Nanjing International School believes that all teachers should be constantly learning and improving their teaching practices. As such, we are put into Professional Learning Teams (PLTs) based around a set of themes. For example, a theme could be improved writing skills, creativity in the classroom, integration of technology, etc.  Last year I worked on a team that was looking at unit design; I, specifically, wanted to see how I could make my Criterion A: Knowledge/Understanding more motivating and interesting. This year, I've been put in the writing group, which at first seemed like a strange choice for a music teacher.  However, I wanted to see whether I could see improvement in the kids' developmental workbooks / process journals.  Every year I get really good journals; every year I get really bad journals.  As always, there's always a wide range of abilities in the classroom. Some kids use the journals are authentic tools to help them grow; other kids use it to 'jump through the hoops' and get enough points on their band descriptors; and others just don't really bother.  These last kids have no plans for their performances, rarely reflect, offer very little evidence of responding to feedback, etc.  So how can I improve the workbooks? How can I get kids to see what the book is a 'tool' to help them.  Not just something that we have to do, like at the end of every lesson we have to do our developmental workbooks. If we could get the kids to really utilise and love the DWs, then their PPP journals would be a natural extension.  So that's my goal.
    I got an email from my PLT leader asking us all to bring some research to help the group. I started researching on JSTOR, with absolutely no success.  If I type in 'writing' and 'journal,' then I get primary articles on improving basic writing skills. If I type in 'writing' and 'journal' and 'high school,' then I get articles on the American drop-out rate of youths (?).  If I type in 'music' and 'journal,' then I get the names of American journals.  If I type in 'process journal,' then I get the process of writing - brainstorming, outlining, editing, revising, and publishing.  If I give up and go to a search engine and type in 'developmental workbooks,' I get my own website (LOL).  So today the coordinator for the PLTs came to see me to brainstorm my problem. He suggested that I take this to social media, to ask for help for you all. 

    Do you have articles / research that support writing in scrapbooks / developmental workbooks / process journals? Strategies can come later, but at the moment I need some solid empirical data on how and why journals are used as pedagogical tools. Then, later, I'll start asking for your feedback about strategies.

If you want to chat about this, please leave some comments and we'll get a dialogue going. Thanks!

My school is incredibly focused on saving the environment, which is good and noble. It means that we are always focused on whether we need to print, and if so can we use recycled paper? This is problematic when I want to do 5 minutes of theory drills at the beginning of every lesson. Our photocopier quota ticks by even when using recycled paper.  I started investigating online programs that could practice theory drills, assess students, be fun, and save my photocopy budget.  My first response was Nearpod, but it's not especially fun and it doesn't have enough capabilities. Then I stumbled upon Kahoot and I was hooked. Were the students hooked?

During the game, there were shouts of joy whenever they go the answer correct. There were exclamations whenever their names appeared on the leaderboard.  When the game was finished, they all started yelling and begging me to play it again.  Did they learn something? Absolutely! The first few questions about chromatic and diatonic semitones was awful, but by the third question, they were doing better, and by the last question they were complaining that the questions were too easy.  They definitely learned how to quickly and efficiently recognise the two types of semitones. Would they recommend it to anyone? Well, the other classes came in and said, "We heard you played a fun game... can we play it too?" Fun? The class was filled with laughter.  I asked why the were silly with the feedback and the answers were obvious -- they are in grade 6 -- they are inherently silly.  (LOL)

I've made three quizzes so far, mostly for my DP music students.  I have a quiz on alto and tenor clefs, one on identifying semitones and whole tones using a piano keyboard, and another one identifying chromatic and diatonic semitones.  For the younger students, I have favourited games made by other teachers, including naming notes and note values. The level of enthusiasm and engagement is equally high throughout the grades, with my grade 11s just as excited about the games as my grade 6s. I had initially worried that the games were more fun than learning (as often happens). However, by watching the achievement results growing throughout the game, I saw how they were learning and adapting as it continued. When I downloaded the results, I could see specifically how the students became better and better by throughout; by the end of the game, the students were getting perfect.  

I'm going to continue with Barbara Wharram, Fux, and my other 'proper' theory sheets because I need to know that my students' learning is progressing chronologically and systematically. However, I think I'm going to always start with a game whenever we learn a new concept... to use it as both immersion / hook and learning.  My grade 9s are currently drawing major scales, marking the tonic, subdominant, dominants, semitones, etc.  I'm going to experiment with this program and see how I can use it to teach the concepts before the kids have to sit down to their practice pages. In time, it'd be cool to get the kids to make their own game quizzes for their peers. 

Here's a screen capture I made of Kahoot. If you are in China, you'll need a VPN to access it (sorry about that). 

Have you had any success with Kahoot? Do you have any great quizzes that you could share? 

