Matthew Mikos - Blogger Review (original descriptive)

• Elementary Music Methods: Real Life Edition (music) http://cbutler10.blogspot.com/

I reviewed the Blog about the Elementary Music Methods class.  This is an elementary general music class that is working on playing the recorder, understanding rhythms, rest, and basic music vocabulary.  The teacher named, Cassandra has been teaching for 2 years now and has grades Kindergarten to Seventh.  The blog focuses primarily on the elementary students. Dealing with elementary kids is complicated in that they are energetic and need to be active.  Cassandra has made a unique game and activity for the students to participate in to cover the unit on world music.  The game is called, "The Amazing Race".

The Amazing Race is used to teach students a song in a game format that is relative to a specific song of a country that is being examined.  When playing the game students will come to questions known

as "Detour and Roadblock Challenges".  These are question panels that have mental or physical challenges that the students must perform when they come to them. 

This game is an interesting way to get students motivated and involved in the Music learning process.  Cassandra posted a website on her blog that will lead teachers to a great source for songs, activities, games and assessments.  The website is Jamie's World Music Bundle -  http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Accessible-World-Music-Set-1-and-2-Combination-1022818 

This Music Bundle is for sale on the website and caters to 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades.  Along with the songs are pronunciations and visible lyrics.  This helps for the students to follow along when the words are in a different language.  

Cassandra's blog also has music samples that the visitor is able to interact with by clicking on it and having playback ability.  For example, 

Next Cassandra has General Music to Win it Games which are rhythm games to help the students get back on track after their winter break.  Cassandra made this post very up to date being that she makes the activities specific to the students' schedule.  

Some of the games are The Rest Sculpting (play-doh), A Bit Dicey (dice rolling), Rhythm Sorter (cups and ping-pong sorting for notes and rests comprehension), and Staff Spelling (spelling of musical vocabulary).  These games help students learn and have fun while doing it.

Cassandra also teaches Choir and was very complimentary of her Choir Group so she gave out chocolate bars with thank you messages attached.  She makes the cards printable and available to people if they want to use them.

Cassandra had the students perform a recorder piece and do some acting to make a video of the performance.  The video was for Halloween and the students made up all of the acting by themselves.

Activities such as these allow the students to work collaboratively and to interact with the finished product in the end.  Students were able to share their performance with their parents and friends.  Cassandra also had other activities that motivated the students to learn the recorder.  She called it Recorder Karate.  In this she would attach small Karate Belts of either Black, Yellow, Pink or Sparkle to the students' recorders as they would improve their playing.

Cassandra's class is an interactive place where students can enjoy themselves while learning about music.  Cassandra is determined to engage the students as well as inform them of the curriculum material.  Cassandra's blog is an ongoing process that can be adjusted and updated with the times and the learning levels of the specific classes.  This blog will allow parents of the students to know what is going on in their music class.  This allows teachers and administrators the ability to see as well.  I believe that this blog is an effective way of showcasing what Cassandra has going on in her classroom.  

Matthew Mikos - website evaluation

The process of evaluating a website was extremely helpful in making me aware of the things to look

for when trying to decide if a website is a reliable source.  I am in the Art field so it was natural for

me to choose the website based on the Art Museum of Modern Art in New York City.  First I looked

at the Author to decide whether or not he or she was mentioned.  This website was created by many

people and all who contributed were found.  The authors and contributors had their names and their

credentials.  The credentials made me believe that all of the authors were experts in their field.

MoMA is a highly reputable museum and I do not believe that the website affiliated would have

unreliable authors contributing information.  There was a contact link to the museum's website if

a person had a question pertaining to the authors.  The publishing body was not exactly mentioned on

the MoMA interactive website, however the links to find the publishing body took you directly to the

main MoMA page.  The affiliates to the website were education based and interested in providing a

learning source.  I was not able to find and biased information on the site as it was a informative

and interactive site.  The main writing was based on historical data and events.  The website was

current and updated in 2014, which means a little over a month ago.  The design of the website was

unique in that it has the visitor actually moving through the museum and choosing the points of

interest.  The links on the website were clear and concise as to lead the visitors, young and old to the

places that they wanted and intended to go.  The site can be used by educators in grades K -12

because of the layout and accessibility.  I would recommend this site to anyone interested in art

history and modern art museums.  My experience in evaluating this site provided me with a

confidence when looking for internet information for my classes.  I found the process of evaluation

to be simple as long as the steps are followed.  The learning objectives were met because of the

complete overview of how to evaluate a website.  I now know what to look for when I am

researching a topic and if the source I am using is reliable.  In the future my classroom and the

students in it are going to benefit from the evaluated information that I will be using and they will be

learning from.