Transformation Teachers Programme

For the first time I saw how videoing students could backfire. I started recording one of my year 7 groups doing a listening project and had to spend a large amount of the time trying to stop them dancing around like maniacs. Having watched the video back after school it’s actually really funny. Frustrating at the time.

I’m just worried and I’m not sure that I’m doing the right thing for this. ALthough I’m fairly certain that videoing the students dancing insteading listening and talking about music wasn’t what I was supposed to be doing.

Oh well…..

So we’re all back at the CLC and it’s made me realise how little I’ve managed to do over the last couple of weeks.  Of course there’s the excuse… GCSE and A Level revision, coursework deadlines, SATs etc.  There never seems to be enough hours in the day to get everything done.

Still, hopefully things should calm down a bit over the next couple of weeks so my (often inadequate) computer and ICT knowledge will continue to develop a bit faster than a snail slithers up a mountain!

Now, I’ve just got to come up with practical applications for all this stuff.   The video bits are easy enough – especially for music but I’m still not convinced about the blogging applications.  (Should I be admitting that?!)  I suppose I just need to start thinking outside the box slightly and it’s not something I can generally do on a Monday.  Use less I know.

If anyone has any suggestions to get me kick-started please let me know.  Ta

Bit silly testing things at the moment…. but I’ve never uploaded anything onto the blog so that’s what this is. I’m gonna try and upload a picture. Whoo hoo! Easter holidays are a wonderful thing…..

I used an IWB for the first time yesterday. (Isn’t that odd? This is my second year of teaching and it was the first time I used one).
We’ve just started looking at Gamelan music (from Indonesia) with Year 7 and the sounds and instruments are completely alien to them (espeically for a bunch of kids whose sole experience of music revolves around Hip Hop and RnB). Last year it took a couple of lessons before some of the kids were able to listen to the music without saying it was rubbish. This year I actually made a Keynote presentation complete with LOADS of pictures and audio clips to set the scene and give a gentle introduction to the sounds and instruments used. And the kids were so responsive, asking loads of questions – some of them very random but nonetheless.
Keynote is actually easier to use than Powerpoint. Especially adding audio clips. I was seriously impressed. Just need to try adding video next. Might leave that for a little while…. too much too soon.

Actually I made two. Having videoed my Year 8 groups performing their Raps I turned two of them into MTV style videos. It was actually really interesting trying to balance the audio recordings I had of the performances with the audio from the video. (Unfortunately using a microphone properly isn’t in their minds when performing. A whole lot of dancing and moving around doesn’t help capture the vocals all that well. Plus the occassional bit of dodgy language doesn’t help either!)
Anyway, that aside, I made the videos and finally showed them to the group yesterday. The reaction was incredible. At first they were completely mesmerised and obviously wanted copies (Miss, can I show my mum?!) but after the initial impressions they began to evaluate the performances on a level I didn’t receive with just audio recordings. The performance became part of the process and affected the overall mark – they weren’t just looking at the lyrics and the music, the way the students performed became important as well. Was it in keeping with the style? If not why not? How could it be improved?
I’d try and upload one of the videos but I think the file might be too big…. and I’m not actually sure how to make it smaller.

Right, I’ve managed to get my blog up and running. Finally.

I had loads of fun last week with the camera, especially videoing the students performing their RAP projects, and I was really surprised at the effect a camera would have on them. Some of the particularly confident (and over-exhuberant) members of the class became wall flowers when the camera was pointed in their direction. And vice-versa.

Today however, I honestly feel like my brain is turning to mush. There’s so much I don’t know and it’s a really steep learning curve. (There are far too many acronyms!) I’m sure that with a few hours spent messing about (sorry, exploring) all the different programs the confidence will grow. I hope.

THe good thing is that I’ve got loads of ideas – I’m just not sure how to implement them at the moment.

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