FV_Option #1

PLE6_Flash

The following is an animation that I created using Adobe Flash. I imported to the stage some clip art that I received from www.clipart.com. From there, I simply used the timeline and motion editor to add the “bounce in” ease to the soccer ball as it bounces across the animation. This is my first animation, which was rather simple.

PLE5_Flash

One of the great features of Flash includes being able to edit and manipulate bitmap images. I will demonstrate this by using the flower jpeg from the exercise files included as part of the membership on www.lynda.com. I began by importing the jpeg onto the stage and then selecting modify-break apart. Afterwards, I was free to edit the photo using the lasso tools.

This first photo demonstrates the magic wand tool. The magic wand tool selects any color that is continuous and highlights the selection for edit. I simply waited moved the pedals just a little off their original position. This tool is probably the most efficient if solid colors are continuous throughout the image.

This second photo shows me using the polygon tool. This tool allows you to “lasso” the particular part of the image that you want to highlight by creating small segments. This tool provides you with quite a bit of control; although obviously, the smaller the segments the more accurate the selection.

This third photo illustrates how the lasso tool itself works. This tool is perhaps the least effective if you are wanting an exact selection simply because it is one continuous “lasso” and is based off of how steady your movement is on the mouse pad. Regardless, this tool is effective for a quick “lasso” or selection. By watching the tutorials on www.lynda.com, I have learned extensively how to use these three tools and I know have a good understanding of how they work in Flash.

PLE4_Flash

This week, I decided to tackle Flash, or at least the beginning portion of the tutorials on www.lynda.com. I focused on Google docs for my first practical learning experience last week based on the fact that we will be using this platform extensively for next month’s course. In the same manner, I wanted to become familiar with Flash because we will be using it in month six.

At this point, I have worked through the first few chapters of the tutorials understanding how to create and draw basic shapes, utilize all of the features on the properties toolbar and tools toolbar, and how layers work and can be grouped and renamed. Here are a few pictures of the tutorials I have watched and a screenshot of me working with the exercise files.

This tutorial showcased how to use the eyedropper tool.

This exercise was focused on the using the free transform tool and the color swatches.

The exercise and tutorial showed me how to use the alignment features.

W4_Reading

Integrating Music and Children’s Literature

Calogero, J. (2002). Integrating Music and Children’s Literature. Music Educators Journal, 88(5), 23. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

This week I continued with my reading by selecting four articles specifically related to this music and literacy connection. The first article was entitled, “Integrating Music and Children’s Literature” written by Joanna Calogero, an arts educator in southern New York. Calogero makes it rather clear from the onset that music and literature plays an integral role in helping students learn different ways that ideas and emotions can be expressed creatively. In fact, she goes as far as to say that music helps in allowing students to “make sense of their world and their place in it.” She shares that teachers, rather than isolating each subject, are working to cross disciplines so that connections are made. It is quoted, “Language arts, however, that forms the catalyst binding all the content areas.”

For any teacher, this is a task that requires at least two important parts. First, it requires organization. Calogero suggests going through all of the available music and literature resources and organizing them by themes. It seems that the most practical and efficient way for this connection to take place is by using a thematic approach.

To help with this organization, Calogero offers eight musical categories to organize books.

1. Books that are songs (e.g., “Yankee Doodle” and the “Eensy Weensy Spider”)

2. Songbooks

3. Books in which the important of music is the theme

4. Books, either fictional or nonfictional, about composers or musicians

5. Books, either fictional or nonfictional, about instruments or other musical concepts

6. Books with a natural rhythm, including poetry and picture books with strong patterns or rhythmic sense

7. Books in which aspects of music are included, but are not primary to the story

To conclude her article, she offers an in-depth look at a unit on animals, as well as providing an extensive list of books for classroom use.

