Michelle+Kuchta

Michelle's page

After watching Sir Ken Robinson and searching through the other sites, I can say that I am excited and anxious to move forward. I see creativity in the students I teach and know that technology is something they are better at than I am. Creating this wiki needs to be just the first step in challenging the way I communicate with these digital learners.

I enjoyed the Robinson video. It was the second time I had seen it. We shared it in one of our district music meetings. It is so very often that we see a student who struggles in other classes come to life in ours. I loved his line on all subjects being valued. We struggle with this in our scheduling process at our school. Students need to make choices and have few opportunities to use them as many hours are taken up with "required" courses. This sometimes leaves them with no real choice at all.

As he mentioned, the corpus collosum is thicker in women...it is also found to be thicker in musicians. We have to use both sides of the brain to read the music, create the music and explore with music. So interesting.

I also enjoyed the you tube video on wikis. It was also something I had seen part of before...I think my son had to watch it on line as part of an assignment! It is great to see it in use and know that it seems easy enough that even I can do it:)

I also read the "Ways to use Wikis in the Classroom" and "Using Wikis in Schools: a case study." Both were interesting. I was hoping to find more in relation to communication other than signing up for things and scheduling and was dissappointed to not see anything geared directly to music. I will keep searching! I am anxious to learn how they work with communication happening both ways. This class is my only experience this way. All other wikis that I have had access to are locked and can only be viewed.

**Emmy: I find that people are a little reluctant in the beginning to make this the collaborative tool it can be, too afraid of abuse from random people. The reality is that no one ever finds your wiki - it would be a real challenge to actually promote it and get people to read and follow it; my advice is for you to imagine something great and collaborative that you can do with you content area.** Some ways teachers might use a wiki in their classroom...possibilities, concerns, and challenges....

I have wiki sites that I visit for my own children in communication with their teachers. It is more of a site to go to to see posted announcements. I would like mine to be mroe than that. A place to have links to explore different things like recordings of different performers on their instrument, (a good recording to really hear what your instrument could sound like), and pod casts that they could view or listen to that give them ideas to try. Maybe even a podcast that I create that could facilitate their practicing at home.


 * Emmy: Sometimes people start with something close to the known and comfortable (and that's okay!), but i love your idea of using a wiki for interactive communication and collaboration, for extending your presence beyond the classroom. A podcast would be great! **

My concern is the learning how to do these things and the challenge of keeping it fresh and up to date, but the possibilites are so exciting. I love the idea of it being a communication tool in both directions.....students could also post things they find that are appropriate....is there a way to view them first and then share with everyone?

**Tracy: I just realized that with "notify me" I can receive an email when someone has added to the page - I think this will be really helpful!** **Jenny: Thanks for sharing that tip, Tracy. That will be really helpful to know when someone has added to a page.**
 * Emmy: Yes, on any page that is open for members, or students, to contribute, you can approve - let me get back to you on the details for this. **
 * Tracy: Hi Michelle! I too worry about the time to keep things up to date and fresh. As I am thinking about using my wiki, some of these classes already have a BlackBoard piece. At times it would seem like I'm thinking of doing the same thing in two different places, that would be extra work. I love your comment about being able to "approve" of items first. I will check back to see Emmy's comments on this. **

Wow, what a crazy week. I finally had the chance to get online and look at some wiki pages and other resources. After looking at the __Best Educational Wikis__ I was filled with ideas. All of them very lofty! I know I will need to start small, but the ideas were really flowing! I loved the Greetings from the World Wiki. It is a resource for teachers and students to explore and share how life in their culture works. You get to hear right from the people who live there. Wouldn't it be awesome to share music that way too? I have a friend who lives in the Netherlands and it is ironic how our movies are months ahead of them, but our pop music is behind. It would be great for students to explore that pop culture as well as music from different heritages. Folk songs and lullabyes...what a cool thing to learn right from the kids who are living it at the time. Not only talking about it but listening to it and seeing the written page as well.

Tracy: I think that would be very interesting for students. Neat idea! I also looked at the Soar 2 New Heights Wiki. It is for a 4th grade classroom. I liked how it was a little more manageable than something world wide:) and that it wasn't just a tool for communication to parents, but students had their own pages like we do here. How neat would it be for them to post a podcast of their own playing to their page, or be able to link to pldcasts to hear great examples of how their instrument should sound! Not only could it have a page of daily lessons and assignments, but the additional information and experiences as well.

The neatest one, that I think is do-able for me, was a middle school music wiki. It was focused on just history, but it included VOKIs. That was neat! A way to actually speak to your students on line! My focus would not just be music history though. I want the listening aspect to be included somehow.

I also found a very informative Guitar Wiki that my students could access for guitar class. It could be used for study or exploration.

Jenny: I'll have to see if I can find the Guitar Wiki you mentioned since that would likely be good for my guitar students, too! Thanks for the tip!

Wikipedia int he classroom...I guess I was more against it until I read some of these articles and blogs. I am definitely more of a book or paper person. I find the web to be frustrating and overwhelming at times, but when I heard Will Richardson say that Wikipedia is a collaborative constuction of truth, yes their can be lies and mistakes, but studies show it is most accurate...books are out of date byt he time they are published, It is a good tool to teach kids to use as a starting point and work from there...teachable moment on good editing...I started to change my mind. It is the most up to date accessible information, and even if you need to looka t it with a critical mind, isn't that ok? I think students need to be aware that if it is on the web, it is not necessarily true. That was the first warning in "Creating a New Culture Learning". I also found it interesting in that article that the coming attraction could be video cameras in every classroom. It looked like the response so far has been positive, but I am not so sure how middle schoolers will react to being on camera...I can jsut imagine some, and I don't want to feel like the "tot spot" at Festival! haha! I liked how he said we need to honor the knowledge of our teachers and the best information is when he wrote that the big change that is coming is not technology, but relationships....connecting with people and teamwork. Isn't that what we are trying to create? Isn't that what we are all a part of right now just by being in this class? What a cool feeling to be connected in this way to learn about connecting with others in this way:) Cindy, I, too, have found the web to be frustrating and overwhelming at times, probably because I did not grow up with all the technology. With the increase in Virtual schools, I can see a student in Alaska connected with a classroom in Seattle. Someday, will high schools be more like colleges? My daughter is in her senior year of high school and all she needs to graduate is a credit of English. She wants to be done and going on to further her education. Sometimes, it seems to me that schools keep students attending their school to keep the money from the enrollment instead of letting them graduate early.  Tracy: I agree. I think that the whole school structure and funding would really have to change in order with this to succeed. It is cool to think about though.

HOORAY! I figured out the VOKI. CHeck it out!-Mickey