Melanie

Here is a link to my blog and information about my project:

stiehlme.weebly.com

The key to my success during this project was being able to see how others have utilized blogs and portfolios in their classrooms to improve assessments and track improvement.

In our SIG group, the importance of tracking progress and keeping everyone working toward the same goals was important. For instance, students that come in late to a class or are at different levels can still work toward improvement and keep up with the rest of the class. We believed that having online portfolios is important for the student, the teacher and the parents. Everyone can be included in the success or needed improvement of each individual.

Below was my initial action toward the techquest project. Since then, I have utilized the flipvideo camera and kidblog.org to achieve my goals. Students are able to see and hear themselves play and adjust their practice and effort to improve their skills.

====__**Melanie-**__ In my music classroom, my goal as a teacher is to create competent musicians that are comfortable playing their instruments. In order for this to happen, the students must grasp and understand the importance of fundamentals and be able to perform the patterns that make up most music in the band literature. I focus a lot of energy on teaching and stressing the performance of scales and how learning all twelve major scales will make the rest of the band music easier to play. In addition, many students and parents never get to hear what the student sounds like when they play their instrument individually. This is a great assessment tool that instantly demonstrates the level of ability in the class. ====

My major area of interest is to create online videos that students create and assess of themselves playing scales during their course in the middle school band program.

I will be researching school districts that have used portfolios or videos as an assessment tool. I also hope to find research from music advocacy groups that have ideas for technology in the classroom. Finally, I will try to view websites that encourage web 2.0 tools in the classroom and that have ideas for blogging and podcasting as a class.