Children’s Literature in the Music Classroom: Finding the Music Within

Gauthier, D. (2005). Children's Literature in the Music Classroom: Finding the Music Within. Music Educators Journal, 91(3), 51-56. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

The second article was by Delores Gauthier, an associate professor of music education at Western Michigan University entitled, “Children’s Literature in the music Classroom: Finding the Music Within.” Gauthier clearly pinpoints the value of reading. She says, “Reading to students aids in the understanding of story structure, broadens familiarity with different styles of books, and helps to increase vocabulary. Book language is often different from spoken language, and reading allows students to hear different ways of expressing thoughts.” She later parallels this with how books help the music curriculum, as well. She writes, “Books can help students understand musical structure, become aware of different styles of music, and develop a musical vocabulary and musical skills.”

With this said, Gauthier cautions that it is important to find just the right book. To continue this thought, she offers three suggestions. First, she says that selecting the right book is all about “finding the music within.” The idea here is that some books may not necessarily be written to help students understand musical concepts, but they might be rhythmic nature or could be easily set to a melody. Second, remain open minded about all kinds of books. Third, a book may be useful at various age levels.

The rest of the article focused on various books and their connection with various musical concepts including Barnyard Banter by Denise Fleming, Do You See A Mouse? by Bernard Waber and others.

Using Music to Support the Literacy Development of Young English Language Learners

Paquette, K., & Rieg, S. (2008). Using Music to Support the Literacy Development of Young English Language Learners. Early Childhood Education Journal, 36(3), 227-232. doi:10.1007/s10643-008-0277-9.

The third article by Paquette and Rieg focuses on how music and literacy help English language learners. The article opens with a story that concludes with this statement, “Children’s music is not always like adult music.” This statement is very powerful and thought provoking, to say the least. The point is this—despite a teacher’s level of expertise or musical training every teacher needs to foster creativity through music within his or her classroom.

The authors mention that the first experiences for a child with patterned text usually occur through songs, chants and rhymes. Many children’s songs are repetitive in nature, which obviously allows students the opportunity to hear words over and over again.

It is suggested that songs can be used “to teach a variety of language skills, such as sentence patterns, vocabulary, pronunciation, rhythm, and parts of speech. Prosodic features of the language—stress, rhythm, and intonation—can be presented through song as well.”

In regards to fluency, “paired or partner reading, echo reading, choral reading and phrasing are four instruction strategies often used to improve reading fluency.” These four strategies are connected with music and Paquette and Rieg make it rather clear how they can be implemented. This was perhaps the most beneficial portion for this article seeing that my action research is directed at fluency.

Enhancing learning through multiple intelligences.

Özdemir, P., Güneysu, S., & Tekkaya, C. (2006). Enhancing learning through multiple intelligences. Journal of Biological Education, 40(2), 74-78. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

The final article expands the idea of music interventions to all of Gardner’s multiple intelligences. In fact, this article shares a study conducted with two fourth grade classes where one was instructed utilizing all of the multiple intelligences and the other focused on more traditional methods.

Gardner suggests that the verbal-linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligences seem to have dominated the traditional teaching. However, the other six intelligences, of which music is one, are normally overlooked.

One of the most intriguing aspects of this article was how the dominant intelligences for students seemed to change throughout their school years. The authors give an in-depth look at which intelligences were the highest at the elementary, middle and high school years.

This article has helped me think through the organization and set-up of my own study and how the data will be collected, as well. Needless to say, this week’s reading has been extremely helpful.

All visuals contained in this blog were obtained from www.flickr.com/creativecommons/ with Attribution License in Creative Commons.

BP12_OMM_Skype

This is my one minute message about the Web 2. 0 tool Skype!

W3_Reading

The Link Between Music and Literacy

Chappell, J. (2008). The Link Between Music and Literacy. Teaching Music, 15(5), 46. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

The connection between music and literacy is rather strong, according to Chappell. Educators are working to establish this link and have highlighted some of the parallels between the two disciplines. Dee Hansen, author of “The Music and Literacy Connection, as quoted by Chappell says, “Literacy means to read and write. But beyond that, it’s comprehending symbols and interpreting visual and auditory images, not limited to reading words.” He continues by offering the similarities, “Most basic skills used in text reading, or decoding—the breaking of the visual code of symbols into sounds—find parallels in musical reading. Instrumentalists and vocalists read music symbols. In choral music, one must additionally read text or lyrics as they correspond to the musical symbols.”

