C4Ta Post 1

In regards to Kathleen Morris's blog, Primary Tech, I found it a bit lacking with her most recent post (January 2014).  Mrs. Morris addresses the fact that she will not be actually teaching this school year due to maternity leave. She states that although she will not be a "producer", she will gladly be a consumer and still be connected with the education community through the use of online resources. The author pointed out that without technology, she would not be able to stay "in the loop" with the advances in the field of teaching. Since the blog has not been updated in five months, I decided to explore older postings that Mrs. Morris provided concerning the idea of starting a blog. In 2012, she composed an article, Five Steps to Starting a Class Blog, that emphasized the benefits in having a blog for your students to follow. Her outline consisted of choosing your platform, finding support, setting the guidelines, introducing your blog to parents, and finally, introducing your blog to the students. Before giving further details concerning how to start a blog, Mrs. Morris presented various items to ensure blogging would enhance a student's education, including the video below:

Blogging can assist a child with writing their thoughts down in an effective manner. Students can develop better grammatical skills and use peer editing. One thing that I found very interesting is that a student stated they liked to blog because they could "talk to other people from different countries". When I taught through the symphony's outreach program, I was constantly encouraging my students to explore other genres of music. I wanted to expose my students to different beliefs, sounds, and cultures through music. Whether we watched women perform "water drumming" in Africa or learned the correct rhythm, melody, and text to "Frère Jacques", my goal was to have my students experience life outside of the US.

I definitely will have my students keep a blog, either individually or with a group, to assist in the comprehension of the different cultures that surround music and what techniques they all use. Before reviewing Primary Tech, I never thought that the use of this technology could be incorporated in a music classroom. With the use of global connections, I can share with my students the various ideologies and techniques about music from around the world. I am already researching ideas for this philosophy of teaching.