This blog is inspired by a band called The Evidence, from a song entitled “of Haves and Have Nots”.

I have mixed emotions about the Common Core and Essential Standards.  On one hand, it’s what I have been doing in the classroom for years: making my course better by inserting science, math, english, etc. into my curriculum.  For me, it’s the only real way to teach music, and to keep the subject viable in the world today.  So, when I began seeing the changes to our curriculum, I got excited.

Then, I began looking at things a little more closely, and I began to get a little worried.  My standards didn’t change too much, just some unnecessary rewording.  It was the addition of the “21st century skills” and holding teachers accountable for a lot of things that we didn’t really couldn’t control.  The inclusion of technology based instruction, even to go as far as include it on our Teacher Evaluation, was a stretch for me to go nationwide.  Not that I disagree with it, because I firmly believe that kids should be able to work in our computerized world.  It’s the mandate that gets me worried.  Here’s why:

Our country, and our state especially, tend to implement a lot of things that look really good on paper.  Things that sound really good when discussed, and things that make parents really happy when it’s printed in the newspaper, or placed in an article on the internet.  The problem is that most places aren’t given the resources to correctly enact the “mandates” that come from above.  And by “resources”, I don’t necessarily mean just the latest and greatest technological equipment.  I mean training and practice on how to use this stuff in the classroom.The results are usually, at least in my observations of numerous years of teaching, are teachers that are forced to use technology in their classrooms in places that it’s not really needed, or use it as a dog and pony show for their observation day, and get the kids really excited, only to have it disappear the next class period.  I had a P.E. teacher this past year on observation day setup up a Powerpoint presentation about the human body, and have the students interactively work with it during gym class.  He had supporting videos, and question and answer sessions during the presentation, and linked it all to how the effect of exercise helped the human body.  In any other situation, this would have probably been a great lesson.  The students however, couldn’t learn anything because they were in awe of the lesson, being it the first, and last time that the teacher ever did something like that in class.  It was observation day.  When asked later why he didn’t do stuff like this all the time, his response was “it took me a week to reserve a projector, computer, and everything needed to do the lesson.  It took me another week to learn to use all the stuff.  The PE dept doesn’t have access to all this stuff on a regular basis, but man I really looked good on observation day!”

This incident, and many, many more that I can speak on, I think drives home my point. 21st century learning goes way beyond technology, and state and national mandates that make you use it aren’t always the best way to go, especially if your teachers do not know how to implement it.  But of course, I could be wrong.  If your school, or department, or whatever, has the means to stay up the latest technology, then you are better than others right?  I mean, when I walk into a school that has laptops bolted onto each desk, and Smartboards plastered on every wall, then that makes them a better school, right?  A teacher that uses technology in every class, everyday, is a better teacher, right?

This blog is brought to you by Kermit the Frog, and his Rainbow Connection.

When I saw the topic of the blog, I must admit that Kermit was the first voice I heard going through my head.  Haha.  The word connection struck me.  Making connections from my summer externship to my classroom.  You know, that’s not too hard, since my externship has directly allowed me to research the field I love most, music.  But the word “connection” rings a lot more to me that what strategies or new apps I can bring back to the classroom, I hope the personal connections that I have made will transfer as well.

Let me start with the obvious:  I have found A TON of new resources for my classroom.  Working for the Home Base resource bank has allowed me to go deep and really dig for new and exciting ways to teach.  Truthfully, I didn’t know there were so many good things out there for music.  I was just so set in my ways, I never looked.  Why mess up a good thing?  Well, for me it is now not about the proverbial “broken thing”, it is about enhancing an already productive experience to make it a higher level of education.  If I’m learning, the kids are learning.  We are connected in the learning process.

Then there are the other “connections”.  I have had an opportunity to meet new people, and connect socially in ways that I don’t usually get to.  Professional development for me is the usual staff meeting on Mondays, or some county stuff at the beginning of the year.  Not much opportunity to learn outside the classroom.  This externship for me has opened new doors for me in the realm of what I can learn, and the relationships that I can build while doing so.  For me, presenting at Summer Institute with DPI was fantastic, and I really “connected” with the other teachers and administrators that were there to learn.  It felt really good to do some good off the podium.  Usually, it’s my kids that have to perform.  This time, it was on me, and it felt as good as my senior recital in college.

