snow thoughts

While thinking about what I wanted to write about for this weeks blog post, all I could think about was how the snow has completely thrown me off track. This got me to thinking about how precious time will be in my future classroom, for the time is already limited to begin with. So when preparing for students you have to be intentional with every move you make. This really starts with making those initial steps when prepping starting all the way with standards. I am not 100% confident on unpacking standards but the little tutorial and example we had last week in class was a good start. Now as a music teacher our standards are a little bit different because they are broke down into grade, musical concepts, and then into the individual standard. This can be very overwhelming so having this skill of unpacking standards will be helpful for digging into these to understand what is expected of the students.
         Also just because we have gotten our flipped classroom certification, I noticed how another one of my professors uses this strategy for her classroom. Outside of class we have our instruction and readings. Then during the actual class time we have discussion and work on an assignment. I have some good and bad opinions about this. The good would include having the professor there during guided practice. However, the bad would have to be if you have a question about the material being taught you can't ask the professor a question then and have to wait. Personally it is difficult for me to learn in this way and it might be because I haven't learned in this flipped classroom environment before. With more exposure I believe it is a good tool for being taught in college. But in my own personal field you can't teach band in a flipped classroom.

things are looking up

After having more class time I can say that I am beginning to feel more comfortable with this class. My favorite part of our class mission is " In a safe, vulnerable learning atmosphere" and I feel like this is the atmosphere we, as a class, are creating. This really gives me a sense of a group effort and this reflects in the class discussion that we have as well as our replies in these blogs. At first I was hesitant about having to keep a blog for this class but I feel very positive about it now. It allows for a space for me to organize my thoughts as well as hear from my classmates. It is also neat having a place to discuss in a professional manner about the process of this class. It will be cool having this to look at how far I came at the end of the semester. My favorite aspect of class has been having those discussions with other students and through this I am getting to know these other future teachers. This is important for me because I can give some of my ideas as well as learn from the other students. Often times I find myself looking at things in a different perspective or even hearing about a concept that I had not thought about before. I thoroughly enjoy this group discussion. One aspect of class that will take some getting used to is the random selection for being in front of class and the tech smackdowns. But hey I already have ripped that band aid off in last class when I was chosen for the first tech smackdown. I still don't have it all together but things are looking up especially after this past week.

it's a stress and I am a mess

Coming into this class I did not know what to expect and that is still how I am feeling. I am extremely overwhelmed. I have never had a class that asks this much of me in regards to assignments that add to a bigger picture. There are a lot of things in this class that I have never heard of such as NCTCS and CLC. I believe this is because I am a music student and my focus for that side of my degree is completely different. This makes me feel like I am at a disadvantage. Also since I have been working at Disney for the past 8 months transitioning back to school has been difficult for me.In addition to this, technology is not my best friend. I need to work on getting better at using these tools as this class is dependable on it.  All I can do is make sure I am paying attention and asking questions so that I don't miss anything.