Internship+III+Teaching,+Learning+and+the+Curriculum

January 2010**
 * TF III.A Faciliate technology-enhanced experiences that address content standard and student technology standards.

At the start of the Spring semester, I had a new group of students. I needed to get to know them a bit and I wanted to evaluate their skills on PowerPoint. As a teacher, I knew they learned how to create a PowerPoint Presentation, but I did not know if they retained that skill. I introduced the review by having the students create a presentation about themselves, a Me PowerPoint. The parameters were small, three slides including names, likes or favorites and a slide about music. They could use the font and style tools, clip art and other features. Following this review of creating a presentation, the students created a presentation on the musician they and a partner researched. We included a Resources slides to give credit for information and images. Students enjoyed listening and watching the other presentations. Later in the semester other teachers told me that their students were helpful and creative with their peers when doing a presentation for another class.

My first purpose was to get to know them, but I choose to review a skill, using PowerPoint, as my tool. This created an prior knowledge base when we started the next presentation project. We met [|music content objectives] regarding music history, style and vocation while also meeting [|student technology TEKS] regarding the use of software to create, save and edit information.

In the beginning, I was surprise that so many student did not remember learning how to create a powerpoint and that they had not been creating them in other classes. Instead I took the opportunity to teach them fundamentals, but allow them time to explore the software's capabilities for more creative expression. As the teacher, I thoroughly enjoyed watching the collaborative work as the students discovered things together, then helped others. This project enable us to get to know each other as friends and as working partners.

April 2010**
 * TF III.C Apply technology to demonstrate students higher order thinking skills and creatity.

Sixth grade students in General Music, create a Stop-Motion movie at the close of our Film Music unit. Students have learned some history or photography, film and music. They know why music is added and the benefits of doing such. The stop-motion movies provide an outlet of creativity beyond what is normally done in the classroom. We use toys to create these stop motion movies. I do not give the students topics, although they must comply with our School Handbook standards. In regards to publishing, we create two files. The movie with the students names in the credits is shown in the cafeteria during lunch one day. The version without names is posted on the class wikispaces. Parents were notified of the site and invited to look at the vidoes.

This semester we used webcams to capture the images, instead of digital cameras. The webcams take better quality images, and since they are linked to the computer, a file is automatically creative without having to drop them onto a computer. We use Windows MovieMaker to create the movie. Students add sounds, effects or voice through this program. Saved movies are stored on a flash drive containing all archived movies.

This is my favorite part of the semester, but it is also a favorite of the students. They are learning and collaborating and being creative in such a different way. Their final products represent group effort. I do not ask the students to divide tasks in this project, so that everyone has the opportunity to work within each part of the project. We practice the entire process as a group first, ensuring everyone receives instruction.

Following our project a few times students told me about other projects they created at home. It is so excited to me that students are taking hold of this skill in a real way. I don't think every child will be a film maker, and that isn't my goal. My goal is higher order thinking, collaboration and ultimate creativity.

To view the current movies, visit [|www.michaudmusic.wikispaces.com].