I am very thankful that I am a teacher in the 21st century. The amount of technology available to me greatly opens up learning opportunities for me and my students. I believe that technology is a significant asset for any teacher, especially one teaching music. As I dive into the non-profit administration and teaching world, I have found ten sites that have been very helpful resources:
Sistema Global- Friends of El Sistema Worldwide Sistema Global’s LinkedIn page is another great resource for me as an El Sistema teacher. This is the first El Sistema community I joined and contributed to, and I have gained a lot of insight into what it is like to teach in El Sistema programs around the world from reading the discussions posted there. Sistema Global has been the online community I invested in this semester because of these reasons.
Teachers and program directors from around the globe make great use of the discussion groups on this site, posting articles and their personal opinions about current events in the El Sistema and music education world. People also ask questions and make announcements about advances in the El Sistema community. I have read a satirical article, commenting on the decrease of arts education in public schools in the United States; I have read people’s opinions about the best way to market and advertise El Sistema programs; and I have created and responded to my own discussion about how El Sistema programs are shaped by the cultures with whom they are reaching.
This has been another great site that helps me be more involved in the El Sistema community and educates me about the current happenings in the community.
Juneau Alaska Music Matters (JAMM) This site literally changed my life! It is the newer version of the blog that inspired me to move to Alaska and be part of the first class of music MAT students who work with UAS, JAMM, and the Juneau Symphony. This site has information about this brand new program, including biographies about each of us quartet members, and detailed information about JAMM (Juneau, Alaska Music Matters).
The director of JAMM and my mentor, Lorrie Heagy, also published a lot of great resources about a variety of teaching methods she believes in and about the New England Conservatory El Sistema Fellowship she did. This year, Lorrie is working to make this site a platform for online learning for our 150+ JAMM students. We are uploading online lessons that include online instruction, music history, and trivia portions, so students can go through and do it all at home. This is an exciting way for us to use technology, and it allows students to continue having guided practice outside of the classroom.
The Mendenhall Quartet I might be a little biased about this site because I made it! This year has been a great time for me to utilize my social media skills in a powerful way and advertise myself and my quartet members as musicians and teachers. My intention with creating this page was to keep all Juneau community members updated on the musical and educational growth we as a quartet are undergoing this year. I upload photos and videos each week of us teaching our classes and playing for the kids, and I create and share events for our performances and fundraisers. I also publish any work from my quartet members that gives people a better idea of who we are as individuals and as a group.
This page is a great way to introduce ourselves as people, musicians, and teachers to this new community and spread the word about what we are doing.
My Alaskan Adventures Another way in which I have been exploring my social media presence this year is through creating my own personal blog page and writing large entries in it each week. I now have ninteen entries that have documented my experiences in Alaska and with JAMM from the very beginning. Not only is this a neat way for my family and friends who are all far away to stay up-to-date with my adventures, but it is also a great advertising tool. I have now worked several jobs with non-profits and with my alma mater, DePaul University, that incorporated advertising and outreach about their programs. I have learned from all of them that a personal touch can often make the difference for prospective students, employees, volunteers, etc. Having a resource that provides a consistent, long-term, personal perspective on someone’s experience with that program helps potential applicants make informed decisions.
I am hoping that my blog will be a great advertising platform for many years for this program. I also have to say that having now worked with multiple blogging sites, I greatly enjoy using Blogger.com.
See Me After Class This resource has kept me going through some of my toughest days of teaching this year. It has been very helpful to have three other close friends who I have made through this music program, and we are all able to share our woes of being new teachers with one another. But sometimes, all you need is advice and comfort from a veteran who has a handle on that aspect of life and can sympathize. A friend of mine found this site and shared it with me. It was created by a woman who is now a seasoned teacher in Chicago and is the author of a book called See Me After Class: Advice for Teachers by Teachers.
Reading through her website full of tips and truths of being a teacher gave me such comfort- all of a sudden I felt like I was actually going to be okay as a teacher! I immediately signed up for her email list in order to receive tips, anecdotes, and encouragement from her about twice a month. These bi-monthly emails brighten my day. It is like I have an older friend sitting across from me at the coffee shop saying, “It’s okay. I’ve been there. I’ve also done worse. And it will all be okay and get better”. As a new teacher trying to navigate teaching lessons effectively, creating positive relationships with students, and balancing a personal life on top of it all, this resource has been a lifesaver.
