions individually on sticky notes, then posted these questions on the wall, which we then voted on. The questions with the most votes were given dedicated spaces for discussion. The question I chose was “How can we prevent burn-out in our students?” I was particularly interested in this question, as I feel like I have experienced burn-out many times in my undergrad, and I want to know the best ways I can help prevent it for my future students. One of my peers shared with my group about this study that she conducted, and how they discovered how students tend to become apathetic about their education. This was something I had not known before, and talking about it made me realize that this was something that I had been experiencing right now. I have become so overworked with school, work, and my personal life, that I started to care less about everything. For a while, I felt completely checked out of school, because I had no energy to participate anymore. However, discussing this with my group helped me realize that this wasn’t something unusual, and I was grateful to know that I wasn’t alone in my feelings. I know that having personal experience with burn-out will help me be more empathic to my future students who will experience similar feelings, and I hope that will help me support them better. 

I really liked the idea of EdCamp, however, I think that the effectiveness of this exercise relied heavily on students really participating in discussion (which, in my experience, did not really happen.) If this exercise is to be effective, I believe that a class culture perhaps needs to be better established, as for students to be able to feel more comfortable sharing their thoughts. 

In implementing this into my future music classrooms, I like the idea of giving students the autonomy to generate questions to discuss in groups, and I think this could work well with student inquiry. 

Photo by Mikhail Nilov: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-cute-girl-recording-a-video-while-playing-ukulele-7574100/ 

During this class, we were encouraged to reflect on our experience of meaningful support that we have received in our learning using educational videos. 

Being that my teachable subject is music, I did not have much experience in watching beneficial educational videos that were shown in my music classroom in middle or high school. The only times that we watched videos in music class was when we had a substitute teacher in, where they would typically just put on a movie. That being said, outside of the music classroom, I learned a lot of musical concepts through videos on youtube, including videos that broke down theory concepts, or ones that taught me how to practice different drumming techniques. During my undergrad, I spent a lot of time watching videos of percussionists, and would use tools like slowing videos down, and repeating sections, in order to help me understand what certain parts of a piece should sound like, and it overall made learning of specific pieces much easier. 

In my future teaching, I believe that there is a lot of value in using videos in the classroom. There is a lot that videos can provide in education that I cannot, like demonstrations on instruments I have not mastered, or recordings of performances that I would not otherwise be able to bring my class to. I also think that videos can transform assessment in the music classroom. For students who feel uncomfortable playing repertoire tests in front of the class, recording videos gives them the opportunity to showcase their learning in a more private and comfortable setting, where they can record their playing on their instrument (and do so in as many takes as they need) and then submit them to me to assess. 

I think that, as educators, we can use video technology to our advantage, and find ways for it to benefit our students. Though I haven’t had a lot of experience with beneficial use of video in the music classroom, I think that it does have its advantages, and I will definitely try and use it in my future educational practice. 

Photo by Leeloo The First: https://www.pexels.com/photo/question-marks-on-paper-crafts-5428836/ 

Jeff Hopkins, from Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry, discussed with us the diversity of students’ educational needs. Looking at Vgotsky’s theory of the Zone of Proximal Development, we can understand how student motivation is dependent on their education in regards to what they do know, and what they do not. Students will not be engaged in material if it is too easy, and will also give up if the material is too hard. In the traditional education system, where students are only really grouped by age, it is hard to teach the same material to a group of students that is able to engage everyone. Therefore, one solution is to provide a way for students to have choice in what and how they learn through inquiry.

The processes of inquiry are: generating questions, initial research, developing new questions, developing learning activities with teachers, and executing learning activities. Throughout this process, students will be in contact with teachers, who will be assessing and providing feedback constantly. 

I think that inquiry is one of the most inclusive forms of education, as it really allows for students to interact with education in ways that best suits their learning. It is impossible to make one lesson effective for all students, as their learning needs are incredibly diverse! Therefore, the solution to this is to give students autonomy in their learning. Rather than assume what students need, we can give them the lead, and let them generate questions that spark curiosity, and therefore keep them motivated in education. 

Photo by Mikhail Nilov: 

https://www.pexels.com/photo/girls-sitting-beside-a-woman-in-black-blazer-8923261/

This lecture focused on how we can foster student centered learning, and give them the autonomy to focus on what interests them. Trevor Mackenzie had us focus a lot on curiosity. If the objective is to get kids interested in the curriculum, we need to prioritize curiosity first, and plan for it! Having students be curious in what they are learning is the number one way to engage them in school, and higher curiosity therefore results in higher academic achievement. We need to create healthy relationships with students that fosters this creativity, and encourage them through inquiry to pursue things that are interesting for them. 

I think this is an important concept to understand, as educators are always asking how we can better engage our students in class, and how we can get them interested in what they are learning. Mackenzie discussed the triangulation for assessment, which included the three points: product, observation, and conservation. Teachers often focus on a product, which has the ability to dampen student curiosity, as this ‘product’ tends to relate to standardized tests. However, classroom strategies like “turn and talk” invites conversation and observation into the classroom, which can be much more effective in terms of assessing your students, as well as sparking curiosity. 

Sparking curiosity can look like asking students “if you could show me your work in any way, how would you show me”… this question can allow us to better assess our students, and honor giving students the choice in how they choose to represent their learning. I am a strong believer that our traditional modes of assessment do not represent the needs of all students, and therefore I will be using this idea of student autonomy and agency to help students in presenting their learning in ways they believe will best support them.

Photo by Kerde Severin: https://www.pexels.com/photo/selective-focus-photography-of-person-using-iphone-x-1542252/ 

During this class, guest Jesse Miller discussed with us how human beings use the internet. This was a very interesting lecture, where I found myself reflecting on how I used the internet and why. The associated behaviors that we discussed related to the evolving internet mainly revolved around how much communication has increased in the past 20 years. There is a huge difference in what I experienced in my education versus what students of this generation are experiencing in technology: they now have more exposure to information that can often cause more harm than good. This has resulted not only in the increase of sharing and receiving information, but also the spread of misinformation, and breaching of privacy. Students need to be taught to be careful of what they put on the internet, as they don’t often realize the consequences that could occur if that information got into the wrong hands, or used in a situation against them. Technology users now have the ability to make decisions that we do not have laws to enforce, and these choices can have incredibly negative impacts on students. 

We also discussed how dependent we have all become on technology. During the lecture, Miller asked how many of us in the class looked at our phones the second that we woke up. I embarrassingly put my hand up. He then asked us how many of us were instagram users (I, once again, put my hand up) and then asked if we would still use instagram if we had to pay a dollar a day for it. This question forced me to think about my dependence on social media. I hate to admit it, but instagram is one of my most used apps on my phone, and I wish I would spend less time on it. I really have wasted so much life on this app, and I really don’t think that it is worth it (and I definitely don’t think I would want to pay for it), so this discussion really opened my eyes, and helped me reflect on my technology use throughout my day to day life.  

Bringing it back to our future students- we need to be aware of their dependency on technology, especially in terms of its effect on privacy, safety, bullying, and consent. As future educators, we have to be aware of how students are using their personal technology in the classroom, yet balance their use and find ways to navigate professional boundaries.