Last Blog Post!

Well here we are the very last blog post for IP&T! I kinda already gave a semi to last post, when we did it in class. But I guess this really is the last blog post. If I was to pick the most useful technology that I learned this semester, it would be learning how to make the class website, and then using a the movie maker. The class website is so useful for any area of teaching, we live in a technology base world so being able to access and create a website just for your class is so useful. The the movie maker is a bit more catered to my style dance education. I could see myself using that to make videos of my students dancing, or using it as a teaching tool. There are many ways I could use both of these technologies in my future years of teaching. I think the way I am going to be able to have my students be active learners is doing hands on activities to critique, watch, and keep record of their dance pictures and films. Using photobucket they can create slide shows of them using their dance pictures, they can use the movie maker to make videos of them sleves or of each other dancing. And then of course using Audacity to learn basic music editing that they could then use to make up a dance. There really are lots of options. I am glad I was able to take this class because I have learned things that I will be taking with me in my future teaching years!

What I have learned...

I am not going to lie, during the beginning of the semester I really didn't think this class would be that applicable to my field of study. But as we have gone through the rest of the semester I have learned some new types of technology that I can use later in my field of dance teaching. Now I am going to be honest and say that I don't think everything we learned I will use later on but that is ok. That's what happens when you are combined with a field of study that has the potential to be very technologically based such as English. But overall I am grateful for this class and I have found that with a little time and patience I can learn new technology. If I am to look back on the semester we really have learned so much about different technologies and that really is awesome! This is a class where I will walk away with knowledge that I can take with me and that I will use when I start teaching someday! So yah for technology!!!

Audacity Lesson Plan!

Well here it is my epic Audacity Lesson Plan! It was fun starting to think like a teacher. I thought about activities that would be challenging for the students but not hard enough that they would become discouraged. It was fun being able to mess around with a new program. This is definitely a program I see myself using in my years of a dancer and a teacher! I am grateful i was able to figure out the basics to this program and I am sure as I get more into my teaching career I will look into different music editing programs to help me with my future dances.Well hopefully my lesson plan meets the qualifications of what we were supposed to do.

Audacity Lesson Plan

Introduction: Since this is a dance class music is a big part of what we do. Often times money does not permit for professional editing of music. The purpose of learning about this program Audacity is to learn the basic skills of editing music. We will learn concepts of fade in and outs, cutting a song to be shorter, slowing down or speeding up the tempo of a song and then the combination of two songs. We are going to learn the basic skills that you can use later in your dancing career. The benefit of learning how to edit your own music is you start to gain a better understanding of the mechanic of music which in the bigger picture can actually help gain a better understand of chorography and performance quality.

Assignment 1: The Basics
- Import a song onto Audacity
- Work with different effects - add 4 different effects to your song. (they don’t have to all fit together. ) This is just getting use to the program and exploring what different effects can be added to a song.

Assignment 2: Cutting a song
- Import another song to Audacity
- Cut a verse and a chorus out of your song (so it becomes a verse, bridge, chorus)
- This time it is required to make your song “fit” The song needs to flow together and sound as if you did not cut the music. (for some song it is impossible to make it sound totally perfect due to lyrics or instrumental qualities, but try your best to trial and error different cuts to make your song sound good!)
- Add effects such as fade in/out to make your song sound like it finishes

Assignment 3: Putting 2 and 2 together
- Get into groups of 2 or 3
- Import both edited songs into one Audacity project. (if in a group of 3 choose two songs to import. You do not need to do all three.)
- Take your two edited songs and find a way to mix the two songs together. (You don’t have to use the full length of both songs. Just find a way to mix the two songs to start forming a medley.)
- Once the songs are mixed together pick a section to change the tempo. (speed it up or slow it down)
- Choose one other effect that you want to add into the song
- The use your fades to make the song sound finished.

Assignment 4: Application!
- This is the most fun part of all!!
- Take your personal edited song and choreograph a small solo
- This is your opportunity to shine! The solos will be performed in class!

*This unit is estimated to take about 3 weeks, so don’t feel overwhelmed or stressed out. We will have enough time to get everything done. Have fun and let your imagination roll!!!

Music Editing?!?

Well since I am a dance education major, I was thinking about what technological resource would be beneficial for my field of study. I thought that learning how to use Audacity would be a great tool to learn. I am in a field where music is key, and very seldom do you choreograph a dance to a whole song. So learning how to cut and mix songs would be very useful. Yes there are professionals who cut music. But maybe I will be in a school where there is not a lot of money for things like cutting music, and I will have to resort to doing it myself. My goal with learning how to use Audacity is to not just learn how to cut music, but learn how to do all the little nick naks and tricks that the program has to offer. I think maybe for this project I will try and do things that I normally probably wouldn't use in a performance piece. But that way I can get the practice using all the tools. I am actually very excited to learn how to use this program because I really honestly see me using this not just in my future years of teaching. But right now while I am still in my college years!! So I guess we will see how it goes!! But I think this will not only be a fun program to learn how to use, but also very beneficial.

Movie Magic Has Been Perfromed!

The last couple of weeks we have been working on our movie projects. At first I was not quite sure how this whole thing was going to go down for me, because I have never done anything like this before. But I am not going to lie... I am pretty darn proud of myself!!! Now I no the movie is no where near perfect, and I am sure there are plenty of things I can do to make it better. But as far as this being my first time ever making a movie I am happy with what I did!

During the course of my editing and putting the movie together, the first stumbling block I came across was pulling the song I wanted off my itunes and then importing it to the movie maker. I tried multiple things, and for some reason it was not working. I had to kind of take a round about way but sure enough I was able to get the song I wanted and it was slightly smoother sailing from there. I learned that making movies it a lot of trial and error. You would have to try some things, and then see if it worked. If I was to put it simply it would be try, watch, watch, and watch some more! Well I am not quite sure what it going to come now that my first time movie is going to be posted online, but it is also kind of exciting to think that maybe my movie might actually make a difference and teach some students about proper dance etiquette. I am glad I had the experience of making a instructional video, and this is another thing I could see me using in my future teaching years!!

Storyboard For The Best Up Coming Video!!

Well since I was out of town on my dance tour this last week, I am not 100% sure on how this assignment was supposed to go. But after reading the blog and watching the VoiceThread I think I did the best I could. If it is wrong I can always go back and fix it, but for now I took a shot and now I will hope for the best!

I decided to make an educational movie about the proper way to ask a lady to dance, as well as the the proper way for a lady to accept an invitation to dance. We live in a time where young children don't understand one the proper way to dance, and two the proper way to ask someone of the opposite gender how to dance. They think the only way to dance with someone of the opposite gender is to be bumping and grinding up against one another. I decided that students at a young age need to understand the importance of using proper etiquette and respecting each other when it comes to dancing.

I am following the 6th grade core requirements of the UEN,- Make connections between dance and other disciplines.- The approach I am going to take with this movie is a "do and don't" where the first time I will show "today's" way of asking each other to dance. I will show how it is wrong, and then we will take like a "take 2" and show the scene over again but using the proper ways of asking. Well that is the plan for now, it all makes sence in my head, maybe when I learn more about the project I may have to alter some things, but for now I feel this is a pretty good idea and it will be fun to see how it all goes together!

Get Inspired!

Here are some of my old dance pictures, that will hopefully get you excited for this up coming year full of dancing fun!!!