I am new to using blogs, but after reading and watching what others have done with them I am excited to try. I teach high school choir, piano, percussion, and theatre. After we sing through a piece of music that we have been working on, I have my students reflect on what went well and what needed work. I would like to take this a step further. I want to try reflecting together immediately after we sing. We will make a list of broad areas for improvement together. Then I will choose 1 or more areas to discuss on my blog. Each student will need to respond with their own insights. I would be looking for specific things for example: how to improve blend within the group, what techniques might we use to get a better tone, etc. Like any class, there are those few students who are always willing to tell you what the answers are, but this way all the students will have a chance to help the class improve their performance. This also places the problem solving responsibility on the students' shoulders, so it is not just me telling them what to do.
You could also record students singing, or even import audio clips from the internet onto youe blog and have students comment and converse online their opinions of the clips. It just downloads like an attachment in an email!
ReplyDeleteThat is a great idea. They could even compare and contrast their own recordings with other performances.
DeleteKristine,
ReplyDeleteI would think music would be hard to incorporate blogging into, but analyzing their performance would be an excellent way. I like Stacey's idea as well. There is a wealth of YouTube videos from amateur to professional that you can pull from. In addition, recording and posting videos of your students' performances would be a great way to share with extended family that may or may not be able to attend performances. You could also use it as a resource to keep parents up to date on what is happening in their choral music department and ways they can help them practice at home. For parents who are less musically inclined, if you posted a recording of each of the parts their child is supposed to be learning, they would know what their child is supposed to sound like, at least as far as hitting the right notes.
Updating parents on student performances, etc is a fantastic suggestion. You know how movies have previews or highlights to interest their audience? One idea for your theater group is to put together a few highlights to publish on your school blog to add a different light to advertising for the performance. Also, a cool assignment that integrates technology, have the instrumental students embed their musical piece in a podcast that is appropriate for the choice of song. Or they could get together to create their own podcast with background music, which would be their own. I am not sure if I am clear. Sometimes my imagination gets the best of me. Let me know what you think...
ReplyDeleteOne last thought...
ReplyDeleteBe sure to make it clear to your students that when blogging, they should be sensative to other's feelings and considerate of one other's opinions. I could see some comments or suggestions being posted that could cause harm to someone's sensative feelings, unintentionally.