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Edublog AwardsApr
22
Not all students like using the digital technology. Now What?
Filed Under Blogging in and out of the Classroom | 2 Comments
Most of my students really like the classroom blog and all the digital technology I’ve put into the course, most but not all. A few students tell me they hate it. I have been struggling to find a way to engage those few. At first, I thought they hated it because they didn’t know how to use it so I sat with them and helped them on a one on one basis. But that didn’t seem to help much.
I’m not sure why they don’t take to the new technology like a duck to water, but I’m thinking it has to do with their capacity to deal with frustration when there’s a problem. They can’t seem to handle much. When I talk about perseverance, their eyes glaze over. they tell me they hate computers. So for the next unit, I’m going to print out the material on the links for those kids who hate to use computers, and I’ll just let the kids choose whether to go on line or to use my handouts. I haven’t done this before so I’ll let you know what happened. Has anyone found a way to engage students who are reluctant to use the new technology. I’m a bit frustrated myself.
Apr
15
Graphic Organizer- K. W. L. Q. organizer
Filed Under Graphic Organizers, List of Graphic Organizers | 2 Comments
I don’t think you can have too many graphic organizers in your teacher tool kit so I’m always on the look for new ones- at least new to me ones. I came across this one and I want to share it with you. It’s an extension of the K.W.L. organizer I’ve been using. You know the one that asks-
K- what do you know about the topic
W- what do you want to know about the topic
L- what have you learned about the topic
The extended version asks
Q- questions I still have about the topic.
I like this extension of the original.
I’ve created a handout for you to use. Feel free to adapt it to suit your needs. kwlq-chart I hope you find it useful.
Apr
12
Research about the benefits of listening to music in the classroom leads to optimism
Filed Under music in the classroom | 37 Comments
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I think I can safely say that we know from personal experience that music affects our bodies and our minds. Listening to music relaxes us, energizes us, comfort us, keeps us company, help us celebrated and even helps marks special occasions. I think I can also safely say that we know the music we like to listen to at any given time varies from person to person and situation to situation. Sometimes I like to listen to Jazz, sometimes I like to listen to The Blues and other times want to to listen to Baroque or even Country Music. It all depends on the situation, how I’m feeling and what I’m doing.
I thought I could safely say that listening to music in the classroom helps students be more productive, so I did say that in several posts that I wrote here, some dating back to September 23, 2006. There’s so much interest in this topic. It’s a really hot topic on my blog. Everyday people visit my blog to read what I’ve said about the effects of listening to music in the classroom. In fact, at this very moment as I write this post I see that someone from Englewood Ohio, someone from San Fransisco,California, someone from Hampton Virginia and someone from Augusta, Maine has dropped in to check out what I’ve said on the topic. Why all this interest? I guess now that MP3 players have come down in price so much making them more affordable, more students are bringing them to the classroom wanting to listen to their favourite music while they work on their lessons, and teachers and parents are wondering if it’s OK to let students listen to music while doing their school work.
I’ve gotten lots of feedback, and I’d like to thank people for that. How else will I know what people think, if they don’t tell me. So please keep telling me. I’ve had students tell me that listening to music helps them work. I’ve had teachers tell me that when they let their students listen to music in the classroom, the students work better. That feedback supports my experience in the classroom. It’s a good thing that people take the time to leave comments and ask questions because I also got feedback from people who say that they can’t listen to music and do their work at the same time. The music distracts them. Now, I wouldn’t have known this because I like listening to music when I work. I’ve also been asked if I had scientific research to support the contention that music facilitates learning. I’ve had to say no that I didn’t actually have scientific research to support this, just my own experience.
Given the request for scientific research to back my contention, and given the fact that listening to music in the classroom is such a hot topic, a controversial one at that, I thought that I would see what the research said. Now, I have to say up front that my search was not an exhaustive one. With all due respect, this isn’t a master’s thesis. It’s just my blog, and I’m telling you the way I see it from my vantage point of a classroom teacher. But, I was interested enough to spend several hours seeing what I could find. I did find some research that supports my contention that music facilitates learning, especially the learning of students who manifest the ADHD type symptoms of having difficulty staying focused on the task at hand, of being easily distracted, of fidgeting excessively, or having to get up frequently and move about.That was exciting. I see these behaviours in my classroom all the time. I even behave like that some times. I can’t sit for long without fidgeting or getting up out of my seat. I’m terrible when I go to the movies or to theatre. I’m forever squirming about while other people sit still as a stone. I don’t know how they do it. I have to move. I guess I’m blessed with twitchy muscles or something.
Ok, back to the research. I came across a paper by Daniel Reitz and Dr. Partricia Chiodo (May 4, 2006). They cites studies done by F. F. Cripe (1986) , L. Morton, J. Keshner and L. Seigel 1990) that conclude that music has a beneficial effect on students
music with a prominent beat stimulates an increased arousal in students which overrides the effect of environmental distractors…repetitive beat produces a reduction in muscle tension, thus reducing hyperactivity… (there was) significant reduction in distractability among students after being exposed to music. Short term memory was also beneficially affected by having to listened to music
Although Reitz and Chiodo conclude that listening to music promotes academic success , they suggest that further research is needed as these conclusions were based on the results from a study of a small number students and surveys completed by students themselves.