There are stages of learning, each of which has elements of both reading and music:

• Phonological awareness (the ability to discriminate between sounds, like high vs. low or loud vs. soft)
• Phonemic awareness (understanding the smallest units of language and sound)
• Sight identification (recognizing high-utility words or common music symbols by glancing at them)
• Orthographic awareness (the use of letters and other symbols in a writing system or musical language)
• Cueing systems awareness (the context of the phrases or sentences and musical setting
• Fluency (clear expression of ideas, effortless music performance)

Although music can obviously act as an intervention the caution is that music is a discipline of its own and should not be solely used as a “music-helps-you-do-English-and-math-better philosophy.”

Structured English Immersion in the Music Classroom: Music Instruction for Crossing Borders

Cooper, S., & Grimm-Anderson, S. (2007). Structured English Immersion (SEI) in the Music Classroom: Music Instruction for Crossing Borders. General Music Today, 20(2), 20-24. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

This article dealt strictly with students whose primary language is not English; however, many of the same elements used to teach these students carry over to the learning we want to take place in our literacy classes.

The question that Cooper and Grimm-Anderson answer is, “How do music teachers and other arts specialists address this dilemma [educating those who struggling with the English language]?”

The following are some key points of advice from these authors:

• Incorporate visuals
• Students will first work to understand what is being said before they will acquire the ability to speak the new language
• Create a low-risk environment
• Incorporate word walls and living walls
• Understand that the first step to learning a language is listening
• Utilize finger plays
• Use pictures to accompany phrases
• Make sure to allow ample wait time
• Review key concepts and vocabulary consistently

Making Music, Reaching Readers

D'Agrosa, E. (2008). Making Music, Reaching Readers. General Music Today, 21(2), 6-10. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

The arts enhance learning. This is the simply the premise of D’Agrosa’s article. Eric Jensen is quoted by D’Agrosa as saying, The arts “enhance and motivate other learning. The systems they nourish, which include our integrated sensory, attentional, cognitive, emotional, and other motor capacities, are, in fact, the driving forces behind all other learning.” So how does this work? D’Agrosa argues that it can only happen if the classroom educator and the music educator collaborate intentionally. The following are some suggestions for this to work:

• Give time, energy and creativity
• Understand the vocabulary of each discipline
• Learn how the skills of each discipline are connected
• Develop an intentional plan of delivery for each of the skills

Components of Reading & their Musical Connections

• Phonological awareness is “a multilevel skill of breaking down words into smaller units.” In music, students could identify and create oral rhymes, with one such example being, “Twinkle, twinkle little star.”
• Awareness of Phonemes is understanding the smallest units of sound. The music teacher can aid in this by looking at nonsense sounds and vocal exploration activities.
• Syllabification is obviously understanding that words are broken down into syllables, which is taught in the music classroom through the reading of rhythms. An example that is suggested is one of Eric Carle’s books called, “Today is Monday.” For instance, the reading teacher could read the book and have students brainstorm foods that could be eaten on any day of the week. Then, the music teacher could take those words and create a rhyme before having the students perform them with movement and non-pitched instruments.
• Fluency is simply the ability to read a text correctly and quickly. Also, this normally includes reading it effortlessly and with expression. Reading and singing through “Miss Mary Mack” with a sense of fluidity would be a connection for the music teacher.
• Vocabulary refers to words we know to communicate. The intentional connection is to demonstrate vocabulary knowledge through active participation.
• Comprehension is simply understanding what is read. For the music teacher, create context and help students construct meaning for the songs that they sing.

Literacy and Art in the Music Class

Kenney, S. (2009). Literacy and Art in the Music Class. General Music Today, 22(3), 25-28. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

In this article, the author had a chance to visit some elementary music schools in Moscow, Russia. There were two enlightening strategies that these schools were utilizing. First, there was a strong music and art connection. In fact, time was given to students to illustrate songs that they learned in music class or masterpieces were paired up with a song. For example, “Clap your Hands,” was linked with Van Gogh’s painting, “Two Hands.” The second discovery was what they called a “book basket.” Each student was given a blank book (simply an 8 ½ by 11 inch paper folded into 8 rectangles) where they could create a picture for each phrase of the song. Further, the words of the song were printed in the book. This allowed the students to connect music with their printed word and illustrations.

