One of my favorite areas is the area of technology. I think it's really exciting to be alive right now, and how our entire world is being connected and transformed so quickly. I'm only 45 years old. When I started teaching in 1989, computers were these big things with green screens, and good for word processing and a few games. Typing was the way official business was done. You took photo film to the store to have it developed, and it was expensive. Long distance calling was a luxury, and cell phones came in these big bags with an antenna on the top; it looked like an electric purse. And, even having a cell phone was very expensive. I still waited for my local paper to arrive in the afternoon to read the news, and I got almost all of my news from Dan Rather on CBS, or Tom Brokaw on NBC, or the like. Going to a library was necessary to research anything. We had card catalogs, the Dewey Decimal System, and those green periodical index books. I remember staying up all night at UNI researching the latest issues of Time and Newsweek in a very painstakingly, sometimes tedious, manner just to write a paper. All of my work, I typed out, and if I made a mistake, I had to use either White-Out, or this eraser thing that looked like a pencil with a brush on top. My music was in the forms of cassette tapes, and records, and if I really wanted to splurge, in the form of CDs. VHS was how we got all of our movies, and if we wanted to watch something, we programmed our VCRs. I had to go to my mailbox at school at least 4 times a day to get messages, and notices. I'd go in the morning when I arrived, mid-morning on my break, after lunch, and check again when I left. The medium of choice between my boss and myself was the post it note or a memo sheet. I still used chalk to write, calculators and a paper grade book, a paper lesson planning book that I used carbon paper to make a copy of my lesson plans, which I turned into my administrator every Monday morning.
As you can see, the world has changed.
Now, I have a desktop computer at home, a laptop computer that goes everywhere with me at work, and my iPod. From any of these devices, I can push a button and get my news, listen to my music, communicate with my boss, research something, prepare a lesson, get the sports scores and play a movie, and if I really wanted to do so, do it all at the same time. Incredible, and my, how CHEAP it has become. It's no secret that schools can pretend to teach using the same methodology, the same medium, and the same materials in today's world. These kids today grew up in this digital age. They are expert at multitasking, and can be very self directed, and are largely unafraid to try anything new. They communicate more often than my generation, and are probably the most tolerant and open minded generation in history. The sky is the limit with these kids. If we want to reach them, that means we need to speak their language. Yes, at times, they will teach us. Fine. Let's place our egos in the drawer, and start asking them questions. They can teach us some things. In turn, we can take their technology, pair it with the things we know (and they don't) and educate these kids; giving them the tools to educate themselves. Let's teach them to be critical, open minded, curious, and to communicate. Let's make them hungry for more. And, who really cares if it shows up on some test score? The last time I looked, test scores didn't matter in real life. What did? Performance, work ethic, creativity, communication, and curiosity.
So, how have I adjusted in my world of teaching music? Here are a few of the things I've used in my classroom in the past few years. Most of which I still use now.
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