Using PowerPoint to create graphics is actually something that I have done before, in middle school when I was required to take an information technology class. It is admittedly not a tool that I have used much since. I missed this day in class, so I watched the videos and looked at the links – it was nice to get a refresher on it and see that people are actually using this model to create interesting things.
I have always liked PowerPoint, even just as a presentation tool – I’ve found it versatile and easy to use. I also like taking a presentation and turning it into slides with just a few key points on each – it helps me remember my presentation better and feel more confident in it. I’m really intrigued by the workbooks that Mike Taylor has created using PowerPoint – they look really professional and it’s something I have never thought of before. I would like to try something like this while doing a score study.
I found our visit to PSII interesting, as I’ve never experienced a school environment like that. When I think of high school, I think of the traditional model as that’s what I’ve seen, observed, and experienced, and I’m glad I got the chance to broaden my perspective by visiting this school.
My favourite part of our visit was having an actual student tell us about her experience at PSII. I was shocked to find out she was in grade 9, as she spoke very maturely and all of her thoughts about the school that she shared with us were very well-articulated. Hearing her story, and how she was able to find a school system that worked for her, made me really happy. It’s nice to know there are options out there for all sorts of learners.
I don’t think I personally would have benefited from the high school environment that is PSII, mostly because the only part of school I actually enjoyed was band, but also because I lacked the skills to be self-motivated and truly didn’t mind being told what to study. I can think of several people in my life who WOULD benefit from this system though, and it brings me joy to know that it is out there and that learners are given the opportunity to be in a school that works for them.
The concert Bb major scale: the one that made me second guess everything.
We’re about halfway through the semester, and that means I should be about halfway through tackling this instrument that I have chosen. I don’t think I can quite say that with confidence yet, but I can get through the concert Bb scale. This is generally where kids end up after a year of band, so for me to do it in four weeks is some sort of accomplishment, at least.
I won’t lie, this video isn’t perfect. The higher notes on this instrument are incredibly difficult, and it took me several tries to get a recording that was in any way passable. I have been collecting the outtakes to compile later as a way to fondly remember this experience – maybe I will post them at the end of this project.
For your listening pleasure: the concert Bb major scale.
This week I tackled Eb and F on the oboe. Both of these notes, and particularly the transition between the two, are more complicated than I ever anticipated. When will a pattern start appearing in these fingerings? I am awaiting the day.
I have a guess as to why I’m struggling so much: the oboe is traditionally more of an orchestral instrument, less of a wind band instrument. Orchestras more commonly play in sharp keys, while wind bands are very often in flat keys. I’m learning from a beginner band book where they are teaching me Bb major, Eb major and F major, the main keys that concert bands play in, and they are all flat keys. My guess is that, like the violin, the sharp keys have more of a pattern that makes sense and the flat keys are more complicated. I will look into this.
Regarding the internet safety we learned in class this week: all of these videos I am including are on my YouTube account, which I honestly don’t know that much about. I know my YouTube account is linked to my Google account. I know I set all the videos to “unlisted,” which I think means that they can be seen by people I send a link to, but not found by the general public. The other setting I was considering is “private,” but I think that means only I can see them. This is something I should probably look into before I post more YouTube videos of myself. I’m not overly concerned if anyone finds my YouTube videos, because all I have uploaded on there is these oboe videos and some videos of various lessons I taught in my undergrad – nothing that I need to hide.
Social Media Safety as a Teacher, or alternatively: The Class that Made Me Paranoid
In this week’s class we discussed how to be on the internet as a teacher. This is something I have been thinking about for several years now as I have begun to enter the world of working with youth. In my undergrad, as we were starting to build networking relationships with other local music educators, we were warned by our professors to be wary of the things that we post on social media – at that point it was more of a reminder to un-tag ourselves from photos where we may be drinking alcohol or at a nightclub. As I began actually working with youth, those values remained, but they also evolved into questioning whether I wanted students to be able to find me on social media. This is where I had to question what my values and purpose were on using social media – I’ve matured a bit since those days and realized that, while getting likes from strangers used to be important to me, I have to have different priorities now because I don’t want students or parents knowing too much about my personal life, and all my accounts are now private.
This lecture, especially the stories of things going wrong, made me paranoid. I worry about things I may have posted on social media when I was young and naive that I no longer have easy access to (like tweets from 2013, for example). I have begun to question whether I want to have social media at all. I certainly went through all my settings after the class was over to ensure that only the people who I want to see what I post have access to my content. I have noticed that some of my peers who have taken the PDP Program before have changed their names on Facebook to not include their last names, and I am wondering whether this is something I should do too.