Nina Jackson In her article “Music and the MInd” suggests that although more research needs to be done, we can be cautiously optimistic about the potential benefits of listening to music to motivate students, improve concentration and study skills. She supports the use of music in the classroom. In fact, she calls music the new teaching tool for the 21st century. I guess her point is that any thing that’s as powerful as music, should be used to help students. She says
Music plays with your state of mind as the electrical energy generated by firing neurons creates brain waves. The music a person chooses to listen to can influence the waves’ frequency, and their state of mind. It’s not only the mind that is influenced by music, the body also responds. Musical messages travel down the spinal cord, impacting the autonomous nervous system that regulates the heart rate, blood pressure, muscular activity, metabolism, and other vital functions…
Energizing music can make your brain exercise longer and harder. It increases speed and workload capacity … music with a strong steady beat can increase endurance, boost effort level, increase motivation and distract from discomfort and agitation.
Boost effort, increase motivation and distract from comfort and agitation? That’s what I want for my students. That’s what will help them learn.
I guess Jackson who is Head of Music at a school in South Wales would see the effect of music on students all the time and would have far more anecdotal evidence than I do to support the positive effects of listening to music while learning. Although she suggests specific pieces of music to listen to for specific results, I usually just let student choose their own music. The only thing I suggest is that they listen to music that they’re very familiar with. I read this recommendation once many years ago. I’m sorry I don’t remember where or I’d share the source with you. Supposedly, listening to very familiar music isn’t distracting because you know it so well.
Now in closing, let me say this: Given the limited amount of scientific research there is about the benefits of listening to music in the classroom, I guess the most I should say about the whole thing is that I’m cautiously optimistic. But, my non scientific day to day experience with students and music in the classroom doesn’t make me want to be cautiously optimistic. It wants me to be wildly optimistic. I know that some people can’t work listening to music. They’ve told me that much. That’s OK. So here’s what I propose. Until more research is done and either proves or disproves that music facilitates learning, let’s let students decide if music helps them learn or not. They know. They can tell you. Just ask. If they think it does, then let’s encourage them to listen to music while working. If they think music doesn’t, then let’s let them pass on listening to music. We’re always looking for ways to motivate student, to engage students so if music is the way let’s go for it.
Here are some other articles I wrote on music in the classroom that you might find interesting
Listening to Music Helps Students Be More Productive in The Classroom
The music in the classroom debate continues
Apr
6
Twitter and Diijo have the potential to be useful tools in and out of the classroom.
Filed Under Blogging in and out of the Classroom | 2 Comments
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OK, I know last week I said this week’s post was going to be about the research that supports my contention that listening to music in the classroom can facilitate learning. But, I got side tracked by Twitter and Diigo.What’s Twitter? What’s Diigo? As some of you already already know, Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that operates on the KISS principle- Keep It Simply Simple. I love Twitter because of that. Twitter forces me to keep my text messages or “tweets” as they are called to 140 characters. That’s less than a couple of lines. cool.
When I first learned about Twitter, I thought what the heck would I use that for. That was before I spent some time following the “tweets” of various people. I realized that Twitter was a great place to learn about new things and get help when I needed. I asked a question about something and lo and behold someone left a tweet for me telling me where I could get more info. I think that Twitter could be a really useful tool for teachers to use. It’s free, too. All the better. Teachers could ask questions, share info, give support etc all in less than two lines . I’ve been following the tweets of other people, people whose blogs I’ve read but really don’t know but admire their because of their expertise, their creativity, their sense of humour etc. Now, I can follow their tweets and learn all kinds of things from them and maybe even share some things they might find useful. You just never know.
How does Twitter work? Basically, I can choose to follow people and read their messages, and they can choose to follow me and read my messages. I wouldn’t necessarily get to see the replies to the messages from people I don’t follow. That could be an advantage if I was following the tweets of people who had lots of followers or who were following lots of people themselves. There are different settings or different options so there is choice. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see which options I want. I’ve just started to build the list of people I want to follow. I think I’ll start with the people whose blogs I like reading, and if they’ve joined Twitter, I’ll follow their tweets. As usual, I don’t have time to do everything that I want , so I’ll just add to the list gradually. There’s no big hurry.
I’m still just learning how to use Twitter most effectively. I’ve got the basics down, but I’m sure there’s lots more to be learned. Sue Waters at Edublogger explains how she uses Twitter. Sue’s one of the people I follow on Twitter because she’s so helpful in explaining what’s new and how best to use it. A while ago, I asked her some technical questions about adding something to my blog , and she was most helpful. I recommend that when you get a moment go to the Edublogger’s site and check out Sue’s article oabout Twitter as well as the many other articles she’s written. Her graphics are wonderful for visual learners like me.
Now, if you remember I had two distractions this week. One was Twitter and the other one was Diigo. Diigo caught my eye because someone mentioned it on Twitter. I can’t remember who. It might have even been Sue. I wondered what it was , so I went and checked it out and found that it could be a very useful for doing research because it lets you highlight text on web pages and even add stickies with your comments. I do that now with a highlighter and a pencil in the margins so this was right up my alley, and get this , if you do your research using Diigo you can access your notes from any PC, any where you can access the net. Perfect. Diigo even lets you create user groups to pool resources. I think this would be a very useful tool for students. Students could collaborate on group assignments. Teachers could collaborate to create lesson plans or units. We don’t have to be sitting at the same table to get things done.
As with Twitter, I’m just learning how to use Diijo more effectively. Both these programs have lots of potential as tools to help students and teachers. I see me teaching my students how to use these programs. I see me using these programs myself to help me work more effectively. It’s amazing what’s available on-line. I guess the thing to do is to try these programs and other programs that are available on-line to see if you’d find them useful and then keep an eye out for the creative ways other people find them useful. I know that’s what I’m going to do. I hope to see your tweets on Twitter. 
Update
My school board has just blocked Twitter for the new 2008 school year. (:
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