Today I had my first DP Music class ever. It was exciting. Basically, we just went through the exam and talked about how we would work towards it. It's really just UBD (Backwards by Design). I know we need to get ready for an exam, a musical investigations paper, a creation portfolio, and a performance portfolio, and I know that we have roughly 19 months to do it. As for the how? That's an exciting question. Through talking with my DP Mentors and trolling DP Music websites, I've come to see that every teacher does their programme completely different. Some teachers take the view that this is an inquiry-based programme that results in a compiled portfolio. They use a mixture of teacher-led instruction, listening journals, and creation/performance inquiry. Others are very teacher-driven, with very strict guidelines about what will happen when. During this week of grade 12, the students will study Palestrina.

My school is very inquiry-based and so my natural inclination is to go towards the first example. However, this isn't Montessori, right? There's definite structure needed if we are to meet the exam requirements. We need a balance of skills and inquiry. It reminds me of my masters. I was reading an article on critical thinking in the New Handbook of Music Research. Studies have found that students can't think critically if they don't have basic knowledge and understanding on which to think in the first place. So in the very beginning, we need to start with knowledge. Theory. Sure, they can read music when they are playing. On a basic level, they see a symbol and press the correct string down. They can make an effort and name the notes of the treble and bass clefs, with leger lines. They are very unhappy about alto and tenor clefs, though, which is a problem considering they'll probably have to write for string quartet during the stylistic-techniques component. So we are starting with theory drills.  I learned these from when I was teaching grade 3 math.

• 100 questions
  
• treble, alto, tenor & bass clefs
  
• 5 minutes to complete the task
• Each incorrect answer adds another 3 seconds
• The goal is to finish as fast and as accurately as possible.

I was pleasant surprised by the results. Their treble and bass notes, with leger lines, are very good! Some attempted the alto and tenor clefs, with good success. Their accuracy is excellent. So I guess it comes down to learning alto & tenor, and getting our speed up. Why speed? Because when they are in an exam, looking at an unfamiliar score, I don't want them wasting time counting lines and spaces.

This activity is also really easy to duplicate. All I did was highlight the entire score in Finale and then transpose it up by a 3rd. If any leger lines went crazy, I dropped them down an octave. Next time, I'll move it down by a 6th, or some other random number. Would you like to try it out for yourself? Here's the file I'm using:

I love Veracross, but sometimes I feel a bit guilty because I don't think I use it exactly as it was intended.  I manipulate it. I use buttons for the wrong purposes, and the result is my workflow is much more seamless. My report cards were written in a fraction of the time last semester, and all because I figured out how to organise myself 'smarter' using Veracross' planbook. Let me give you some examples.
In Veracross' planbook, there are status buttons for assigned tasks. They include:
    * Complete
    * Turned In / Not Graded
    * Not Turned In
    * Late
    * Incomplete
    etc.
Now, I noticed that some of these statuses turned their fields different colours. For example, 'Not Turned In' turned the field red, while 'Incomplete' turned the field orange... hrm... how could I use that to my advantage? I decided to use the colours to colour-code my transdisciplinary skills.  At the start of every class, I did attendance and asked my PYP grade 5s to show me their instruments and sheet music. If they brought both, they got 'Complete,' which displays as a check mark. If they forgot one of those items, they got 'Incomplete' (orange) and if they forgot, they got 'Not Turned In' (red). Then, I immediately created a new assignment for the upcoming week.  This was really fantastic because:
    a) The kids and their parents always knew when to pack their music gear for school
    b) I could instantly see, by colour, who was having difficulties with self-management
    c) Parent-Teacher interviews were so much easier when I had dates and specifics.
Was I using the gradebook properly? No? After all, a reminder to bring their supplies was not exactly an assignment (and I was clicking the 'Add Assignment' button). And technically speaking, the kids who forgot their supplies hadn't 'Not Turned In' their work. But was Veracross working for me? Absolutely yes! It was keeping me, the kids, and their parents organised, and it was providing me with fast, obvious, hard-data on the kids' self-management transdisciplinary skills.
    Another example? The dropbox.  I never both with the dropbox because it only accepts 18 MB submissions. Any DW that is under 700 MB worries me because DWs normally run between 700 MB and 1.5 GB in size.  So what do I do with the dropbox? I use its different colour-coding system exactly as above.  Now with the older kids, I also can quickly, visually see how my kids are doing.

Today I was talking to Bonnie about Veracross, since she's taking over my grade 5s for me. I commented that I love Veracross, but that I feel a bit strange that while it is one of my most valuable pedagogical tools, I don't think I use it properly. But then again... She assured me that Veracross is an awesome tool, to be used as a tool.

What about you? Do you have any tools that you are forced to use at school that you can tweak for your own working style? What tool have you conquered, and therefore grown to love?