I have successfully learned the first three notes on the oboe!
It was a challenging week. As far as woodwinds go, I’m almost positive that oboe is the hardest, just based on my experiences so far. The fingering patterns for scales are very challenging – I say pattern, but it almost seems like there is no pattern at all. With other woodwinds, like flute, generally when you add a finger, the note gets lower, and when you remove a finger, a note gets higher. With oboe, to switch from C to D you have to add four fingers AND go from covered to half-hole on the first finger. All of that to go up one tone!
I am also noticing that I get fatigued and have to stop playing VERY quickly. I need to work in smaller doses to start building my muscles before I try to play for 15 minutes straight.
While the oboe is very challenging, I am excited for the challenge. It is the first instrument I have picked up that hasn’t immediately been easy for me, and I think it is good for me.
Below you will find a video of me playing Au Clair de la Lune, which uses the first three notes of the Bb major scale. Enjoy (and please ignore my weird facial expressions)!
Using audio to support learning – what does this mean to me as a music teacher?
From my experiences so far, I’ve learned that most people assume anything audio-related is relevant to music teachers. I can see the connections they make – music is sound, audio is sound, audio usually involves music… it must be relevant to teaching music!
At this point in my life I challenge this notion. From most of classes I have taught, been taught in, or observed, the most a teacher has used audio media is watching YouTube videos or listening to higher-quality recordings on publisher websites or IMSLP. This is of course extremely important and helpful, but it isn’t anything new, unprecedented, or anything that can’t be done from one’s home computer or cell phone. I did use some recording technology in high school (Logic), but I think we were some of the lucky ones as I haven’t seen similar software used in a classroom since then. Even being one of the lucky ones who got to use it, I wasn’t necessarily taught HOW to use it – I was just given access to the software, so the recordings were not excellent.
When I teach, I would love to give my students resources and instruction on how to record themselves in better ways than using Voice Memos on a iPhone. This is something I would like to explore in my tech inquiry project. Hopefully I can find out more.
Hello and welcome to my personal inquiry project. I have chosen to dive head-first into the world of double reeds and learn to play the oboe. Now, you might ask, why would I do this to myself? The answer is pretty straight forward: the double reed instruments (oboe, bassoon and English horn) are currently the only band instruments that I don’t feel confident that I could pick up and play at any given time. In order to be the best band teacher I can be, it’s time for me to figure out these mysterious creatures.
My goal for week one of this project was to pick up an oboe, put it together, and just make a sound on the instrument. I have since learned that oboes are terribly expensive to rent, and essentially unreasonable to purchase, but since it’s for the children I went ahead and rented one anyways.
Now that I have an oboe in my possession, the first challenge was putting the thing together. I have learned that oboes have not one, but two bridge keys, and unlike clarinet there is no way to lift them while putting the instrument together to prevent damage. You just have to be really, really delicate when putting the thing together. The one I rented is also relatively new, so the corks are a bit stubborn – basically putting it together was the most stressful part of my first oboe experience because I was so afraid of breaking it as I forced all the pieces together.
When I am instructing beginners on any instrument, I get them to make a sound on their mouthpiece first before putting it into the instrument, so with the oboe I started with the reed. If anyone was wondering what that sounds like:
After playing around with the reed a little bit, I put it into the instrument and made some sounds. None of them were pretty, and I’m fairly certain there’s something not quite right about my embouchure because it hurts if I play for more than five minutes. I will check back next week where I attempt the first three notes of the Bb major scale.
This week in class we discussed open educational resources. We discussed what copyright and public domain is, and we were introduced to some great resources such as Siyavula for textbooks, OER Commons and Curriki for content, and Archive.org which is a multimedia resource that seems to have a little bit of everything to suit every educator’s needs.
As a musician, I am already familiar with and have explored the world of public domain resources. A website that I visit frequently is IMSLP, the Petrucci Music Library. IMSLP is a place where people can search for scores, recordings, individual parts, and arrangements/transcriptions of nearly any piece of music that is on public domain. All scores and parts can be downloaded to your computer in PDF format for free. Often there is a ton of information about the piece at the bottom of the page such as the key, duration, instrumentation, what time period it was composed in, etc. It is honestly the easiest and most convenient way to access music at this time, and every musician I know uses it.
If anyone wants to explore this resource a bit, here is a link to my favourite symphony, Antonin Dvořák’s Symphony No.9, “From the New World:” https://imslp.org/wiki/Symphony_No.9%2C_Op.95_(Dvo%C5%99%C3%A1k%2C_Anton%C3%ADn)
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