All visuals contained in this blog were obtained from www.flickr.com/creativecommons/ with Attribution License in Creative Commons

PLE3_Google Docs

My final post for this practical experience includes a Google form. I wanted to experiment with creating a Google form and collecting the data into an organized spreadsheet. I always want to make my studies applicable to me and so I created a form about the implementation of the Response-to-Intervention that began this fall at my elementary school. I wanted to get some feedback from the classroom teachers about how it was going and what the most challenging part of it has been up to this point. Also, I wanted to collect some information regarding the collaboration aspect, all of which are elements of my action research. I have sent out the email and am awaiting the responses. I am really excited about the results that I will receive and how it will help direct me in my research. I also learned about to embed a form into a site and how to make it a live page. If you would like to see the form please follow the link.

Also, I was ignorant of the fact that there was a chat feature as a part of Google Docs. I was impressed by this and could see how this would be a great feature.

By the way, here is my certificate of completion of the Google Docs training course on www.lynda.com.

PLE2_Google Docs

While going through this course on www.lynda.com, I came to the realization that I needed to encourage my colleagues to get involved with this tool. So yesterday morning, I set down with our school secretary and discussed the possibilities of how this could make our lives easier. We have been collectively working on collecting money for Veteran’s Day t-shirts and recorders, with which we have to have an list of each student that purchased one. I maintain this document on my laptop in a spreadsheet, but I discussed with her how if I uploaded the document to google docs and shared it with her that it would eliminate me having to upload it and email it to her and would give her access to edit it if students bring money directly to her.

Notice that I found out simply how to sort all of my documents into folders, which really act more like tags than folders simply because all of the documents are viewed in the document list at all times.

Also, we compile a list of students who are less fortunate because during the winter months churches and nursing homes in the area buy for these students. Most of the time, the secretary and I are the ones working to put this together. Once again, I mentioned that this would be a great time to use Google docs. In fact, she was convinced that she is creating a gmail account and I have already uploaded the document to my account. The following is a screenshot of what we have started.

PLE1_Google Docs

So this week we were asked to post three times on a tool that we wanted to become more familiar with over the course of this program. For me, I choose Google Docs simply because we will be using this extensively in next month’s class. Prior to beginning this assignment, I was somewhat familiar with Google Docs, but my personality just requires me to know everything about a software or Web 2.0 tool. Therefore, I will taking an in depth look at Google Docs (docs, spreadsheets, forms, drawings, and presentations).

Here is a picture of my Google Docs page and some of the documents that I have already uploaded from past courses in this program and some that I will be using in my workplace.

With this said, I will be watching the entire course of Google Docs from www.lynda.com so that I can be familiar with all of the features.

BP11_Comment to Jeannine Berube

Follow this link to my comment on Jeannine's blog.

BP10_Comment to Michael Wood

Follow this link to my comment on Michael's blog.

BP9_Skype

The third Web 2.0 tool that I would like to share is Skype. Skype is simply a software that allows individuals to make free video and voice calls, send instant messages and share files with other Skype users. This software was created in 2003 and has grown in popularity ever since. Skype connects colleagues working together saving them time and money, as well as connecting friends and family regardless of where they are in the world.

Skype is a tool that I was somewhat familiar with prior to creating this blog, but wanted to become comfortable with the software because of an activity that I will be doing at school. I am currently part of a committee for our Veteran’s Day assembly that we have at our elementary school each year. In fact, I work with all of our fifth grade students in preparing three vocal pieces for this assembly. To be honest, this assembly is a huge deal to our school and community. We have hundreds of veterans attend this event and we call in a speaker to come and share. This year we are planning on having Terry Johnson, candidate for state representative for Ohio. As we sat down to prepare for this assembly, the thought came to me about possibly using Skype to connect with some active service men and women and allowing them to watch our program and giving our students a chance to get to see them live in Iraq and Afghanistan. As I continued with this, I thought it would be great to make it a surprise for one of our students to find out some family members who were overseas. With all this said, we have in place the information from one of our students about her immediate family that is in Iraq and we are in the process of working with the local recruiter in setting this up for us this year.