Juneau Basic Arts Institute 2015 The very first thing I participated in as part of my coursework when I arrived to Juneau this past July was the Juneau Basic Arts Institute. That two-week institute was an incredible introduction to Alaska, the Juneau community, and teaching. I learned how to incorporate all forms of art in my teaching while learning about important aspects of Alaskan culture.
The Institute leaders created a website that we participants are all free to use throughout the year, which I have definitely done! There are resources about the arts and its positive influence on cognition, using the media arts and visual arts in the classroom, connecting music with culture, incorporating Tlingit language and storytelling in the classroom, as well as using storytelling in lessons. There are documents with all sorts of standards, research, videos and mp3 links. Any time I can’t recall something I learned during the Insitute, I can look there.
I am also working on my jazz unit plan for my fourth graders, and there have been some very useful resources from the music and culture class on that site.
Google Docs I cannot stress enough how much Google Docs has increased my organization and productivity. I have an older Word version that can be glitchy and slow, and it is also extra work to email my documents to myself so I can have them with me on my phone and not lug my computer around. Since the beginning of this year, I have put every single document on Google Docs. Not only can I access my documents on my phone (even if my internet is offline!), but I can also share my documents with people in seconds. Because I work with three other people in this program and we plan many lessons and events together, Google docs keeps us all on the same page- literally. Especially if one of us cannot make a meeting, all they need to do is open the shared Google doc. We can all work on the document at the same time as well. I can also search for any document by title if I need to find it quickly and create folders for my documents to further my organization of my work.
YouTube YouTube is a fantastic tool for a music teacher! I have used YouTube a lot as a musician- I create playlists of the cello solo, orchestral, and chamber repertoire I am playing and listen to them as I am learning new pieces or need to hear a different interpretation of the music.
As a teacher, I can find a video about pretty much any musical concept and plug it into the classroom tv and show it to the entire class. This gives my students a fresh perspective from someone else about topics (because sometimes they really don’t want to hear me say the same thing in the same way), and it also makes learning very relevant and exciting for them. Because most of my students have access to Internet at home, they are on YouTube often. Being able to watch an educational video on YouTube makes learning fun for them because they associate it with the fun they have on their computer at home.
For example, I was teaching my second grade students about the solfege scale the other day. After we sang through it together a couple times, I asked them if they had heard of the movie, The Sound of Music. As the kids squealed with an excited “yes”, I pulled up the Sound of Music solfege song, and we sang along with it. It was a great way to tie what they were learning to something they already knew and loved.
SmartMusic The SmartMusic program is what I am doing my Individualized Learning Project on, so I will not go into too much detail about what it actually is here. As a general summary, SmartMusic is an application that has thousands of musical pieces available- methods books, solos, orchestral pieces, and exercises- with which you can play along. Each piece is presented in a quiz format, so students can record themselves as they look at the notes and play along to the piece’s accompaniment track. They are given a grade for their playing, which can be sent to their teacher, along with the mp3 recording of them playing. It is another great way to use technology with music education, and my students are loving being able to assess themselves and one another using this tool. The SmartMusic website has been a very helpful resource to me, as I undertook the SmartMusic setup project this year and created accounts for all of our students and taught our teachers and students how to use it. Whenever I had any questions or needed additional information to make permission slips or informational meeting talking points, I could go onto the website and watch one of their informational videos or read their Frequently Asked Questions section.
El Sistema USA El Sistema USA is one of my most-visited sites because it keeps me updated with El Sistema teaching opportunities around the country. I began teaching with an El Sistema-inspired program four years ago and noticed that my colleagues made great use of this site because of that aspect, and also because it has a large amount of resources available to any El Sistema teacher. Teachers with El Sistema programs upload musical scores, news articles, tips, and a large variety of other resources onto the site, which anyone can use. This site also has a map of all the El Sistema programs within the United States, which helps me stay up to date with all the growing programs around the country. There is even a “jobs” section, which I look through from time to time to see what opportunities there may be for me as a teacher. The listings have detailed job descriptions, including the pay and requirements. I have a feeling I will make great use of that section upon graduating!
Something I would like to explore more on this site is the “mini mentoring moments” tab. There is an opportunity to reach out to a designated El Sistema mentor who can help you work through any questions or issues you have about your work with your program. I would love to build relationships with more El Sistema community members and gain wisdom from others in this way. This site has many fantastic resources for El Sistema teachers and helps establish a close community.