Building a PLN for the Here and Now

The assignment for this week (or was it last?):

1. Create a Twitter account (if you don’t already have one- if you have one, you can use that). 

• Done.  Actually, been “tweeting” since the beginning of Twitter.  I ping pong back and forth between being a “Mommy blogger” Twitter user and an #EDCHAT user.  My followers and who I follow has changed since I started using it quite a bit.

2. Find at least 5 people to follow that will help support you in your project – people you can learn from – they have to be people outside of the Spring Lake Park Community.

• Shelly S. Terrell @ShelTerrell - A freelance teacher trainer, now working out of Stuttgart Germany and #edchat co-founder
• Jana Scott Lindsey @Mollybmom – An instructional consultant our of Saskatoon
• Sue Scheff @SueScheff – A parent and parent advocate that talks a lot about bullying and creating personalized relationships in schools
• Dr. Josef Pisano @pisanojm - A professor in Pittsburgh who works in Music Technology and started the #MusicPLN
• Jose Vilson @THEJLV - a teacher, math coach and author that talks about personalized relationships specifically with students of color.

3. Do a search for blogs (not wikis or NINGs) about the topic you learning more about – find at least 3 blog posts that support your learning. 

• 
  http://thejosevilson.com/2010/07/22/5-misconceptions-about-education-cleared/
   - Really nice editorial piece about the 5 misconceptions about education.  Talks about the racial disparity between teachers and the classrooms they teach to.
• 
  http://musicedtech.wordpress.com/2010/07/02/boost-rehearsal-attendance-for-community-school-performing-ensembles/
   - Published on the Music Tech blog, written by Barbara Freeman.  Talks about increasing accountability and rehearsal attendance in performance ensembles.
• And then there is this:
  http://musiced.about.com/od/blogs/tp/MusicEducationBlogs.htm
   It’s a list put together my Dr. Pisano talking about 100 great music education blogs.  He put his own blog at #1.  I went through 40 blogs there.  They talk about a particular band program or a particular focus on technology, but they don’t talk about how to get kids to read music faster, sight-read more efficiently, keep students in band who are struggling with their core classes, creating playing opportunities for students outside of the school building, etc.  The topics aren’t there.  As far as I can tell the discussion isn’t either. 

 I have noticed this and researched it for the better part of a year.  Its speaks to the isolation that many fine arts teachers feel.  Its talks about the need for teachers and directors (if you see a difference in terminology) to talk about MORE than just their craft, or the ways that they get things done and move into ways of meeting student need.  Ways of not JUST creating a performing ensemble that achieves at top levels, but creating music learners that have a variety of skills.

4. Post a question or reply to at least one of the blogs.

 I didn’t find a place to post on a Music Education blog – and it’s not from lack of trying.  I have been reading quite a bit about how to incorporate language about race being a social construct in my classrooms.  I read Love Isn’t Enough (formerly Anti-Racist Parent) which is edited and contributed to by Tami Winfrey Harris.

http://loveisntenough.com/2010/07/02/ask-lie-how-do-i-teach-my-child-that-race-is-a-social-construct/

Reflection?  By high school, students should understand through a variety of ways that race is a social construct.  The vocabulary and history that accompanies racism in the United States is well talked about throughout Social Studies classes and can easily be incorporated, even in a music class.

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