I have contacted our technology coordinator for the district and she has agreed on getting us Internet access in the gymnasium and setting up a Skype account for the school. Needless to say, I wanted to become a little more comfortable with this software as I prepare for this awesome opportunity.

If you are interested in using Skype, you first need to go to www.skype.com. When you arrive on the site, you should click on “Get Skype” and click for Mac. This window will allow you to download the software and will walk you through the set-up. Afterwards, you will need to create an account and sign-in. Then, you will open up your Skype window that allows you to search contacts and add individuals as friends. To me, it is very similar to the iChat window. For me, I was able to find some missionary friends of my wife and I in the Philippines and others in Radford, Virginia within seconds.

Please note that Skype to Skype calls are free, while Skype to landlines and mobiles are 1.9 cents per minute if you pay as you go or .9 cents per minute if you pay monthly.

One of the great features is that up to nine different people can communicate together in a video call allowing you to collaborate with a large group anywhere.

I will later post some pictures and share my experience with Skype during the Veteran’s Day assembly afterwards. Stay tuned…

W2_Reading

The following concept maps highlight some of the key aspects of four articles selected for my action research project:

The first article by Tanner is entitled, "Music and the Special Learner." This article shares that a balanced music curriculum can be a valuable assistance for those with learning disabilities.

Tanner, D. (2001). Music and the special learner. Education, (101)1. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete.

The second article by Wiggins highlights the connections between music and literacy. Drawing from various sources, Wiggins talks about the parallels within these two disciplines and how each seem to supplement the other.

Wiggins, D. (2007). Pre-K music and the emergent reader: promoting literacy in a music-enriched environment. Early Childhood Education Journal, (35)1, 55-64. doi:10.1007/s10643-007-0167-6.

The third article, written by Wanzek and Vaughn, focuses on reading intervention. Many times the word intensity is utilized in this RTI model, and the authors describe it in some detail as decreasing the group size for instruction and increasing the amount of time in instruction. Also, it is mentioned that students make their highest gains early into the intervention.

Wanzek, J. & Vaughn, S. (2008). Response to varying amounts of time in reading intervention for students with low response to intervention. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 41(2), 126-142. Retrieved September 20, 2010 from Academic Search Complete.

This final article has been circulated in my building as we work to implement this RTI model. This writing, published this month in Educational Leadership highlights the "why" behind these efforts. The authors suggest a problem solving team including any and all stakeholders involved and focused on evaluating the teaching practices reaching students.

Buffum, A., Matto, M., & Weber, C. (2010). The why behind RTI. Educational Leadership, 68(2), 10-16. Retrieved October 1, 2010 from Academic Search Complete Premier database.

BP8_OMM_Crocodoc

This is my one minute message about the Web 2. 0 tool Crocodoc!

BP7_Comment to Susan O'Day

Follow this link to my comments on Susan's blog.

BP6_Comment to Rachel Ullinskey

Follow this link to my comments on Rachel's blog.

BP5_Crocodoc

The second Web 2.0 tool that I want to share is Crocodoc. This tool allows you to work collaboratively with others to highlight and mark up PDF's, word documents, images, and more. One of the main elements of my action research (AR) is focused on collaboration and so I wanted to pursue some tools that will help me in this area. My AR is looking at how a music teacher could work collaboratively with classroom teachers to help struggling readers who are a part of a response-to-intervention (RTI) model. Further, the music aspect of the connection taps into Gardner's multiple intelligences (MI). I am currently reviewing the literature dealing with RTI and MI and anything connected with collaboration. With this said, I wanted a place that I could store these PDF files, highlight, comment and share them with my critical friends. At last night's Wimba session, several individuals asked about whether or not Diigo offered this capability of linking to PDF's. Unfortunately, it seems that Diigo does not do this unless there is a URL connected with the file. However, Crocodoc will allow you to upload the document to their site and begin with the collaboration.

So if you would like to take advantage of this great tool, the first thing you should do is sign up for a free membership at this site: http://crocodoc.com/.

