Return of #GeniusHour Part 2

Student projects are already starting to take shape and I've gotten to start working on my inventory project as well.

Student projects:

• We've started blogging! Building on last year's experiences, I wrote this post to help provide guidelines for writing blog posts. (Thank you to Aubrey Yeh for sharing and helping me gain some feedback to share with students!!!) From reading through what they've shared so far, it does seem to be helping. Blogs were a big thing I wanted to improve on from last year and they're looking better already. The students would LOVE some feedback on their writing and projects. Please check out their posts and leave a comment. It would be really cool if you mention where you're from in the comment too!
• There's a pretty interesting array of projects being worked on so far. Since the 8th Graders did this last year with a focus around anything musically related, we opened up to anything in the arts. Some students are excited to be working on things that interest them even more than what they were able to do last year.
• With two weeks of in class working left, time is going to go faster than they realize. I'm going to get the presentation sign up posted for them next week so that they can start planning accordingly.

My project:

• I've actually started getting instruments added to the inventory I laid out here. This is going to be a challenge as tedium is not a strong suit for me. However, it needs to be done and will be a huge help in the long run.
• Our district technology specialists came through big time and found me an extension to add links to the folders I create to a Sheet! From there I'll use another extension to create the QR codes. 
• I'm really wishing I had a label maker to do the QRs as I go along. Things could start to get confusing when instruments I haven't made it to yet get added to those I have. Right now I'm going to focus on getting everything into the system and doing the QR's at the end. 
• Borrowing a cart so that I can move instruments down to the media center as the students are working is going to be a must if I want to get this done in time. Time to talk with the custodians to see what I can use for a bit.
• I am planning on presenting at the end too since I'm following along with the project guidelines the students are following. Since I gave them such a hard time about Thinking Outside the Powerpoint, I really want to come up with a fun way to share on a not particularly fun subject. I'm open for ideas on a cool way to present my learning!

New Year, New Ideas

Just like people post about goals on their social media so that others check in and hold them accountable, I'm going to try the same idea with plans to start the school year and continue throughout. I've forced myself to actually take time off this summer and wait until August to start officially planning, but that means I've got a lot of ideas bouncing around that I haven't actually put down on "paper."

I'm hoping that posting these will help me keep on track:

• Continue to move more towards standards based grading, even though I'm on an A-E system. I want to establish clearer rubrics so that students better understand the system and can use it to improve as well as find better ways for students to feel that they earned a "successful" grade at the end of the marking period. Last year students were allowed unlimited retakes, extremely flexible deadlines, and I stopped including behavior as a part of their grade. However, many did not take advantage of these opportunities and so ended up with grades that they were not expecting from "just band." I've gotten some great resources from a friend on how he used it with his bands and need to really sit down and work it out for mine. 
• Giving my student more input and control over our social media. Each class hour will have a section of the week that will be in charge of coming up with one post and one summary of that week's activities to be included on the update for our website. They can take pictures and email me the caption to go with their post that I'll then share on our accounts. Student posts will also have their own hashtag in addition to our school and fine arts tags. 
• Interactive word wall. I saw the idea to create an interactive word wall using Aurasma at MACUL a couple of years ago, but until this year didn't have the circumstances to try it. The eighth graders will be assigned musical terms and have to design a card with their word on it. When the word is scanned with the app, a short video of that student will come up with an explanation and demonstration. When new terms come up in our  music, students will now be able to learn from each other, even if they're not in the same class.
• Updating room decorations. Seventh graders will work in groups to come up with relevant quote posters for the room. We're fortunate to have an actual poster printer, so they'll create them online with sites like Canva.
• Flexible seating options. Obviously this cannot be done full scale in a band room. Putting a 6th grade tuba player on a yoga ball is just screaming for unpleasant headlines, lawsuits, and job searching. What I imagine are some spaces at the front of the room and around the outside with some comfy chairs, stools, cushions, etc that can be easily moved and stacked. Many students come in almost half an hour before school starts and hang out with friends and we also do a lot of collaborative work that doesn't always involve their instruments. I'd like to have some options other than band chairs and stands for kids. My first step will be to reach out to our families and see what they might have sitting in the basement that they'd be willing to donate. Next I'll try some resale shops and my last stop will be Amazon. As it comes in, I'll have students help figure out how to arrange things and get it all set up.

