Productivity and Professional Development

Is it already week seven?? Time does fly by when you are engaged in every aspect of this course.
In week seven, I read Chapter 8 Productivity and Professional development in Learning Music Today by Bauer (2014). In this chapter Bauer discusses productivity in the classroom, professional development, personal learning networks (PLN), online courses and degree programs, and musical technological pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK).  Bauer states the following:
 "...all music education situations also require the music teacher to engage in organizational and administrative activities that can be crucial to successful learning experiences for students, even if they don't directly impact daily class or rehearsal. Technology can be a major benefit to productivity in these areas" (Bauer, 2014, p. 168).

 Reflecting back on  my first year as a middle school choir director. I remember feeling overwhelmed with all the paper work that I had to turn in with in a month after school had started, never ending emails, never ending returning parent phone calls, and classroom management. Keeping a budget on top of all that felt impossible. However, over the years of teaching  the paper work is not as overwhelming, and keeping track of my budget not as tough, but I had to learn how to do all this effectively and efficiently. I was fortunate that I had the band directors at all my schools helped me to stay organized, and know the ins and outs of budget issues. Thank you Marty, Krissy, and Doug!

Learning about new technology and how it can assist me with my productivity and organization skills have been eye opening. I am always timid in trying new programs, in fear that it will cause issues with my computer. Also, the "what if's" start to rule my thoughts: what if some one hacked my Google Doc account? What if downloading a new program cause software issues with my existing software? What if's.... are not easy to ignore, but how can you learn something new if you allow the "What if's "keeping you from learning?  Thus I started saving my files in my Google Drive and told my "What ifs " "Showed You!"

I have never experimented with the Cloud until the beginning of this school year.. In the past if I needed to work on a field trip permission slip, or lesson plans, I would either have to go to work, send my self the file attached to the email, or just wait until Monday rolls around. Now that I am using Google Doc, it is convenient to have access to my files that need revise or create. It is saving me time instead of writing my professional goals that takes hours I can write my professional goals in smaller chunks of time and spend more time planning my lessons.

Another aspects of productivity that Bauer discusses is communication. Communication effectively and efficiently has been one of my professional goals. In the past, I would get so involved with my lesson planning, concert planning, field trip planning, that I will forget to remind  my principal, and  my office manager that I have schedule a concert. Even though I scheduled it on the school calender, I would have to send a reminder email. In the present, school is using the calender in Google, the reminders are set to remind my principal and my office manager about the upcoming concert.

 Parent communication was an issue for me, as well. I would send home letters, with students to have their parents sign and return that they have received the information. And, I  still would  have a parent complain that they never received the information about the concert that was scheduled for tonight. The concert information was posted on the school website, multiple letters went home, but some of my parents would not get the information. I sent parents emails, and used the all school phone call system, and still would have complaints that they were not aware of the performance.  A middle school choir director at my school district uses Remind. It is a service that will send a text message to your students and parents reminding them about an up coming event. We (all middle school choir directors) used this during our All City Middle School Choir event. It was a success all students were on time and our parents liked that we kept them informed.

Final Thought about Learning Music Today

 I enjoyed how Bauer recapped the beginning chapter in the last chapter on TPACK. I will end with a quote from Bauer.

 "Music teachers who want to learn more about technology and how it interfaces with musical content and pedagogy need to be proactive, seeking out and exploring relevant resources on their own....Continue to explore and develop expertise with that particular technology, incorporating it in other ways in classes and rehearsals.Then...move on to another technology that holds promise for helping students achieve the music learning outcomes. In this way your knowledge, skill, and overall efficacy for using technology will deepen and expand over time" (p. 185)

This ending quote reminds me of my wonderful friend, who is an excellent 6th Grade Band Director at Wedgwood 6th Grade Center in Fort Worth TX.  Every year she creates a video of her students rehearsing for their final school performance. It is like she charges them to continue to studying music because their journey has just begun. I believe Bauer quote encourages us all to keep being life long learns in Technology.  Here is to future learning!!!

Bauer, W. I. (2014),  Productivity and Professional Development. In Bauer, W. I. (2014). Music

     learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating performing and responding to music (pp.167-187).

     New York: Oxford University Press.