Then, you will be taken to a page that is entitled, "My Documents," where you can upload files and have quick access to them. Also, you have the capability of organizing them into folders. I have placed the four articles I read last week into a folder called W1 and have begun my reading collection for this week.

After you have your documents uploaded, then you can click on them and view them easily. I selected the following article for you to see. If you notice the toolbar at the top, I have the ability to comment, draw, add text, highlight, or strikeout text.

The greatest part of marking up the article or document is that everything is saved and can be viewed by anyone who is invited. So for me, I will more than likely read through my articles and highlight some of my findings and share those with my critical friends for them to respond.

When it comes to sharing the files, you are able to do this a number of three ways. First, you are able to receive a link that will take you directly to the article. Second, you can send them an email, obviously with the link attached. Third, you can get a code that allows you to embed the link, as well. Regardless of which you choose, all three are very simple to use.

Finally, if you desire to download the article from Crocodoc you have a few options here, too. You could download the original article in its PDF format, which would be the one you uploaded to begin with. However, you also have the option to download the marked-up version that includes all of the highlights and comments. The third option includes sending the annotated PDF over to Google Docs for more collaboration.

I am excited about how this will help with reviewing my literature for my action research project. I honestly believe this to be a tool that I will continue to use long after this program is finished because of its collaboration focus and how easy it is to use.

BP4_ToonDoo

As I started looking through the various Web 2.0 tools, a site called ToonDoo caught my eye and so I decided to look a little more closely at this tool. Earlier in the program, we were given a subscription to ComicLife and asked to create a comic book. I really enjoyed this assignment and knew right away that my students would love interacting with these comics. Therefore, I decided to create my own book as a review for my students. This week is currently reading week at my school with a superhero theme and so I created this comic book to integrate and to give the students a unique way to review for the upcoming test. Here are a few pages from my fifteen page comic book reviewing the concepts of rhythm, pulse, and meter.

The students, although maybe not with words, were really appreciative of the work that this took to create. The students were excited to read the story, while I was excited to see them engaged in the curriculum. It has been a win-win!

I created my own superheroes (SuperPulse and his sidekick Beat, among others) which pushed me to be a little more creative than I normally would be had it not been for ComicLife. Further, my wife teaches music at another elementary school nearby where we live and she was sharing this book with a few of the teachers and the principal was so impressed that she wanted her own copy of the book.

I share the above for a few reasons. I have been really impressed by how the students have responded to this comic book. Therefore, I wanted to explore another tool that allowed me to do the same, perhaps it a different way. The tool I selected was ToonDoo. This tool, that also allows you to create comics, shares a lot in common with ComicLife, but also has some more to offer. ToonDoo has a free membership that allows you to create these comics that has clip art already accessible, including backgrounds, characters, bubbles, etc.

This tool is extremely user friendly and would be useful for teachers and students alike. It took me just a few seconds to create the two slides below and was as simply as drag and drop.

For me, I will continue to use this to review concepts of music, but may also use this in connection with my action research project about response-to-intervention and the multiple intelligences. I could use the comics I create to help the struggling readers I will be working with and to help them to be interested in what they are reading.

Here is a link for you to get started creating your own comic in ToonDoo: http://www.toondoo.com/

W1_Reading

During the first week of the ETC course, we were asked to select four articles that connected with our action research project and to summarize them briefly. These articles, although not directly tied to my music curriculum and classroom have provided me with some insight about how the Response-to-Intervention (RTI) model and the multiple intelligences (MI) could be used together to effectively reach struggling readers.

The first article I read written by Pokey Stanford was entitled, "Multiple Intelligences for Every Classroom." The focus of the article was how teaching practices, strategies and assessments are connected to formulate an atmosphere where students can learn. However, in the traditional classroom instruction is delivered mostly through lecture, as opposed to the various approaches tied to the multiple intelligences. This is especially important for those students who are struggling. Most students are being taught in the intelligence that is their weakest and forced to try to push through just to survive. Obviously, the multiple intelligence theory and practices provide a solution to this problem.

