My First Technology Conference

In July I was able to attend pod stock in Wichita. A conference hosted by ESSDACK, a consulting education company from Hutchinson, Kansas. I knew most of the names of the presenters that have met very few people there. I was excited to learn from these people but could never addict what happened next.

My friend Paul and I attended the Wednesday Pre-Conference workshop in which we able to test different apps, gadgets, etc and do a small EdCamp with the other attendees of the conference. Following the morning session there is a line at a table to meet the keynote speaker Todd Nesloney, his Twitter handle is @techninjatodd and on Google +Todd Nesloney . I had read several of his blog posts and followed him for a while on Twitter so I really wanted to get a chance to meet him.

One of the other presenters and coordinator of Podstock, +Ginger Lewman,recommended that we make sure that we include everybody and ask other people what they were doing for lunch. I took this to heart and as soon as I was able to talk to Todd we immediately asked if he wanted to join us for lunch. He was extremely grateful to have someone willing to go to lunch with him and show him around so didn't have to wonder around Downtown Wichita by himself.

We had a great lunch conversation and that started an awesome friendship between myself, Paul and Todd. The rest of the day we hung out with Todd and even attended his workshop on Flipping Like A Ninja.

My mind was buzzing that night and I was introduced to a lot of blogs to follow. One was +Pernille Ripp, Twitter @PernilleRipp, who coincidentally posted a great blog post that very night called, "I am Not a Rockstar, Please Don't Confuse Me With One" Now I am terrible about this but I put people on pedestals.  I always think, "Wow that person is amazing and I can never reach that." Here is a direct quote from her post.

"We are so quick to label people.  Within this weird PLN/social media/education world, we love labels even more as we spread them as tokens of our admiration and respect and yet they don’t fit for me.     “Rockstar.”  “The Best.”  “Incredible.”  We label people with more followers/more readers/more whatever it is…  I have even been called a few of these things, much to the amusement of my husband." 

Excerpt from Pernille Ripp, Blogging Through the Fourth Dimension

Now I understand that people like +Todd Nesloney, +Ginger Lewman, +Kevin Honeycutt, that each have thousands of followers on Twitter, are REGULAR Educators. REGULAR PEOPLE.  People like me that have struggles and insecurities and fail.  These amazing people need support and friends too.  So for an instant I could see things from Todd's perspective. He was in a foreign city, with only a few people that he barely knew, presenting to a bunch of people that adore him but don't see him as a real person.  That hit me pretty hard. So now I want to make sure that I try to say hello and have a conversation with as many people as I can.  From attendee to keynote speaker, everyone needs someone to talk to and everyone needs to eat!

And Todd's advice from Podstock echoes this, "Don't be afraid to meet new people and don't be afraid to reach out and ask people to go out to lunch with them"

I learned a lot from Podstock, the workshops were fantastic but the best thing I learned was to make connections, real connections with people.  So don't be afraid to ask questions and reach out to people. Especially on Twitter.  Educators that are on Twitter generally love to share info and meet new people.

During the conference where will to meet Felix Jacomino, who was hosting a conference in November called Miami Device. Todd was one of the presenters at Miami device and encouraged us to try and go because it was going to be full of amazing educators. Which we did get to go but that is another post!

Multiple Personality

So my life will be taking a drastic change in the new school year.  I will be moving to the Central Office of school district and be in charge of Technology in Staff Development.  This is a passion of mine, using technology to enhance the classroom. I am excited to get into learning new technology for education and making new connections with great educators.

In the short time that I have been in this role I have found many people are very kind to helping new people to educational technology. I will talk about my experience at Podstock 2014, a conference hosted by ESSDACK. I am also trying to get to Miami device an education technology conference with some amazing educators from around the United States. Also another blog post!

Validating Yourself through Music Festivals?

This part of being a music teacher has always bothered me.  A good friend of mine was upset at the scores her groups received at music festival.  She is a great teacher and musician but teaches band at a small school.  It is hard for her to have enough students with one on each part.

Festivals are hard enough just trying to get the students all on the bus at the right time! Then some big wig directors from large schools, with huge numbers, comes in and tells you how important balance and tone are.  Of course we know that but we are trying to get our students playing the correct notes and in tune before we get to that stage.

All of this weighs down on teachers and of course we take it to heart, we put all of ourselves into this! As important as it is to be evaluated and assessed by qualified musicians, it feels like the music version of high stakes testing.  We have to get a '1' rating to be a successful group, right?! I would be happy if my students all got along and enjoyed playing challenging music.

Courtesy of ToneDeafComics.com

The Jellyfish!

The first great idea I learned at KSMEA (Kansas Music Educators Association) last week was an amazing way to teach and reinforce relaxed bowing.  The clinic was given by Dr. Jacob Dakon of the University of Kansas.  His pedagogical strategies were amazing.

I know about chunking info and experience before labeling (anyone else take Quantum Learning Training?) but never thought about how much we should be doing that with the bow! My good friend Henry Littich said that 45% of playing a string instrument is LEFT hand and 65% is RIGHT hand.  I know I have focused so much on the left hand: intonation, vibrato, positions, etc but the bow is how we communicate that! I know a lot of people are like duh, the bow is important.  I know but I never fully grasped how important.

His 3 steps are
      #1 Learn without holding anything
      #2 Learn while holding a pencil
      #3  Learn with bow

Start with an octagonal pencil. Once fingers are set and the thumb is BENT with a squishy thumb pad, the fingers should be able to flex at the interphalangeal joint between the proximal phalanx and middle phalanx.  Thank you google images.

Short fingers are made by bringing the pencil up close to the palm and bending the joints of the fingers.  Long fingers are made by flattening the knuckles of the fingers and thumb.  The thumb will need to flex so make sure that the pad stays soft and it flexes back up when the students are doing short fingers.  Going from short fingers to tall fingers is THE JELLYFISH! Show students how to flex these joints and move their hands like jellyfish. Let them call it their squishy!

If the hand setup is correct the students should be able to create short fingers and tall fingers while still holding onto their pencil, with a good bow hold. This will take time and practice before they do this with the bow.  A good tool is having buddy time to review what you have taught them.  Make sure they know all of the steps first and you will have a class full of mini-yous teaching each other.

Next have them do this with the bow.  Stick the pencil in between the hair and the stick, at the tip, to take the weight off of the bow hand.  The goal is to have proper form first, before they even put the bow on the string.  Good time to have another buddy teaching time!

Now with the bow follow these steps.  

1. Lift
• Keeping a good bow hold, lift the bow and land with short fingers.
2. Set
•  Set the bow on the string in the lower third.
3. Settle
• Allow synovial joint(elbow) and glenohumeral joint(shoulder) to relax and come close to the body
4. Flex
• Go from short fingers to tall fingers without making sound.

The purpose of this progression is control.  If the students are able to achieve the colle, short fingers to tall fingers, then they have great control of the bow.  This is definitely a stumbling block for lots of students, mine are no exception.  Using a good bow hold is a constant battle but if we introduce these techniques early on the expectations are high and the success rate will be higher.