What are some of your new ideas this year? Please share and we can help keep each other motivated!

Why More Music Educators Need to Be on Twitter

This really applies to all educators, but it often seems that music educators need an extra nudge to interact with people outside our specialty.  It's not intentional. High school and college years were spent practicing, rehearsing, performing, and repeating the process. Then we started our jobs and found that we were the only music educator in the building or district. In grade level or department meetings we work with the PE and Art teachers (who should also hop on board the Twitter train!) or spend time alone in our rooms. Even when we teach in a larger district, we're still often the only music specialist within a building or are a part of a department of two or three.

Thankfully many have banded together (pun completely intended) and created some amazingly helpful groups on Facebook.  These groups have been an outstanding resource, but in them, we're only talking to each other.

Important conversations are happening surrounding education at every hour of the day on Twitter and music educators need expand their Professional Learning Network (PLN) to be a part of more of them.  Here's why:

• PD you actually want on YOUR schedule
• We need to keep learning, but often the opportunities provided for us are not always relevant to our classes. How much time have you spent in PD and thought of all the things you could actually be accomplishing?  Twitter offers you a chance to learn both from and with the experts in things you're interested in! Read an article at lunch. Join a chat in the evening. Ask a question, tag a few people, and see what kind of responses you get. 
• Education Trends
• Don't let the next direction in education take you by surprise.  That direction is already being actively discussed and implemented by educators on Twitter.  Chances are, there's even a regular chat or hashtag to follow. Moving towards Standards Based rather than traditional grades? There's a chat for that! Project Based Learning being encouraged? There's a chat for that too!  Want to just talk music ed in real-time? There's a chat for that!
• Advocacy
• There are conversations happening at the local, state, national, and even global level at all hours of the day on Twitter.  These discussions center around everything from teaching practice to learning philosophies to educational policy and just about anything else in between!  Not only can we learn a great deal from our non-music colleagues but we can share a great deal too (how many other teachers regularly see far more than 30 kids simultaneously without major chaos?). Things that seem common place for us may be totally eye opening for another teacher or administrator.  Our perspective is a unique one and we cannot get angry about being left out of the conversation if we never try to join in the first place.  
• Inspiration
• There are always rough days.  My PLN provides regular inspiration and motivation. Sometimes it's a relevant quote. Sometimes it's a positive post about things their students are doing. Sometimes it's a blog post. Sometimes it's a great article. Sometimes it's a great chat with passionate educators. Sometimes it's ALL of those things. And since it's on your schedule, you can find the inspiration you need when you need it.

Want to give it a try?  Great!  Here are a few quick steps to getting going.  There are many much more detailed tutorials that can be found with a quick Google search or you can hit up a session at your next conference or EdCamp.

1. Create an account that actually uses most of, if not your full name.
• Remember you want to connect to people on Twitter.
2. Fill in some profile information.
• People will connect based on who you are and what your interests are.
3. De-Egg!
• Having an actual profile picture will make you more accessible and help people to know you're not a spam-bot.
4. Check out this chat schedule and follow along with something that interests you!
• #Musedchat is held on Monday nights at 8PM EST
• You don't have to be super active yet, just introduce yourself and watch.
5. Follow some of the people in the chat and then follow who they follow.
• Read through the profiles of others and find some who you think you can learn from.
• Try Twitter lists to connect:
• Click here for my list of Music Educators.
• Click here for my list of Classes/Ensembles.

Are you an established Tweeter? How has Twitter influenced your practice? And please share your handles in the comments so that we can find each other!

Don't Talk to an Empty Room

OK.  I've finally caved.  Instagram it is.  Now that I teach only middle school and many of my students are only allowed on Instagram but not Facebook or Twitter, I finally set one up for our classes.  In only a few months of having social media for our bands, the Instagram account has twice the followers of either of the others.

If social media is an important part of connecting with families, then we have to keep up with what is being used most frequently now, which with my students meant jumping into Instagram. This is not to say that other platforms are obsolete, but each one provides another opportunity to make different connections and reach our audiences where they are.