Stanford, P. (2003). Multiple intelligence for every classroom. intervention in School & Clinic, 39(2), 80-85. Retrieved September 15, 2010 from Academic Search Complete Premier database.

This second article, "Responding to Reading Instruction in a Primary Grade Classroom" was helpful in familiarizing myself with the practices of RTI. This writing stressed the importance of assessment and grouping students based on similar needs. The goal is to identify early those students that are having difficulties reading and to provide intensive instruction so that they catch up with their peers.

Mokhtari, K., Porter, L., & Edwards, P. (2010). Responding to reading instruction in a primary-grade classroom. The Reading Teacher, 63(8), 692-697. Retrieved September 15, 2010 from Academic Search Complete database.

This third article, "Response to Intervention, Collaboration, and Co-Teaching: A Logical Combination for Successful Systemic Change," focused on one of the major areas I will be dealing with in my action research: collaboration. This article, although it did not necessarily stress the importance of related arts teachers, so to speak, focused on the collaboration of all stakeholders. The writing focused heavily on the reevaluation of our teaching instruction and how we should move to being proactive, instead of solely reacting when a child has first failed.

Murawski, W & Hughes, C. (2009). Response to intervention, collaboration, and co-teaching: A logical combination for successful systemic change. Preventing School Failure, 53(4), 267-277. Retrieved September 15, 2010 from Academic Search Complete database.

The final article, "Response to Intervention: Implications for Early Childhood Professionals," provided a detailed description of the four main components (assessment, scope and sequence, activities and instruction, and progress monitoring) of the curriculum framework for how this RTI model will get lived out in the classroom. Further, it stressed the importance of this collaborative effort in the success of this RTI model. In fact, the point is this design will fail without a team working together to provide the best interventions possible for the student.

Jackson, S., Pretti-Frontczak, K, Harjusola-Webb, S, Grisham-Brown, J., & Romani, J. (2009). Response to intervention: Implications for early childhood professionals. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 40(4), 424-434. doi:10.1044/0161-1461(2009/08-0027)

BP_Diigo Group

The following is a screenshot of my Diigo Group page [AR: RTI/MI]. Currently, I have one critical friend that has joined. I am waiting on three others to confirm.

BP2_iGoogleScreenShots

The following are the four screenshots of my iGoogle page.

#1 - Home Page

#2 - FSO

#3 - AR/CBL

#4 - ETC

BP1_Google Reader

I am rather excited about Google Reader and about how many blogs that are available on the Internet. When putting this list of RSS feeds together, it was important to me to choose those that I felt were the most beneficial to me as a music teacher. Also, I chose feeds that were strongly connected to my action research project dealing with reading intervention, multiple intelligences, and music.

The first feed I chose was Education Next. I came across this blog when searching through Google reader and found it to be rather insightful. The bloggers of this feed include the editors of Education Next magazine, which is a quarterly journal that discusses opinions and research regarding education policy. The Hoover Institution at Stanford University publishes the magazine. With this said, the sources seemed rather credible and informative. This commentary will be helpful in keeping me up to date on the latest news in education.

The second RSS feed I chose is the blog forum from the George Lucas Educational Foundation, or otherwise known as Edutopia. This site has provided such great insight for me in the past regarding teaching strategies and practical advice for real-world problems in education. The contributors are teachers, administrators and the like that have tested their research and provide great tips and tools for others.

The third RSS feed I selected was Literacy is Priceless. This RSS feed focuses on providing teaching tips for those involved with reading and technology. In fact, there are many links to free literacy tools that are included in many of the blogs. This feed is strongly connected to my action research project where I will be collaborating with classroom teachers working with students struggling with reading fluency.

The fourth RSS feed is the Music Educators National Conference. I am a member of this national music organization that provides valuable articles and resources for any music teacher. The articles are obviously focused on issues that are unique to music teachers, but often make connections with other disciplines and how teachers can integrate and collaborate with others. These blogs will help me both in my classroom environment and in my action research.

The final RSS feed is from TED. I was first introduced to this website and feed during one of the early courses in this program. I was so impressed by the content of the videos I viewed that I have been hooked on what this site has to offer. The speakers tackle some difficult issues, but have very profound responses and outlooks.