The connection I plan to regurgitate to my students the most is the connection of their own learning to the betterment of other people.  When I learn, they learn.  And vice-versa.  I need to show them that they can have that same effect on their peers, families, and generic strangers.  When we strive to be better people, it spreads like a virus, and good can only come out of it.  I challenge you:  stay connected.  With education, with people, and mostly, stay connected with yourself.  That was the one thing that I can honestly say that I’m going to bring back from my externship: a new, renewed sense of self-worth.  I found my “rainbow connection”. What are you bringing back?

Hello folks…… this week’s inspiration comes from a VERY little known band called Deltron 3030…

Leveraging technology in the classroom.  This is this week’s blog topic.  I was waiting for this one.  This is probably going to be my favorite topic all year, because let me announce loud and proud, I LOVE TECHNOLOGY!!!!  I am a sucker for the newest gadget, the coolest looking stuff and the things that I couldn’t have even imagined when I was a kid.  My iPhone, I love it.  My Playstation, I love it!  Don’t even get me started on my iPad, and the fact that I have my ENTIRE CD collection stored on one hard drive……geez, you can’t get any cooler than that.

I think what helps me out in the classroom is that I am a child of two worlds.  I am young enough to still jump on board with the new tech, and not have to call a student or one of my own children to show me how to use it (I can’t tell you how many times I had to set the flashing 12:00 on my mom’s VCR). I Facebook, Tweet, play games on my iPhone, and compose with my computer.  I have embraced technology on the very definition of what it is……anything that makes your life easier.

However, I am also old enough to remember not having this stuff.  A calculator in school was a big freaking deal!!!  Playing “Oregon Trail” ( I know a BUNCH OF YOU  played that on your school’s Apple IIE) was the technological highlight of my middle school days, and being a child of the CD and Computer boom puts me at an advantage of knowing both sides of the fence, and how technology both helps and hurts a student in today’s society.

In my personal experience, the biggest challenge in my career so far with leveraging technology is getting the kids to understand that technology is supposed to “make your life easier”, not run it for you.  Students are so used to instant gratification with EVERYTHING now, that working towards a goal the “old fashioned way” and not having to depend on technology, or their version of it, is a struggle, especially at a school that is WAY behind the curve when it comes to offering students wireless internet access, computers that are up to date, and restrictions about what can and can’t be used in the classroom.  We still don’t let our kids pull out their cell phone in class!!!!  Do you believe that???  How are you supposed to teach a kid how to use a resource when they are told they can’t use it!!!!  That’s like giving a kid a new Mustang and saying, “now you know you can’t drive it right?”

But I digress….I was born into an emerging world of technology, and still think that music needs to be printed on paper, kids need to be able to do math with out a calculator, and that some things just need to remain PRIVATE (I’m looking at you Facebook and Twitter).  I carry a flash drive, but still back up all my grades in an old fashioned Gradebook, because you never know. I love my Keurig, but I still know how to brew coffee on a stovetop. Live music is so much better than and MP3, and a computer doesn’t need to think for me.  But that doesn’t mean we don’t use all of the above resources to teach!  Advancing tech is not going away, in fact, it gets a little scarier everyday.  It is up to us to leverage the use in our classroom.  I have always found that a mix of new and old is always the best way to go.  What happens when the internet goes out?? (and it does everyday at my school). What happens when the batteries go dead,and what happens when there is no cell reception?  To the kids, this is panic time!!!  But to us, it’s Plan B.  We as teachers need to have a plan B, so we can teach the students to have a Plan B.  Plan B is what keeps us going in the “not so advantaged” school classrooms, and Plan B is what will save a lot of our students when technology fails, as it always does at some point.

Remember, technology is supposed to help, not hinder.  So in the words of Deltron 3030, “devise a virus” and “revert back to papyrus!”  Teach both the old and the new.  Cause most of us in the “Dual Age” as I like to call it, turned out just fine. Can you say the same about your students 10 years from now?