In all honesty, one of my biggest reasons for not creating Instagram account was because I didn't want to maintain three separate accounts.  Enter If This Then That! IFTTT is an amazing resource that I use to connect all three accounts. In the hands of more experienced users, this site can be used to automate things I hadn't even thought of.  For me though, this means that with one post, three separate accounts are updated. The posts are also better visually than when doing things like linking Twitter and Facebook. The Facebook posts actually show up as their own post rather than a Twitter link and the Twitter posts show the picture you shared instead of just the Instagram link and caption.  

IFTTT uses "recipes" to link your accounts.  Just search for what you want to set up.  For example: "If Instagram then Facebook page." There will be plenty of ready made recipes that you can borrow. It takes a little bit of work on the front end setting up and linking your accounts, but that time is well worth it.  You can even tweak existing recipes to fit your needs.  I wanted my Instagram photos to post on Facebook, but didn't really need them to go into an album.  I just clicked on the recipe and left the spot for an album name in the recipe blank.  

We have to adapt and move ahead with our audience.   Sharing info in places nobody is looking is like talking to an empty room.  If we want to share our story, then we need to tell it in places people will keep hearing it.

8 Tips to Boost Your School Social Media Presence

You've heard it before.  "If we don't share our story, someone else will."  Using social media is a powerful and easy way to go to our audience and share our story rather than requiring them to find us.  For social media to be effective though, you need people to follow you to see what you're sharing.

Since most of us running these pages are educators and not PR reps, it takes some experience through trial and error to figure out what works for you.  As a former social media coordinator, I've had the chance at some of that trial and error.  Here are a few tips from my experiences:

1. Engage Your Audience
• Don't just share information and updates. Get the audience involved!  Have a caption contest.  Ask them to share or retweet a post.  We once had a door decorating contest and the winner was partially decided on by the number of retweets or likes their door got.  Traffic and followers on the pages went way up!  Facebook's settings also show followers more content from pages they engage in, so getting them involved will help your traffic.
2. Post Regularly, But Don't Bomb Their Feed
• I tried to post every day at the least.  Very often though, there were days with multiple posts to be shared.  It may be tempting to put everything up all at once, but this means much of your information could be missed, especially on Facebook.  Use a tool like TweetDeck or Facebook's post scheduler to spread out your content over time.  
3. Use Tags in Posts When Possible
• If students go on a field trip, work with a local organization on a project, participate in an event, etc., find their social media info and tag them in your posts! (hint: your Facebook page has to "like" theirs before you can link them in a post)  Many times, the venue or organization will share your post which, once again, will help spread your story to more people.
4. Mix It Up
• Share pictures, video clips, pertinent articles, flyers, and links.  Your audience follows for varying reasons, so content should be varied too.  Also, if you need to share a basic announcement, rather than leaving it just as plain text, use something like Canva or Smore to create more eye catching posts and flyers.
5. Hashtags
• Use them!  Create a school or district hashtag (hint: be sure to search a hashtag and make sure it's not already in use before advertising) and encourage others to use it.  Many teachers and school related organizations have their own social media accounts. Encourage them to use the hashtag to make your content easier to search and view.  
6. Advertise Your Social Media 
• Put reminders about your pages in newsletters.  Link to your pages from the school/district website.  Try putting up QR codes around your schools that link to the pages.  Use your chosen hashtag on school gear.  
7. Change Up Your Graphics
• Adjust your cover photos for things like upcoming events, seasons, congratulations/celebrations.  Canva has a great tool to easily create cover photos for Facebook and Twitter.  A contest could even be held for the best designs to get your audience involved!
8. Sometimes It Pays to Pay
• Organic reach through views and shares should be the goal, especially when we're all trying to save money, but sometimes the payoff for spending money to advertise your page or event is worth it.  A quick Google search will turn up a lot of helpful articles on sponsoring content.

Remember, there are people who take classes and do this as a full time job, so don't worry if you don't figure it out all at once.  The important thing is to reach out and make connections with your families.

This is obviously not an exhaustive list, but I hope it's a helpful one.  Did I miss something?  Have an amazing tip to add?  Please leave it in the comments!