Thing 8

I can use https://bubbl.us/ to make bubble diagrams for learning in my music classroom. I think this is a great way to incorporate visual learning into our subjects. Here is a screenshot of a bubble that I created on this website.

I also used http://www.wordle.net/create to create a world collage. 

These two programs are great for getting students to be creative and expressive in class! These programs are easy to use and create a project very fast! Even students that are not great artistically can create something that they can be proud of. I would like to use these to decorate my room. We could also use these programs to develop fliers for their upcoming performances and I could use the wordle program to have students describe how they feel about a certain piece of music or how they would describe a genre of music. This is definitely something I will be using!

Thing 6

Differentiated Instruction:

As teachers, we must always find ways to differentiate our curriculum to meet the needs of a vast variety of students. For example, I teach a special needs group for music twice a week. These students learn the same music concepts as others, but I teach it to them in a different way. I find ways to teach them concepts that are visual and hands on. We spend more time on the concepts and those that are ahead will lead others.

I have special needs students that are also mainstreamed into my music classes. If these children fall behind in a category, such as recorder, I pull in the advanced students to help tutor them. This helps both students. One gets special attention and the other gets to practice being a teacher.

I have activities or harder music that my advanced students can practice so that they are also challenged in my classroom. I try to meet the needs of both the advanced learner and the special needs student while bringing along the average learner as we step through the curriculum.

Technology can help me to differentiate learning. The website: http://www.wested.org/cs/tdl/print/docs/tdl/home.htm is a great site for teachers to get ideas about using technology to enhance learning with audio and visual tools.

I could use the image enhancer to make text larger for my visually impaired students. I used to blow up the worksheets or music that I was using before by using the copy machine. The technology will make this better and easier.

I could use the video/images to help integrate current and past knowledge for learners who have trouble making connections between curriculum.

I could also use this website: http://udlstrategies.wikispaces.com/. This website has multiple resources for teachers. I found a link to this website, http://www.collegeathome.com/blog/2008/06/10/100-helpful-web-tools-for-every-kind-of-learner/ and this website has an article called 100 Helpful Web Tools for Every Kind of Learner. This article helps teachers decide which type of learning is best for the individual needs of their students. Some may learn best from doing a lab experiment, while others answer test questions better. Being a music teacher, some of these things do not apply to me, but it does give me ideas about how to differentiate my assessing and teaching styles.

I also learned how to use the free text to audio technology called VOZme. Here is a screenshot of my typing:

I could use VOZme to help students who need to hear instructions when I am not there to read it to them. This can help reinforce learning through both audio and visual.

These tools will be valuable in my teaching!