Week 1 Blog

-

  

Part I: Introduction

 My name is Daniel Shane Burke and I am the vocal music and theatre teacher at Coeburn Middle School and Eastside High School in Coeburn, VA. I am also the VHSL Theatre coach for Eastside High School.  Since I began coaching in 2014, my team has won nine consecutive VHSL state championships in theatre. I also coached forensics at Eastside High School for five years, three of which, Eastside won the VHSL state championship in forensics. I direct the spring productions at both of my schools and sponsor All-County Choir events at Coeburn Middle School annually. I regularly volunteer at the Lyric Theatre in St, Paul, VA, providing direction services and workshops for students in musical theatre, audition preparation, and beginning music-reading. 

    I am currently pursuing a master's degree from Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Education: Curriculum and Instruction with a concentration in theatre with expected completion in Summer, 2024.

It is my goal to pursue an arts administration certificate after the completion of my master's degree. I am very interested in curriculum development and arts administration positions.


Part II: ISTE Standard/VA SOLs

    1.5.b (Data Sets) asks "...students to collect data or identify relevant data sets, use digital tools to analyze them, and represent data in various ways to facilitate problem-solving and decision-making (International Society for Technology in Education, 2023)."

VA Music SOL HMT.13 (c) could be addressed by students creating data sets of new rhythmic units (half note/rest and whole note/rest and collecting preliminary information about them by using lesson 11 of notes/rhythms on musictheory.net. (Virginia Department of Education, 2022) Students would only access this lesson after first being introduced to the rhythmic units face-to-face. Students could then use musicca.com rhythm reading exercises to hear, perform, and analyze the new rhythm units in simple rhythmic examples. Students could use canva.com to create a digital music note tree/infographic that they can revisit as they learn new rhythmic units. 


Part III: Reading Insights

    In her book Learning First, Technology Second in Practice, Liz Kolb emphasizes the importance of interactive media when examining screen time and learning (2020). The musicca.com activity described above requires students to engage with the media by listening to a steady beat and using the spacebar to correctly execute rhythmic units in simple examples. This activity is interactive and provides feedback to students in real-time. The online music notation software described above, noteflight.com, also allows students to engage with the material by selecting from a palette of music notes and creating their own rhythmic examples. Students can click the correct music note and input it into musical staff and the software provides feedback as to whether the rhythmic units will fit into the measure based on the time signature selected. The Canva activity described above allows students to create a digital graphic that they can revisit and engage with throughout the school year as they learn new rhythmic units. These are the types of engaging, interactive activities that Kolb describes as the best choices for positive learning outcomes (2020). It is important to note that all of these activities would take place only after the students had been introduced to the new rhythmic units face-to-face. Kolb emphasizes the importance of never letting software introduce new concepts (2020).

                                                                       

                                                                                               References

International Society for Technology in Education. (2023). ISTE Standards: For Students. ISTE. https://iste.org/standards/students

Kolb, L. (2020). Learning First, technology second in practice: New Strategies, research and tools for Student Success. International Society for Technology in Education.

Virginia Department of Education. (2022). Fine arts standards of learning music theory. Fine Arts Standards of Learning: Music Theory. https://www.doe.virginia.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/2032/637949943134000000


Comments

  1. David W. FinneyOctober 21, 2023 at 10:04 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. David W. FinneyOctober 21, 2023 at 10:07 AM

    Working with high school students is so rewarding. The world needs leaders that truly care about students and their needs. (I deleted the previous comment, which was the same as this one because I was trying to change my title so that there was no confusion, but gave up. I am an adjunct professor of English at a community college in OKC, and this is my title on Google. So there's that.)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 2 Blog

-
Part I:      Authentic Intellectual Work is not concerned with a student's superficial comprehension of academic concepts but more with the value of these concepts outside of school, students' ability to construct knowledge to solve unique problems by using existing knowledge, and their in-depth understanding and ability to extensively communicate that understanding. The nature of this work is connected to the work of successful adults and the value of their work in the professional world. What stood out to me most in the reading was the emphasis on in-depth understanding and the importance for students to be able to display this knowledge both through communication but also through problem-solving ( Newmann et al., 2007).      In the fast-paced, assessment-obsessed public school culture it is seemingly impossible to create the type of learning experiences described in the reading. With increased pressure on teachers to provide instruction that leads to pas...
Read more

Week 5 Blog

-
  K-12 online lesson alignment to the principles of UDL: the Khan Academy  SUMMARY The article begins with a discussion of the growing number of students and parents from all states opting for fully online or blended learning. (Smith & Harvey, 2014) With this article being written in 2014, I imagine that the numbers have only increased because of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors go on to state that all types of learners are involved in this increase of numbers including students with disabilities and at-risk students. They also provide sources that suggest the potential of online learning to “transform student learning and outcomes through flexible content and instructional delivery” (Smith & Harvey, 2014, p.223). After defining the terminology describing accessibility in their study, the authors go on to introduce the Universal Design for learning (UDL), a broadly accepted framework. which offers “a general blueprint for considering how instructional ...
Read more