This is our Google Slideshow
And here is the recording of the presentation:
Author: kevinzhu
In this week’s class, we discussed the difference between asynchronous and synchronous classes; and which types of learning each one supports.
Asynchronous means the teacher and learners engage with the class content at different times. It could be a pre-recorded video of a lesson or presentation. The advantage of this learning method is that students will be able to study at any time they want. If a student has one asynchronous class, then the student is allowed to choose any time to watch or participate in the class.
Synchronous means the teacher and learners engage with the class content at the same time. As same as face-to-face class, students are required to attend and participate in class at the assigned time. This method has given students and teachers opportunities to engage and interact with each other, it is also a better way to build relationships within your class.
Depends on the personal situation, both asynchronous and synchronous classes could be suitable as a better learning method. Especially this year, every educator has been looking for a better way of teaching online classes; as technology involves, we need to modify and improve our teaching strategies to deliver a better learning experience to our students.
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It is getting to the end of the semester, which means I need to meet my final goal for the Musicianship Goal plan. There is one song left called “Clementine.” This is the hardest song in all three of the songs I included in my plan. I have tried to play it a few times, but I’m struggling with frequent chord switches while managing the patterns. By now, I have one more week to practice until the video recording, hope I’ll do well.
As Dr. Prest stated in the feedback of my midterm demonstration, not every chord is included in the songs that I chose. Therefore, I will record a video of me playing all 6 chords: Em, A, G, D, C, and E.
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In this week’s class, we discussed how to support students with disabilities.
My group was assigned to the question: How can you include a student in music class who is physically incapable of holding an instrument, but does have mobility enough for an Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) device?
We came up with some strategies we could use.
- we can ask that student to use his body instruments, such as clapping hands, softly hit the desk or click on the AAC device.
- That student may use his body instruments mentioned above to play beats that go along with the music.
- That student can also play the music with an iPad or any electronic device.
The key is to keep that student engaged because most of the time they want to engage with the class but they can’t. Therefore, as teachers, we need to modify our teaching methods and provide them with a comfortable learning environment.
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This week I have been practicing a new song called Land of the Silver Birch. Although it only has one chord, I have struggled a little with what kind of strumming pattern I should use. I have tried many patterns for this song and finally, I came up with a pattern that follows the rhythm of the song. Here is the video.
Movie on 2020-11-10 at 11.31 AM
Photo by Gary Meulemans on Unsplash
In this week’s class, we talked about coding for kids. Personally, I have not learned any coding in my life, I always feel so unfamiliar with this topic.
As same as the previous class, we were assigned to groups with different topics. This time, I was in the “Scratch Jr” group. I downloaded the App on my iPad and started to play with it. I have to say, I found it really interesting to play with. Our group was exploring this app and shared our thoughts and works. Here is a short clip I made with “Scratch Jr.”
These are the codes I used for it.
There are so many thing you can do with this App. You can create different characters and background, manipulate the character’s movement, or adjust the range for movement code.
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This week, I mainly focused on practicing switch chords. I still couldn’t switch between chords smoothly, sometimes I have to pause so that I can move my fingers to the next chord, and sometimes it makes a weird sound when l move my fingers.
I can move my fingers quickly and accurately between G and Em, but once it gets to D or C, it takes me a little bit more time to adjust my figures. I have been practicing to move my fingers between strumming the strings, but I can’t always get the perfect timing to do that.
Photo by Behzad Soleimanian on Unsplash
Weekly Reflection-EdCamp
In this week’s class, we were broken into multiple groups where each group has a different topic that’s related to teaching. My group was the “Mental Health Group.”
We mainly focused on how to support students’ mental health and how do we know when they need help from teachers. There were various solutions mentioned, here are some strategies I would use in a classroom.
-Use colourful figures from the movie Insideout which each colour represents a different emotion (ex. red is anger, blue is sad, green is happy…). We can make some papercuts of these colours for students, they may choose one or more colours to put on their desks to represent their emotions.
-We can give students a survey at the beginning of the semester so that we can know more about them.
-Have a conversation/survey individually. This is where we can ask students to write down or talk about something they wish the teacher would know. Provide a private space and an opportunity for them to tell their feelings.
-Build strong relationships with students so that they will have more trust in teachers, and they will tell you things they normally wouldn’t.
I think this a great opportunity for my classmates and I to discuss a topic that we are all interested in. There were lots of stories, experiences and methods brought out within the breakout groups. I really love the idea of letting people who share the same interest joining together to share and brainstorm.
Photo by Scott Goodwill on Unsplash
As we reached the midterm of this semester, here is a video of my first guitar song play.